In the latest episode of a long-drawn saga, France’s agriculture ministry has drafted a new proposal to ban 21 terms like ‘steak’, ‘beef’, ‘ham’ and ‘grilled’ from plant-based meat labelling. The government has also listed over 120 meat-related terms that can be used only if products have a maximum share of vegan proteins between 0.5% to 6%.
With the proposed decree, France becomes the first EU country to attempt such a ban. But it isn’t the first time it’s tried to impose this. In June 2022, France decided to ban the use of meat-like terms in plant-based products, except for ‘burger’. “It will not be possible to use sector-specific terminology traditionally associated with meat and fish to designate products that do not belong to the animal world and which, in essence, are not comparable,” the decree read.
The proposed ban attracted controversy and criticism from meat-free groups. The European Vegetarian Union and the Association Végetarienne de France filed a complaint against the proposal, which was suspended by the Conseil d’État, the country’s highest administrative court, which argued the timeline was too short and the wording too vague.
Taking matters to the EU
Now, France’s agriculture ministry says it has taken the court’s complaints into account to prepare a new language decree, despite the court itself waiting for guidance from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) before making its final ruling. The ECJ has already protected dairy-related terms like ‘milk’, ‘cheese’ and ‘butter’ since 2017, preventing vegan brands from using them on their product labelling.
The new proposal, which is co-signed by French prime minister Elisabeth Borne, economy and finance minister Bruno Le Maire and agriculture minister Marc Fesneau, only applies to products made and sold in France. The draft has been submitted to the EU Commission for checking against its food labelling regulations. In 2020, the EU parliament voted against a proposed labelling ban on plant-based meat products, allowing vegan companies to market their alternatives as ‘burgers’ and ‘sausages’.
The decree has a list of over 120 meat-related terms like ‘bacon’, ‘sausage’, ‘cooked fillet’, ‘poultry’ and ‘nuggets’ (plus non-meat terms such as ‘liquid whole egg’) that companies can use, as long as the amount of plant protein in these products doesn’t exceed a maximum limit, which ranges from 0.5% to 6%. It essentially means vegan alternatives to such products won’t be able to be labelled this way, as all will contain 100% plant proteins.
“This new draft decree reflects our desire to put an end to misleading claims… by using names relating to meat products for foodstuffs that do not contain them,” Fesneau said. “It’s an issue of transparency and loyalty which meets a legitimate expectation of consumers and producers.”
Courtesy: Magic Bean
Breaching EU regulation
Guillaume Hannotin, lawyer for the Proteines France organisation, which represents makers of vegan and vegetarian alternatives, said “the term ‘plant-based steak’ has been in use for more than 40 years”. He argued that the new decree still breaches EU regulation on labelling for products that – unlike milk – lack a strict legal definition and can be referred to by terms in popular use.
He added that the French government’s move “torpedoes the proceedings in progress before the ECJ”, which were triggered by a complaint from Proteines France itself.
France’s initial proposal last year came the same month South Africa’s agriculture department introduced strict labelling rules for plant-based food, banning all references to ‘meat’ and threatening to seize any products that fail to comply.
A report by ProVeg International last year found that there is no basis for claims of consumer confusion from the labelling of vegan products. 80% of respondents said that it was obvious that products labelled as ‘vegan’, ‘vegetarian’ and ‘plant-based’ don’t contain meat, while 76% actually found these labels helpful to understand and identify the nature of the product.
Consumer preferences are becoming clearer when it comes to plant-based foods – people are drawing a line at genetically modified (GM) ingredients (also known as GMO), even as many vegan products have increased shelf space. This is according to non-profit the Non-GMO Project, which says the biotech industry isn’t getting the message.
When it comes to genetic engineering, shoppers’ preference for non-GM plant-based foods is “only getting stronger”. The organisation says that Non-GMO Project Verified products make up 57% of total plant-based food sales in the US, while those without the certification lag behind. Overall, the demand for Non-GMO Project Verified products has grown by 9% year-on-year.
The non-profit notes that consumer behaviour suggests that not all plant-based products are created equal, with a growing awareness that some may not offer any real benefits over their conventional counterparts in meat, eggs and dairy. This means a GM ingredient may offset a plant-based offering’s perceived benefits.
To illustrate its point, the Non-GMO Project points to data revealing that while 55% of Americans and Canadians believe plant-based foods are better for the planet, 50% think GMO agriculture is detrimental to the environment. It adds that “natural shoppers” are even more committed to this thinking, with 82% finding vegan food eco-friendlier, and 90% preferring non-GM options.
It further infers SPINS data that shows sales of Non-GMO Project Verified frozen plant-based meats and cheeses grew by 71% and 99% from 2019-21, respectively, compared to just 10% and 17% for non-certified counterparts.
“Shoppers are making their desires known by voting with their dollars, and it shows up every time a new food category or trend grows. In the innovative plant-based space, they are again saying that GMOs are not wanted or needed,” said Megan Westgate, executive director of the Non-GMO Project. “We believe products should be labelled so that consumers have the freedom to choose non-GMO in every aisle of the grocery store. If GMOs aren’t going to be labelled, then we’re here to ensure eaters still have the right to avoid GMOs on their whole shopping list.”
Alt-protein’s battle with the GM lobby
Courtesy: New Culture/Instagram
The non-profit says despite these numbers, biotech companies are rapidly accelerating alt-protein development. Perhaps the most famous example of a GM plant-based meat is Impossible Foods, which uses heme, a genetically engineered yeast ingredient that helps burgers ‘bleed’. Such an ingredient is also used by Boston-based Motif FoodWorks in its alt-meat products (the two companies, in fact, are having a patent battle over this).
The Non-GMO Project’s release comes a year after it targeted precision fermentation technology, in support of the dairy industry. Precision fermentation involves genetically modifying microorganisms to produce specific functional ingredients. But the tech has long been in use by multiple industries – it’s used to make things like insulin for type 1 diabetics, vitamins to fortify food products, ‘natural’ flavourings like vanilla extract, and rennet for cheese.
It’s also being used to make plant-based meat. Swedish startup Melt&Marble is tapping the tech to make animal-free fats, while Belgium’s Paleo is using it to make myoglobin for alt-meat. Overall, there are at least 136 companies working in precision fermentation around the world, according to industry think tank the Good Food Institute.
The Non-GMO Project says GM alt-protein is “largely unregulated and unlabeled in the US and Canada” – but animal-free dairy made via precision fermentation has already been regulated by the US FDA. This is why brands have been able to sell alt-dairy products made from this tech. Perfect Day uses precision fermented whey in products made by both other manufacturers and its (soon-to-be former) consumer-facing brands like Brave Robot and Coolhaus. And New Culture makes precision-fermented casein to develop its vegan mozzarella.
Speaking to CNN in 2020, Rachel Konrad, then chief communications officer of Impossible Foods, said the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, and the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine all agree that GMOs are safe for human consumption.
From coconut and soy to almonds and oats, there are a host of vegan ingredients that make for a fantastic base for plant-based Greek-style yogurt (or labneh). Here are six of the best offerings on the market.
I’ve had a lot of plant-based yogurts in my time. I’m indifferent to a lot of them – they’re either too thin or too sweet or just too different from the flavour I’m looking for. The texture is also absolutely key for me –hailing from India, I grew up on what we call curd, a thicker, usually homemade version of yogurt used in practically everything, and it’s delightful.
The closest thing to curd I can think of is labneh, a thick Middle Eastern double-strained yogurt or Greek yogurt (also strained, but slightly less thick than labneh). Creamy and perfect for both sweet and savoury applications, my life changed when I found vegan Greek yogurt. If you’re a yogurt fiend like me, you’ll love this list.
Here are some of the best brands selling dairy-free Greek yogurts:
Alpro Greek Style Oat/Coconut/Soy
Courtesy: Alpro
Owned by food industry giant Danone, Alpro first launched its vegan Greek yogurt range in 2019 made from soy (5.8g of protein per serve), introducing five flavours in the UK market. These included the 400g flagship plain soy yogurt, as well as 150g packs of strawberry and raspberry, passionfruit, blueberry and mango Greek yogurts.
In 2021, it expanded its vegan labneh range with two non-soy 350g variants in oat (0.7g of protein per 100g) and coconut (0.8g of protein per 100g). The oat Greek yogurt is fortified with pea protein, while the coconut doubles down on the fruit, using coconut milk (45%) and coconut water (20%). Unlike the soy-based version, these two yogurts have no added sugars, while the oat one is the only variant that is not gluten-free.
Kite Hill Greek Style Plant-Based Yogurt
Courtesy: Kite Hill
Californian plant-based favourite Kite Hill focuses on almond- and soy-based Greek yogurts. Its current lineup features two unsweetened flavours: plain and vanilla and offers 17 grams of protein per serve.
Available in two sizes (5.3oz/150g and 16oz/450g), Kite Hill combines almond milk with soy protein isolate and tapioca starch, with live cultures and flavours being the only other ingredients. This makes for a sugarless, gluten-free, relatively clean-label vegan alternative to Greek yogurt.
Silk Greek Style
Courtesy: Silk
Alpro isn’t Danone’s only brand on this list. Alpro isn’t available in the US, where Danone operates the Silk brand. In 2021, Silk added four vegan Greek-style yogurts to its existing alt-dairy range, all made from coconut milk and containing 10 grams of protein per serve.
Silk doesn’t offer a plain non-dairy Greek yogurt, instead focusing on sweetened varieties. The lineup includes blueberry, vanilla, lemon and strawberry yogurts, all combining a coconut milk base with pea protein. As per the brand’s website, the latter two are available in 5.3oz packs, the blueberry in 12oz (350ml), and the vanilla in 5.3oz and 24oz (680g).
Oykos Coconut Based Greek Style Dairy Free
Courtesy: Oykos
If you thought that’d be it for Danone here, boy were you wrong. In 2010, the food giant launched the premium yogurt brand Oykos in the UK, which deals in both dairy and plant-based products.
Its foray into dairy-free began in 2020, when it launched an Italian-inspired vegan stracciatella Greek yogurt. It’s essentially a sweetened coconut yogurt with chocolate flakes, with natural flavourings and concentrated lemon juice rounding out the taste profile.
Oykos also makes a salted caramel-flavoured plant-based Greek yogurt, with 58% coconut milk content (marginally higher than the stracciatella version) and added caramelised sugar but protein wise, it’s only 0.7 grams per serve.
The world’s biggest oat milk brand – and perhaps most infamously famous alt-dairy brand – also has a whole line of yogurts. While Oatly‘s product line vastly varies from country to country, with certain markets containing drinkable yogurts in cartons, as far as its vegan labneh is concerned, that came about in 2020 as part of its wider UK launch of the Oatgurt line and features approximately 3.3. grams of protein per serve.
The Greek Oatgurt comes in a 400g pot and contains 11% oats (the regular plain version has 12%), rapeseed oil, potato starch and protein, alongside acids, salt, stabilisers. It’s also fortified with vitamins and minerals.
Vitasoy Greek Style Soy Yogurt
Courtesy: Vitasoy
Hong Kong-based soy milk veteran Vitasoy last year announced its foray into the alt-yogurt space with a range of plant-based Greek yogurts in Australia, where it is the top-selling dairy alternative brand.
Its lineup contains four sweetened vegan Greek yogurts in multiple sizes, clocking in at 9.4g of protein per serve. The 450g plain option contains soy milk (with 16% soybeans) and soy protein, with sugar and cocoa butter contributing to the taste profile alongside natural flavouring agents and salt. There’s also tapioca flour and starch, and live cultures, and it’s fortified with vitamins and minerals.
This ingredient list is the base for the other flavours. The dairy-free vanilla and strawberry Greek yogurts come in 450g and 140g pots, containing 90% and 91% of the soy yogurt base, respectively, with the rest comprising a specific flavouring blend. A mango and passionfruit version, meanwhile, is exclusively available in a 140g pack (with 88% of the base).
The plant-based meat train in the US may not be on the backfoot the way some have predicted, with dollar sales reaching $2.2B across retail, foodservice and e-commerce, according to a report by industry think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI). The foodservice sector saw an all-time high of $730M in sales, while the retail industry flatlined at $1.4B.
While the total sales revenue increased by 2% year-over-year, pound sales for plant-based meat in the US declined – this is due to inflation-induced price increases. Vegan protein products in the US saw a price hike of 9% per pound from 2019-22, with a 4% year-on-year rise in wholesale prices in broadline distribution (across multiple product categories). The report also found that plant-based meat consumers make over 30 more foodservice visits per year than the average buyer, spending around $400 more annually.
However, these rates are still lower than conventional meat, which saw a 26% cost increase from 2019-22, and 8% year-on-year for wholesale prices in broadline distribution.
Courtesy: The Good Food Institute
Meat analogues vs traditional plant-based protein
In fact, prices per pound for plant-based beef have come down by 11% from 2019, as more companies achieve scale and favourable distribution agreements. It remains the most popular alt-protein, accounting for 33% of the market. It’s followed by tofu (28%), grains/nuts/vegetable-based products (18%), chicken (11%) and pork (8%). Amid formats, patties dominate sales with a 43% share.
Notably, there has been a shift in consumer preference in the type of plant-based protein. In 2019, traditional plant proteins like tofu, tempeh, and grains, nuts and vegetables captured 60% of pound sales, while analogues like vegan chicken, beef, seafood, etc. made up 39%. Now, that share has flipped, with meat analogues commanding 53% of the market, compared to 46% for non-analogues. (The remaining 1% share is unspecified.)
It points to the increased popularity of plant-based meat in the US, with consumers preferring vegan products aiming to match the taste and texture of conventional meat. The shift in market share is being occupied by vegan chicken (a 123% rise from 2019-22), pork (+57%) and seafood (+149%).
“The growing availability of plant-based products across product and protein types means that operators can increasingly offer plant-based versions of existing menu items across cuisines and formats and appeal to a wider range of customers,” says GFI.
Courtesy: The Good Food Institute
In terms of foodservice locations, quick-service restaurants (QSRs) rule the roost, with 39% of plant-based protein pound sales happening here in 2022. Meanwhile, 19% of sales took place in full-service restaurants (FSRs). These numbers suggest the hospitality industry is still catching up to pre-pandemic levels, with the pound sales for alt-protein down by 1% for QSRs and 5% for FSRs compared to 2019.
And while educational institutions saw a steep fall in alt-protein sales in 2020 due to lockdowns, this figure has rebounded and surpassed 2019 levels by 25%. It’s supported by initiatives like US foodservice provider Aramark promising that 44% of its residential dining menus at 250+ colleges and universities will be plant-based by 2025, and Sodexo’s commitment to making 50% of its college campus menus plant-based by 2025.
Purchase frequency and increased menu options
Looking at demographics, younger (18-24), male, and Black, Hispanic and Asian consumers are more likely to purchase plant-based meat in foodservice operations, which is similar to retail trends. And when it comes to frequency, nearly 10% of Americans purchased vegan alternatives to meat in foodservice in 2022 – the majority (63%) being single-time purchasers.
Only 15% of buyers repeated their purchase twice, and 7% thrice. However, 15% repeated it more than four times, reflecting an eagerness on consumers’ part for more alt-protein options. A 2022 Mintel report found that five in 10 omnivores and eight in 10 flexitarians say that more restaurants should serve plant-based meat alternatives.
