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plant-based

March 10, 2020

Beyond Meat to Debut Plant-based Breakfast Sausage in Retail

Beyond Meat, the company most well-known for its plant-based burger, will be dropping a new product in retail: the Beyond Breakfast Sausage. According to a press release from Beyond Meat, the new offerings are made with pea protein and will come in two flavors, classic and spicy. The patties contain 11 grams of protein per serving and contain 50 percent less fat and 33 percent fewer calories than the average pork sausage.

Beyond Breakfast Sausage will launch in select retailers — including Albertsons, Key Foods, and Whole Foods — by the end of March. Unlike Beyond’s iconic plant-based burgers or other sausage product, which are both sold in the refrigerated meat section, the new breakfast sausages will be available breakfast meat section of the frozen aisle. The MSRP for a six-pack of Beyond Breakfast Sausage is $4.99.

This isn’t the first time Beyond has sold a plant-based breakfast sausage. The company first began testing its breakfast sausage on an egg-and-cheese sandwich at Dunkin’ in New York in July of 2019, then accelerated a nationwide rollout of the product to all Dunkin’ locations after higher-than-expected consumer demand. And just a few weeks ago Starbuck’s in Canada announced that it would launch a meatless breakfast sandwich which includes a Beyond sausage patty.

Notably, each restaurant chain stated that it had created its own unique blend of herbs and spices for its meatless sausage patty. It’s unclear whether the new frozen retail sausages will mimic the flavor blend of either Dunkin’ or Starbucks.

One thing to note is that the Beyond Breakfast Sausage will be sold in the frozen section, which might be an adjustment for shoppers who are used to seeing Beyond products in the refrigerated meat section of their grocery store. (Though plenty of retailers still sell the plant-based meat in the frozen section, anyway.)

As we’ve stated in the past, breakfast is a meal ripe for plant-based innovation.  “Entering the breakfast meat category was the natural next step for our brand as we look at our runway for future growth,” Chuck Muth, Chief Growth Officer at Beyond Meat, stated in the aforementioned press release. Beyond isn’t the only company gunning for your breakfast. Impossible Foods recently began testing the Impossible Sausage Croissan’wich, featuring a plant-based pork breakfast patty, at select Burger King locations.

However, while these next-gen plant-based breakfast meats are making their way onto more and more fast-food menus, they’re relatively untested in retail. This upcoming product launch could give some insight into whether or not alt-breakfast meat can translate its restaurant success into the grocery store.

March 4, 2020

World’s Largest Meat Processor to Launch Line of Plant-based Burgers, Meatballs

Colorado-based Planterra Foods announced a new plant-based brand today. Called OZO, the brand will include a line of meatless burgers, grounds, and meatballs. And here’s the kicker: Planterra Foods is owned by the U.S. branch of JBS, the Brazilian corporation that processes the largest amount of meat in the world.

OZO’s offerings are made of a mix of pea and rice protein fermented with shiitake mushrooms, which, according to a press release from Planterra, makes the products more “easily digestible.” OZO’s products will be priced from $5.99 to $7.99, which puts them in line with competitors like Beyond Meat.

The plant-based products will launch in grocery stores across the U.S. in April, after which the company will begin rolling them out through foodservice partners. Well, that’s the plan, anyway. The OZO line was meant to make its debut at Expo West this week, but the trade show was postponed a day before its start due to the coronavirus. It’s unclear if the outbreak will affect the April retail release timeline.

Interestingly, the press release announcing OZO’s launch doesn’t mention JBS until the very last sentence of the last paragraph, effectively burying it at the end. Maybe they’re worried that the information will turn off vegetarians and vegans who don’t want to eat plant-based food associated with a giant meat processor.

Despite Planterra Foods’ seeming reticence around it, the JBS affiliation is what will give the company a fighting chance to stand out in a plant-based meat aisle that’s extremely crowded — and getting more so by the day. OZO can leverage JBS’ existing supply chain to easily source its plant-based ingredients, and can also tap into its retail partnerships to elbow out some shelf space.

