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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

vegan

Restaurant Chains Embrace JUST Egg, Vegan Chorizo as Hunger for Plant-Based Protein Grows

Animal-free meat and dairy alternatives have been on quite a roll this week. First Beyond Meat announced it would be in all locations of Del Taco. Two days later, Impossible shot back with the news that its plant-based meat would be available at all Qdobas nationwide.

Now several more national chains are embracing plant-based alternatives with open arms. JUST Inc. (formerly Hampton Creek) announced that its vegan JUST Egg product will be available at the restaurant chain Silver Diner and the upmarket burger chain Bareburger, both of which are chiefly in the Mid-Atlantic area.

JUST Egg is available on two Bareburger menu items. In the “Wake-Up Call,” an eggless patty is served with a Beyond Meat quarter pounder, cheese, and mayo, while the “Get On Up” is essentially a breakfast burrito. The JUST menu items will be available at all 34 U.S. Bareburger locations by the end of May. The diner chain Silver Diner will offer a “JUST Egg Benedict” starting today all 15 of its locations.

JUST Egg is already available at a number of grocery stores and restaurants, including the vegan chain Veggie Grill. They’ve been edging into more sales channels in the U.S. and internationally, though so far it seems they’ve been targeting retailers. These two partnerships show that the company is also laser-focused on getting JUST into as many restaurant menus — and onto as many flexitarian plates — as possible.

Blaze Pizza with its new vegan chorizo.

It might not have a buzzed-about startup name attached to it, but this week fast-casual pizza chain Blaze also rolled out new plant-based options on its menus. The national chain, which has over 300 locations, now offers a vegan spicy chorizo developed in-house by Blaze’s executive chef. While the restaurant has meat and dairy on its menus, its dough is vegan and customers can opt for Daiya plant-based cheese.

The vegan chorizo is available at no extra cost. This is pretty rare: most plant-based alternatives come with an upcharge of at least a few bucks, which is a barrier to capturing the flexitarian market. Though thanks to economies of scale, growing meat alternative companies like Beyond and Impossible will hopefully able to reach price parity with meat pretty soon.

Fast-food and fast-casual restaurants are becoming quite the innovation space for plant-based alternatives. In addition to all the above news,  Burger King recently announced a pilot program to make Impossible Whoppers in the St. Louis area. Impossible’s “bleeding” burgers are also at White Castles and Red Robins, and Beyond Meat is available at Carl’s Jr. and the Canadian A&W chain.

Restaurant chains would be dumb not to put meat and dairy alternatives on their menus. According to the NPD Group, demand for plant-based protein in foodservice grew by 20 percent in 2018. And I don’t see that trend slowing down anytime soon. Down the road, I’m betting it will be unheard of for a fast-casual or QSR restaurant to not have plant-based burgers, scrambled eggs, etc. In fact, it might not be that far from now.

Food Tech News: Vegan Powdered Eggs, More Vertically-Grown Lettuce & India’s Red Hot Cloud Kitchen Market

Happy weekend from sunny Victoria, Canada! I took the ferry from Seattle for a quick weekend of high tea, touring gardens and whatever else one does in the capital of British Columbia.

But first, this week’s food tech news. We’ve got stories about blockchain, vegan eggs, and vertical farming to get your Saturday started right. Enjoy!

Gotham Greens expands to Providence, RI
Indoor agriculture company Gotham Greens announced plans to expand into Rhode Island this week. The company currently operates four farms: three in the New York City area and one in Chicago. The new 110,000 square foot greenhouse farm in Providence will open in early fall of 2019 and will operate year-round, serving local residents and foodservice establishments. Gotham Greens estimates the new facility will produce around 10 million heads of lettuce and leafy greens annually.

 

South America’s biggest egg producer creates a vegan egg
This week Grup Mantiqueira, South America’s largest producer of eggs, announced it had developed a vegan egg product in collaboration with nonprofit the Good Food Institute (h/t Livekindly). Called N.Ovo, the plant-based product is made of pea starch and comes in powdered form packaged in a traditional egg carton. (Cute, but is it practical?) N.Ovo will debut March 31st at the Rio Super Expofood event.