Courtesy: The Good Food Institute
GFI’s report underscores the findings another US foodservice-focused report earlier this month by the Plant Based Foods Association, which found that 95% of foodservice operators expect increased or stable sales of vegan food and beverages in the next year, with 76% aiming to continue or increase the number of plant-based meat options. It added that nearly half (48.4%) of all US restaurants currently offer plant-based options on their menus, with a 62% increase in plant-based menu items over the past decade.
GFI says making further progress on taste and price will be key to reaching more meat-eaters and expanding the market, and reiterates that the US plant-based sector is returning to pre-pandemic levels: “The long-term performance of plant-based proteins in foodservice indicates that the plant-based category is continuing to mature.”
Sustainability non-profit Food System Innovations (FSI) has teamed up with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning expert Noa Weiss to unveil GreenProtein AI, a project tapping next-gen tech to optimise the extrusion and texture of plant-based meat.
Last year, a survey by vegan certification body by V-Label found that plant-based meat’s texture is as important as conventional alternatives for 75% of consumers, but only about 60% were actually satisfied with alt-meat’s texture. The findings complement multiple reports that place taste and texture at the top of consumer priorities for plant-based meat.
A new way to process plant-based meat
GreenProtein AI’s founders say vegan meat brands have faced “unique obstacles concerning texture optimisation”. A major reason behind that are the high costs attached to high-moisture extrusion (HME) – one of the two main techniques of transforming plant-based ingredient into fibrous meat (alongside shear-cell tech).
The Institute of Food Technology explains that during HME, proteins undergo thermal and mechanical stresses due to the heating of the barrel and shearing of the screws. This leads to a change in protein structure, and those can be aligned to form a protein network by attaching a cooling die at the end of the extruder. Through this method, a range of textural characteristics can be achieved for the final product.
But while HME is the most widely used process for plant-based meat production, it’s also a highly expensive tech with a larger carbon footprint. This is where GreenProtein AI comes in. “GreenProtein AI focuses on utilising machine learning algorithms to dissect the intricacies of the extrusion process,” project lead Weiss told Green Queen. “Our aim is to refine key parameters such as temperature, pressure and feed rate, effectively transforming the so-called ‘black box’ of extrusion into an optimised and more transparent system. This approach promises to both reduce costs and elevate the texture quality of plant-based meats.”
She added: “Machine learning algorithms are essential for parsing through large data sets to identify patterns that can improve the extrusion process. Those models are the core of our offering. AI methodologies, beyond machine learning, are then useful for integrating these insights into a broader decision-making framework.”
The project aims to collaborate with extrusion facilities and plant-based meat manufacturers, providing targeted insights and solutions to enable a more predictable and efficient production process. GreenProtein AI says this will help enhance the quality and sustainability of alt-meat, as well as bring it closer to price parity with conventional meat.
How can it do so? “Our AI models aim to simulate the HME process, allowing manufacturers to preview potential outcomes and narrow the search field for extrusion trials,” explained Weiss. “By planning physical trials more precisely, we can minimise the need for these expensive tests, thereby reducing the high costs typically associated with HME.”
FSI’s managing director, Max Elder, was also the founder of vegan chicken startup Nowadays, which ceased operations last month. “Nowadays would have benefitted greatly from the predictive models GreenProtein AI is building,” he said.
Courtesy: MyForest Foods
The rise of AI in veganism
“GreenProtein AI demonstrates the incredible power of AI to address real-world industry challenges. We are putting technology to work to remove barriers, allowing the alternative protein industry to achieve its full potential,” Weiss said in a statement. She confirmed to Green Queen that the project is already in talks with several plant-based meat companies for collaboration.
This underlines the growing influence of AI in the vegan industry. Latin American food tech brand NotCo has been using AI and machine learning for years to find the best plant-based alternatives for animal products. The patented AI tech has a name, Giuseppe, and is the brains behind the company’s alt-milks, mayo and burgers. Similarly, Singapore’s Howw Foods uses AI to make Hegg, its vegan powdered egg product.
Many producers have also collaborated with AI companies to develop plant-based products. Bel Foods – the French cheese giant behind the ultra-popular Babybel – has partnered with California’s Climax Foods to make vegan products, while industry giant Danone is working with Californian AI firm Brightseed to discover hidden nutrients and compounds in plant crops.
Similarly, mycelium meat producer Meati teamed up with AI company PIPA to accelerate and expand its understanding of the health and nutrition benefits of its nutrient-rich products.
AI has also been used as a marketing tool. US startup Pleese Foods unveiled a campaign earlier this month, where it employed AI to generate whimsical imagery of cheese as a flourishing crop and being grown on trees.
Sustainability non-profit Food System Innovations (FSI) has teamed up with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning expert Noa Weiss to unveil GreenProtein AI, a project tapping next-gen tech to optimise the extrusion and texture of plant-based meat.
Last year, a survey by vegan certification body by V-Label found that plant-based meat’s texture is as important as conventional alternatives for 75% of consumers, but only about 60% were actually satisfied with alt-meat’s texture. The findings complement multiple reports that place taste and texture at the top of consumer priorities for plant-based meat.
A new way to process plant-based meat
GreenProtein AI’s founders say vegan meat brands have faced “unique obstacles concerning texture optimisation”. A major reason behind that are the high costs attached to high-moisture extrusion (HME) – one of the two main techniques of transforming plant-based ingredient into fibrous meat (alongside shear-cell tech).
The Institute of Food Technology explains that during HME, proteins undergo thermal and mechanical stresses due to the heating of the barrel and shearing of the screws. This leads to a change in protein structure, and those can be aligned to form a protein network by attaching a cooling die at the end of the extruder. Through this method, a range of textural characteristics can be achieved for the final product.
But while HME is the most widely used process for plant-based meat production, it’s also a highly expensive tech with a larger carbon footprint. This is where GreenProtein AI comes in. “GreenProtein AI focuses on utilising machine learning algorithms to dissect the intricacies of the extrusion process,” project lead Weiss told Green Queen. “Our aim is to refine key parameters such as temperature, pressure and feed rate, effectively transforming the so-called ‘black box’ of extrusion into an optimised and more transparent system. This approach promises to both reduce costs and elevate the texture quality of plant-based meats.”
She added: “Machine learning algorithms are essential for parsing through large data sets to identify patterns that can improve the extrusion process. Those models are the core of our offering. AI methodologies, beyond machine learning, are then useful for integrating these insights into a broader decision-making framework.”
The project aims to collaborate with extrusion facilities and plant-based meat manufacturers, providing targeted insights and solutions to enable a more predictable and efficient production process. GreenProtein AI says this will help enhance the quality and sustainability of alt-meat, as well as bring it closer to price parity with conventional meat.
How can it do so? “Our AI models aim to simulate the HME process, allowing manufacturers to preview potential outcomes and narrow the search field for extrusion trials,” explained Weiss. “By planning physical trials more precisely, we can minimise the need for these expensive tests, thereby reducing the high costs typically associated with HME.”
FSI’s managing director, Max Elder, was also the founder of vegan chicken startup Nowadays, which ceased operations last month. “Nowadays would have benefitted greatly from the predictive models GreenProtein AI is building,” he said.
Courtesy: MyForest Foods
The rise of AI in veganism
“GreenProtein AI demonstrates the incredible power of AI to address real-world industry challenges. We are putting technology to work to remove barriers, allowing the alternative protein industry to achieve its full potential,” Weiss said in a statement. She confirmed to Green Queen that the project is already in talks with several plant-based meat companies for collaboration.
This underlines the growing influence of AI in the vegan industry. Latin American food tech brand NotCo has been using AI and machine learning for years to find the best plant-based alternatives for animal products. The patented AI tech has a name, Giuseppe, and is the brains behind the company’s alt-milks, mayo and burgers. Similarly, Singapore’s Howw Foods uses AI to make Hegg, its vegan powdered egg product.
Many producers have also collaborated with AI companies to develop plant-based products. Bel Foods – the French cheese giant behind the ultra-popular Babybel – has partnered with California’s Climax Foods to make vegan products, while industry giant Danone is working with Californian AI firm Brightseed to discover hidden nutrients and compounds in plant crops.
Similarly, mycelium meat producer Meati teamed up with AI company PIPA to accelerate and expand its understanding of the health and nutrition benefits of its nutrient-rich products.
AI has also been used as a marketing tool. US startup Pleese Foods unveiled a campaign earlier this month, where it employed AI to generate whimsical imagery of cheese as a flourishing crop and being grown on trees.
Leading US plant-based food companies are reportedly considering forming a coalition similar to groups behind ultra-successful marketing campaigns like Got Milk? and The Incredible Edible Egg, according to Adweek. Earmarked for a 2024 launch, it’s touted as a response to negative media coverage and targeted ads by Big Ag.
It’s been a rocky couple of years for the plant-based industry. Attacks on sales, attacks by the media, attacks through ads coordinated by the meat and dairy lobby…The sector has taken a hit – and now, it’s looking to fight back.
While there has been no formal formation, Adweek reports that discussions have intensified over the last six months about the coalition, which involves both small startups and larger corporations. Some of the reasons cited for this include the infamous Bloomberg story calling plant-based meat “just another fad”, as well as the Center for Consumer Freedom’s (CCF) repeated targeting of these products’ extra-long ingredient lists.
Adweek reports that the coalition was initially supposed to form this year with a handful of vegan companies (not limited to alt-meat), but complications like “inflation-driven setbacks” have led to a delay. People involved in the coalition say the group will launch next year.
There are no requests for proposals or active searches for an ad agency, but insiders believe it will be a multifaceted national marketing campaign. The coalition is likely to approach creatives with experience in the plant-based category, but it may be asking for pro-bono or discounted work.
Fighting back against Big Ag
The CCF’s smear campaign against alt-meat involved print ads, newspaper op-eds, video features and target websites like Clean Food Facts – with the biggest attack coming during the 2020 Super Bowl, featuring Spelling Bee participants struggling with words like methylcellulose and propylene glycol (which it claimed were “chemicals” used for “synthetic meats”). “If you can’t spell it or pronounce it,” concluded the ad, “maybe you shouldn’t be eating it.”
In response, Beyond Meat debuted an ad earlier this month that spotlit its farmers and subtly tackled misinformation about alt-protein. This was in contrast to Impossible Foods’ more on-the-nose musical commercial. Its CEO Peter McGuinness has previously said that vegan food marketers (including Impossible) haven’t sold themselves well enough to consumers.
Speaking on the UN’s climate change podcast in March, he said: “Now, the meat industry does quite a good job against us, and they’re highly coordinated, they’re well funded, and they’re pretty loud. “So I think we can borrow a page of that book and do it as a coalition, as plant-based companies, and we need to do that very soon.”
It’s also worth noting that Beyond CEO Ethan Brown mentioned “bringing together industry coalitions” during a recent earnings call. The idea has gained widespread support by the sector, according to Adweek. “We believe this is the true catalyst needed to push the category forward,” Daring Foods CEO Ross Mackay told the publication. “A unified approach would simplify the narrative, making it more compelling.”
Courtesy: Beyond Meat
Finding a suitable approach
But some are unsure about the coalition’s potential. Rachel Konrad, the former head of communications at Impossible who is now chief brand officer at VC firm The Production Board, told Adweek: “I’m 100% skeptical that a group would get much of anything accomplished, especially in the short term. And the bigger the group got, the harder it would be to do an edgy, breakthrough, memorable campaign.”
In a separate piece, Adweek also compared different approaches the campaign could take. One executive told the reporter they imagined an ad influenced by the anti-tobacco Truth campaign, honing in on factory farming, slaughterhouse conditions and food safety issues. But there may be a hesitancy to support such an aggressive approach, with some leaders preferring a more educational, ‘myth-busting’ tone.
There is also a list outlining what to avoid. This includes making customers feel guilty about not eating vegetables, demonising cows for their climate footprint, and continuing to push Silicon Valley startups as food tech (because “nobody wants to eat technology”, as one insider puts it).
“The narrative shouldn’t insist on adopting a stringent vegetarian or vegan lifestyle,” Mackay was quoted as saying. “Instead, it should underscore the significant impact that small, everyday changes can help.”
Konrad suggested that while action is critical given the industry is “under siege’, a crisis PR campaign would at best be on the news cycle for 24 hours, and at worst be “some shitty PSA that nobody will give a crap about”. A professional consortium would also not work, she said, because “the game is rigged” against the plant-based sector.
Instead, companies should go hyperactive and be “speaking out whenever there’s an attack ad from animal agriculture and refuting everything, commenting all the time for news stories, putting out massive amounts of thought leadership, being at the UN, at Davos, Ted Talks, creating viral videos and contests for fans, picking up user-generated content, using AI to generate ads for virtually nothing”.
Courtesy: Pleese Foods
Funding could be a challenge
While industry advocacy groups and think tanks like the Plant Based Foods Association and the Good Food Institute exist, their work is much more focused on research than consumer outreach. So a marketing coalition such as this one could represent a turning point for an industry whose fortunes have fluctuated lately.
But one problem is money. Unlike Big Beef and its Beef Checkoff marketing program, which is funded by cattle producers and importers who pay a $1 levy for every live animal sold, there is no such system for the plant-based industry. Food industry veteran and Wicked Kitchen CEO Pete Sparanza admitted as much, telling Adweek that funding for the coalition and its broad-based advertising would be a significant challenge, “because there aren’t a lot of profitable stories right now in the plant-based space”.
Despite that, he did reiterate the need for the industry to stick together as advocates, not competitors. “If we’re going to change the food system for the long haul, we’ll need to cooperate.”
There are umpteen brands making plant-based cheese, but they don’t cater to everyone’s tastes. Some prefer an elevated, luxurious, high-end, gastronomic cheese-eating experience. And in an increasingly crowded, there are a handful of companies that deliver just that. Here are some artisanal vegan cheese brands that are truly a cut above the rest.
A lot of us have eaten the blocks masquerading as plant-based cheese that don’t melt, and taste like no cheese ever has. And that’s okay – there’s a place for those alternatives in a vegan cheese market that’s set to reach $4.4B in 2027.
But there’s also a place for the ultra-cheese fans – the camembert dippers, the burrata savourists, the mozzarella melters and blue cheese aficionados – and these brands are catering to this space with premium, artisanal and mind-bendingly good vegan cheese offerings. Below, we roundup some of the best.
Julienne Bruno (UK)
Courtesy: Julienne Bruno
London-based Julienne Bruno is up there with the very best. Founded in 2020, the brand has three Italian cheeses in its portfolio: a vegan ricotta called Crematta, a stracciatella alternative called Superstraccia, and its flagship burrata substitute, Burrella.
The latter was a winner at the 2023 World Dairy Innovation Awards. All the cheeses are made with soy milk and coconut oil, and naturally fermented through a bespoke system. They also have vegetable fibres and vegan cultures. The company, which raised £5M last November, says this is Collection 01 – so it stands to reason that we can come to expect more premium Italian cheeses.
You can find Julienne Bruno’s plant-based cheeses online, as well as at various health food stores and restaurants in the UK.