However, JBS isn’t the only Big Meat company hoping to leverage its retail connections to carve out a space for its plant-based branch. Tyson, Hormel, and Smithfield Foods have released their own meat alternatives over the past year as well. And just last week Cargill, another food and agriculture giant, announced its own plant-based burger, which will also be hitting retail shelves in April.

All this goes to show that the alterna-meat boom has finally made it all the way up to the largest players — even those specialize in meat. And with demand for plant-based food growing 11 percent year-over-year, it’s likely that JBS won’t be the last Big Food company we see trying to get in on the alternative meat action.

March 3, 2020

Impossible Foods Cuts Price to Reach Goal of Replacing Meat by 2035

Impossible Foods is now taking concrete steps towards its goal of replacing animal agriculture by cutting the price of its plant-based “bleeding” burgers. The Redwood City, California-based startup said today in a press release that it was slashing prices an average of 15 percent across all U.S. foodservice products (not including retail). The company is also rolling out new products, including quarter-pound and third-pound versions of its plant-based “bleeding” burger patty.

If you’ve ever ordered an Impossible burger out at a restaurant, odds are you’ve had to pay an upcharge. At fast-food spots like Burger King, subbing an Impossible patty is a roughly $1.75 add-on — but I’ve seen upcharges as steep as $5 at some higher-end burger joints. That premium poses a significant hurdle for Impossible Foods, whose long-term goal is to reach price parity with even industrially produced “cheap” beef.

Dr. Pat Brown, CEO and founder of Impossible Foods, hasn’t been shy about his company’s goal to usurp industrial animal agriculture. “Today’s price cut is just the latest step toward our goal of eliminating animals in the food system,” Brown stated in the press release. He also said that the company would continue to drive down prices through economies of scale until they could undercut the cost of conventional ground beef from cows.

That’s ambitious, for sure. But Impossible is certainly doing its darndest to establish its largest footprint possible. Over the past year, the company has forged new partnerships at an astounding speed, especially with high volume, fast-food chains. Its plant-based burger is now on menus at thousands of restaurants, including Burger King, Qdoba, White Castle, and, as of last month, Disneyland Resorts. The startup has also set its sights on international expansion in both Europe and Asia — including China.

With great fast-food growth comes great responsibility. (That’s how the expression goes, right?) The more partners Impossible gains, the more damaging it would be if the company hit another embarrassing product shortage. Impossible has for some time been aware of its need to dramatically increase production capacity in order to avoid future shortages. It seems that in doing so, the company is already beginning to reap the benefits of economies of scale —namely, cheaper plant-based beef for you and me.

When we interviewed Brown at CES in 2019, he called out price cuts as a key step in achieving Impossible’s goal: to replace traditional animal agriculture by 2035. Price parity is critical if plant-based meat is ever going to usurp cheap, delicious beef. Flexitarians — which are the target demographic for Impossible Foods — might try the Impossible burger once or twice out of curiosity, but it’s hard to convince them to make a behavioral change that will end up costing them significantly. Especially since Impossible burgers aren’t really healthier than their meaty counterparts.

Restaurants are conscious of this barrier. For example, Burger King added the Impossible Whopper to its 2 for $6 deal. I’m sure that BK and others are hoping that the Impossible price cuts will mean not only cheaper plant-based meat for all, but also more repeat customers coming in their doors.

March 3, 2020

Cauliflower Camembert? Grounded Foods’ New Plant-based Cheese is Surprisingly Delicious

When I was doing Vegan January (also known as Veganuary) this year, there was only one thing I missed: cheese. While there are relatively good substitutes available for ice cream, butter, milk, yogurt, and even eggs, cheese was the one thing that I just could not find an animal-free replacement for that didn’t taste bland, rubbery, or worse.

So when I went into the Big Idea Ventures (BIV) office in New York City this week to taste a new plant-based cheese from startup Grounded Foods, part of BIV’s latest alternative protein accelerator program, I came in with a healthy amount of skepticism. Especially since I knew that the main ingredient in many of the cheeses was one of the unsexier vegetables on the planet: cauliflower.