 

Photo: Pixabay

Ripe.io teams up with FlavorWiki
Ripe.io, the company developing a blockchain for the food industry, has partnered with digital sensory platform FlavorWiki. Basically, ripe.io will be able to access FlavorWiki’s collection of data around consumer flavor, texture, and aroma preferences, and in turn Flavorwiki will store its database on ripe.io’s blockchain-based platform.

That’s a lot of jargon. Essentially, food producers and sellers will be able to use the data from FlavorWiki and ripe.io to better understand how things like seasons and soil conditions impact customers’ taste perceptions. In theory, this improved transparency will be able to help producers make better-tasting foods.

 

Box8 raises $15 million in India’s red hot cloud kitchen market

India’s Box8 is the latest startup to benefit from the rapid growth of a food delivery market that is fueling investment in cloud kitchens across every region of the globe. The Mumbai based startup, which has 110 kitchens across five cities, just raised $15 million for its series C. It’s the second big raise for an Indian cloud kitchen startup in just one month, with Pune-based Faasos raising nearly $16 million in a series D earlier this month.

Box8, which currently serves 1 million meals a month across Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Gurgaon, plans to use the new funding to expand to open 100 more kitchens over the next 12 months and expand to five more cities.

Did we miss anything? Tweet it out to us @TheSpoonTech!

Questlove Partners with Impossible Foods to Launch Plant-Based Cheesesteak

Questlove, legendary drummer and frontman for The Roots and bandleader for The Tonight Show, took to Instagram today to announce a new, non-musical project: a sandwich.

Dubbed “Questlove’s Cheesesteak,” the sandwich is a vegetarian version of a Philly Cheesesteak made with Impossible’s plant-based meat 2.0. Livekindly reports that the sandwich will not be 100 percent vegan, as it will have dairy cheese.

It will be available starting March 28th at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park during all home Philadelphia Phillies baseball games. Over the next few months, it’ll roll out on menus of 40 Live Nation-owned event spaces across the U.S., including concert and sporting venues. This comes a year after Live Nation put the Impossible Burger on the menu at 35 of its music venues.

This isn’t Questlove’s first foray into the food world. He wrote a James Beard-nominated culinary nonfiction book, Something to Food About: Exploring Creativity with Innovative Chefs, and has been on a number of food-focused TV shows.

Though not a vegetarian, the musician wrote on Instagram that he fell in love with Impossible Foods several years ago. In fact, he invested in the plant-based meat startup in 2017. He’s also from Philadelphia, so, as he puts it, “i gotta know #Cheesesteaks right?”

Both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat have been accumulating quite a roster of celebrity endorsers and partners. My colleague Chris recently wrote about Beyond’s posse of high-profile athletes and musicians that have partnered with or endorsed the company. In addition to Questlove, Impossible also has investments from “Harold and Kumar” actor Kal Penn, and has been endorsed by celebs like Miley Cyrus and Chrissy Teigen.

These celebrity supporters could help both companies continue to gain influence with vegans and flexitarians alike. In the case of Beyond Meat, it could also help the company’s impending IPO pop — which might in turn make it easier Impossible and other plant-based meats to go public down the road.

As a vegetarian, I know how hard it can be to find a decent meat-free meal option at a sports arena or concert hall that’s not just french fries. That’s why this Questlove-Impossible sandwich is a win-win: Impossible gets to target the captive audience (literally) at huge venues, and LiveNation gets to add a vegetarian option to its menus and look cool. As an investor in Impossible, Questlove has an obvious motive to help the startup sell more of their meat 2.0.

If you get a chance to sink your teeth into Questlove’s Cheesesteak, drop us a line and let us know how it is!

Motif Ingredients Launches, Raises $90M to Democratize Plant-Based Ingredients

Making a burger (or chicken nugget, or egg) out of plants that tastes like the real thing is no easy feat. It takes years of R&D, teams of scientists, and large amounts of funding, and for many small startups, the development process is a slow struggle.

