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Future Food: What’s Next for Alternative Protein in 2020? Think: Small Batch, Clean Label

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss a beat!

Welcome to 2020, Future Food readers! It wouldn’t be the end of the year/the start of a new one without a flurry of year-end look back pieces. Last week, I did a deep dive into the growth (and challenges) experienced by the plant-based food landscape in 2019. Here’s the full piece if you’re interested, but TL;DR:

  • Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat launched version 2.0 of their plant-based beef, and it was really tasty (especially Impossible’s).
  • Beyond Meat went public (!!!) and smashed expectations with a record-setting IPO.
  • Big Food began to muscle its way into the plant-based meat space.
  • Europe and Asia saw major growth in alternative proteins, both in grocery stores and restaurants.
  • Plant-based meat struggled against public pushback re: processing, as well as labeling restrictions.

Overall, it was a very tumultuous — and chiefly successful — year for animal alternatives, from burgers to dairy. And 2020 is shaping up to be just as exciting. Here are a few of my predictions for the next 364 days:

  • Fast-food chains will continue to embrace plant-based meat, and not just burgers (think: faux chicken).
  • Plant-based foods will make headway in the fight against restrictive state labeling laws, as they have in Mississippi.
  • We’ll see a rise in innovative (and sustainable) protein creation methods, from fermented dairy proteins to protein grown from air and water.
  • As a response to the criticism over heavy processing in plant-based meat production, we’ll see a rise in smaller, clean label, organic brands.
Photo: Daring Foods

I want to explore that last point a bit deeper because I think it’s a significant sea change we’ll see in the plant-based meat space in 2020. One of the biggest challenges for meat alternatives in 2019 was growing pushback against its production methods, which can include processing for texture, dyes, preservatives, or even lab-grown ingredients like Impossible’s ace in the hole, heme. That came to a head when Chipotle’s CEO called plant-based meat “too processed” for its stores.

As a response, I think we’ll see a rise in more clean label plant-based meat products over the coming year; ones that use fewer, minimally processed, and even organic ingredients. Several of these brands already exist and are starting to gain traction: Planted and Daring Foods both make chicken alternatives from five ingredients or under. No Evil makes clean label, non-GMO faux chicken and ground beef. And Fast Company reported this week on how Abbot’s Butcher, a self-described “small batch” meat alternative, is striking deals with fast-casual restaurant chains.

Right now these players are all quite small. I haven’t tasted most of their products, but I imagine it’s hard to make clean label food compete flavor-wise with the umami bomb of an Impossible burger, or the realistic snap of a Beyond Meat sausage. It’ll also be a challenge to compete against Beyond and Impossible’s widespread availability and brand recognition.

But in 2020, I bet we’ll see more of these artisanal meat alternatives popping up — and more restaurants choosing to put them on their menus to cash into consumer demand for organic and non-GMO foods. I’ll check back in a year to see if I was right.

JUST Egg on the left, traditional eggs on the right. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

JUST Egg taste test
The meat alternative space may be diversifying, but plant-based eggs are still a pretty niche product. One that I put to the test over the holidays.

This is a bit of a tradition for me at this point. Last year over Christmas break my extended family — all seventeen of us — did a taste test of White Castle’s plant-based Impossible Sliders. They were a hit. So we decided to continue the try-a-new-animal-product-alternative thing this year with JUST Egg, a mung bean-based liquid scrambled egg substitute.

You can read the full piece here, but long story short, JUST Egg was not as big of a hit as the Impossible Whopper. I did the taste test alongside a plate of scrambled chicken eggs, and while the textures of the two was quite similar, JUST Egg has a uniform pale yellow color that makes it obvious which is which. A couple testers also noted that it had an artificial (though not entirely unpleasant) flavor, or that it tasted “bean-y.”

That said, everyone who tried JUST Egg was impressed by how close the texture was to the real thing. Even my brother, a scrambled egg lover, said that if you mixed it with cheese or tucked it into a breakfast burrito, he probably wouldn’t have known the difference. Here’s to more plant-based egg innovation in 2020.

Photo: KFC

Protein ’round the web
– Starting today, KFC will add its Vegan Burger (a plant-based fried chicken sandwich) to all of its menus across the U.K. (h/t VegNews)
– Speaking of the U.K., LiveKindly reports that Pizza Huts nationwide are now offering plant-based pepperoni made from pea protein for a limited time.
– Plantible, a San Diego-based startup, has developed a new plant-based protein from lemna (AKA the aquatic plant duckweed).