Grounded Foods’ vegan “Camembert.” [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

But before we get to the taste test, here’s a bit of background. Founded in Australia in July of 2019, Grounded Foods grew out of co-founder Shaun Quade’s efforts to develop a plant-based Roquefort (blue cheese) for a new high-end restaurant concept. As he and his co-founder (and wife) Veronica Fil started looking for funding for the restaurant, they realized that people were actually interested in investing in the Roquefort itself. “They just wanted to give money for the plant-based cheese!” Fil said.

Since then the company has participated in the Mars Seeds of Change accelerator, for which they earned $40,000, and just relocated to New York a few months ago to join the latest Big Idea Ventures cohort. As part of the alt-protein accelerator they receive $250,000 in funding. Next up Fil and Quade plan to move to the West Coast, where they believe there is the largest audience for high-caliber faux cheese. Fil and Quade hope that their products will attract not only vegans but flexitarians who either have dairy sensitivities or are looking for healthier ways to get their “cheese” fix.

The pair plan to launch their cheese through high-end restaurants later this year in order to establish the Grounded Foods brand before branching into direct-to-consumer sales and, eventually, retail. Ambitious plans to be sure, but Quade revealed that they’re prepared to scale; in fact, they’ve already secured a location on which to build their first large scale manufacturing facility on the West Coast. They’ve also filed a patent for their fermentation protocol, which Fil told me is the secret sauce that makes their cheese so “addictive” and full of umami (savory) flavor.

Pricing isn’t set in stone, but Fil told me that they expect to be cost-competitive with other cheese alternatives right out of the gate. Since their product is made using relatively inexpensive ingredients and low-tech processes, she claims it’s not expensive to produce. Grounded Foods is also cutting cost by using “ugly” cauliflower — vegetables that are aesthetically unfit to sell to grocers — to make their cheese.

Australian feta made from hemp seed. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

Now for the moment of truth: how did the Grounded Foods cheese taste? I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Most of offerings were a home run, successfully imitating the things I love most about cheese: the umami flavor, silky texture, and creaminess. The camembert (cauliflower + hemp) was a standout; it actually emulated the funky “stinkiness” that you taste with aged French cheese. The gruyere (oats + cauliflower) was slightly less similar to its namesake, though it had a sharpness that would take well to being melted over pasta or tucked in a sandwich. The Australian feta, which was marinated in olive oil and herbs, was pleasantly smooth and fatty, and the scallion cream cheese would honestly have fooled me in a taste test. It was that good.

The only miss for me was the “cheese” sauce, which is meant to replace Velveeta. While tasty it tasted distinctly vegetal and reminded me more of a butternut squash sauce than the beloved neon-orange cheese sauce.

The offerings I sampled were only the tip of the faux cheese iceberg. Quade is already developing other vegan cheeses to add to the Grounded Foods portfolio, including a mozzarella and blue cheese. “We have not fully explored the potential of vegetables,” Quade told me. There’s also another product line in the mix meant specifically to appeal to Gen Z diners.

Gruyere made from hemp seeds. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

Besides being quite tasty, Grounded Foods’ biggest advantage is its ingredient list. Most plant-based cheeses are made of nuts, soy, or coconut oil. The first two eliminate consumers who have certain food allergies, and the oil-based cheeses don’t have much nutritional content to speak of. Instead they’re made just of cauliflower, hemp, and oat, transformed through Quade’s proprietary fermentation process (which he, unsurprisingly, was hesitant to reveal too many details about).

While Grounded Foods is trying to crack the animal-free cheese code with plants, other companies are using a decidedly more high-tech approach. Perfect Day and New Culture have developed a method to ferment dairy proteins using genetically engineered microbes; in essence creating milk without the cow (which can then be turned into cheese). However, there’s no word on exactly when these offerings will go to market — or how costly they’ll be when they get there. Next-gen dairy startups like Eclipse Foods and Noquo Foods are also using plans to develop better-tasting cheese alternatives, but neither has announced a concrete timeline to enter the market.