A new company is working to make it easier for plant-based protein companies to develop better products. Today Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based biotech company (and unicorn), unveiled Motif Ingredients, a spinoff company developing ingredients to replace animal protein. The company’s off to a running start: today it also announced it has raised a 90 million Series A funding round from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Fonterra and food processing giant Louis Dreyfus Co., among others.

Motif will use engineered microbes (like yeast) to “brew” food proteins that can mimic the same ones that give animal products their unique taste and texture. The resulting ingredients can be used to make everything from regular ol’ cow milk and chicken meat to more unique offerings, like sturgeon eggs and camel milk.

Established players like Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, and JUST have their own dedicated R&D labs, filled with robots sussing out plant properties and teams of scientists with extensive backgrounds in biotechnology and food science. Big Food — along with its extensive resources — is also entering the plant-based protein space. In fact, Tyson recently announced plans to develop its own meatless products internally.

But for smaller startups, developing their own plant-based ingredients can be a prohibitively expensive and time-consuming process. By partnering with Motif, however, these companies could outsource the costly R&D process and accelerate their product development.

If successful — and with $90 million in funding and a unicorn parent company, I don’t see why they wouldn’t be — Motif’s services could help usher in a flood of new plant-based protein companies. Plant-based camel milk, here we come.

Good Catch’s Plant-Based Tuna Swims into Retail

Good Catch just got one step closer to changing your tune about tuna. Yesterday the company rolled out its plant-based “tuna” products in Whole Foods, as well as through grocery subscription service Thrive Market and online grocer FreshDirect.

Good Catch’s tuna is made of a “6-plant protein blend” which contains lentils, pea protein, soy, and chickpea flour, as well as sea algae oil for flavor. It comes in three flavors, “Naked in Water,” “Mediterranean,” and “Oil and Herbs,” all of which are packaged in pouches (not cans) and cost $4.99.  Each 3.3 ounce serving of tuna has 14 grams of protein.

When it comes to plant-based foods, there are plenty of “fish” in the sea. In addition to Good Catch’s tuna, Sophie’s Kitchen has a “toona” made out of Japanese yam, and Ocean Hugger’s ahimi is a plant-based alternative to raw tuna — both of which are also sold at select Whole Foods. Atlantic Natural Foods also recently launched a new fishless tuna product, called “Tuno.”

There’s no question that more and more people are turning to plant-based protein. But is there enough demand to support multiple brands of vegan tuna?

Maybe not now, but soon consumers might not have a choice. The price of fresh tuna is rising as stocks dwindle due to overfishing. Just last month in Japan a giant tuna sold for a whopping $3.1 million. Canned tuna might not cost anywhere near as much as fresh, but if we continue to deplete the supply eventually it might. Plus there’s the worrying levels of mercury to think about. As consumers turn away from canned tuna for health or price reasons, Good Catch & co. will be there for all their tuna melt needs.

One final note: it’s interesting that Good Catch named its product straight-up “tuna,” instead of using a similar word or a different spelling, like its competitors. As meat and dairy companies battle to keep plant-based options from using words like “meat” and “milk,” this is a pretty bold move from Good Catch. I wouldn’t be surprised if the company gets some backlash from Big Fish.

Good Catch raised $8.7 million last August. We haven’t tried its products yet, but with the number of new plant-based players trying to disrupt canned tuna, it just might be time for a taste test.

How to Host a Meatless (and Delicious) Super Bowl Party

My eating habits have been on a roller coaster so far this year. From discovering I am gradually turning vegan to switching over (temporarily) to a full-on keto diet, my eating has certainly boomeranged.

With Super Sunday almost upon us, I thought it would be a fun exercise to meld the two opposing lifestyles and create a “beefy” menu of snacks for the big game without using actual meat. This is actually easier than ever, thanks to innovations in the alterna-foods category that make meat substitutes closer to the real thing.

Here’s what I would serve:

Get more out of those (expensive) Beyond Meat burgers by breaking them apart and forming li’l meatless sliders. Beyond actually has a nice video showing you how to do just that on its site. Sadly, Impossible’s killer new burgers aren’t coming to retail until later this year, so maybe they can be on the menu for Super Bowl LIV.