I Am Nut OK (UK)
Founded in 2017 by an American-Italian couple living in east London, I Am Nut OK produces artisanal nut-based cheeses. It has a vast portfolio of Italian dairy-free delights, including a buffalo mozzarella, parmesan, stracciatella and herb-infused wedge.
The brand also sells aged cheeses like those infused with black truffle, paprika, smoky charcoal, and Cabarnet Sauvignon, alongside an extra mature C’é Dairy? version. Additionally, I Am Nut OK makes a black pepper log, smoky vegan melted cheese, and a plant-based feta. All cheeses are made using a base of cashews and coconut oil.
You can find I Am Nut OK’s dairy-free cheeses online and at various retailers and restaurants in the UK.
MozzaRisella (Italy)
Courtesy: MozzaRisella/Ooni
Speaking of Italy, organic brown-rice-based cheese maker MozzaRisella hails from Veneto. Since launching in 2017, it has expanded to retail and foodservice both domestically and in the UK. Its flagship product is a mozzarella alternative, which is shaped like a cylindrical log, so you can cut circular slices reminiscent of mozzarella in Caprese salads.
Now, its product portfolio is vast, with vegan smoked, spreadable and medium-hard mozzarella alternatives, as well as blue cheese, ricotta and mascarpone substitutes. MozzaRisella also sells Cheddar and basil-infused mozzarella slices, and has a range of ready meals as well as a basil pesto made with its cheeses.
You can find MozzaRisella online, as well as pizza and fast-food chains across Italy and the UK.
Vertage (US)
Co-founded by award-winning chef Margaux Riccio – who developed a dairy allergy in childhood –Vertage is another US brand making artisanal vegan cheese, but solely for foodservice (as of now). The main ingredients for most of its cheeses is fermented cashews and coconut oil, and the cheeses leverage mycelium fermentation and microbial bio-design.
Vertage’s lineup includes a sliceable mozzarella log (which also contains aquafaba and coconut oil), American Cheddar and Pepper Jack slices (both without cashews, but using shiitake-fermented pea protein), and classic and Everything But the Bagel cream cheeses.
You can find Vertage’s cheeses at various restaurants across the US.
Miyoko’s Creamery (US)
Courtesy: Miyoko’s Creamery
One of the pioneers of the alt-dairy movement, Miyoko’s Creamery has been around for a long time (at least for the artisanal vegan cheese world). While its namesake founder, Miyoko Schinner, is no longer at the brand, the 2014-launched company is still going strong with its range of vegan dairy products.
In terms of cheese, Miyoko’s makes a host of cashew- and coconut-based cultured alternatives. This includes chive, sundried tomato, garlic and herb, European truffle, smoked English farmhouse, black ash, herbs de Provence, and smoked Gouda flavours.
Miyoko’s also makes three mozzarella varieties (classic, smoked and liquid), as well as four cream cheeses, in classic, scallion, cinnamon-raisin and everything seasoning flavours.
Back to the UK, Kinda Co. is an award-winning plant-based cheese brand from Somerset. Also championing cashews, its ingredient lists are as limited as its cheese lineup is vast and varying.
Kinda Co.’s dairy-free cheeses can be divided into blocks and jars. The former comprises smoked (with smoked water), summer truffle, farmhouse, garlic and herb, chilli, blue and feta varieties, while the latter includes a grated parmesan, a nacho dip, and cream cheeses in lemon and dill, farmhouse and sour cream and chive flavours.
The brand also sells limited-edition flavours (the latest was a sundried tomato block), and is very transparent with its consumers. It currently sells an alternative farmhouse block made with a different culture than its regular counterpart – the cheesemonger says it isn’t as happy with its flavour, but to avoid waste, it is selling the cheese at a cheaper markup.
You can find Kinda Co’s cheeses online, and at health food stores and retailers across the UK.
Palace Culture (UK)
Courtesy: Palace Culture
A fully organic vegan cheese brand based in south London, Palace Culture was launched to battle the dairy intolerance of the founder’s son and the conception that plant-based cheese is bland.
Palace Culture makes dairy-free cheese wheels, creamy cheeses and feta from cashews, coconut milk and/or almonds. The wheels contain the former two, with flavours ranging from the European-inspired Sácre Bleu, Ubriaco, truffled camembert, herbs de Provence and mouldy goat’s cheese, to the Korean-influenced Kimcheeze and a minced truffle ash and black pepper variant.
The brand also makes a feta with all three aforementioned base ingredients, alongside a cashew- and miso-based range of cream cheeses in smoked, chives and shallots, truffle and black pepper flavours. On top of that, it offers a ricotta made with just almonds, live cultures, water and sea salt.
You can find Palace Culture’s range of plant-based cheeses online, at various UK retailers, and at London’s Borough Market on weekends.
Umami United, the Tokyo-based startup that makes plant-based egg products, has closed a pre-Series A funding round with an injection of ¥240M ($1.64M). The company plans to use the funds to develop a vegan egg white alternative and enter the US and European markets.
Led by Beyond Next Ventures, the investment round saw participation from Genesia Ventures. Umami United, which was launched in 2022, wants to make an egg white substitute due to a growing demand for complex egg-like functionalities by bakery and confectionery companies. It aims to strengthen its R&D and business development efforts to deliver plant-based food “inspired by wisdom and technology from Japan’s rich food history”.
“This is in addition to our expansion outside of our home market in Japan, into Europe and the United States,” Umami United CEO Hiroto Yamazaki told Green Queen. Within Europe, the brand is looking to enter the UK and Germany first. “We are in the midst of discussions with big players in both the UK and Germany to incorporate our egg replacer products into their plant-based food products. They have tested our products and initial responses are positive.”
He added: “As for the US, we are also in late-stage talks with universities in Southern California to incorporate our products in their vegan menus.”
Yamazaki confirmed that some “big plant-based meat players” are testing Umami United’s clean products to be used as a binding agent. And the new funding will help it find suitable partners to further ramp up expansion.
Made for the consumer
Courtesy: Umami United
Umami United’s egg powder uses wood ear mushrooms to extract an umami taste profile. It does so via a proprietary food processing technique that applies enzymes based on fermentation tech to elevate the richness of egg flavours. The resulting egg powder is said to replicate both the functionality and sensory attributes of conventional eggs.
The company, which is planning a Series A fundraiser for December 2024, uses konjac flour and bittern as the main ingredients for its plant-based egg powder, and achieves the elastic texture of eggs through konjac and tofu. In addition, it makes a vegan egg flavouring powder and pudding mix.
According to Umami United, Japan’s per capita consumption of eggs is 337 annually, making it the second largest egg-consuming country in the world. The company adds that only half of Japan’s eggs are sold directly to consumers, with the rest going to foodservice and manufacturers. And while there are several consumer-facing companies making vegan eggs in Japan – like Ever Egg and Hobotoma – Umami United focuses on B2B operations.
Yamazaki said consumer reception to the vegan egg products has been very positive: “Furthermore, we are seeing more and more Japanese consumers with changing tastes and preferences and heightened health awareness, and this has also motivated these local food manufacturers to prioritise and launch plant-based food.”
Battling egg supply issues
Courtesy: Umami United
Japan has seen egg prices rise recently due to an avian flu outbreak last year, which led to an increase in chicken culling and, subsequently, a shortage of eggs. Products like Umami United – which help bypass a major allergen in eggs – cater to consumers with safer, healthier food options.
“The crisis from the avian flu has led to many big food manufacturers [realising] the negative impacts of their reliance on chicken eggs. Even McDonald’s had to pull their Teritama (teriyaki patty with egg) burgers off their menu due to the egg shortage,” said Yamazaki.
The brand says the shortages and price hikes have triggered co-development projects with Japanese food manufacturers that use its plant-based products as key ingredients. “Even though the situation around the shortage of eggs has been alleviated to some extent, big food manufacturers are turning to alternative eggs or egg replacers as a risk hedge, especially when avian flu is seasonal,” Yamazaki explained. These products are expected to launch in Japanese supermarkets and convenience stores starting this autumn and winter.
Japan, which Forbes just described as having a “thriving” food tech sector, is seeing an uptick in plant-based food sales, with alt-meat purchases set to rise by 5% annually until 2026. In a 2019 survey, meanwhile, 60% of Japanese consumers said they were open to trying more sustainable food options that had additional health benefits.
Moreover, a poll earlier this year found that 5.9% of Japan’s population identifies as vegan or vegetarian, with 26.1% of consumers reporting a reduction in animal product intake (an uptick of 7.1% year-on-year). And in terms of egg substitutes, 1.2% have tried these – that’s about 1.5 million people.
German MPs Tim Klüssendorf (SPD) and Bruno Hönel (Green Party) have proposed a change in the country’s tax laws to reduce the tariffs on plant-based milk to better reflect consumer needs. Currently, alt-milk is taxed at 19%, compared to a 7% levy on dairy. The SDP and Greens are pushing for an equitable VAT rate in the annual tax law negotiations.
Klüssendorf argues that as the central consumption tax, VAT should be based on people’s consumption. Plant-based milk alternatives carry a 171% higher tax compared to conventional dairy, but a ProVeg International report last year found that 28% of Germans drink plant-based milk at least once a week.
Meanwhile, industry think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe found that Germany has the highest plant-based milk sales value in Europe. Another report by the organisation revealed that unit sales of alt-milk grew by 20% between 2020-22 in Germany, but still only make up 13% of the total milk market share. On top of that, GFI says Germans spent €6.60 on plant-based milk on average last year.
Meeting consumer demand
“With the change in eating habits in recent years and decades, plant-based milk has become an everyday alternative to cow’s milk for many. In addition, it is more climate-friendly,” Hönel told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. For example, oat milk – the most popular alt-milk in the country – needs over 11 times less land, uses 13 times less water and emits 3.5 times fewer greenhouse gases than dairy, according to a 2018 Oxford University study.
“Our system is outdated and needs to be changed,” Klüssendorf said in a LinkedIn post. “The equal tax treatment of milk and milk substitutes is long overdue, because it has long been in line with social realities and puts people on an equal footing in their consumer behaviour.”
Speaking to Welt, he was hopeful of seeing this change come to fruition: “I see a good chance that we will get the necessary majority in the traffic light coalition.”
Hönel did caution that the talks were “dependant on the budgetary leeway”, which is why the FPD (which is in coalition with the SPD and Greens in the central government) is more circumspect on this issue. The party’s VAT expert, Till Mansmann, said: “The following applies to everything: we first have to wait for the tax estimate [publishing this Autumn] and make decisions on this basis.”
Meanwhile, the German Economic Institute (IW) said it would go as far as reducing the VAT to 7% for all non-alcoholic drinks. “That would not only end the differentiation between cow’s milk and vegan milk substitute products, but would finally mean uniform tax rates for almost all foods,” IW tax expert Martin Beznoska told Welt.
Tim Klüssendorf says a tax cut on Germany’s plant-based milk is “long overdue” | Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons/CC
Dairy consumption in Germany
Last year, a report found that 32% of Germans were looking to rescue their intake of conventional dairy in the following six months. Meanwhile, research by the University of Hohenheim earlier this month revealed that Germany has the greatest market potential for plant-based milk in Europe (among the countries analysed), with purchases already growing by 62% between 2020-22.
The researchers found that this consumption is driven by a strong attitude towards animal welfare. “Social norms and cultural traditions influence Germans less than people in other countries in this regard,” said Dr Beate Gebhard, head of AK BEST at the University of Hohenheim.
Germany counts the largest flexitarian (55%) and the largest vegan population (approx. 10%) in Europe according to a report published by the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service earlier this year, which cited political will as a key lever in shifting consumer attitudes and behavior towards reduced meat consumption.
As a company, Oatly isn’t a stranger to controversy. It’s had its fair share of ups and downs – and each of these has been well-documented. However, in the last year or so, there has been a steady drip of downs rather than ups, which has left the world’s biggest alt-milk company struggling, and we outline the biggest ones.
In recent times, Oatly has been a company making waves in the business and food industries, but it’s not all smooth sailing. The story behind Oatly’s journey has taken some unexpected twists and turns, leaving many curious minds to wonder, “What’s going on with Oatly?”
Oat milk has been the darling of the alt-milk world for some time now and for good reason. You could argue the Malmö-headquartered Swedish company, which was founded over 25 years ago by food scientist Rickard Öste and his brother Björn Öste, put oat milk on the map. The company was the first to do many things, including publishing its greenhouse gas emissions on its product labels, targeting coffee shop baristas as brand ambassadors, and using cheeky marketing campaigns to gain global attention.
In recent years, the plant-based milk sector, and oat milk specifically, has witnessed explosive growth, especially in the US, where it surpassed soy to be the second-most popular plant-based milk (behind only almond). Visit any coffee chain anywhere in the world, and chances are, they can make your latte with oat milk. Oatly is undoubtedly responsible for a large part of this.
However, the cost-of-living crisis has punctured the oat milk balloon. SPINS data reveals that retail sales of oat milk began to show year-on-year declines in the latest quarter in the US. This will hit oat milk brands hard, and not least Oatly, which has had a very rocky few years.
One of the key aspects that have sparked interest is Oatly’s rapid rise to fame. The company’s innovative branding and marketing strategies have catapulted it into the spotlight, attracting both loyal consumers and investors. But with this rapid growth comes scrutiny. Some experts have raised questions about the sustainability claims Oatly makes and whether the company’s production methods truly align with its eco-friendly image.
Controversies have also arisen around Oatly’s financial decisions and partnerships. As the company secured high-profile investments and partnerships, it has faced criticism for potential conflicts between its mission and its financial backers’ interests. This has led to debates about the balance between profitability and ethical considerations, leaving observers to ponder the path Oatly is taking.
Furthermore, Oatly’s expansion into international markets has encountered its fair share of challenges. Cultural differences and regulatory landscapes vary greatly from region to region, and Oatly has faced obstacles in maintaining a consistent image and message across different markets. This has triggered discussions about the complexities of global expansion for a brand rooted in specific values and messaging.
In the last 18 months or so, the world’s premier oat milk company has faced lawsuits, recalled and withdrawn products, seen sales and stocks plummet, and supplies hit – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Below, we take a closer look at what’s gone down in the Swedish plant-based giant’s backyard.
1. The stock crash
Courtesy: Oatly
Oatly made a ton of waves leading up to its US IPO in May 2021, setting a mammoth $10B valuation after warding off the backlash from its Blackstone deal. Its first public trading day ended at $22, even though its stock was priced at $17. It was an incredible milestone for one of the plant-based industry’s giants.
But since then, its stock has crashed by as much as 94%, according to financial research company The Motley Fool, hovering at just under $3 in the past month. If the stock trades below $1 for over 30 days, it’s in danger of being delisted by the NYSE. So, what gives? A combination of the post-pandemic supply chain issues and the cost-of-living crisis have hit OTLY hard. While the company saw a 10% year-on-year revenue growth in Q2 2023, it has slashed its sales forecast for the year to less than half, down from 23-28% to 7-12% and investors can’t seem to rally behind it.
2. The supply chain issues
Oatly’s supply issues have been hit by a range of different events. For one, extreme heat led to severe droughts that ravaged oat crops in Canada and the US. The former saw oat production fall to an 11-year low, while the latter had its lowest oat yield ever.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – a major oat exporter – further exacerbated the shortage, as Ukraine placed an export ban on oats and wheat. Another contributing factor to raw material shortages was the rail shipping delays, brought upon by difficult weather conditions.