Grounded Foods has been moving incredibly quickly considering it’s just over 6 months old. However, it’s still a young startup with only two full-time employees (Fil and Quade), neither of whom have experience scaling an alternative business. We’ll have to see if they can establish all the tricky parts of running a food manufacturing business, like establishing a supply chain, branding, and finding effective restaurant and retail partners.

However, with demand for plant-based cheese on the rise, there’s a lot of space for a market disrupter who will make vegan cheese that’s actually worth eating. And as far as taste goes, Grounded Foods takes the cake — er, camembert.

March 2, 2020

NUGGS Announces Retail Launch of Plant-based Chicken Nuggets

NUGGS, a startup that delivers plant-based chicken nuggets directly to consumers’ doorsteps, announced today via an emailed press release that it will launch in retail this spring.

Founded in 2019, NUGGS makes meatless “chicken” nuggets out of pea protein. The company started delivering the nuggets directly to consumers last July in the U.S. In addition to this D2C model, NUGGS has said it will create new iterations of its product based on consumer feedback (the company claims to be on version 2.0 right now). NUGGS will begin selling the nuggets at 10,000 retailers through CPG distribution agencies Acosta and Green Spoon. Exactly which retailers will carry NUGGS was not disclosed in the emailed release.

Said release came from McCain Foods, the world’s largest manufacturer of frozen potato products, which has also invested $7 million in NUGGS. The affiliation makes sense since NUGGS will debut in the frozen section of the grocery store, where it’ll have some competition from alt-meat stalwarts like Morningstar and Quorn. It’ll also face off against Tyson’s Raised & Rooted line of plant-based nuggets, though those have egg in them so they aren’t technically vegan.

A 10.4 ounce box of plant-based nuggets will retail for $5.99. That’s slighly pricier than a similarly sized offering from Morningstar, but significantly cheaper than Quorn. The NUGGS price tag is also in line with Tyson’s Raised & Rooted nuggets, which cost a whopping $6 for a bag of nine.

Retail has always been in the gameplan for NUGGS, which also expects to branch into foodservice. That’s where the company could actually face more competition: KFC is rapidly expanding its tests of the new-and-improved Beyond Fried Chicken, startup Rebellyous is selling its plant-based nuggets at cafeterias, and just a few months ago Scottish startup Daring Foods inked a deal with Rastelli Foods Group to start selling its meatless chicken pieces to both restaurants and retailers.

When I first wrote about NUGGS last year, I was skeptical that their young team would be able to compete in the white-hot alternative protein space, especially when faced with the challenges of scaling and mounting competition in plant-based chicken. This retail launch will be the first real test to see if I was right.

February 29, 2020

Food Tech News: Taco Bell Goes Plant-Based, plus GIF Peanut Butter

Greetings from New York City, where we’re recovering from the whirlwind of Customize, our first-ever food personalization summit. We’ll have videos of our sessions — including a case study with Kroger Health and a deep-dive into microbiome-based nutrition — coming your way over the next few days.

But until then, we’ve rounded up a few cool food tech bits for your perusing pleasure. This week we’ve got stories on Taco Bell’s plant-based plans, a new device to detect deadly mushroom toxins, and a GIF-based campaign from J.M. Smucker. Enjoy!

Peanut butter pronunciation: Jif vs. GIF
J.M. Smucker has teamed up with GIF search engine GIPHY to create a co-promotion around, of all things, peanut butter. According to the computer scientist who devoped it, the GIF is pronounced with a soft G, like the popular peanut butter brand. However, to assert its name independence and stir up some media publicity, this week J.M. Smucker sold 2,000 peanut butter jars with a label that reads “GIF,” with an implied hard “g” sound (h/t Wall Street Journal). To no one’s surprise, peanut butter-y gifs (jifs?) ensueD.