Staying on the “meats,” I really like the LightLife Smart Ground crumble. It’s pretty versatile and can be used in chilis and sauces, but I would load them up on some hearty nachos, smothered in something cheese-like. Check out their recipe section for directions and more ideas.

You could also use the Smart Ground as a topping for a CauliPower pizza to spice up the plain ole cheese version. I’ve become a huge fan of the cauliflower pizza. I don’t think this is actually healthier for me (especially since I could eat an entire pizza in one sitting), but it is just as tasty as other frozen pizzas and, you know, cauliflower. If you’re feeling spicy, you could also make your own tofu-based pepperoni.

For a more snacky-snack type of food, maybe grab a handful of Coconut Jerky. I haven’t tried it, and it would be hard to get in time for the game, but if you can find it, going coconuts might be worth a try.

You can also go the way of Swedish McDonald’s and serve up falafel nuggets instead of chicken ones. Falafel is delicous! It’s just too bad Frecious veggie spreads aren’t widely available in the U.S. (yet) to serve as a dipping sauce.

For something sweet, the JUST eggless cookie dough is fantastic. Serve it raw in little spoons or whip up a mountain of freshly baked cookies for all your friends.

And finally to wash it all down, give the Bud Light a break and crack open a bottle of Kombrewcha (see what they did there?), the alcoholic kombucha. Though, I can’t imagine drinking more than one of them.

Do you have any tips, tricks or hacks for making it a meatless Super Bowl bash? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Lavva Uses Pili Nut to Make Legit Delicious Plant-Based Yogurt

As a lactose-intolerant person who loves her morning yogurt & granola, I’ve tried my fair share of vegan yogurts. Usually I’m disappointed. Most plant-based yogurts are bitter or have an off-putting grainy texture; some just taste like a straight-up cup of either soy or coconut.

But at last I think I’ve found one plant-based yogurt to rule them all. Lavva, a product of New York state-based EVR Foods, is everything I’m looking for in yogurt, minus the dairy. It comes in a very appealing, brightly-colored packaging (no, that doesn’t affect the taste, but still — nice), and it’s made of just a few, pronounceable ingredients: coconut water and cream, plantains, cassava, vanilla extract, lime juice, fruit, live vegan cultures, and pili nut.

According to the packaging, it’s the pili nut that gives Lavva its distinctive creaminess and rich texture reminiscent of full-fat yogurt. Flavor-wise, Lavva has a light sweetness and, most surprisingly, a true tanginess that I have yet to find in any other plant-based yogurt brand.

Photo: Catherine Lamb

Of the five flavors I tried, the Original was my favorite. It essentially tastes like a very mild coconut (not surprising, considering that coconut is the first ingredient listed on the label), but also has a nice tart kick. I could definitely see adding this to a morning smoothie, using it as a base for granola and fruit, or even swirling it on top of a savory vegetarian soup. I also liked the tropical flavors — Mango and Coconut — which gelled well with the coconut undertones.

Not all the flavors were home runs, though. The strawberry was slightly too acidic for my taste, and the vanilla — despite using real extract and vanilla bean — was lackluster.

A 150g single-serving container of Lavva contains 140 calories with only 6g of sugars. It also has 11 grams of fat (7g saturated), which is fairly high. However, it fits with recent trends in fat-forward, low-carb diets like keto and paleo. The one nutritional downside of Lavva is that each cup only has 2g of protein, which might give pause to those who turn to yogurt as a protein-packed breakfast option.

With the recent spike in demand for plant-based foods — especially plant-based dairy — it’s no surprise the vegan yogurt space is having a bit of a moment. Ripple, purveyor of pea protein beverages, came out with a yogurt which almost scarred me for all plant-based yogurts (though Ripple’s PR team reached out saying they’re reformulating their yogurt recipe). Israeli company Yofix, winner of PepsiCo’s European Nutrition Greenhouse Programme 2018, makes a yogurt out of a blend of oats, seeds, and legumes. U.K.-based Coconut Collaborative recently rolled out their coconut-based yogurt Stateside.