All this led to Oatly looking outside of its regular oat suppliers, pushing the cost of supply chain turbulence toward the consumer. It meant the world’s most famous oat milk became more expensive. The brand also announced three new global production facilities to address raw material shortages, but those plans are reported to have been shelved or put on hold due to high construction costs and supply chain issues.
3. The restructuring of manufacturing operations
Courtesy: Oatly
In November last year, Oatly posted below-expectation Q3 earnings, “largely driven by Covid-19 restrictions in Asia, production challenges in the Americas, and continued foreign exchange headwinds”. To address its supply chain issues and overhead costs, it announced plans to restructure its manufacturing operations and reduce headcount by 25% across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
Calling it a “reset plan”, the business stated its intention to shift to a hybrid manufacturing model to reduce production costs across EMEA. “This move towards a more hybrid network is expected to significantly reduce our future capital expenditures and have a positive effect on our cash flow outlook,” then-CEO Toni Petersson explained. The company also looked to address issues at the Utah manufacturing plant that reduced its production.
4. The leadership changes
Speaking of CEOs and restructuring, Oatly has undergone major leadership changes in the last year. It tapped former Mars executive Jean-Christophe Flatin to replace the outgoing Petersson. This represents a significant change, given Petersson’s decade-long stint overseeing Oatly’s rise from niche fledgling to industry leader.
In June, Petersson stepped into the role of co-chair of the board as Flatin sought to turn the business’s fortunes around. The former played a key role in building Oatly’s brand, and this move was described as a shift from a marketing-focused CEO to an operations-led leader.
5. The product recall
Courtesy: Oatly
While Oatly has suffered multiple drops in its stock over the last 18 months, in November 2021, it saw a 20% fall in shares directly due to a warning about its products’ quality, as well as delivery delays.
The Swedish brand said it was “investigating a quality issue”, which later turned out to be a problem with one of its North American manufacturers, Lyons Magnus. Five of Oatly’s products were voluntarily recalled in August 2022, including two sizes of its specifically slim-packaged Barista oat milk, and three 11oz offerings comprising its original, Barista and chocolate milks.
The FDA warned people not to consume such products because they may be contaminated withcronobacter sakazakii and clostridium botulinum, which can lead to a host of health issues including food poisoning, UTIs, vision problems, and worst case, respiratory paralysis.
These contaminated packs of Oatly appeared on the shelves of Target and Starbucks, and both companies faced a subsequent class-action lawsuit by a customer who fell ill after consuming the oat milk. The entire ordeal also hit the alt-dairy giant’s reputation in an increasingly post-Covid health-conscious world.
6. The product withdrawal
In the UK, Oatly pulled back its range of vegan ice-cream tubs earlier this year. “We launched an ice-cream tub which has been successful, was on sale in many markets, and does very well for Oatly,” a spokesperson told FoodNavigator. “But it didn’t hit the milestones we expected from a UK perspective… Like most businesses, we’re always looking to review our ranges, working out what’s working …and we decided that the ice cream tubs weren’t working well enough for us.”
Explaining the decision to the Guardian, the company hinted at a struggle with increased competition: “Given a number of our plant-based friends are doing great work on this shelf already, we made the decision to move away from ice-cream tubs in the UK for now.”
With a growing number of competitors in the global alt-dairy space, Oatly no longer has the market dominance it once enjoyed, as it faces off against legacy, novel and private-label brands, especially as consumers have their wallets squeezed.
The alt-dairy aisle is a crowded space. Just in the UK, where it withdrew its ice-cream tubs, oat milk brands include the likes of Alpro Oat, Califia Farms, Mighty, Innocent, Minor Figures, Rude Health and Oaty Bruce – to name just a few. And this is before we start accounting for supermarket own-label milks – all of the UK’s biggest grocers have introduced their own oat drink at similar or lower price points, with many even launching barista editions.
7. The ad ban
Courtesy: Oatly
In January 2022, Oatly was hit by an ad ban by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), following 109 consumer complaints. For a brand that prides itself on its marketing prowess, this was a big blow.
The ASA argued that one of Oatly’s ad campaigns contained unsubstantiated environmental claims in its comparison of oat milk with conventional dairy. For example, one commercial – with the tagline “Need help talking to dad about milk?” – stated that Oatly generates 73% fewer carbon emissions than milk. The comparison was between Oatly Barista and full-cream milk, but the ASA said consumers would understand it to mean all of Oatly’s products.
In two newspaper ads, the oat milk giant stated that more than a quarter of global emissions come from the food industry, with meat and dairy accounting for half of that. The ASA called the ad “misleading”, saying that Oatly had included fish and eggs as part of meat and dairy, but people may assume it has a narrower definition.
It affected an already-hit reputation, with the brand facing three lawsuits in New York after being accused of greenwashing by investors in 2021. Oatly also had to pause promotional activities in the last two years due to supply chain problems – and promised to go on the offensive this year with its promotions, despite marketing guru Peterson’s shift to a board position.
8. The risky PR campaign
Last October, the company took its bold and wacky brand image to a new level with F*ck Oatly, a website listing all the various controversies the brand has faced in recent years. Oatly calls it a “site devoted to helping our fans – and the thousands of people who hate us – better understand everything that’s ‘wrong’ with our company”, adding that “it’s super convenient to have the latest boycotts and criticisms all in one place”.
It recounts the Blackstone controversy, its Glebe Farm lawsuit, and the TikTok outroar about its ingredients list, among others. The website has also spawned four sister sites (Fckfckoatly.com, Fckfckfckoatly.com, and so on), where you can register your hate with a click. Thousands have already done so (of course, that is part of the fun).
While it’s an exercise in transparency – “we’re not the type of company to hide from moments like these” – it’s also a risky PR strategy. Data journalist Clara Murray argues that wanting to “have the last word in an Instagram comment war” is petty, and criticised Oatly for showing “no empathy” for Glebe Farm, who was hit with a £300,000 legal bill.
Murray also points out that the website excludes the UK ad ban. She concludes: “The biggest problem I have with F*ck Oatly might be the most obvious one: it neatly compiles a host of negatives that most consumers have probably long forgotten.”
9. The Asian decline
Oatly’s China factory | Courtesy: Oatly
When Oatly cut its revenue forecast this year, the market that saw the biggest fall was Asia, with a near 15% drop in quarterly sales. The brand had been expanding in Asia, with a new factory opening in China and a joint facility in Singapore – when Oatly launched in the Lion City in 2020, its own survey found that a third of Singaporeans hadn’t heard of plant-based milk.
Oatly planned to change that and increase awareness, but it seems it hasn’t worked out that way. Domestic competitors have encroached on market share and the company blames its decline in Asia, which represents 19% of its market revenue, on “a slower-than-expected post-Covid-19 recovery in China”. This is despite a rise in plant-based milk adoption in the continent, where soy (understandably) reigns supreme.
The brand’s COO Daniel Ordonez said it can’t continue to justify “significant investments with uncertain payoffs”: “We will be therefore slowing down on SKU expansion and eliminating many unnecessary SKUs… and migrating to a more simplified cost structure.”
Flatin added: “We are refocusing on our core business, which means food service and very few key retail partners only in key cities.”
Going forward, can the once-pioneering company turn things around? The jury’s still out, but given the brand’s track record, it would be foolish to discount it.
Plant-based meat may be getting caught in the culture wars, and US brands that emphasize climate and environmental concerns may be putting off conservative consumers who are reluctant to try such products, according to new research.
By Jennifer Yule, Lecturer in Marketing, The University of Edinburgh
It’s difficult to tell if the recent wave of anti-vegan sentiment has affected the plant-based meat market, but denigrating the image of vegans has certainly gone mainstream.
Alongside negative comments about people who don’t eat meat by figures like Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson, anti-vegan rhetoric has even slipped into political discourse: Suella Braverman recently referred to supporters of Just Stop Oil campaigners as “Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati”. It seems our protein choices have become a surprisingly loaded issue.
These days, consumers are faced with a dizzying array of choices when it comes to protein, particularly since US plant-based producer Beyond Meat started its quest to disrupt the market in 2012. Since then, its innovative take on the veggie burger, made from pea protein to mimic the taste and texture of meat, has helped the company become a runaway success.
But despite sustained growth for several years, sales of plant-based meat products are now stagnating. Even market leaders like Beyond Meat are hitting significant lows.
The environmental benefits of adopting a diet that is less reliant on meat have been well-established. As UK nature presenter David Attenborough has pointed out: “We must change our diet. The planet can’t support billions of meat-eaters.”
So, working out why consumers are cooling towards this once-hot product is crucial, not only from a business point of view but to support the environmental benefits of low- or no-meat diets.
Price and healthiness are important. However, a growing ideological divide over the environment means traditional ways of encouraging people to eat plant-based meat – promoting its green credentials – could be harming sales, according to research.
Criticism of plant-based meat
The plant-based meat market has certainly been criticised for high prices compared with animal meat. It also tends to be more expensive than traditional vegan protein sources, such as beans, lentils and tofu. Given the cost of living crisis, consumers are forced to make frugal choices when it comes to their shopping baskets, and may reject what could be seen as a premium product.
Others have questioned the healthiness of meat substitutes. As plant-based meat is a relatively new product, the long-term health implications of directly replacing animal meat with it are unknown. Research also warns against assuming that plant-based meat is nutritionally equivalent to animal meat.
But alongside price and healthiness, image also plays an important role in the success of plant-based brands, according to my research with Krista Hill Cummings of Babson College, Massachusetts. In particular, how brands present the environmental benefits of plant-based meat can have a significant impact on the kinds of consumers that buy this type of food.
The issue of climate change and environmental concern is politically polarising, however. Since the 1990s, environmentalism has been depicted as a left-wing ideological issue, particularly in the US. So, our study sought to examine the role of political beliefs in driving sales of plant-based meat by, first, establishing a link between a person’s ideology (either conservative or liberal) and their desire to engage with the plant-based meat market. This means everything from becoming aware of the product and developing opinions on it, right through to buying and eating plant-based meats.
A different survey shows that more than half (53%) of US consumers who have not bought or tried plant-based meat may be reluctant to buy a product they view as “woke”. Our study further highlights the political divide in views about plant-based meat, with the conservative consumers we polled less likely than liberals to try it, and generally less interested in even considering it.
We analysed press releases from Beyond Meat to understand how the benefits of plant-based meat are being communicated to consumers, to see if this could be a driver of the ideological divide over plant-based meat. We found that taste, health and the environment are the main messages used by the firm.
Taste and health are product benefits that appeal to both liberal and conservative consumers, according to otherresearch. However, the environment emerged as a more controversial topic. This issue polarised liberal and conservative consumers when it came to perceiving climate change as a problem that could or should be addressed by eating plant-based meat.
Testing ads about the environment
To further test the idea that the environment could cause problems when advertising to conservative consumers, we created different messages, varying the environmental content. We developed mock Facebook ads that described either the health and environmental benefits of plant-based meat, or just the health benefits. We found that advertising content based on the environment turned off the conservative consumers involved in our study.
Of course, our study was carried out among US consumers. But the trend of political polarisation seen across Europe, and recent comments about the vegan “wokerati” lifestyle from UK public figures, means we could see similar results in other countries.
Shoppers have a growing choice of non-meat protein products but not everyone is keen to try them. www.hollandfoto.net/Shutterstock
For an advertising message to successfully resonate and change either a consumer’s attitude or behaviour, “congruence” is required. This is when the message content aligns with the characteristics of its recipient. We found that environmental messaging is incongruent to conservative consumers, meaning these ads don’t spark either their curiosity or interest. Without that spark, you can’t engage consumers.
More research into, and development of, alternative meats could no doubt improve the nutritional profile, taste and texture of these products, but the environmental case for reducing meat consumption in our diets is clear. Plant-based brands need to change the way they speak to consumers about this issue to better engage steadfast meat-eaters.
Only 1% of Americans say they are vegan – down from 3% in 2018 and 2% in 2012 – according to a new Gallup poll. The number of vegetarians, meanwhile, has also dropped from 5% in 2018 to 4% in 2023.
The Gallup survey, conducted with 1,015 Americans in July, found that political liberals adults were among the demographics most likely to be vegetarian. 9% of liberals identify as vegetarian, three times as high as political moderates or conservatives.
Lower-income Americans were around twice as likely as middle- (4%) and upper-income (3%) consumers to be vegetarian. The same goes for vegans, with lower-income individuals (3%) thrice as likely than the rest (1%) to identify this way. This is surprising, especially in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis – given one common criticism about veganism is the higher costs associated with it.
At 6%, women, meanwhile, are more likely to be vegetarian than men (2%). But in terms of vegans, more men (2%) said they identify that way than women (1%). People of colour (5% vegetarian, 2% vegan) are more likely to be meat-free than non-Hispanic white consumers (4% vegetarian, 1% vegan).
Counterintuitive consumer data
Courtesy: Gallup
In terms of age, the poll found that all subgroups had the same percentage of people identifying as vegetarian, but more people aged 55 and over (2%) said they were vegan, compared to 1% for 18-34 and 35-54. It seems counterintuitive, given that 76% of Gen Zers say climate change is one of their biggest concerns, and recent research showing that veganism can cut emissions by 75% compared to meat-rich diets. Seperate data also shows that 60% of American Gen Zers are open to a tax on meat.
Additionally, a January 2020 poll by Gallup found that 70% of Americans cited concerns about the environment as a reason for reducing their meat intake.
These demographic differences, however, aren’t as pronounced as previous Gallup polls about the topic. And conflicting data shows that plant-based foods are in demand. The Plant Based Foods Association found that vegan food sales hit $8B in the US in 2022.
Gallup itself says that alt-meat products are “becoming more commonplace in grocery stores and restaurants”, with four in 10 Americans having tried them. Complementing these findings, research by alt-protein think tank the Good Food Institute has found that 93% of Americans who buy plant-based meat alternatives are neither vegetarian nor vegan.
But the pollsters argue that “these changes have not been met with an increase in Americans’ adoption of vegetarian or vegan diets, as less than 5% of US adults follow either eating approach”. Recent revenue drops for the likes of industry giants Beyond Meat and Oatly – combined with plant-based brands ceasing operations or coming close to it reflect the challenges facing the sector and the Gallup data certainly offers additional context.
Recreating animal muscle tissues from plants is like climbing a mountain – and this is why whole cuts have been referred to as the ‘holy grail’ of plant-based meat. While most vegan meat companies stick to mince, these six startups are succeeding in replicating conventional whole-cut beef without any animal ingredients.
Plant-based companies have mastered the burger. Even the chicken nugget. But it’s the next step that’s proved the most challenging – and exciting. Whole cuts have their own charm and there’s no substitute for the textural complexities they present to the eater. So why should non-meat-eaters miss out?
These are a few companies that ensure they don’t.
Juicy Marbles, Slovenia
Courtesy: Juicy Marbles
First off, what a name! The Slovenian food tech brand takes the crown in my super-important (to me) plant-based meat nomenclature rating list.