Taco Bell will add plant-based meat by 2020
Looks like Taco Bell will soon live mas plant-based. This week, the QSRs CEO Mark King told Nation’s Restaurant News that the fast-food chain would “definitely do something with plant-based protein and probably by the end of the year.” Which brand will grace its tacos and chalupas? TBD — King said that the company has met with both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods but hasn’t declared a partner yet.

New device can detect deadly mushroom toxins
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed a test strip that can determine whether or not a wild mushroom is poisonous, according to The Counter. Within 10 minutes of exposure to the mushroom (or urine of someone who has consumed the fungi), the strip can detect if dangerous amatoxins are present. Scientists hope that this strip can help foragers (and their dogs) avoid poisoning from deadly species like so-called “death caps” and “destroying angels.”

February 28, 2020

Beyond Meat Revs Up for International Expansion Despite Coronavirus

It seems the end of 2019 was a mixed bag for Beyond Meat. On its earnings call yesterday, the plant-based protein company reported quarterly revenue that exceeded analyst estimates but narrowly fell short of profitability. On the call, Beyond’s CEO Ethan Brown also pointed to retail expansions and new fast-food partners, and called out recent backlash from the meat industry against plant-based proteins.

Numbers and drama aside, the part of the call that made me perk up was Beyond’s ambitious plans for international expansion. “This is a time of growth for Beyond Meat,” CEO Ethan Brown stated on the call. He added that the company plans to open a new co-packing facility in the Netherlands by the end of this quarter, which will “increase the availability and speed with which we can get Beyond Meat’s products to customers across Europe and the Middle East.”

But most of all, Beyond has set its crosshairs on Asia. “We [will] continue to focus on Asia with the goal of producing in the region before the end of 2020,” said Brown. If successful, that would give the company a quick foothold for establishing a strong presence in the region, and specifically China, which is something of the holy grail for the plant-based meat sector. Beyond has added incentive to move quickly because one of its most prominent competitors, Impossible Foods, also recently stated intentions to start selling its meatless meat (specifically pork) to Chinese consumers.

When asked by an investor how Beyond plans to cater to the distinct taste profiles of each region, Asia and otherwise, Brown brushed him aside. He said that the R&D for regional development would not be a “massive investment” for the company. He went on to say that first and foremost, Beyond was trying to create a “blank canvas” which can be used regionally to make distinct products that cater to local tastes. “So to some degree, it’s really about just being as true as we possibly can to the taste, texture, appearance and aroma of the animal protein that we’re targeting.”

As Beyond prepares to put the pedal to the metal on its international expansion, regional R&D might actually be an area which will require more attention than Brown expects. That’s especially true of Asian consumers, which often have different taste preferences than Western diners — a fact that David Yeung, CEO of Hong Kong-based alternative meat company Omnipork, which already sells via Taco Bell in China, pointed out to me last year.

If you’ve been reading the news at all lately, you might wonder: Will the coronavirus hinder these international expansion plans? According to Brown, not at all. He told Yahoo Finance this week that the coronavirus would not prevent the company from selling in China in 2020. “It adjusts some of our plans, but I am not taking my foot off the gas,” he said. Brown just better be prepared to hit some roadblocks (local tastes, international supply chain snafus, and coronavirus panic) on the road ahead.

February 26, 2020

Starbucks Canada Embraces Plant-based with New Beyond Meat Breakfast Sandwich

The plant-based meat prophecy is finally coming to fruition. Starbucks announced this morning that it would introduce a Beyond Meat, Cheddar, and Egg Sandwich in its Canadian stores beginning on March 3rd (h/t CNBC). The new sando will feature a custom Beyond Meat patty flavored with fennel, rosemary, and other herbs and spices. Pricing details were not disclosed.

As I mentioned, this morning’s news didn’t exactly come out of left field. The announcement came just a few weeks after the coffee giant’s Q1 earnings call, in which Starbucks COO Rosalind Brewer stated that a plant-based breakfast sandwich would be coming to both Canada and the U.S.