Eat well,
Catherine

Plantible is Turning Aquatic Plants into Next-Gen Plant-based Protein

Look at an ingredient list for plant-based meat or dairy products, and right up top you’ll probably see pea, soy, wheat, or maybe even mung bean. But San Diego-based startup Plantible is introducing a brand new player to the alternative protein landscape: lemna (commonly known as duckweed).

Plantible’s co-founders, Tony Martens and Maurits van de Ven, stumbled upon lemna as they were searching for a plant-based protein superior to what was already out there in the market. Martens explained that many alternative proteins require stabilizers to accurately mimic the texture of animal products, especially ones that “gel” when cooked, like egg whites or cheese. Stabilizers not only add to the ingredient list, they also make product development more expensive and time-consuming. 

Martens and van de Ven wanted to find a protein that could copy the nutrition and texture of animal products, and was also more sustainable to produce than industry leaders pea and soy. They believe they’ve found it in lemna, a free-floating aquatic plant commonly known as “duckweed” (though van de Ven said, understandably, they’re pushing away from the term, because who wants to eat something called duckweed?). Plantible’s scientists developed a proprietary process to extract the grassy flavor from lemna, leaving a protein that’s on par with pea or soy nutrition-wise, but is completely colorless, odorless, and flavorless. The perfect blank canvas for a variety of animal alternative products. 

Lemna is also meant to be more sustainable than other plant-based proteins out there. The plant is grown in indoor aquatic farms, so it doesn’t require land or irrigation (though it no doubt requires a lot of water on which to grow). The aquatic plant also doubles its mass every 48 hours, so it can be harvested daily as opposed to once or twice a year.

Plantible’s aquatic lemna farms. [Photo: Plantible]

For now, we have to take Plantible’s word for that. The startup began validating its lemna through CPG partners five months ago — who have used the protein as a building block for everything from plant-based burgers to ice cream. In 2020, Plantible plans to start selling its lemna to CPG partners and also launch its own consumer product featuring the protein. Martens told me that the lemna will cost about the same as pea protein.

Founded in the Netherlands, Plantible quickly relocated to the U.S. because, according to Martens, the harsher regulatory restrictions means it takes much longer to launch a new product in Europe than the U.S. Thus far the startup has raised more than $1 million, though the founders wouldn’t give me exact numbers.

Plantible may be trying to next “it” alternative protein, but if it were up to the company’s founders, we wouldn’t be using the term “alternative” at all. They prefer to call their product “next-generation” protein instead. “These ingredients are not alternative,” Martens explained. “They’re just the new standard of how we produce food.”

Considering how the plant-based food market has ballooned in 2019, that’s not too lofty an exaggeration. That said, Plantible’s lemna is still extremely green compared to behemoths like pea and soy. But with companies hungry to develop more and more plant-based products, I expect there will be plenty of demand for a new alternative — er, next-gen — protein.

My Family Tried JUST’s Plant-based Egg. Reviews were Mixed

While grocery shopping in an Ohio Kroger with my extended family this week, my eyes set upon something intriguing in the egg aisle. It was a container of JUST Egg, a plant-based substitute made from mung beans meant to scramble just like the real thing.

Since last holiday break my family did a White Castle Impossible slider taste test, I thought that this year we should keep the tradition going and try out a new alternative protein product. So I added a container JUST Egg to my cart.

I scrambled up a couple of regular eggs in some neutral oil to compare to the JUST Eggs, and kept the salt amount the same on both. The JUST Egg took a bit longer to coagulate than the regular egg but once it did, the textural cooking experience was quite similar. Almost undistinguishable.

JUST Egg on the left, traditional eggs on the right. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

In fact, texture was the number one thing my family commented on. While almost everyone sniffed out the real egg, they still commented that the JUST Egg had a creamy texture almost eerily similar to the real thing.

The flavor, however, was not quite as successful. While everyone enjoyed the JUST Egg — one even preferred it — no one said that it would have fooled them. “Put some cheese on it, and I might not know the difference,” said my dad.

Clearly our family isn’t the only one to like JUST Egg. The plant-based substitute is now available at Costco, Whole Foods and Kroger, plus over 500 foodservice spots. It’s even on menus at Le Pain Quotidien as part of an eggless frittata. To keep up with the growth, JUST just (lol) acquired a 30,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Minnesota to amp up production.