Photo: Catherine Lamb

Big dairy players are getting involved, too. Silk and SoDelicious, two of the biggest names in plant-based dairy (and both owned by Danone) have their own vegan yogurt lines. And just within the past month Chobani, the leading yogurt producer in the U.S., launched a new plant-based product which is set to hit grocery shelves nationwide mid-February.

After launching in 2018, Lavva’s yogurts are now available in roughly 1,000 stores around the U.S., including Whole Foods, Fresh Market, and Safeway (in some states). A cup of Lavva will set you back around $2.49, which is slightly more expensive than other plant-based yogurts on the market (Chobani’s “yogurt” cups cost $1.99 each and Silk is around $1.50).

I’m excited about the direction plant-based yogurt seems to be going — getting more creamy, nuanced, and generally closer to the “real thing.” Hopefully soon Lavva will have some competition.

Lightlife’s New Plant-Based Burger Looks a Lot Like the Beyond Burger…

Alternative protein company Lightlife announced yesterday the release of a new plant-based burger that, according to a press release, is meant to deliver “the sensory experience consumers crave from a beef burger.”

The so-called Lightlife Burger is made of pea protein, coconut oil, and beet powder. It has 20g of protein, no cholesterol, and is free from soy, gluten and GMOs. The burger will be the face of a new pea protein-based product line from the company, which meant to be more evocative of meat.

The launch is in tandem with Lightlife’s upcoming rebrand to mark its 40th anniversary. It’s also just a smart move on Lightlife’s part to try and compete with other meat-like burgers on the market, like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods — especially as Beyond prepares for an IPO and Impossible gears up for its retail launch. Composition-wise, the Lightlife Burger seems closer to the Beyond Burger, which is also pea protein-based and also uses beets for its “bloody” look.

But young upstarts like Beyond and Impossible aren’t Lightlife’s only competitors. Big Food has also been getting into the meat alternative space, releasing products that are more meat-like to capture flexitarians and cash in on the plant-based eating trend. Last month Nestlé released the Impossible  Incredible Burger, just a few days after Unilever bought Dutch plant-based meat company The Vegetarian Butcher.

Lightlife could have an advantage, though. Both it and Field Roast are owned by Maple Leaf Foods, a major packaged meat company in Canada. That means that the company has the advantages that come with being part of a Big Food company, including supply chains, sales channels, and retail partners. But, since it’s also a veteran in the meat alternative space, it also has more plant-based street cred than, say, Nestlé. This could lead to less blowback from consumers who don’t trust Big Food to make their vegan meats.

Recently I predicted that veteran plant-based protein companies, like Lightlife, Tofurky, and Boca, would rebrand from “vegan” companies to “meat” companies–just ones who happened to make meat out of plants. It seems that, at least in the case of Lightlife, that prediction is coming true.

In the U.S., the Lightlife Burger will start rolling out in foodservice this month and hit grocery shelves in late March. It will launch in Canada in April. I couldn’t find any information about pricing, but I imagine it will be in line with other Lightlife vegan burgers (around $2.50 per patty). We haven’t tasted the Lightlife Burger yet, but as soon as it’s available in Seattle grocery shelves it might be time for an alterna-meat burger cookoff.

Food Tech is Gradually Turning Me Vegan

Without getting too far into the philosophical weeds, the Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment about identity. If you gradually replace all the rotting boards of a boat one at a time over a period of year, at what point is it a new ship?

I thought of Theseus’ ship after I went grocery shopping this morning, and looked down to see that most of the traditional products I had been buying for years had been replaced one by one with vegan substitutes.

  • Oat milk is in, cow milk is out
  • Ripple’s pea creamer has replaced dairy creamer
  • Beyond Burgers replaced beef burgers
  • Smart Ground instead of ground beef or pork
  • JUST eggless cookie dough is way better than Tollhouse
  • If I could afford it, Frankie and Jo’s vegan ice cream would have a permanent spot in my freezer instead of Ben & Jerry’s
  • And although it isn’t any more vegan than the regular kind, cauliflower pizza is now our go-to frozen pizza of choice

Am I becoming a full-on vegan? Kinda? I still eat chicken, the occasional fish, and plenty of eggs. I love my Fage yogurt and am hesitant to try a non-dairy yogurt after my colleague Catherine’s bad experience. However, I’m looking forward to replacing these with plant-based alternatives as well.