Launched in 2021, Juicy Marbles (which has raised $4.5M in total funding so far) makes an “ultra-tender” plant-based whole-cut filet mignon using its patent-pending ‘reverse grinder’ tech that mimics the muscle texture and marbling of conventional steak. It does so with soy and wheat proteins infused with beetroot powder, yeast extract and other natural flavours. There’s also sunflower oil, carrageenan and Big Meat enemy methylcellulose, and it’s fortified with iron and vitamin B12.
One whole tenderloin, which comes in at 756g, sets you back $60. That’s about $10 for six thick-cut steaks. Speaking of, the brand sells thick-cut steaks in addition to the loin, and will soon launch the world’s first plant-based pork ribs with edible bones (yes, you read that right). You can buy its products online in the US, UK and EU, as well as select retailers (including Waitrose in the UK).
In her review for Green Queen, our writer Amy Buxton put it succinctly: “I’ve eaten beef that tasted less like beef than this beetroot-infused soy protein did.” Now that’s a steak that will have you clutching your, erm, juicy marbles.
Chunk Foods, Israel
Courtesy: Chunk Foods
Iron Man loves this meat. What else is there to say?
Robert Downey Jr’s FootPrint Coalition-backed Israeli startup Chunk Foods makes whole ‘chunks’ of vegan steak from cultured soy and wheat. The whole-cut filet mignon is fortified with vitamin B12 and iron too, and undergoes a solid-state fermentation process.
Chunk Foods’ plant-based beef has appeared on the menus of several New York City restaurants, including Coletta, Anixi and The Butcher’s Daughter. And earlier this month, it became the first vegan steak to appear on the menu of a steakhouse chain in the US, after it collaborated with Charley’s Steak House in Orlando.
The whole-cut meat does cost $69 at the Florida eatery, but that’s on par with most of the other steaks on the menu. And it won the ‘Plant Based Meat Product of the Year’ at the fourth annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards this month. Chunk Foods, which has secured $17M in total funding, is also working on pork, lamb and poultry alternatives.
Redefine Meat, Israel
Courtesy: Redefine Meat
With total investment of $180M, Israeli startup Redefine Meat is one of the most well-known whole-cut alt-meat players, using 3D printing to develop fibres that resemble animal muscle tissues. And the 2018-founded company makes whole-cut beef tenderloin and lamb flanks so good that it has the attention of multiple Michelin-starred chefs and restaurants.
Perhaps most notable is Marco Pierre White, whose star gave rise to the celebrity chef genre. The British chef created two recipes with Redefine Meat’s steak and added them to the menu of his 40-strong restaurant estate in the UK. French chef Alexis Gauthier, who famously turned his Michelin-starred Soho flagship in London fully vegan, also put Redefine Meat’s steak on his tasting menu.
Other high-end locations to serve Redefine’s products include Ron Gastrobar locations across Amsterdam, Hotel Montefiore in Tel Aviv, and Burger Bear, Chotto Matte and Selfridges in London. Globally, you can find Redefine Meat’s products in 1,872 locations.
Green Rebel, Indonesia
Courtesy: Green Rebel
Indonesian plant-based giant Green Rebel‘s product portfolio is vast: from whole-food plant-based proteins and vegan cheese to whole-cut meats and vegan fried eggs. It has also collaborated with global brands like Starbucks, IKEA, Nando’s and AirAsia.
In 2021, it unveiled Asia’s first plant-based whole-cut beef and chicken steaks. While the chicken was created with soy protein, the Beefless Steak combines soy protein with shiitake mushrooms. Apart from that, it contains only seaweed flour, coconut oil, natural seasonings and water.
Green Rebel, which is reading for a Serie A after closing an oversubscribed $10M pre-A round, first launched into two of Indonesia’s largest steakhouse chains, ABUBA Steak and Pepper Lunch. Now, its products are available in a wide range of retailers and restaurants across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
But when it comes to plant-based meat, In 2020, Novameat produced its second version of the whole-cut steak, calling it the “most realistic” alternative yet. It used a combination of tissue engineering and technology that enabled micro-structured tridimensional 3D printing, with pea, rice and algae fibre protein and a combination of fats and colourings.
With all-time funding of over $6M, Novameat’s portfolio includes plant-based shredded beef, chicken fillets, pulled chicken and turkey pastrami, and at this year’s Future Food Tech conference in San Francisco, it showcased its Nova Beef, which resembled conventional short ribs.
Project Eaden, Germany
Courtesy: Project Eaden
Launching into a media maelstrom after some time stealth with a seed funding round that brought in its total investment to €10.1M ($11M) this January, German startup Project Eaden is banking on its technological prowess for its plant-based steak. The company says its novel bio-fibre tech is similar to fibre-spinning for synthetic fibre, which is used across other industries like textiles, aviation and automotive.
Project Eaden is using the same technology for meat – and says it’s highly scalable and affordable, claiming these fibres can be designed with precision to meet technical requirements, including elasticity, water-binding ability and strength. The ultra-thin fibres are bundled into strands mimicking conventional muscle tissues and then blended with vegetable fats for a near-identical vegan marbled steak.
The company says it plans to go to market at the end of the year, According to a January announcement, the company will begin prototype production in a laboratory soon, before moving to a highly automated production facility. Currently, you can sign up to be the first to try its “ultra-realistic” vegan steak.
Singaporean plant-based brand HAPPIEE! – a subsidiary of Growthwell Foods – has secured listings with UK retailers to introduce its vegan frozen seafood range to the market. The company’s plain and breaded seafood alternatives are already available at online retailer Ocado, and will launch at Tesco – the UK’s largest supermarket – next month.
Launched in 2022, the brand has already been available at multiple retailers and restaurants in Singapore with its range of soy-based chicken nuggets and popcorn. Now, it makes its UK debut with a range of vegan seafood – the country is Europe’s second-largest consumer of plant-based seafood – which includes breaded and plain shrimp, breaded calamari, and squid rings. Additionally, HAPPIEE! is also introducing one non-seafood alternative, a vegan lamb shawarma.
Capitalising on frozen
Courtesy: Growthwell Foods
All the seafood products contain tapioca, konjac flour and potato starch, and are free from soy, trans fats and GMOs. HAPPIEE!’s parent company, Growthwell, already has a portfolio of multiple plant-based food brands. It secured $22M in a Series A funding round in November 2021, while opening a new innovation centre to scale up research and development for plant-based meat and seafood.
The products are available for purchase at Ocado and will be on 364 Tesco shelves next month, before a more widespread expansion planned for January 2024. It comes as the frozen food segment sees continued growth in the UK. According to Tesco, 31% of British adults bought more frozen food at the end of last year, and they will continue to do so this year. Additionally, 19% who had not previously bought frozen food began purchasing it to save money.
“Our aim is to foster a continued shift towards eco-friendly choices, reducing our dependence on the seas for a sustainable future,” said HAPPIEE! commercial manager Rosie Bambaji. “We’re on a mission to bring genuine change to the category, filling in the gaps so that flexitarians and vegetarians aren’t missing out on their favourite dishes and cuisines.”
The problem with seafood
Courtesy: Growthwell Foods
HAPPIEE!’s UK debut comes during a host of other developments in the global plant-based seafood sector. South Korea’s Unlimeat debuted its upcycled vegan tuna this month, while startups like Konscious Foods, Bluu Seafood and Hooked Foods have all received funding this year. Meanwhile, two European brands received a €1.5M grant to create 3D-printed mycoprotein to replace seafood.
According to industry think tank the Good Food Institute, pound sales for plant-based seafood grew by 40% year-on-year in 2022 and as of 2021, there were over 120 companies in the alternative seafood space (which includes vegan, fermentation-based and cultivated seafood).
The seafood industry is rife with environmental and human rights issues. The growing demand for seafood has led to overfishing and, subsequently, higher greenhouse gas emissions, while the heavy fuel use by ocean fishery vessels also contributes to the climate crisis. The 2021 documentary Seaspiracy details the endemic issues attached to this sector.
“The average consumer is becoming more aware of animal welfare and sustainability,” Maarten Garaets, alt-protein managing director of seafood giant Thai Union, told Green Queen in May. “And this is becoming a more important part of the selection criteria when they are buying food, but this is still a very small group.”
He added: “Alternative seafood is a new category, with limited awareness, whereas meat is more established. However, seafood is bound to catch up soon. Health is less of a concern for seafood, whereas sustainability will be more of a lever.”
Canadian cultivated meat startup The Better Butchers has revealed plans to open what would be the world’s first exclusively cultured meat butchery within the next two years. The brand says it wants to be Canada’s first company to launch cultivated meat to market, and has had “positive discussions” with regulatory authorities in the country.
The startup is founded by Mitchell Scott, who was the former co-founder of US plant-based meat brand The Very Good Food Company. Scott was terminated as company CEO in 2022, and the business itself went into receivership this year.
“When I was unceremoniously exited from the plant-based food company I co-founded, I started looking into it and ended up building out a team to start the world’s first cultivated butchery,” Scott told Vegconomist. “In addition to having the potential to solve massive environmental, ethical and health concerns, I think cultivated meat can also solve some of the consumer adoption issues facing plant-based meat, such as taste, texture, and long ingredient lists.”
The Better Butchers plans to open its cultivated meat butchery in Vancouver in 2024, and is currently also focusing on a direct-to-consumer product portfolio, with plans to enter foodservice and wholesale in the aftermath. The brand is working on prototypes of cultivated pork sausages, meatballs and marinated steaks.
Canada’s regulatory process
Courtesy: The Better Butchers
Scott said the company has had positive discussions with regulators for a potential approval of The Better Butchers’ cultivated meat products. He expects just over a 12-month process to get the regulatory seal, once the prototypes are complete in Q1 2024.
According to industry think tank the Good Food Institute, Canada has stated its intent to regulate cultivated meat under its current novel foods regulations, instead of considering new regulatory approaches. Authorisation requires a premarket proposal with detailed information about the product. And the approval process is made up of three parts: a ‘letter of no objection’ for human food use; a premarket assessment for new animal feed, regardless of whether the product is intended for that purpose; and an environmental assessment.
Canada’s regulator, Health Canada, is also working in tandem with Food Standards Australia New Zealand on applications of GMO food safety assessment components. The collaboration will see one body take the lead while the other peer reviews, which streamlines the regulatory process, saves costs for both applicants and agencies, and maintains regulators’ independence for final approval.
Meanwhile, since the US is already further up the regulatory ladder after becoming only the second country to approve the sale of cell-cultured meat this June, The Better Butchers plans to pursue approval in that market too.
Cultivated meat in Canada
Courtesy: The Better Butchers
Interest in cultivated meat in Canada is booming. A new report published last week by the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) and Fiddlehead Technologies found that there have been 22 patent filings for cell-based meat tech in the country since 2020, with nine companies working in the nation’s cultivated meat sector. Meanwhile, media coverage about the topic has been more positive in recent years. And Canadians increasingly searched for terms including ‘lab-grown meat’, from its production process to its availability for sale.
GFI also notes that last year, Canada invested in cultivated meat development and commercialisation through the government-funded non-profit Ontario Genomics. It collaborated with Germany’s The Cultivated B. to build a 130,000 sq ft cellular agriculture facility, which will provide a domestic supply of bioreactors. Ontario Genomics also partnered with the CFIN for AcCELLerate-ON, a CAD$900,000 competition for cultivated food and beverage projects. Three of the winners of last year’s contest focused on cultivated meat and seafood.
While The Better Butchers wants to be the first company to bring cultivated meat to Canada’s market, a host of other businesses are working on cell-cultured meat and seafood in the country. And last year, Canada saw the opening of a new Institute of Cellular Agriculture, born out of a strategic partnership between leading cultivated protein investor Cult Food Science, the University of Alberta, and New Harvest Canada.
As for butcheries, while The Better Butchers could very well be the first brand to open a butchery exclusively featuring cultivated meat, it won’t be the first butchery to offer cultivated meat. That honour rests with Singapore-based Huber’s Butchery, which put cultivated meat by GOOD Meat (the first company to receive regulatory approval for cultivated meat, also in Singapore) on its display and menu last December.
It’s not tofu or tempeh and don’t call it plant-based meat. Newcomer-on-the-shelf Vegbloc looks to disrupt the protein on the plate of busy, climate-conscious folks who value health, taste and convenience.
When was the last time you put quinoa in your ramen? Or red lentils on your pizza? Or split peas in your stir-fry? Vegbloc promises to let you do all of that, and more. Designed to be a meat replacement – not imitation – this new kind of plant-based ingredient implores you to open up and expand your culinary imagination.
The thing about Vegbloc is that it isn’t interested in tasting like meat at all. But it’s also not a traditional protein source like tofu or tempeh – it’s its own thing. It’s an entirely new product format, and it’s exciting for people who want to experiment in their kitchens.
“We saw a gap for a convenient product that was nutritious enough to get picked up by health-minded shoppers, had an ingredient list that reassured the sceptical, and made it easy for people to cook with plants in a whole new way,” Vegbloc co-founder Simon Day tells Green Queen.
“It’s an innovative concept, but we’ve found it’s one that strikes almost everyone as a no-brainer,” he notes. “The product format is new, but the ingredients and process are based firmly in food heritage rather than novel science.”
Those ingredients? Quinoa, red lentils, split peas, flax and chia seeds, onion, sweet potato, mushroom, garlic, gram flour, rosemary, nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, mushroom powder, coriander, black pepper and salt. All wrapped up in a cylindrical sausage-like 250g (veg)block that’s cooked in the pack, eschewing the need for preservatives and achieving what Day calls a “decent shelf life” (not an “artificially long” one). He also confirms it can be frozen, should you want to extend its lifespan.
It is, in all senses of the term, clean label. A genuinely whole-food ingredient. And Big Meat will be mighty annoyed at that – it loves knocking the long ingredient lists of plant-based protein.
Courtesy: Vegbloc
A new way to cook
Another thing that would usually tick Big Meat off is that it doesn’t taste like meat. The old-protein lobby would be all over that – mocking it for its seemingly inferior flavour and texture to animal-based food. But then, it would be missing the point – because it doesn’t taste like tofu or tempeh either.
“The texture is not homogenous,” says Day. “As you eat Vegbloc, you recognise that you are eating quinoa, lentils, split peas and so on… It simply tastes and eats like the combination of wonderful plants it’s made from.”
And what is that taste like, I ask? “A delicious savoury flavour that deepens when it is browned through cooking,” Day answers. “It’s lightly flavoured with herbs and spices, but the umami hit really comes from the lentils and mushrooms.”
He adds that the British brand deliberately avoided over-flavouring the Original Vegbloc, because “we know so many people want a versatile ingredient that can slot into numerous dishes they already cook”. But for the ultra-curious, there are a couple of new flavours on the horizon that add a new dimension while retaining that valuable versatility.
Does Vegbloc also pass Big Meat’s protein test? Without revealing exact amounts, Day confirms that while Vegbloc is high in protein, it isn’t as high as some ingredients. But it does contain more fibre than tofu and tempeh, with an added hit of omega-3 thanks to the chia and flax.
Vegloc’s emergence comes at a pivotal point for plant protein. One of the industry’s giants, Beyond Meat, has seen sales decline by almost a third, while numerous brands have ceased operations, or come close to it. How do you pitch to a consumer base that has shown faltering faith in this sector over the last year?