JUST Egg may not have fooled my family, and at its price — $7.99 for a 12-ounce container — I doubt it’ll become a regular fixture in our fridge. However, the crew still liked JUST Egg well enough to finish the whole thing. And we’re a crew that really loves our eggs.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll scramble the rest of the JUST Egg into breakfast burritos and see if it’s more popular.

Future Food: Forget Beef — Meat Alternatives are Setting Sights on Breakfast

This is the web version of our weekly Future Food newsletter. Be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss a beat!

The Most Important Meal of the Day

In the pilot episode of Arrested Development, the excellent comedy series about a wealthy family’s shenanigans (skip Seasons 4 and 5, though), there’s an iconic scene. Michael Bluth, the family anchor, asks his teenage son George Michael: “What have we always said is the most important thing?”

Michael says “family” as his son responds “breakfast.” “Family, right,” says George Michael. “I thought you meant of the things you eat.” Well, it seems that breakfast might indeed be the most important thing to plant-based foods companies. Or at least it’s on track to be.

This week Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s announced that they would both start selling a breakfast burrito and breakfast biscuit made with Beyond sausage, beginning this month. The news comes just over a month after Dunkin’ accelerated the nationwide rollout of its Beyond Sausage Sandwich due to favorable sales. All of this means that by 2020, Beyond breakfast offerings will be available at over 11,000 QSR locations.

Photo: JUST.

The plant-based breakfast trend doesn’t stop at meat. JUST announced this week that Whole Foods Market will begin offering a JUST Egg scramble at the hot bar of 63 stores starting in January. It will also sell three new breakfast sandwiches, all of which feature a JUST Egg patty and are completely vegan. Whole Foods is also developing a vegan breakfast pizza featuring the mung bean-based “egg.’

In an email to The Spoon, JUST’s Global Head of Communications Andrew Noyes noted “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again… breakfast is the next plant-based boom.”

The timing is pretty ideal. As The Spoon’s Head Editor Chris Albrecht pointed out, the rise in plant-based breakfast patties is coming at a time when the USDA is reducing the number of inspectors at pork plants. Simultaneously, the African Swine Flu is decimating pig populations in China, the world’s largest exporter of pork, which could lead to an increase in pork prices during 2020.

Aside from the seemingly isolated case of Tim Horton’s, which stopped selling all Beyond products (including breakfast sandwiches) back in September, that seems to be the case. JUST Egg is popping up on more fast-casual and QSR menus, and just made a factory acquisition to ramp up manufacturing. In the retail space, plant-based yogurts are popping up one after another, even from big players like Yoplait and Chobani.

One thing’s for sure: there won’t be any arrested development in the plant-based breakfast train.

TacoBell x Omnipork

The Taco Bell Test

Speaking of fast food, this week Taco Bell in China began serving a Crunchy Taco filled with plant-based OmniPork. This marks the first time that Omnipork will be available on a fast-food menu, and the first time that a Chinese QSR will serve meatless meat.

For now the Tex Mex chain will only sell 6,000 of the meat-free tacos. Yum China, Taco Bell China’s’s parent brand, didn’t note if the company was planning to put the OmniPork Crunchy Taco OmniPork on the menu.

This limited-edition pilot could give key insight into whether or not the Chinese market is interested in meatless meat. Sure, Beyond and Impossible has captivated Western consumers and made its way onto many QSR menus. But will China offer as hungry a market?

Alternative meat companies certainly hope so. In addition to OmniPork, which was the first plant-based meat to be sold in mainland China, Impossible and Beyond have also been vocal that they want to break into the Chinese market.

They’ll have to hope the OmniPork Crunchy Tacos are a runaway hit.

Beyond Fried Chicken at KFC

Beyond Meat Heads into Poultry

“You’ll see some exciting things from us in the poultry space in 2020.” That’s what Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown said in an interview with Bloomberg TV this Monday.

While Brown said he couldn’t name any specific partners or developments, there’s a least one we can make a pretty safe bet on: KFC. This August KFC did a one-day trial of Beyond Fried Chicken at a single location in Atlanta. They sold out in only five hours.

This success means that KFC would have to be bird-brained not to roll out Beyond Fried Chicken to more stores in 2020. With other plant-based poultry players quickly entering the U.S market — from Big Food to small startups — Beyond would be smart to start leveraging its brand recognition and lock up partnerships fast, before they get swooped up by someone else.