Canada has become a sort of testing zone for QSRs who are eager to test out meatless meat. McDonalds, Wendys, and KFC all have done meatless tests up in the Great White North. At the same time Canadian fast-food chain Tim Horton’s, which was one of the early adopters of Beyond Meat, discontinued the plant-based option completely just last month.

That blip aside, plant-based breakfasts are catching on like wildfire here in the U.S. Dunkin began testing its own Beyond Meat breakfast sandwich (made with its own custom patty) back in August of last year, and quickly rolled it out to all stores nationwide. Burger King is also selling the Impossible Croissan’wich, featuring its new plant-based pork, at a limited number of locations.

The Starbucks news comes at a time when we were starting to wonder if the honeymoon was over between QSRs and plant-based meat. However, it looks like that statement may have been premature. Taco Bell announced yesterday that it would “definitely do something with plant-based protein,” and probably before the end of the year. And despite lackluster Impossible Whopper sales last quarter, Burger King is still going whole-hog on plant-based meat with the aforementioned meatless Croissan’wich.

It’s also encouraging that Starbucks isn’t debuting the Beyond Meat sandwich as a limited test or pilot program; rather, it’s rolling out as a permanent part of Starbucks Canada’s core menu. That shows a level of faith on the part of the coffee corporation that the meatless meat is going to be a success, at least in Canada.

What with the hint from Starbucks’ Q1 earnings call, I don’t think we’ll have to wait long before a plant-based breakfast sandwich makes its way south of the border. Until then if you’re in Canada next month and happen to try out, send us a note to let us know how you like it (and how it stands up to Dunkin’s).

February 24, 2020

Cargill Challenges Beyond Meat with New Meatless Burgers to Debut in April

There will soon be a new entrant in the plant-based meat shelf, and it’s a big one. Today Cargill, the global food and agriculture giant, announced that it would release its own meatless patties and ground products in early April. The new offerings will be sold both through retailers and restaurants.

According to Reuters, Cargill’s new faux meat will be made of both pea and soy protein. Beyond Meat is made of pea and Impossible of soy, so it’s intriguing that Cargill has chosen to combine the two to try and differentiate itself and nail the flavor of meat.

Flavor aside, Cargill has one advantage over newer upstarts like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods: its massive supply chain. The corporation has been operating for 155 years and is one of the world’s largest privately held companies. With its size and scope, Cargill can scale quickly and likely won’t face any supply hiccups, which have plagued both Beyond and Impossible in the past.

These are the first plant-based meat products from Cargill, but the company has been bulking up its alternative protein involvement over the past few years, including investments in pea protein producer Puris (which supplies Beyond Meat) totaling $100 million.

That is just a drop in a bucket compared to the $7 billion Cargill has invested in animal protein in the last five years. Despite dipping its toe into the alt-protein space, the company is still known globally for its involvement in animal agriculture, including the trade of beef’s two main feed sources: corn and soy.

Cargill is far from the only Big Meat company diversifying into alternative protein. Tyson and Perdue have both rolled out blended meat products; that is, offerings that are a mixture of meat and plants. Last year pork producer Smithfield debuted a line of plant-based ground meat and patties. Others, like Nestlé and Unilever, have taken the acquisition route and bought Sweet Earth Foods and the Vegetarian Butcher, respectively.

Like this growing list players, Cargill claims it’s not moving away from meat, but rather diversifying its offerings to meet the growing demand for protein of all stripes. Brian Sikes, leader of Cargill’s global protein and salt business, summed it up in the release: “Whether you are eating alternative or animal protein, Cargill will be at the center of the plate.” Come April, we’ll see if the global company’s new products have the taste to make that statement true.

February 20, 2020

Future Food: Personalizing the Alt-Protein Revolution

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Subscribe to get the most important news about alternate and plant-based foods directly in your inbox!

Right now at The Spoon, we’ve all got personalization on the brain. That’s because we’re in the final sprint towards Customize, our food personalization summit happening in NYC one week from today, on February 27. (Want one of the last remaining tickets? Use code SPOON15 to get 15 percent off.)