“We are targeting people who are interested in their health, looking for whole food options, and don’t have the time to prepare a dozen plants from scratch at every meal,” says Day, outlining the importance of the ingredient’s quick-to-cook nature in an increasingly short-of-time consumer world. “We want people to drop it in their regular dishes – whether they contain meat or not – for a boost of nutrition, flavour and texture.”
Courtesy: Vegbloc
Adaptability is key
Vegbloc has been granted a Carbon Rating A by carbon calculator My Emissions, which aligns with greenhouse gas protocols and covers a product’s life cycle, including scope 3 packaging and transport emissions. This puts the new plant protein in the same bracket as tofu and, as Day happily points out, “obviously way ahead of mass-produced animal proteins”. A landmark study by Nature Food in July proved the environmental supremacy of plant-based food – vegan diets can cut emissions by 70% compared to meat-rich ones.
Day remains coy over the sourcing of Vegbloc’s ingredients, saying it’s “likely to change as we scale” – but hints at an adaptable strategy to keep its climate footprint down. “What’s exciting about the future of Vegbloc and our concept of a convenient ingredient made from a variety of plants is that there are so many amazing plants out there to use,” he explains. “We could use different recipes for different markets [and] target consumers in order to optimise for local growing capability, tastes and nutritional requirements.”
Vegbloc is planning for a January 2024 retail launch in its home market in the UK, before expanding into foodservice. While the product has garnered international interest, Day says the brand wants to prove the concept at home first to build the business sustainably.
Vegbloc feels like such a novel food ingredient, it throws out all convention. And you can’t predict its trajectory based on consumer surveys on plant proteins, since most automatically refer to alt-meat – like this Mintel report that found more than half of consumers want plant-based protein to taste indistinguishable from meat.
I ask Day whether he fears this ingredient is almost too unique to work. “We know we have a job to do to make it incredibly clear what Vegblock is and how to use it,” he admits. “But the huge groundswell of support and excitement we’ve received pre-launch has reassured us that we’re on to something.”
Is Vegbloc a round peg in the square alt-protein hole? Maybe, but that just might be exactly why it could work.
In the EU and the US, livestock farming receives about 1,000 times more funding than plant-based and cultivated meat, with the “gigantic” power of the animal agriculture industry blocking the development of sustainable proteins, finds a new study. The money meat producers spend on lobbying governments is 190 times higher than alt-meat in the US, and three times as high in the EU.
The research analyses subsidies and policies to show how the meat and dairy lobby is stifling the alternative protein sector, which has a much smaller environmental footprint. According to one estimate, livestock production causes 15% of all global greenhouse gas emissions.
And a landmark Nature Food study in July revealed that vegan diets – which include plant-based meat and dairy alternatives – can cut carbon emissions by 70% compared to those heavy on conventional meat and dairy.
The public funding gap
The Stanford University study, published in the One Earth journal, revealed that livestock farmers get 1,200 times more public funding in the EU than meat alternative companies, and 800 times more in the US. Public money spent on plant-based meat was at $42M between 2014-20 – just 0.1% of the $35B spent on meat and dairy. During this time, the former accounted for only 1.5% of all sales.
According to alt protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI), Europe led the world in terms of public funding for cultivated meat, with countries announcing financing in research and development for cultured meat, and the EU’s own core innovation and research funding programme highlighting cultivated meat and seafood as one of its three core pillars, setting aside around €7M for this sector.
There were similar developments in the US. The US Department of Agriculture awarded a $10M grant in 2021 to Tufts University to build the National Institute for Cellular Agriculture. And the Biden administration introduced a biotech programme that includes finances for “foods made with cultured animal cells”, while California allocated $5M for alt-protein research in its state budget.
The EU also supported two major research initiatives into the development of plant-based products in 2022, with a combined investment of €23.2M, according to GFI. And the US government performed and funded research on plant-based proteins through the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, with projects in three universities. California, meanwhile, set aside $100M to expand vegan and sustainable lunches in public schools.
Despite this rise in public funding, the numbers pale in comparison to what the animal agriculture industry received. The Stanford study shows that 97% of all research and innovation spending went to animal farmers, aimed at improving production. In the EU itself, cattle farmers received at least 50% of their income through direct subsidies.
“We found that the amazing obstacles to the upscaling of the alternative technologies relate to public policies that still massively fund the incumbent system, when we know it’s really part of the problem in terms of climate change, biodiversity loss and some health issues,” says Professor Eric Lambin, the study’s co-author.
The labelling debate
Courtesy: NotCo
The study also revealed that labelling regulations contributed to this gap, finding that almost all dietary guidelines avoided highlighting the climate impact of meat production, as well as spotlighted restrictions on alternative products using terms such as ‘milk’.
In the EU, terms like ‘milk’ and ‘cheese’ for dairy alternatives have been banned since 2017, while an ongoing proposal in the US could prohibit the sale of alt-meat unless products are labelled as ‘imitations’. Similarly, proposed guidance by the FDA on the labelling of plant-based milk has sparked widespread debate, with the dairy industry calling on the body to double down on restrictions and the plant-based sector roundly criticising the draft guidance.
Labelling conventions influence national dietary guidelines, which are the bedrock of the meals served in public institutions like schools, hospitals, government houses and prisons. The study found that there were no mentions of the environmental impacts of meat and dairy in US dietary guidelines, with only four of the EU’s 27 member states noting the climate footprint of these foods.
“Dietary guidelines are shaped with a strong influence from industry representatives,” says Lambin. “However, the Nordic country guidelines have just been rewritten and for the first time clearly promote a mostly plant-based diet.”
The unfavourable narrative: disinformation campaigns and more
Courtesy: CCF
The meat industry lobby has spent years creating coordinated ads targeting plant-based companies, especially in the US. Industry giants Beyond Meat and Impossible have been at the centre of these attacks, run by the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) since 2019.
One commercial pits vegan meat against dog food, with a side-by-side comparison of the ingredient lists asking consumers to guess which is which. A Super Bowl ad, meanwhile, featured Spelling Bee participants struggling with words like methylcellulose and propylene glycol (which the CCF claimed were “chemicals” used for “synthetic meats”). “If you can’t spell it or pronounce it,” concluded the advert, “maybe you shouldn’t be eating it.”
Beyond and Impossible have both responded to these ads in their own manners – with the former using the scalpel and the latter preferring the hammer. These attack campaigns have extended to social media, appearing across what Fast Company calls the internet’s “clean eating, raw food, and carnivore communities, on Ag Twitter, and among right-wing media hosts”.
Similarly, the US beef industry’s main lobby group has created an online training course that peddles misleading (but scientific-sounding) narratives about the sustainability of the sector – despite beef being the most carbon-intensive food on the planet. It’s initiatives like this that outline why 40% of Americans don’t believe eating less red meat will reduce their carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, in response to the FDA’s draft alt-milk labelling guidance, the Plant Based Foods Association launched an assessment that found some of the reports the FDA was basing its proposals on were funded by the dairy industry, hence skewing the results and introducing an element of “confirmation bias”.
Additionally, this narrative is also present across media reporting. One study by Faunalytics and Sentient Media found that 93% of climate reporting across mainstream media outlets doesn’t mention animal agriculture at all.
All the above highlights just how influential the animal agriculture industry really is, both in forming public opinion and informing public policy. “The power of the animal farming sector, both in the US and in Europe, and the political influence they have is just gigantic,” explains Lambin. “It’s clear that powerful vested interests have exerted political influence to maintain the animal-farming system status quo.”
The policy shifts
Courtesy: Rowe Group
Lambin adds that a significant policy shift is required to reduce the food system’s impact on climate, land use and biodiversity. Tackling this issue would need government policies that ensured meat and dairy prices reflect their true environmental cost – German retailer Penny trialled such costs at all its locations last month. This could be done via meat taxes, increased alt-protein research, and better-informed consumers.
“It’s not a level playing field at all at the moment,” says Lambin. “The [alt-protein] sector needs to be given its chance to expand and gain efficiency. After that, consumers will judge whether they like it or not, and scientists will judge whether it is really better for the environment and for health. But if it cannot even develop to a scale where we can make this assessment, it will be a lost opportunity to transition to a sustainable food system.“
The way the scales are currently balanced, it would almost seem the alt-protein industry doesn’t stand a chance. But there is hope, according to Lambin, who points to the EU’s proposal to accelerate the shift to sustainable proteins (to be adopted later this year), as well as the US’s landmark regulatory approval for the sales of cultivated meat.
And looking directly at subsidies, the EU Commission last year approved a European Citizens’ Initiative calling for the meat and dairy industry subsidies to instead be passed on to the plant-based and cultivated protein sectors.
Los Angeles startup Omeat, which launched in June after four years in stealth mode, has launched and already completed the first commercial sales of Plenty, its ethical and affordable alternative to fetal bovine serum (FBS). The product is available to buy for cultivated meat companies, presenting a slaughter-free substitute for the controversial growth medium and signals the launch of Omeat’s B2B arm.
Omeat claims it’s among the first revenue-generating cultivated meat companies, having created a cell culture supplement that can dramatically cut costs and be scaled up to meet the global demand for cultivated protein – a market that could reach $25B by 2030 if consumer acceptance grows. A 2021 poll conducted by Israeli cultured meat producer Aleph Farms showed that 87-89% of Gen Zers, 84-85% of millennials, 76-77% of Gen Xers, and 70-74% of boomers were at least somewhat open to trying cultivated meat.
The problem with FBS
Courtesy: Omeat
FBS originally paved the way for cultivated meat production, but it’s a problematic substance. Harvesting it entails taking cells from the fetuses of pregnant cows during their mutual slaughter. The resulting meat is thus not animal-free, and this has raised a lot of ethical concerns, particularly amongst animal activists.
Moreover, it’s an exorbitantly expensive process. When Dutch cultivated meat pioneer Mosa Meat introduced the first cell-based burger 10 years ago, it cost $300,000 for two beef patties. While tech advancements have naturally helped such processes scale up and cut costs, removing FBS played a major role in that.
Now, industry think tank the Good Food Institute predicts that cultivated meat could reach price parity with its traditional counterparts by as early as 2030, with further analysis by industry supplier Ark Biotech highlighting how cost-competitive cultivated meat could become a reality.
In 2019, Mosa Meat itself became the first company to ditch the serum, and in a remarkable move, published the formulation for developing serum-free growth media for cultivated meat last year. Now, more and more companies are looking to move away from FBS, and Omeat says Plenty is a humane, affordable, scalable, and highly effective option for cell culture growth.
Japanese startup IntegriCulture also developed cultivated chicken and duck liver cells using a serum-free medium, and South Korea’s CellMEAT created a serum-free cell culture medium to drive down production costs and provide an ethical cell-cultured meat option. But Omeat claims other FBS alternatives on the market fall short of efficacy and consistency when compared to Plenty.
The Plenty difference
Plenty is created using regenerative plasma drawn humanely from cows that graze freely on Omeat’s carbon-negative farm. Collected weekly, the process to extract the plasma is similar to human plasma donation. Unlike blood, plasma regenerates quickly, so the cows do not feel depleted.
“With one cow providing plasma weekly, we can create many cows’ worth of meat annually,” explained Omeat founder and CEO Ali Khademhosseini during its June debut. The company can produce 20 times more meat per cow than if it was slaughtered. “This means we can feed the planet with only a fraction of the current number of animals used in beef production.”
“We’re perfecting a sustainable operation that existing farms and ranches can implement, generating the same volume of product but with a fraction of the overhead,” said Khademhosseini. “It’s way more efficient, and we don’t have to sacrifice the cow.”
While Plenty does not require animal slaughter, it does still necessitate cows and this could be an ethically grey area, given that for most animal welfare activists, the goal is to remove animals (and the use of animals) from food production entirely.
Omeat, which raised $40M in an oversubscribed Series A round last year, sees itself as a meat company, with the goal to “be a bridge to the future of the meat industry”. It employs full-time veterinary and animal welfare staff, and has developed procedures for plasma collection that rely on positive reinforcement and prioritise the comfort and overall well-being of the cows.
A bridge to the meat industry’s future
Courtesy: Omeat
A cultivated meat company with a focus on generating revenues
Crucially, Plenty does not require FDA or USDA approval as it is not a food, allowing Omeat to start generating revenue right out of the gate. Other cultivated meat companies can now buy the serum for their own usage in a US market that is buzzing of late, thanks to historic regulatory milestones made in June this year- it is now only the second country to grant regulatory approval for the sale of cell-cultured meat. Singapore was the first to do so in 2020. Elsewhere, Israel’s Aleph Farms became the first company to file for approval in Europe in, with applications in Switzerland (though notably, not in Brussels) and the UK this July.
Plenty is not limited to the cultivated meat industry. Omeat says its solution will appeal to businesses focused on regenerative medicine and vaccine production, or employing cell-culture technology. “We’re looking forward to scaling and helping other companies that are changing the world, allowing them to achieve their goals with a product they can feel good about using,” says Khademhosseini in a statement.
“When it comes to growth media supplementation, FBS is considered the gold standard. However, FBS has downsides, including high costs, limited and unpredictable supply, and ethical concerns about the FBS harvesting process,” he adds.
“Synthetic serum substitutes, defined media, and serum-free media have been developed before as alternatives, but they’ve come with limitations that have hindered their viability as a replacement to FBS. That’s why we developed Plenty: an affordable, effective, and slaughter-free cell culture supplement product.”
While cultivated meat startups such as GOOD Meat and Upside Foods have completed initial consumer sales of their cultivated chicken products, with the former doing so since December 2020 in Singapore, these have been fairly limited in quantity due to production capacity constraints. Plenty could enable Omeat to be one of the first companies in the space to reach significant revenues within a fairly short time horizon.
The global Halal food market is estimated to reach US$1.67 trillion by 2025, growing to meet the demands of a rapidly increasing Muslim population that will comprise 30% of the world’s population by mid-century. At the same time, meat intake is rising globally, with Muslim-majority countries no exception to this trend. This is especially true in India, a Hindu-majority country, that is nonetheless estimated to be home to the planet’s largest Muslim community by 2030 in absolute terms, with 250 million adherents. The South Asian country is expected to see a 17% rise in national demand for meat by 2030 (see figure 1, below).
Figure 1: Projected Change in Meat Intake in the Most Populous Muslim Countries by 2030, courtesy of the authors
Alternative proteins, including plant-based, fermentation-based, hybrid and cultivated products, are currently being developed and positioned as one possible solution to reduce the environmental impact of meat. Yet, little is currently known about the Halal status of many of these products, particularly hybrid and cultivated sub-types, nor the extent to which they may appeal to Muslim consumers. This is despite research showing that Muslim consumers want to see such Halal certification, particularly from their own country’s authorities, to be confident in consuming these novel products.
Alternative protein can help with food security
As well as benefitting the environment, alt proteins are being touted as a potential fix for food insecurity in some Muslim-majority countries. For example, in 2020, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) highlighted a substantial imbalance in Halal food trade, at around US$ 67 billion, indicating an overreliance on imports. The greatest volume of this trade currently comes from non-Muslim majority producer countries in Brazil, India, the US, and Russia. This represents a potential risk to food availability in an increasingly unstable world. Taking the Gulf as an example, local climate and terrain mean the region has a very limited capacity for livestock farming and field agriculture to meet regional dietary demand. This has resulted in over 85% of the total food supply being now imported as of today, including approximately 62% of its total meat supply.