BlueNalu’s cell-based yellowtaill

Protein ’round the web

  • Burger King is giving out free Impossible Whoppers to travelers with delayed flights (h/t FastCompany).
  • Dutch company Protifarm has raised an undisclosed amount of Series B funding to scale its “tofu” made of high-protein beetles (via Agfunder).
  • Kroger is testing dedicated plant-based meat sections within its meat department in 60 stores, according to FoodNavigator.
  • Cellular aquaculture startup BlueNalu did a culinary demo of its cell-based yellowtail, which can cooked or served raw.

Happy holidays! I’ll be taking next week off to spend time with family and perhaps do another White Castle Impossible slider eating competition.

Eat well,
Catherine

Enrichables Powdered Protein and Kale Packets Let You Make Any Meal “Healthier”

If I had my druthers, I would eat mac & cheese for dinner several times a week. However, since I’m adult and know that’s not exactly a healthy dietary choice, I usually opt for a more balanced meal.

But what if I could health-ify my mac & cheese? That’s the promise that offered by Pampered Chef, a kitchen equipment and dry goods company owned by Berkshire Hathaway, with its new Enrichables line. Enrichables are packets of nutrient-dense powders meat to be added to your normal meals, from smoothies to soups to dips, to make them healthier.

The line’s first two flavors, Pea Protein and Kale & Fiber, launched in October of this year. According to Sandy Wolner, Pampered Chef’s in-house food and trend innovator, the company decided to start with these two products because they’re universally appealing. “Right now, everyone is trying to get more protein into their diet,” she told me over the phone last week. “And everyone knows that kale is a very nutritious vegetable.” 

The pea protein packet contains 10 g of pea protein, and the Kale & Fiber pack has 2 cups of kale, which contains vitamins A, C, and K, as well as 8 grams of chicory root fiber. And that’s it. I like that the packets are made of super-simple, transparent ingredients, unlike lots of other meal supplements and protein powders. The Enrichables packets are also vegan and free from soy, gluten, and nuts.

Left: Enrichables Pea Protein. Right: Enrichables Kale & Fiber. (Photo: Catherine Lamb)

Pampered Chef sent me some Enrichables so I could try them for myself. The first thing I noticed after opening up the box was the size of the packets themselves. I imagined they would be a little bigger than a sugar packet, maybe the size of a tea bag. However, the Enrichables packs are about 5-inches by 4-inches — significantly larger than I’d expected. In fact, they were a little too large to fit into my pocket or slip into my outer backpack pocket, which made keeping them with me on-the-go slightly inconvenient.

Reading the back of the packets, I realized that Enrichables aren’t single-serve. Each one is meant to be incorporated into a recipe that feeds four. That might work well if you’re a parent trying to sneak some fiber and protein into your family dinner, but as someone who mainly cooks just for herself, it was slighly awkward to keep these partially-used packets around my kitchen or office kitchen.

So how did it taste? On the whole, not bad. In fact, both powders chiefly tasted like nothing — and that’s a good thing.

I tried them stirred into a plain lentil soup — one-fourth of a packet in each serving. The Kale & Fiber pack turned my soup vaguely green but didn’t really affect the flavor, which was nice. Similarly the Pea Protein didn’t taste like much and didn’t have the bitterness that sometimes goes along with pea protein. However, it did thicken my soup so much that it became a paste, which was slightly unappetizing. That could be an issue if I was adding the Pea Protein powder to smoothies or other liquids.

Left: Enrichables Kale & Fiber. Right: Enrichalbes Pea Protein (Photo: Catherine Lamb)

That hiccup aside, my lunch tasted good. I’m not sure how much of a difference 2.5 grams of protein powder and a half-cup of kale, the equivalent of one-fourth of each packet, will really make in my overall health. It could’ve just been in my head, but I did finish my lunch feeling uncharacteristically virtuous and full.

Placebo or no, I think Enrichables concept is an interesting way to tap into a few food trends we’ve been seeing here at the Spoon. First, it fits into the move towards so-called “clean label” products with shorter, more transparent ingredient lists. Enrichables is also taking advantage of growing consumer demand for protein, specifically plant-based protein. Finally, Enrichables plays into the overarching trend for mealtime convenience. Want more fiber in your meal? Just sprinkle on this powder and you’re set in an instant.

As for me, I think I’ll use the rest of my Enrichables packet on some mac & cheese for dinner tonight. Hey, it’s healthy!