So it’s pretty natural that I’ve been marinating on how personalization could affect the alternative protein space in the future. Here are a few thoughts:

Nutrition
I recently tried out GenoPalate, a service that gives you personalized nutrition recommendations based on your DNA. My end report stated that, for me, a high protein diet would lead to “reduced waist circumference,” AKA weight loss. It also gave me a list of my “ideal” protein types, including eel, chicken liver, and tofu.

I’m a vegetarian, so the first two proteins on that list aren’t especially relevant. But the report nonetheless got me thinking about how these personalized nutrition services could promote alternative protein consumption, especially amongst folks that are trying to avoid meat for health reasons. As these platforms get more sophisticated, they could sync up with your specific diet (pescetarian, vegan, flexitarian, etc.) to recommend plant-based proteins that are the ideal fit for your health goals — high-protein, low fat, low sodium, etc.

Novameat’s 3D printed plant-based steak

3D Printing
In order to accurately replicate the texture of whole muscle cuts of meat (e.g., steak, chicken breast), some companies, like NovaMeat and Redefine Meat, are turning to 3D printing.

The technology is still in the R&D phase, but down the road it could open possibilities for serious plant-based meat customization. Do you like your “steak” thin-cut and tender? You can print it out that way. Maybe a restaurant is trying to create chicken breasts that are shaped a certain way for a high-end dish. Set the printing specifications and go.

Because while you can’t make cows or chickens grow meat in a certain shape or texture — at least not without a couple hundred generations of breeding — 3D printing technology could allow everyone from foodservice establishments to individuals to create their own custom alt-meats.

Cultured
Cultured (or cell-based) meat also has a lot of potential for customization — though none of it will happen for a while yet. Cultured meat is not even available on the market, but for the sake of argument let’s project into the future:

Say a restaurant is looking for an especially tender cut of beef that is also low in cholesterol. Or they want a super-fatty piece of beef for an especially indulgent dish. That might be tricky to do with meat from a cow, which has biological constraints and also takes much longer to create. However, with cell-based meat, a scientist could theoretically tweak a formula to make exactly what’s needed with a much quicker turnaround than actually raising an animal. This opens up some real possibilities for customized protein.

Okay, so the idea of hyper-personalized protein is pretty futuristic. But there’s plenty of time to develop it. After all, we’re currently in the midst of the plant-based revolution — and just at the forefront of the cell-based one. Once these technologies become more mainstream (and affordable), the possibilities for customized protein could become a lot less out-there and a lot more feasible.

Photo: Impossible Foods

An argument for plant-based burgers

This week nutrition scientist Dr. PK Newby wrote a guest post for The Spoon outlining all the reasons why meatless burgers are not only beneficial for the planet but also a strategic business play for restaurants.

It’s a pretty inspirational post. But to me, Dr. Newby’s most intriguing point was the sheer heat that plant-based burgers are attracting because of their newfound popularity. We’ve already seen widespread criticism in the form of negative SuperBowl ads, online smear campaigns, and even lawsuits against vegan meat and dairy alternatives.

“Novel food technologies will always have haters,” writes Dr. Newby in her article. As the popularity of plant-based meat grows, those haters will likely become more vocal. But what shape will their protests take, and how much will they threaten the growth of meat alternatives?

Keep an eye on this newsletter to find out.

Photo: White Castle

Protein ’round the web

  • White Castle will start offering vegan cheese on March 1st to complement its Impossible Slider (h/t VegNews).
  • Is insect fat a viable butter replacement? Food & Wine says… maybe.
  • Israeli startup Equinom raised $10 million to develop higher-protein seeds, like pea and sesame.

I’ll miss you all next Thursday since I’ll be busy moderating panels and networking at Customize. I’d love to see you there — get your tickets now and come hang in NYC!

Eat well,
Catherine

February 13, 2020

Kelloggs Debuts New Plant-based Sausage to Compete with Impossible Pork

Incogmeato, Kellogg’s intriguingly-named line of meat alternatives, is branching out.