Despite the fact that scientists say eating meat is dire for the planet, I’d be lying if I said that I was turning into a vegan to make the world a better place (I mean, I’m not trying to make it a worse place). And I wouldn’t even identify as “vegan,” even if I gave up the chicken and the eggs and the other stuff, because I don’t feel like I’m adopting a particular philosophical stance. For me, eating more plant-based foods isn’t a way of life, it’s just that food tech and food innovation has made all of these more delicious than their predecessors.

I think what surprised me was how quickly things have changed. I couldn’t have written this post a year ago. But in that short time, so many alternate products have come to market and immediately made it on to my grocery list. Before I knew it, I was shopping vegan without even trying.

Writing for The Spoon I get a front row seat to all this innovation, so I know what’s coming down the pike. I also know that this is just the beginning. All these alterna-products are only going to get better and cheaper and more abundant. Chicken nuggets, your days are numbered. Impossible is coming to grocery stores, big food is muscling its way into burgers and we haven’t even touched on the vegan questions that arise from lab-grown meat.

With all this innovation, I’ve slowly become a brand new type of grocery shopper, at some point I’ll have to ask if I’m becoming a whole new me.

I Went to Carl’s Jr. to Taste the Beyond Burger 2.0

It’s been quite the month for plant-based burgers. Last week at CES we watched (and tasted) as Impossible Foods unveiled their new ground “beef” recipe, and in the New Year Beyond Meat rolled out a new burger formula of their own right before they launched a partnership with Carl’s Jr.

In the spirit of journalism, I stopped by the Carl’s Jr. in downtown San Francisco today to sample Beyond Meat’s new “Burger 2.0.” The burger arrived in a fluffy sesame bun and was topped with cheese, mayo, ketchup, pickles, tomatoes, and a hefty slice of iceberg lettuce.

Photo: Catherine Lamb

So how did it taste? Pretty good. The burger itself was nicely pink and had the trademark tepid char evocative of fast food burgers everywhere (that’s actually a good thing). The “meat” was lightly packed and almost spongy, with the fatty juiciness that we expect from beef. However, there were some chewy ribbons throughout that almost reminded me of yuba, or tofu skin; a texture I like, but which doesn’t especially make me think I’m eating beef.

Sadly, most of the nuance of the burger got lost under the loud flavors of the pickles, condiments, and the bun, which dwarfed the patty. This isn’t necessarily bad; fast-food burgers aren’t just about the taste of the beef, they’re about the umami-bomb that comes from putting a bunch of savory, fatty ingredients — ketchup, pickles, cheese — together. In this way the Beyond Famous Star reminded me of a stereotypical fast-food burger more than any other plant-based option I’ve tried so far. And for a lot of consumers, that’s pretty appealing.

So how was the new recipe? Coincidentally, I’d eaten a Beyond burger three nights before while out at a local craft burger joint, who was still serving the original Beyond recipe. During the taste test I tried hard to compare the two, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t discern any noticeable difference. According to the Beyond website, the Burger 2.0 has less saturated fat than the original (a good thing), and apparently a “more meat-like texture.” I’d say the texture was maybe slightly chewier, which doesn’t exactly scream “meat-like” to me.

Photo: Catherine Lamb.

While I was chewing at the Beyond burger I couldn’t help but compare it to the Impossible Burger 2.0 I’d tried the previous week at CES in Vegas. Admittedly, the Impossible burgers at the unveiling event were prepared by a prestigious chef, not a fast-food line cook; they were also cooked into carefully curated dishes instead of slapped on a bun with some condiments and tasteless tomatoes. But the new Impossible burger’s texture just reminded me more of beef: its texture was looser and more natural, and it had the rich bloodiness of a medium-raw patty.