Taco Bell in China Debuts Plant-based OmniPork Crunchy Taco for Chinese Palates

Today Taco Bell launched a limited edition taco made with plant-based Omnipork in all Shanghai locations. Called the OmniPork Crunchy Taco, the offering will feature OmniPork’s meat-free ground pork cooked with spicy Yu Xiang sauce and lettuce. The fast-food chain will sell 6,000 of these tacos, priced at RMB 25 ($3.58 USD) each, starting today until they run out.

For those who don’t know, OmniPork is the first product from Green Monday, the Hong Kong-based group of restaurants and shops focused on promoting vegan dining in Asia. Green Monday founder David Yeung developed OmniPork, a ground pork substitute made from plants, specifically to appeal to Asian audiences who eat pork far more than, say, beef or chicken.

OmniPork is already sold in Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau and Thailand. It also made its debut in mainland China last month through online retailer Tmall. When announcing the news, Yeung said that OmniPork would be rolling out at over 180 restaurants in Shanghai and Beijing over the next two months. Clearly at least a few of those spots are Taco Bells.

Taco Bell is the first fast-food venue to sell OmniPork. It may seem ironic that the first QSR partner for a company focused on Asian palates is one that serves Tex-Mex food. However, Chinese consumers have taken to the fast-food chain since it returned to the country after an almost ten-year hiatus. The OmniPork Crunchy Taco is also specifically developed with Chinese flavors and uses plant-based pork instead of beef, as a nod to China’s most popular meat.

The Taco Bell partnership could be just the beginning for OmniPork’s foray into fast food. “We are confident that this special promotional launch is the beginning of a long partnership between the Green Monday group with Taco Bell as well as other brands under the Yum China portfolio,” stated Yeung in a press release.

Considering that the Yum China portfolio also includes KFC, Pizza Hut, and others, if the OmniPork Crunchy Taco has a favorable debut I bet we’ll be seeing OmniPork pop up in a lot more fast-food restaurants in China very soon.

Future Food: Are We Okay with Breast Milk Grown in a Lab?

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!

“Wait, human milk?”

I thought I’d misheard the two of the co-founders of TurtleTree Labs, a Singaporean company that creates milk from lactating mammary gland cells, as they described their product line.

But I had not. “Yep, any kind of milk,” said their CTO Max Rye. That encompasses everything from the usual suspects like cow to more niche products like sheep, goat, or even human breast milk.

In fact, TurtleTree’s first product — which they’ll be taste testing in early 2020 — will be milk made from human mammary gland cells. They chose breast milk because it will allow them to enter the market at a higher price. Right now a liter of any of their cell-based milk (any kind) costs just under $200. That’s incredibly steep compared to plant-based dairy, but on par with Prolacta, a service that pasteurizes and resells human milk to feed newborn babies in hospitals.

As a company, TurtleTree is remarkable for a few reasons. Firstly, as far as I know, it’s the first company to make cell-based milk. Perfect Day and New Culture are using a type of fermentation to create milk proteins, while plenty of others rely on plants to imitate dairy’s creaminess. TurtleTree, however, is using cellular agriculture to grow the milk directly, cutting out the middleman.

Two — they are making human milk. It’s a polarizing concept; everyone I’ve spoken to about it so far was pretty grossed out by the idea. Consumers are getting used to the idea of eating meat grown in a lab, but they might not be as open to a lab-grown alternative of something that’s typically made by humans. Especially something meant to be fed to babies.

It’s early days in the cellular agriculture field. And though I haven’t experienced it myself, I know that nursing children can be a frustrating, painful and difficult process for many women. As the idea of consuming cell-based foods becomes more accepted, I wouldn’t be surprised if the idea of cell-based baby milk becomes less polarizing, too.

If a startup tells me it’s working on human meat though? That one might be a bridge too far.

A plant-based burger from Upton’s Naturals

Put a label on it
This week the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA) released the first standard for the labeling of plant-based meats. Basically, its goal is to create a consistent labeling protocol across the entire alternative meat industry. The standard says that alternative meat companies can use meat terms in on their labels — sausage, chicken, etc. — as long as they include appropriate qualifiers, like “vegan” or “plant-based.”

The PBFA’s new standard is clearly in response to recent legal battles meant to make it impossible for companies to use terms like “burger” or even “meat” when labeling their product, even if they make it clear that it does not, in fact, include meat.

So far, over a dozen states have passed meat labeling restriction laws. But the PBFA and others are fighting back. Just a few months ago PBFA member company Upton’s Naturals won a victory against the state of Mississippi, which was trying to regulate plant-based meat labeling language.

