Eat Just has added a new single-ingredient protein powder to its portfolio, made from the same mung bean base as its Just Egg. The company says the product has more protein than “anything else on the market”.
As sales of Just Egg hike amid the avian flu crisis, its parent company is now targeting another high-in-demand product: protein powder.
California’s Eat Just has rolled out Just One, a range of protein powders made from the same mung bean base that powers its liquid egg alternative, at all Whole Foods locations in the US.
The unflavored, single-ingredient version is also available at Purple Carrot, and contains 30g of complete protein per serving (three heaped tablespoons, or 35g). This means it contains all nine essential amino acids, and more of them than whey, pea or soy protein, which populate the current market of protein powders.
In addition, Just One comes in three flavours – chocolate-peanut butter, maple-banana, and vanilla-chai – which contain 17g of protein per serving. Each protein powder comes in a 12oz reusable aluminium tin, priced at $34.99.
“This is more than a conventional protein powder – it’s a protein that enables you to bake, to bind, to emulsify, to make pancakes and muffins and sauces. It’s an awesome, creamy [addition] to oatmeal.” Eat Just co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick tells Green Queen, adding that it can replace eggs and milk in a range of applications.
“It has more protein per serving than anything else on the market. It’s an entirely new category; a new, innovative kitchen staple,” he suggests.
Just One protein powder hailed by chefs
“We spent years trying to find a clean, single-ingredient protein that could make it a little easier to eat better,” Tetrick said in a statement. “We’re so excited to see what folks make with it.”
Explaining how it’s made, he tells Green Queen: “It’s exactly the same protein we use to make Just Egg. We take a bean, mill [it] into a flour, and separate the protein at high rates of speeds in a centrifuge.”
This proprietary protein separation technology maintains the protein’s integrity during processing, allowing the resulting ingredient to gel, emulsify, leaven, bind, and more. Eat Just argues that most protein powders make food denser and grittier, but Just One makes it better.
It carries some clout with culinary experts too, with celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern saying: “My chefs and I have fooled around with Just One in our kitchens for the last six months. We’re in love. From pumpkin bread to mushroom meatballs and silky smoothies, this single ingredient can do it all. It’s best in class.”
All of the flavour contains brown sugar, natural flavours, and salt, with 8g of added sugar per serving; the maple-banana powder also has banana powder and natural maple flavour, the chocolate-peanut butter version uses Guittard cocoa and roasted peanut powder, and the vanilla-chai variety has cashew powder and chai spices.
How Just One compares with eggs to feed US protein demand
To use Just One as an egg replacer in baking recipes, the company recommends blending 80g of the powder with 200g of water, with 50g of the hydrated mix equivalent to one egg. That means one tin of the protein powder can roughly replace 25 eggs.
At the suggested retail price, this equates to $1.38 per egg used in baking. That’s not far away from the price of chicken eggs in some larger US cities. Plus, the mung bean powder gives bakers the ability to add 6.5 times more protein than conventional eggs.
This will appeal to an increasingly protein-hungry American population. The number of people trying to consume more protein has been steadily increasing in the US, from 59% in 2022 and 67% in 2023 to 71% in 2024, according to a 3,000-person survey. And this year, 85% want to continue increasing the amount of protein they eat.
“I think Americans love protein for all sorts of reasons – cultural, emotional, and because of evidence-based reasons,” says Tetrick. “They have loved [it], and probably will always want more of it.”
It leaves a major opportunity for alternative protein companies, given the environmental intolerance issues associated with conventional whey protein. That said, 87% of Americans believe you need animal products to get enough protein, despite vast evidence to the contrary, so there is a need for education.
Still, the demand for plant-based protein powders can be seen in the numbers. In 2024, retail sales of the category rose by 11% (reaching $450M), with Americans buying 30 million units (a 13% rise). They also became 2% cheaper, and were the fourth-largest category in the vegan market after milk, meat and creamer alternatives.
Animal-free protein powders on the rise
Just One is among a growing list of companies offering animal-free protein powders. Just last week, Finland’s Solar Foods announced the world’s first protein powder made from air – targeted at the health and performance nutrition market in the US – while Balletic Foods entered the space with three fermentation-derived protein powders.
Perfect Day was one of the first companies in the world to create an animal-free whey protein powder, and lent its ingredient to CPG protein powder brand Strive Nutrition, as well as online sports nutrition giant Myprotein. And last year, Nestlé released a Better Whey product under its Orgain line last year, featuring the same ingredient.
Elsewhere, France’s Bon Vivant has introduced a three-strong range of functional animal-free dairy protein powders, while Dutch microbial protein maker Farmless is working on a ‘brewed’ protein powder.
Meanwhile, precision fermentation startup The Every Company has launched a sugar-free syrup with 5g of recombinant egg protein per ounce, offering consumers a new way to add protein to their diets.
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