Though the Beyond burger at Carl’s Jr. might not taste 100 percent like beef, it can’t exactly call itself vegan, either, since the burger is prepared and charbroiled in the same spaces as beef patties. That eliminates quite a few potential customers (read: strict vegetarians and vegans), but according to the manager at the Carl’s Jr., the Beyond burger has been a popular addition to the menu. What’s more, she told me that once customers they try the Beyond Famous Star once they’ll often come back and order it again. “Even people who work here eat it,” she told me.

The Beyond Famous Star burger cost $9.49 at the downtown SF location I went to, $12.99 with fries and a drink. That’s more than the $6.29 that the Beyond Famous Star burger costs at my local Seattle location, but since Carl’s Jr. is a franchise pricing varies depending on location.

Plant-based meat options are becoming more and more accessible, popping up on fast food menus, online, and grocery aisles alongside beef and pork sausage. In addition to Carl’s Jr., Beyond also has partnerships with Del Taco and Canada’s A&W chain. Said accessibility is key as Beyond Meat marches towards an IPO in 2019, making it the first meat-like alterna-meat company to go public. We’ll no doubt see many more iterations of Beyond’s burger (and its kin) down the road, as plant-based meat companies continue to try and create a product so good, it disrupts the meat industry completely.

New Year, New Food: U.K. Grocery and QSR’s Cash In on Veganuary

When the New Year hits, some people do juice cleanses, some try to eat fewer sweets, and some abstain from booze. Others do Veganuary (vegan + January), a month-long pledge to not eat any animal products which is backed by a U.K. charity. Started in 2014, Veganuary is reportedly about to have its biggest year yet, with over 170,000 people signed up to participate. And that doesn’t include those participating independently.

Beyond New Year’s resolutions, demand for plant-based foods (especially protein) is on the rise. In 2019, the plant-based protein market is expected grow at a CAGR of over 8 percent globally.

When it comes to feeding this demand, the U.K. is one of the leaders as we start 2019. Over half of all Brits either are flexitarian or are interested in pursuing a flexitarian diet. And retailers, from fast-food joints to grocery chains, are taking notice. Here are a few of the most interesting plant-based products that launched in the U.K. this Veganuary:

Pizza Hut
In celebration of Veganuary, Pizza Hut announced this week it would launch a limited-edition vegan pizza topped with jackfruit, a popular meat substitute, on January 1. Memorably dubbed the Jack ‘n Ch**se (see photo above), the pizza will feature a tomato base, dairy-free cheese, corn, red onions, peppers, and BBQ jackfruit, all covered with a BBQ sauce drizzle. It costs £11.29 ($14.23 USD) and is available at all 253 Pizza Hut locations in the U.K. If Pizza Hut sells at least 10,000 of these vegan pizzas by the end of January, they will become a permanent menu item.

 

Photo: Greggs

Greggs
Greggs, the largest bakery chain the U.K., is embracing Veganuary by vegan-izing its most popular product: the sausage roll. Starting on January 3, the company will roll (ha) out a vegan version made with meat substitute Quorn. The roll will be available in 950 Gregg’s locations for £1 ($1.24).

Last year PETA launched a petition urging Greggs to create a vegan version of its sausage roll. It was signed by 20,000 people. But the quick-service bakery has reportedly been working on a vegan sausage roll recipes for quite a while in order to capitalize off of increased demand for meat-free products.

 

Photo: Sainsbury’s

Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s is ramping up its selection of vegan products in the New Year. According to LiveKindly, the U.K. grocery retailer launched 29 new plant-based products on January 1, including mushroom-based minced “beef” to jackfruit burgers to something intriguingly called a “shroomdog.” These additions bring Sainsbury’s lineup of vegan products to over 100 items, which makes sense: the chain recently reported a 20 percent rise in sales of meat-free items.

 

Photo: Waitrose

Waitrose
It’s a widely known fact that Brits love fish ‘n chips — but what about fishless fish n’ chips? Grocery chain Waitrose just rolled out its own brand of Fishless Fingers, which are essentially sticks of flavored tofu breaded with, among other things, seaweed. The vegan fish sticks cost £3.19 ($4.02) per pack through January 30, at which point they’ll jump up to £3.99 ($5.03).