Clearly, the PBFA is hoping that by setting out a universal standard for alternative meat labeling will help the entire industry as they fight for their right to use basic language like “burger” and “sausage.” We’ll see if that will be enough to deter Big Meat.

Photo: Perfect Day

Big funding for animal-free meat & milk
Two startups creating animal-free products announced some major new funding this week.

First, Meatable, a Dutch cultured meat company, let fly that it had raised $10 million. A few days later Perfect Day, a startup developing animal-free dairy using genetically engineered microbes, announced a whopping $140 million Series C.

Obviously the Perfect Day funding is far more significant, at least in terms of numbers. But it also makes sense: Perfect Day has already brought its first product — flora-based ice cream — to market. Meatable has yet to publicly share a prototype.

When I spoke with Perfect Day co-founders Perumal Gandhi and Ryan Pandya about their Series C, they told me that this is just the start of a series of upcoming announcements. “We’ve got lots coming up,” Pandya said. “Q1 [of 2020] is going to have to have really juicy stuff.”

I can’t wait to find out just what that “juicy stuff” could entail (flora-based cheese, please?). In fact, I expect to see a lot more meaty (lol) funding announcements coming into the alternative protein space over the next few months, especially in emerging fields like flora- and cell-based foods. 2020 is going to be an interesting one.

Photo: Siggi’s new plant-based yogurt.

Protein ’round the web

  • Icelandic yogurt company Siggi’s launched a new plant-based line with high protein and low sugar.
  • Nutriati, a company that makes plant protein ingredients, announced that it had raised a $12.7 million Series C.
  • Beyond Beef is hitting shelves in Canada (via VegNews).
  • Apparently McDonald’s could be selling more than 250 million of its plant-based PLT’s if it expanded them into its U.S. stores (h/t RestaurantDive)
  • Motif FoodWorks is partnering with the University of Queensland to research ways to make better textures in meat alternatives.

Eat well,
Catherine

JUST Acquires Facility to Expand Protein Manufacturing for Plant-based Egg

Alternative protein company JUST today announced it has acquired a new 30,000-square-foot facility in Appleton, Minnesota to expand its manufacturing capacity. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The plant, previously operating as Del Dee Foods, had already been working with JUST to manufacture proteins used as the building block of its JUST Egg, a plant-based liquid that scrambles just like real eggs. With the acquisition, JUST will be able to hire more workers, staff more shifts, and build out the facility to increase manufacturing capacity.

According to JUST’s Head of Communications Andrew Noyes, the startup had already invested millions of dollars in the factory. After the acquisition, they will be able to create an infrastructure for JUST Egg protein production that is “dependable, efficient and expandable as we plan for future growth.”

In and of itself, this isn’t especially remarkable news. But it does speak to the need for plant-based food companies to ensure that they have reliable, scalable sources for protein manufacturing — especially as consumer demand for flexitarian alternatives continues to skyrocket.

Players like Beyond Meat, Oatly and Impossible Foods have all experienced product shortages over the past few years. And consumers were not happy. For now, JUST Egg’s footprint is still relatively small, at least compared to plant-based giants like Beyond Meat and Oatly. It’s available in U.S. retailers like Kroger, Whole Foods, and Safeway, as well as over 500 foodservice locations. It’s also sold in Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and parts of China.

However, the company is smart to start investing heavily in manufacturing infrastructure — before the demand outpaces their supply. Especially as it prepares to enter the European market.

Future Food: Fake Meat Might Not be Healthy, But That’s The Point

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This week I had about five people ping me — including my mom’s friend and my uncle — when the New York Times published an article by Anahad O’Connor exploring the question: Is plant-based meat good for you?

Provocatively titled “Fake Meat vs. Real Meat,” the piece lays out how the meat industry is accusing meat alternatives of being heavily processed and, therefore, suspect. Plant-based meat companies argue that they’re no more processed than, say, yogurt, or bread.

The article is worth a read if you’re looking for an overview on the state of the alt-meat industry. But I think the bigger question at play here — more important than “Is plant-based meat good for you?” — is “How much does it matter?” After all, we aren’t meant to be eating Beyond burgers every day, just like we’re not meant to eat beef burgers every day.

The article touches on this point a bit towards the end. It quotes Pat Brown, CEO of Impossible Foods: “If you’re hungry for a burger and you want something that’s better for you and better for the planet that delivers everything you want from a burger, then this is a great product. But if you’re hungry for a salad, eat a salad.”