Is cultivated meat halal?
If alt protein is to achieve its potential globally, companies producing and selling these products must also succeed in attracting a share of the global Muslim meat market. One fundamental question that still needs answering is whether all types of alt protein can even be classified as Halal. To date, no clear guidance has been issued by any Halal certification body regarding cultivated and hybrid products that contain cells derived directly from animals, leaving many consumers in the dark about their Halal status. A ‘Halal’ diet refers to the consumption of food and drink that is consistent with Islamic dietary laws, which state that animals must be slaughtered in a prescribed way, and certain types of meat and by-products – including pork and blood products – eschewed.
Islamic scholars have considered the question of whether cultivated and hybrid products can be seen as Halal from various perspectives, with some arguing that cultivated meat contravenes Islam’s ‘Natural Law’, as production can be seen as ‘playing God’, while others suggest that cultivated meat may be permissible if the parent animal, from which cells are harvested, was first slaughtered according to Islamic laws. Another potential obstacle is the use of cell culture media, such as fetal bovine serum, which contravenes Halal guidance because it is taken from the blood of unborn calves. Blood is considered unclean according to Islamic scriptures, a point which has now been clearly highlighted in the updated Malaysian Halal standard (MS 1500/2019). Wholly plant-based media is, however, now being developed, helping to allay the concerns of Halal consumers, as well as addressing the requirements of other ethical vegans, vegetarians and other religious groups.
In addition, further research is needed to better understand how Muslim consumers’ belief systems and religion-specific concerns will influence alt protein adoption. Some factors may play in their favour, for example, the fact that plant-based, hybrid, and cultivated products can all be produced in highly controlled environments, thereby limiting the potential for contamination with non-Halal animal ingredients during production, and helping overcome fears regarding impurity. Alt protein can also circumvent the issue of whether meat should be stunned prior to slaughter, which is generally considered more humane, but some believe is inconsistent with Halal laws.
The potential benefits of Halal alt proteins
Alt protein has additional potential benefits for the Halal economy, both in terms of creating new jobs for Halal meat scientists, as well as supporting the growth of Muslim-owned food businesses. We note that the Chief Rabbi in Israel ruled for the first time in January 2023 that cultivated steak could be considered a Kosher product. This represents the first steps towards such products receiving widespread Kosher certification and is a pivotal move for Israel, a country already home to 57 alt protein start-ups and that has declared food technology a national research priority. The extent to which similar conclusions will be arrived at by Islamic religious leaders remains to be determined. In 2022, the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America deemed cultivated meat provisionally permissible by default, provided Halal criteria are met. This is a timely initial decision given that investment in alt protein technologies is also a priority for Muslim competitive markets in the Gulf, particularly the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia.
Lastly, the adoption of alt proteins is viewed by some Islamic jurists and Muslim consumers as a step towards Khilafa (guardianship of nature)[Quran 10:14], an important principle in Islam related to environmental sustainability.
Beyond alt protein, other well-known Islamic teachings have relevance for health and diet and may further help to catalyse a movement away from excess meat consumption in Muslim populations and towards more sustainable diets. Academic research has demonstrated that religiosity can play an essential role in promoting behaviour change, including pro-environmental actions; for example, a recent study found that Muslim diners were keen to avoid wasting food in order to adhere to teachings within the Quran – a particularly pertinent finding given recent data that shows food waste is extremely high, up to almost 200kg per per per year, in some Muslim majority countries. As such, influential Muslims, including Islamic religious leaders, have an influential role to play in encouraging sustainable and healthy behaviour change and should be included as key stakeholders in the sustainable diets movement in any Muslim-majority country where this is a priority agenda.
Prof. Cother Hajat is a Public Health doctor and professor whose career is focused on promoting healthy lifestyles and preventing chronic illness. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK) and a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (UK). Her advisory company, Real World Health, provides support to numerous entities including governments, non-governmental organisations, academia and the private sector. Cother is a mother of two boys and has followed a plant-based diet for two decades.
Dr. Sophie Attwood is a Behavioral Scientist who works to help consumers switch to more sustainable plant-rich diets and reduce their food waste. Sophie is a Chartered Health Psychologist and doctor in Behavioral Science from the University of Cambridge. She has researched and published extensively on the science of behavior change for health and sustainability, covering the areas of diet, physical activity, wellbeing, smoking cessation, and alcohol reduction, with her work featured in a range of international media outlets including Reuters, Forbes, The Guardian, World Economic Forum and others.
Scottish-Dutch food tech company Enough has raised €40M in Series C funding to accelerate the production of its mycoprotein product, Abunda, which is used in plant-based alternatives like chicken breast, mince and dairy. The brand aims to scale up to produce enough protein to replace five million cows or one billion chickens by 2032.
Founded in 2015, Enough’s mycoprotein product, Abunda, is made from the same fungi as Quorn’s via biomass fermentation. The fungi are fermented using sugars from sustainably sourced grains as renewable feedstocks, supplied by a Cargill starch plant located next to Enough’s recently opened alt-protein facility in Sas van Gent, Netherlands.
The grains are fermented in a similar process to wine and beer production, Enough claims its signature mycoprotein is high in protein and fibre, contains all nine essential amino acids, and boasts a neutral flavour and meat-like texture to create plant-based meat, fish and dairy alternatives. It adds that Abunda is 15 times more efficient than beef thanks to its zero-waste, circular production process, which uses 93% less water, 97% less feed and has 97% fewer carbon emissions than beef. This also makes the alt-protein more affordable to produce.
Enough’s manufacturing facility will initially produce 10,000 metric tonnes of Abunda a year, and plans to scale up to 60,000 metric tonnes annually by 2027, which will be the equivalent of one cow’s worth of protein every two minutes. By 2032, the brand aims to up production to one million metric tonnes per year, which equates to replacing five million cows or over a billion chickens.
Launching into a fluctuating market
Courtesy: Enough
Enough says it is the leading player to produce sustainable protein at such a large scale, enabling it to partner with brands and white-label manufacturers serving retail, foodservice and fast-food companies expanding their plant-based offerings. In 2021, it partnered with Belgium’s Peace of Meat to launch hybrid meat products made with cultivated fats. The brand adds that European poultry processor Plukon Food Group, which is developing alt-chicken and -meat products to complement its conventional range, is “very enthusiastic about getting started” with Enough’s mycoprotein raw material.
According to AgFunderNews, the company is already in conversations with brands to use its alt-protein in plant-based meats, with over 30 customers sampling its products. Enough aims to see Abunda-derived offerings hit shelves by the end of the year. The ingredient will be tested by Unilever in its The Vegetarian Butcher line, as well as brands supplying to UK supermarket M&S.
Enough will be entering an overcrowded alt-meat market that has been hit by a fall in sales and fluctuating consumer demand. This has led to instances like plant-based meat giant Beyond Meat reporting a 30% drop in sales last quarter after months of continuous decline, and vegan chicken nugget startup Nowadays ceasing operations.
But there have been signs of a recovery. Despite the annual sales drop, Beyond’s quarterly revenue was up by 11% and is projecting a year-on-year topline growth in the last two quarters of 2023. And crucially, cost is an important factor, with a 2023 Kantar report suggests that while plant-based food brands have seen a 10% drop in sales, private-label supermarket offerings have grown by 14% in the last year.
Enough’s latest financing, which brings its total capital raised to €95M, will help it scale its mycoprotein production and reach price parity more quickly. “ENOUGH has made great strides in the past few years to launch our new factory in the Netherlands and scale up to work with customers across the UK and Europe. With this new funding, we will accelerate that growth,” said Enough co-founder and CEO Jim Laird.
Craig Douglas, founding partner at World Fund, said: “[Enough] is tackling crucial bottlenecks in the creation of sustainable protein, whilst using fewer resources and maintaining a zero-waste process, which is enabling Enough to have a lower carbon footprint compared to other plant-based protein sources, whilst producing at scale and providing supply security to a growing market.’
Countries in Southeast Asia and Asia-Pacific must increase their alt-protein production by 2030 to help mitigate the climate crisis, as animal protein and its associated emissions must peak by the end of the decade, says a new report. By 2060, alt-proteins will need to make up 50% of the region’s total protein production if it is to decarbonise.
The report was published by Singapore-based firm Asia Research Engagement, which says alt-proteins are key to tackling the climate crisis in the world’s largest and most populous continent. Spotlighting China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, India and Pakistan, it calculated their projected emissions from protein production and found that none of these 10 countries are on track to keep their protein emissions targets in check.
According to the research, Asia supplies more than half of the world’s animal proteins, including land animals and seafood. It warns that without a shift to alternative proteins, it will be impossible to meet the 1.5°C warming goal set by the 2015 Paris Agreement. This is in line with a previous report that suggested high-methane food consumption must drop to meet this target. By 2060, alternative protein production will need to grow between 30-90% in these countries to curb carbon emissions.
Reducing livestock farming holds the key
Courtesy: CellX
The researchers suggest that livestock production has a bigger environmental footprint than all edible crops combined, because it’s more resource-intensive, and uses more land, water, animals and antibiotics. Livestock farming contributes to 14.5% of all carbon emissions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a report by the Nature Food journal this year found that vegan diets can cut emissions by 70% compared to meat- and dairy-heavy ones.
While some countries are witnessing a drop in population numbers, nations like India (which surpassed China to become the world’s most populous country earlier this year) and Pakistan have growing populations. These neighbouring nations need to have the highest increase in alt-protein production, with 85% and 90% of protein coming from alternative and traditional plant sources (like beans, tofu, tempeh, etc.), respectively.
Asia-Pacific is home to some of the largest meat consumers in the world, including Hong Kong, Australia and China. The latter is the world’s largest producer of pork, fish and eggs, and its animal consumption is expected to increase by 2030 despite falling population numbers. The report suggests that 50% of all protein consumption must be from alternative sources by 2060 for China.
Asia Research Engagement says intensive livestock farming is also the main culprit of deforestation and biodiversity loss. It advises these countries to eliminate their contribution to deforestation by 2030 – tropical deforestation accounts for about 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions annually.
Indonesia and Malaysia face large-scale deforestation as land is cleared for pasture and palm oil plantations. In fact, 90% of the world’s palm oil trees are located in the rainforests in these countries, and they have been directly linked to deforestation here. In August 2019, Indonesian forests were engulfed by wildfires caused directly by palm plantation trees – a signpost of potential climatic catastrophes if measures aren’t taken to reduce deforestation.
Running out of time
Courtesy: Good Meat
Speaking to Green Queen, Mirte Gosker, managing director of alt-protein think tank the Good Food Institute APAC, alluded to research showing a significant awareness gap remains in Asian countries, with about one-third of consumers unfamiliar with plant-based meat or seafood products. “This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the industry as it seeks to compellingly introduce itself to a wide swathe of potential customers,” she said.
“On the manufacturing side, many key infrastructural gaps remain, including a lack of adequate cold-chain infrastructure in various Southeast Asian countries,” she added. “There is also a substantial need to further build out the local technical talent pipeline, to ensure that the infrastructural machinery and laboratory spaces needed to perfect alternative proteins are fully staffed by highly skilled local workers.”
With the Asia Research Engagement report presenting a short timeline for an alt-protein turnaround, Gosker said that time is not on our side: “Amid skyrocketing demand and increased climate instability, reimagining Asia’s protein supply is now akin to making a U-turn in a freighter ship: it’s achievable, but requires that nations collaborate to further expand regional alternative protein manufacturing infrastructure and rapidly harmonise regulatory frameworks”
She continued: “Failure to do so will mean that the compounding pressures of ecological and supply chain instability will grow, resulting in a food system that falls woefully short of satisfying rising demand.
Asian alt-protein on the rise
Courtesy: Meatiply
While this all can sound fairly gloomy, there is hope. Gosker told Green Queen that numerous studies have shown that Asian consumers are open-minded when it comes to eating alternative proteins – as long as products match or exceed the taste, nutrition, ‘freshness’ and affordability people associate with conventional meat and seafood.
GFi says that Asia-Pacific is one of the fastest-growing regions for alt-protein in the world. This is helped by the fact that Singapore is an alt-protein torchbearer, becoming the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval for the sale of cultivated meat, and attracting a host of cell-cultured protein companies in the process.
Green Queen’s own APAC Alternative Protein Industry Report for 2022 found the region home to the biggest Series A investments ever for both plant-based and cultivated meat. This is complemented by GFI data that showed a 43% increase in financing for alt-protein startups in Asia-Pacific.
GFI also found that investments in fermentation-based and cultivated protein companies increased by 67% and 96% year-on-year from 2021 to 2022, respectively. In fact, interest in these sectors was so strong that these numbers didn’t just surpass the year prior – they surpassed the all-time totals in each segment’s history in Asia-Pacific.
Taking inspiration from the past
Courtesy: WEF
Gosker said there are policy examples to take inspiration from, pointing to massive investments by China and other nations into clean energy sources like wind and solar power two decades ago, in response to growing demand. Building infrastructure for renewables helped resist power-grid shortages and set up “an economic boom of historic proportions”.
Asia now boasts nearly half of the world’s wind energy capacity and produces over 80% of all solar panels. As the world deals with the climate crisis and tight energy transition deadlines, this continent “makes and sells what the rest of the world urgently needs”. And this is true for meat too – Asia is the world’s largest meat producer, responsible for between 40-45% of total production.
Touching upon this, Gosker says: “We now have a short window to turn another looming crisis into an opportunity, in perhaps the only sector more fundamental than electricity: our food supply. By leveraging every public and private investment tool at our disposal, we can rapidly ramp up a smarter way of making protein and reap the rewards throughout the rest of the Asian Century.”
Asia Research Engagement’s research states the benefits of reducing the region’s meat consumption. It could lead to lower land, water, animal and antibiotic use, less pollution, avoid deforestation and biodiversity loss, and present less risk of diseases linked to industrial production systems and overconsumption of meat.
“We see a great need for this sort of research, providing solution pathways for 10 major Asian market towards climate safety,” said Andy Jarvis, director of future food at the Bezos Earth Fund. “As novel work for the Asia region, transitional pathways from business as usual are critical for discussions with policy makers, companies and banks to demonstrate needs and opportunities for them to align and support a food system that helps us achieve [the] Paris climate goals.”
South Korean plant-based meat producer Unlimeat has partnered with US vegan egg brand Just Egg to unveil products using the latter’s folded egg format. The collaboration will result in a vegan kimbap, which will go on floors in Gangnam in September, followed by an American-style breakfast sandwich.
A week after announcing the launch of its plant-based tuna range, Unlimeat has announced a brand license agreement with the world’s largest vegan egg brand. Kimbap – a Korean dish made by rolling ingredients in seaweed – will be made plant-based using Just Egg’s folded format and Unlimeat’s sausage patty.
Following the 100% Plant Protein Bomb Kimbap’s Gangnam launch in September, when it will be available for sale and delivery, the brands will also introduce a plant-based breakfast sandwich, which will feature a Koran-style Tteokgalbi (grilled short rib) patty by Unlimeat, vegan cheese and folded Just Egg. The patty will have a soybean protein base and gets an umami flavour profile through alliums like onions, garlic and spring onions.