The brand revealed the new Morningstar Farms line back in September with plant-based burger and chicken, which will launch in the refrigerated meat cases of select grocery stores in March (h/t CNBC). Today Kellogg announced that they’re already diversifying their lineup with two new products, meat-free Italian sausages and bratwurst, set to launch in March. These new offerings will be made with soy, similar to Impossible Foods (Beyond Meat’s sausages are made with pea protein).

In fact, Incogmeato’s plant-based sausages could be a direct bid to compete with Impossible, which announced its entry into meatless pork at CES last month. Thus far Impossible is only selling its new product in the form of a breakfast sausage patty through a limited launch with Burger King. But judging from the wide range of ways they prepared the alt-pork at the CES launch party — showcasing it in formats like ground pork over noodles to banh mi patties — I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time before Impossible diversifies into other plant-based pork products (cough, bratwurst).

Then again, Incogmeato has the edge over Impossible in retail, thanks to Kelloggs. Impossible sells packages of its signature “bleeding” ground beef alternative in select retailers in certain regions, but it’s far from a shelf regular. The company has also yet to announce when (or if) it will start selling its faux pork in grocery stores.

Impossible aside, Incogmeato still has to compete with a handful of other plant-based sausage offerings on the retail shelf, including those from giants like Beyond Meat and Tofurky.

I also doubt that Incogmeato will be the last line to diversify into pork. Breakfast is becoming a white-hot space for plant-based foods, especially breakfast sausage (whose texture is much easier to copy than, say, bacon). Incogmeato’s new offerings aren’t breakfast-specific, per se, but considering how quickly they’ve added to their portfolio before they even hit shelves, it could be only a matter of time.

February 11, 2020

Alpha Foods Raises $28M to Expand Frozen Plant-based Meats

Today Alpha Foods, a company making meatless proteins and frozen plant-based heat-and-eat meals, announced that it has raised $28 million. The funding round was led by VC fund AccelFoods with support from Alpha Foods’ existing partners New Crop Capital, Green Monday, and Blue Horizon.

As of today Alpha Foods has raised a total of $41 million. The company will channel its new funding into marketing, new hires, and product R&D.

Founded in 2015, Alpha Foods sells a range of plant-based food options, from frozen premade meals like burritos and pot pies to standalone meat alternatives like ground “beef” and fried “chicken” patties. They currently offer 27 SKUs, which range in price from $3 to $6 and are sold in 8,000 retailers nationally.

Though their first products were frozen plant-based grab-and-go meals, Alpha Foods is currently pivoting to focus more heavily on what Cole Orobetz, Co-Founder and President of Alpha Foods, calls “center of the plate” proteins. When I spoke to him over the phone last week he said that the brand would emphasize their frozen meat alternative line going forward.

These standalone proteins are sold chiefly through retail but made their foodservice debut last year. Orobetz told me that foodservice would actually be more of a focus for the company in 2020, specifically around sales of their plant-based meats. “We definitely see an opportunity in fast food,” he said. Orobetz also mentioned fast-casual chains and foodservice operations like cafeterias as potential partners.

Last March after Alpha Foods had raised $7 million, I wrote:

… what sets Alpha Foods apart is the convenience factor. They make complete, ready-to-eat meals, most of which — like handheld pot pies or vegan burritos — are meant to be eaten on the go. No extra preparation or ingredients needed.

Back then, I thought that Alpha Foods could stand out from its better-funded companies — like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat — by emphasizing its grab-and-go factor. However, it looks like the company is now pivoting away from that model to get more into the cutthroat world of base plant-based meats ingredients, which means it’s going to have even more competition to deal with.

That said, Alpha Foods makes an array of products that bigger companies like Impossible and Beyond don’t — specifically plant-based chicken nuggets and patties. Given the number of QSR’s jumping on the alternative meat bandwagon, Alpha Foods still has a chance to establish a foodservice market for its products. And an additional $28 million in funding could help give them the extra muscle they need to carve out its place in the game.

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