So What?
British QSR’s and grocery chains are reading the tea leaves (or the consumer reports): plant-based foods are only going to continue to grow in popularity, spurring demand for better-tasting, cheaper vegan foods. U.K. companies are jumping in headfirst, launching wide varieties of vegan/vegetarian products at accessible price points. As we in America work to take advantage of the recent boom in plant-based eating, we might want to look across the pond for an example.

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If you get the chance to try any of these products, we’d love to hear how you liked them! Leave a comment or tweet us @TheSpoonTech. 

With the Growth of “Bleeding” Burgers, How are the Tofurky’s of the World Faring?

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods forever changed the plant-based meat industry when they rolled onto the scene with vegan burgers that looked, cooked, and tasted like the real thing. A veggie burger used to mean a patty made of black beans, quinoa, and a few vegetables. It was usually reserved for vegetarians and vegans, and many carnivores didn’t see a reason to go near it.

But now there’s a new consumer group in town: the flexitarian. Flexitarians are working to cut down on their meat consumption, and, for a growing number, that means turning to plant-based meats to replace the real thing. That’s exactly who Beyond and Impossible are targeting. Their meat-like burgers (and, in Beyond’s case, chicken strips and sausage) are specifically meant to appeal to consumers who don’t want a black bean burger but something as close to a beef burger as you can get without the cow.

Recently I got curious: If meat-like meat alternatives are all the rage and catalyzing huge growth in the plant-based meat category, how are the OG, less “sexy” veggie burgers and soy-sausages faring? The Boca burgers? The Tofurkys? The Field Roast sausages?

According to Erin Ransom, Director of Marketing for Tofurky, these early vegan food companies are doing quite well for themselves right now. She explained that the growing popularity of plant-based foods, spurred by media darlings like Beyond and Impossible, has translated to increased demand for the veteran vegan meat companies, too.

Dan Curtin, President of Greenleaf Foods, which includes vegan meat companies Lightlife and Field Roast, also acknowledges the impact that Beyond and Impossible have had on the plant-based meat category. “What [they’ve] done is bring attention to this category and help support it,” he told me over the phone.

Photo: Field Roast sausages.

On one hand, that growth is great for the plant-based meat industry. It means that vegan proteins are more widely accessible (and appealing) to people across the country, not just in urban areas. On the other, that uptick in demand translates to pressure on the manufacturers to increase production. Tofurky, for example, is having difficulty filling their orders. They’re not alone: companies like Beyond Meat have also been experiencing difficulty keeping their products on shelves. “It’s a unique conundrum,” said Ransom.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t ways for plant-based meat companies to fulfill demand. But, as Ransom told me, it probably won’t be a single solution. Existing players will build more production facilities. Supply chains will become more sophisticated, and technology more efficient. Investment will (continue to) pour into the space. More small startups will enter the market. So will Big Food, including industrial meat companies, who can help amp up production capacity for plant-based meats and also ensure good product placement on retail shelves.

Though they may be grateful for the influence of Beyond/Impossible, that doesn’t mean veteran vegan meat companies will try to copy their meat-like products exactly. “We’re not chasing the ‘bleeding anomaly’ [of the Impossible burger],” Ransom told me.

But the effects are clear. Tofurky is working to ensure their newer products, from shredded “chicken” to vegan ham, have the same taste, texture, and mouthfeel as animal protein. Earlier this year Boca Burgers reformulated and rebranded their classic veggie patty, making their burgers bigger and “meatier” to appeal to flexitarians. Lightlife’s website claims its products are “meat without the Middleman.” They may not be trying to make a bleeding burger, but they are definitely trying to make a meat-like burger.

One thing I wonder is how vegetarians and vegans feel about all this. If they don’t want to eat meat in the first place, will they want to eat plant-based meat that is trying to act like meat? Or are companies like Field Roast and Boca alienating their original consumers as they reformulate to appeal more to flexitarians?

As of now, most of these vegan meat veterans still offer classic products like black bean and quinoa burgers. But if flexitarianism continues to grow (and I don’t see why it wouldn’t) vegan meat companies will likely continue to shift their image to become meat companies. The meat just happens to be made out of plants.