Scientists are still trying to determine the long-term health effects of plant-based burgers, so I think it’s a little early to say that they’re categorically “better for you” than beef burgers.

The bigger point is that plant-based burgers aren’t supposed to be better for you than regular burgers. Instead, they’re meant to fill a gap in the market that didn’t exist: really tasty, vegan junk food that hits the spot just as well as the real thing. Because even though black bean or quinoa burgers are unarguably healthier than beef burgers, they just don’t scratch the “I need a burger” itch in the same way.

Impossible burgers and its brethren can — or are at least pretty darn close. And while they might not be a diet-friendly option, they’re almost certainly healthier for the planet than an average beef burger. Just don’t expect them to magically be both tasty and healthy.

There you go, Uncle Peter! That’s what I think about the article.

Photo: Stouffer’s

Big Food goes vertical with plant-based
Growing up, a microwaved Stouffer’s frozen lasagna was my ultimate culinary treat. Then I stopped eating meat and had to take it out of my meal rotation.

That’s why I was so excited to learn that this week Nestlé announced it would be incorporating its Sweet Earth Awesome plant-based beef crumbles into two products from its portfolio companies: Digiorno’s frozen pizza and Stouffer’s frozen lasagna.

When I heard this news, my first thought was “duh.” My second thought was “Why haven’t Nestlé — and other Big Food companies — done this before?”

It’s a win-win-win way for Nestlé to tap into the flexitarian trend, attract millennial new consumers to older, well-established brands, and also give a competitive edge to its Awesome product line. That last point will become ever more critical as the plant-based space gets more and more crowded.

I’m betting we’ll see more Big Food companies — Unilever, Kellogg’s, and the like — embracing this sort of vertical integration with their plant-based products down the road.

Photo: CNW Group/KFC Canada

Finger-lickin’ good, even without the meat
When KFC did a one-day pilot of meatless Beyond Chicken at a location in Atlanta, it attracted long lines and viral media attention. Then it sold out in five hours.

Last week, the fast-food chain decided to see if Canada would have the same reaction. KFC debuted a plant-based fried chicken sandwich and popcorn chicken (made with Lightlife Foods, not Beyond Meat) for one day only at one location in Canada. It sold out in six hours.

One hour discrepancy aside, the results speak for themselves: People want more plant-based options in QSR’s — and not just burgers. KFC has stated that it would look at these one-day tests as it decides whether or not to roll out alternative chicken at more locations in 2020.

It seems like the answer will be yes.

Protein ’round the web

  • Australian startup v2food has raised $35 million for its plant-based meat operation.
  • Scientists at the University of Bath are growing animal tissue cells on grass and working their way towards bacon (Stock Daily Dish).
  • General Mills just launched its first plant-based yogurt (made with coconut) under its Oui brand (Star Tribune).
  • Avant Meats did the first public taste test of its cultured fish maw (a delicacy that’s the swim bladders of certain fish) in Hong Kong.

Eat well,
Catherine

Bacon in the U.S., Chicken in Europe: ADM’s Dir. of Flexitarian Solutions on Developing Plant-based Meats for Different Regions

The rising popularity of meat alternatives is a worldwide phenomenon. From Brazil to Belgium to Birmingham, Alabama, consumers are embracing flexitarian lifestyles and eating more plant-based meat.

But as culinary tastes vary widely around the world, so do preferences for plant-based meat. That makes things tricky for giant companies that are attempting to simultaneously develop alternative proteins that will appeal to a wide range of geographies. 

That’s one of the biggest hurdles that Kurt Long, the Director of Flexitarian Solutions for global food and commodities giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) has to deal with. “Every culture has a different taste or texture that they’re targeting,” he told me in a recent phone interview. “Even something basic like a hot dog will have different taste in Latin America than in Asia.”

To cater to these differences, ADM is developing totally different plant-based offerings meant to appeal specifically to each region. For example, in Europe they’re developing fibrous products to emulate plant-based chicken, which is gaining massive popularity in that area of the world. In North America they’re racing to make meatless bacon (hurry up, please). In Latin America they’re focused on burgers; in Asia, it’s pork analogs.

Of course, it’s no surprise that different parts of the globe have different tastes in plant-based meat. But it’s interesting to hear just how much those differences apply to meat alternatives — and how R&D teams will have to tweak the flavor palate and texture to meet local consumer tastes. For example, Asian consumers like more gelatinous textures, which might not translate to, say, Europe.

This challenge — to create products that appeal across the globe — isn’t one reserved only for major food corporations like ADM. Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are also gearing up to launch in China. Depending on consumer reception there they might have to tweak their formulas to appeal to their palates, especially if they want to compete with local plant-based meat companies like Omnipork.

For now, Long noted that ADM is currently filling the most demand in U.S. and Europe. But that could soon change. Rising global incomes in developing countries are spurring a higher demand for protein, specifically meat. At the same time China, the largest meat consumer in the world, is facing massive pork shortages as the African Swine Flu ravages its pig population.

Plant-based meat options can help fill these protein gaps — that is, as long as they can be agile and adapt to regional flavor and texture preferences. Admittedly, a big if.

Nestlé is Launching Stouffer’s and Digiorno Products made with Awesome Plant-Based Beef Grounds

Today Nestlé announced it would launch two new products featuring its Sweet Earth Awesome Grounds plant-based beef. The Digiorno Rising Crust Meatless Supreme and Stouffer’s Meatless Lasagna come from two brands in Nestlé’s portfolio.

Sweet Earth was acquired by Nestlé in 2017. The company’s plant-based Awesome Burger and Awesome Grounds, both made with pea protein, launched in U.S. supermarkets this October. Now it seems Nestlé is experimenting with where else it can put Awesome to work.

Honestly, I’m surprised this sort of vertical integration hasn’t happened earlier with alternative protein. It’s a win-win for Nestlé. The Swiss CPG giant can leverage the popularity of its frozen products to give its newer plant-based meat brand a wider audience. In turn, it can use its new meat-free products to tap into the flexitarian market and attract new vegetarian consumers.

Considering how crowded retail shelves are becoming with plant-based burgers — with startups, grocery stores, and major corporations all launching their own alt-meat products — Nestlé is smart to cross-pollinate to try and give the Sweet Earth brand a leg up.

I wouldn’t be surprised if other Big Food brands follow suit. For example, Kellogg’s could put its Morningstar Incogmeato ground “meat” in a new line of breakfast sandwiches. Similarly, Unilever could add plant-based offerings from the Vegetarian Butcher, which the corporation bought last year, into any number of its food brands.

Both the frozen pizza and lasagna will be available on Amazon Fresh in Spring 2020. If that seems too long to wait to get your mitts on some meatless microwaveable lasagna, you can visit TryItMeatless.com tomorrow (Dec. 5) and enter to win a chance to try them before they hit the market.

Companies are Developing Plant-Based Turkey Options for the Center of the Thanksgiving Table

If you’re hosting Thanksgiving, odds are at least one of your guests (or maybe even you!) doesn’t eat meat. That means you have to find something to stand in for the holiday’s traditional piece de resistance: the turkey.

Of course you could just have your meat-free guests make a meal from sides (my personal preference). Or you could also try to make a stand-in protein with one of the plant-based substitutes on the market.

When it comes to meatless turkey offerings, Tofurky is, unsurprisingly, the first name that comes to mind. The company has been making its portmanteau tofu turkey for 25 years. However, if you’ve ever tried a tofurky, you know that, while tasty, it doesn’t for a moment fool you into thinking you’re eating the real bird.

Tofurky would tell you that that’s the point; their products are made for vegetarians and aren’t trying to fool anyone into thinking they’re meat. But for the growing number of flexitarians out there, there’s a market for a more realistic turkey alternative.

Protein companies are trying to fill that need. Impossible Foods has stated that it’s developing its own plant-based turkey product. Big Turkey is also entering the race. According to Reuters, Butterball, Perdue and Tyson are all developing vegetarian turkey options, though none have committed to a timeline for release.

It’ll probably be a while yet before we see a whole plant-based bird on grocery shelves. Unlike burgers or chicken nuggets, which are one type of “meat,” turkeys are structurally complex and have different cuts of meat — plus bones — to deal with. It’s more likely that we’d first see a plant-based turkey breast or drumstick first before someone comes out with the whole bird.

Most of us only eat turkey on the third Thursday of November, so there’s not really a huge market for realistic plant-based turkey year-round. That could mean that it’s relatively low on the R&D totem pole for alternative protein companies. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t be surprised that if by next year there’s an Impossible Turkey Leg or Tyson Turkey Breast offering available in your supermarket.

For now, though, vegeterians and flexitarians can get their plant-based turkey fix with Quorn’s Turk’y Roast, Gardein’s Holiday Roast, or Field Roast’s Celebration Roast. Or just stick with the classic: Tofurky.