Plant-based boom in South Korea
Unlimeat and Just Egg’s breakfast sandwich | Courtesy: Unlimeat
Veganism is growing in South Korea. The Korean Vegetarian Union said that in 2020, there were around half a million strict vegans in the country – a threefold increase from a decade ago. Similarly, 1.5 million people followed vegetarian or plant-forward diets, while nearly 20% of the population (around 10 million) estimated to be flexitarian.
Unlimeat was launched in 2019, using proprietary protein extrusion developments to make slices of plant-based BBQ beef from upcycled waste ingredients. In 2021, its parent company Zikooin announced plans to build one of Asia’s largest plant-based meat factories, and last year, it entered the US market through online channels. And now, its product portfolio includes vegan pulled pork, jerky, beef mandu (a Korean dumpling), mince, pepperoni, sausage and tuna.
Just Egg entered the Korean market in 2021, followed by an egg shortage owing to a bird flu outbreak. The Avian flu hit over 100 farms in the country and led to the culling of more than 16 million chickens, sending egg prices skyrocketing by up to about 70%.
The Californian food producer capitalised on this opportunity by launching its mung-bean egg first to foodservice, through a distribution partnership with the bakery café chains Paris Baguette and Paris Croissant.
Egg consumption and a viable alternative
Courtesy: Just Egg
South Korea is also among the countries with the highest egg consumption in the world. As of 2020, one estimate found that on average, an individual consumes 250 eggs annually in the country. And according to Future Market Insights, the egg alternatives market is projected to reach over $1.5B by the end of 2026, growing 5.8% from 2016.
Vegan egg substitutes can also be much better for the environment. Just Egg claims its liquid egg alternative uses 98% less water, 83% less land and has 93% fewer carbon emissions than conventional eggs.
“We are excited to collaborate with Just Egg, a food tech company with a mission to create a healthy, safe, and sustainable food system,” said an Unlimeat representative. “As this collaboration unites brands with the same beliefs, we hope to develop a variety of products using Just Egg’s offerings and Unlimeat’s plant-based substitutes. This will serve as an opportunity to expand the range of choices for consumers who enjoy vegan options.”
Industry think tank the Good Food Institute has called South Korea a “global hotbed of alternative protein innovation”, with companies like CellMeat, Lotteria, Armored Fresh and Yangyoo some of the leaders in alt-protein. The country’s cellular agriculture industry is also developing fast, with the Cellular Agriculture Support Center opening earlier this year and 28 of its cultivated meat stakeholders signing an MoU to advance the industry.
Singaporean vegan egg startup Hegg – a subsidiary of Howw Foods – has entered into a distributorship agreement with the nation’s largest egg distributor, Dasoon. The move is designed to expand the presence of Hegg’s Eggless Egg in local supermarkets, and open more offline channels for the brand’s other plant-based egg products.
The collaboration has led to the debut of Hegg’s vegan Eggless Egg in cold-storage outlets across Singapore. The powder – which is made from canola protein, edible gum and potato fibre – has 6.4g protein per 10g serving and can be used in baking, steaming and frying, apart from regular egg applications.
Consumers can buy it at S$4.50 for a 50g pack (equivalent to five servings) in the egg section of supermarkets,as well as on online channels like Lazada, Shopee and Hegg’s own website (where a 500g pack is also available).
Plant-based eggs in Singapore
Courtesy: Hegg Foods
Hegg was launched in 2021 by food tech startup Howw Foods, which uses a proprietary artificial intelligence platform called RE-GENESYS to develop its plant-based products. The company secured S$3M in a pre-Series A round to advance its R&D capabilities and commercialise Hegg in 2021. Hegg also released an Eggless Kaya – a type of southeast Asian coconut jam – in partnership with local coffee chain Killiney Kopitiam in 2022, and added a third product, an Eggless Mayo, to its lineup last month.
Hegg isn’t the first plant-based egg company in Singapore. Float Foods has been retailing its vegan whole egg substitute OnlyEg since 2020. It received a development grant in 2021 to help further commercialise the product and has also filed a patent for the egg alternative. Last year, it launched Asia’s first vegan tamagoyaki and partnered with meal kit brand DayDayCook in Hong Kong. The startup, which closed a $1.6M oversubscribed seed funding round in 2021, also collaborated with many restaurants in Singapore this Veganuary to push OnlyEg into foodservice.
Singapore’s 30 by 30 Initiative
Courtesy: Hegg Foods
Both brands are part of a growing list of companies supporting Singapore’s 30 by 30 initiative, which aims to locally produce 30% of all food consumed by 2030 to reduce the island nation’s reliance on imports and boost its food security. Launches like Dynamic Foodco’s Dynameat brand, TiNDLE’s new vegan chicken pieces, and HerbYvore’s plant-based cheese support this initiative.
Vegan egg substitutes can be much better for the environment. While there are no specific numbers for Heggs’ products just yet, similar products have fared much better than traditional eggs in climate-related criteria. For example, UK-based aquafaba brand Oggs, which is marketed as an alternative to egg whites, has 72% fewer emissions than chicken eggs. And US producer Just Egg claims its liquid egg alternative uses 98% less water, 83% less land and has 93% fewer carbon emissions than conventional eggs.
Meanwhile, about two-thirds of Singapore’s eggs are imported, which means a shift to locally produced, more climate-friendly alternatives is imperative for the 2030 target. And products like Hegg’s Eggless Eggs are building a planet- and people-friendly food system.
In what is a burgeoning plant-based category, vegan seafood undergoes a whole-food twist with Canadian startup Seed to Surf, which uses vegetables as its primary ingredient. Founded in 2020, the brand makes tinned snow crab and smoked whitefish from mushrooms and celeriac root in a clean-label formulation responding to consumer trends.
A global consumer survey by Ingredion last year revealed that more than half of consumers find it important for products to have a short ingredient list, with 71% willing to pay more for brands people are willing to pay more for brands reformulating to cleaner labels and natural claims. Further research showed that nearly half (46%) would pay 20-30% more for such products.
The value of clean-label food is higher than ever. And it’s that mindset that Seed to Sturf aims to tap into with its whole-vegetable alt-seafood. The company’s snow crab is made from enoki mushrooms and smoked whitefish from celeriac root, with the aim to “celebrate vegetables for what they are”. It eschews high-moisture extrusion and shear cell tech – commonly used in alt-meat processing – and instead works with plants in their natural setting to create its whole-food plant-based products.
Championing vegetables for vegan ‘seafood with roots’
Courtesy: Seed to Surf
The brand has worked with food scientists to develop its products’ seafood flavours, and the vegetables are said to be cooked using retort technology, a process that uses heat and pressure to extend shelf life, during the canning process. The products only contain six or fewer ingredients – the vegetables are paired with sunflower oil, sea salt, seaweed (kombu and kelp) and natural flavourings, while the celeriac root whitefish also has lactic acid. It means the products are also gluten-free and allergen-friendly, which is a big win for a plant-based meat alternative.
The snow crab is described as tender, savoury and sweet, while the smoked whitefish is said to be smoky, flaky and packed with umami. The company says preserving and preparing whole vegetables “can offer intriguing new takes on the premium tinned seafood you’d find at top restaurants and high-end grocers”, while the inning aids a shelf-stable, low-energy storage option and recyclable packaging to boot.
“We found that these two vegetables really took on and enhanced that seafood experience that people might know well,” Seed to Surf co-founder Alexandra Bergquist told FoodNavigator. “Our mushroom crab is amazing in a crab dip, while the smoked whitefish is great on a bagel. [Consumers] should try these products in the best way possible. [It’s] setting them up for success.”
A rapidly evolving alt-seafood sector
Courtesy: Seed to Surf
Industry think tank the Good Food Institute reported a 40% year-on-year increase in pound sales for plant-based seafood in 2022. And as of 2021, there were over 120 companies in the alternative seafood space (which includes vegan, fermentation-based and cultivated seafood).
Surf and Seed is joined by a host of other brands making vegan alternatives to seafood, which is an industry rife with environmental and human rights issues. The growing demand for seafood has led to overfishing, which, in turn, means higher greenhouse gas emissions, while the heavy fuel use by ocean fishery vessels also contributes to the climate crisis. The 2021 documentary Seaspiracy details the endemic issues attached to this sector.
“The average consumer is becoming more aware of animal welfare and sustainability,” Maarten Garaets, alt-protein managing director of seafood giant Thai Union, told Green Queen in May. “And this is becoming a more important part of the selection criteria when they are buying food, but this is still a very small group.”
He added: “Alternative seafood is a new category, with limited awareness, whereas meat is more established. However, seafood is bound to catch up soon. Health is less of a concern for seafood, whereas sustainability will be more of a lever.”
Mycoprotein – essentially mycelium created from microscopic fungi – has already been on plant-based radars for decades, with Quorn being the world’s first producer of meat alternatives made from the ingredient. Now, a host of startups are taking the concept of mycelium further.
The global mycoprotein segment is set to reach $976M in 2032, according to Future Market Insights. Alt-meats made from mycelium, the substrate root of certain types of fungi, offer similar – and often superior – protein content, and are considered a complete food. They’re also better for the environment – as the harmful impact of livestock farming on climate change, while severely underreported, has been thoroughly researched.
Here are the most exciting mycelium meat brands on the market:
Meati
Courtesy: Meati Foods
Founded in 2015, Boulder-based company Meati is a mycelium pioneer. Its patented tech used mushroom roots to make plant-based whole-cut meat, with the current product portfolio comprising vegan steaks (in classic and Carne Asada varieties) and plant-based chicken breasts (in classic and crispy options) – which sold out in under 24 hours after being made available for pre-order in February 2022.
Mycelium constitutes 95% of the classic chicken cutlet and whole-cut steak, supplemented by natural flavourings, juices for colour acacia gum, oat fibre and chickpea flour. The other varieties only have a spice blend and breading mix added to them.
In January, it opened a large-scale, “infinitely scalable” production facility to rival the output of conventional animal farms, while it collaborated with AI company Pipa in July to better and faster understand the health benefits of its products. The startup, which has raised a total of $250M in various funding rounds – including an investment by Chipotle – also has a working collaboration with American chefs David Chang and Rachael Ray.
Prime Roots
Courtesy: Prime Roots
Prime Roots launched in 2017, creating a koji-based mycelium protein that it claims successfully replicates the texture and flavour of conventional deli meat. And its offerings go a step further: these aren’t deli slices, they’re whole joints.
Its current lineup includes deli meats, charcuterie and bacon. The whole cuts include turkey (cracked pepper and smoked) and ham (smoked, black forest and sugar shack maple). The charcuterie range features salami, pepperoni, pizza-style pepperoni, apple-sage and black truffle patês, and foie gras torchon, while the bacon is hickory-smoked.
In 2021, Prime Roots also debuted a line of plant-based ravioli, which included what the company claimed was the world’s first vegan lobster ravioli. Earlier this year, it received a minor investment from mycoprotein giant Quorn to expand both brands’ reach and product range. Prime Roots closed a $30M Series B funding round in May, bringing its total financing to $50M.
MyForest Foods
Courtesy: MyForest Foods
Formerly known as Atlas Food Co in 2020, MyForest Foods is an offshoot of mycelium pioneer Ecovative Design. The brand makes a whole-cut bacon alternative from mycelium, called MyBacon.
There aren’t too many ingredients apart from the mycelium in this vegan bacon – salt, coconut oil, sugar, natural flavours and beet juice for colour. The Robert Downey Jr-backed brand’s mycelium is grown with a particular blend of woodchips and is ready for harvest in 12 days. The startup has so far raised $30M in funding, after closing a $15M Series A round in June.
Libre Foods
Courtesy: Libre Foods
Catalan brand Libre Foods is another mycelium startup that has launched bacon as its first product. Launched in 2020, it uses precision fermentation to develop fibres resembling animal muscle fibres.
Green Queen reported in December 2021 that Libre was hoping to be the world’s first company to unveil mycelium-based whole-cut steak. While bacon is its first product, it aims to create an entire range of whole cuts, including poultry and seafood. It closed a $2.5M funding round in April 2022, announcing its plans to launch across Europe.
The Better Meat Co
Courtesy: The Better Meat Co
Founded in 2018, The Better Meat Co. leverages the power of mycelium to make Rhiza mycoprotein, its base ingredient for its plant-based meat. The fermentation-based ingredient can be grown 365 days a year and harvested within just hours, and has a neutral flavour and a meatier texture than extrusion plant protein isolates.
The Better Meat Co. claims Rhiza contains more protein than eggs, more iron than beef, more fibre than oats, and is free from all the main allergens and GMOs. The B2B company also says it sells its ingredient for cheaper than the price of beef, and it aims to be cost-competitive with chicken too.
Rhiza forms part of Perdue Farms’ hybrid product Chicken Plus, and has partnered with meat corporation Hormel Foods to develop mycoprotein-based alternatives. The company, which has also conducted limited-edition tastings of its product worldwide, has infamously been in a legal battle with Meati over a proprietary mycelium harvesting technique since 2021.
Mushlabs
German biotech startup Mushlabs uses mushroom mycelium to create raw ingredients for meat alternatives, leveraging the natural umami flavour of mushrooms to replicate the taste of meat. It was part of the ProVeg Incubator and, in 2020, raised $10M in a Series A round.
Mushlabs feeds the mushroom cells with the sidestreams of the agricultural and food industries, making its process highly circular and sustainable. The brand says it aims to develop sausages, meatballs, spreads and burger patties, among others – but adds that its products aren’t yet vegan.
Bosque Foods
Courtesy: Bosque Foods
Fellow German brand Bosque Foods creates whole-cut chicken and pork filets and bacon from mycelium using solid-state fermentation. And just like Mushlabs, it also upcycles agricultural sidestreams by using them as feed in a 10-day harvesting process.
Last year, Bosque closed a $3M seed funding round to expedite product development and commercialisation and establish it with chefs and restaurants. It showcased its chicken cutlet – which contains 85% mycelium – at the Vegan Women Summit in New York City this May.
Adamo Foods
Courtesy: Adamo Foods
UK-based Adamo Foods just secured £1.5M in fresh funding for its whole-cut mycelium steak in June. The startup claims it has discovered a technique to grow mycelium into long, dense fibres that form a texture analogous to the “grain” of a steak or chicken fillet.
Adamo wants to fight climate change, improve global health and boost food security. It aims to keep its products price-competitive with conventional meat, and says its steak and fillets will be available later this year.
In the US, 95% of foodservice operators expect increased or stable sales of vegan food and beverages in the next year, with 76% aiming to continue or increase the number of plant-based meat options, according to a new report by industry body the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA). It’s in line with consumer sentiment, who have upped their plant-based intake and reduced their meat consumption.
The PBFA’s State of the Marketplace Foodservice Report states that nearly half (48.4%) of all restaurants in the US currently offer plant-based options on their menus, with a 62% increase in plant-based menu items over the past decade. The shift has stemmed from a growing acceptance of vegan food among consumers, with a greater awareness of their health, environmental and animal welfare benefits.
It follows another report by the PBFA earlier this year, which found that the US plant-based market grew by 6.6% from 2021 to 2022, reaching $8B. “The plant-based foods industry’s momentum and resilience – built on robust consumer demand – is evident across 2022 retail and e-commerce sales and foodservice performance,” Julie Emmett, VP of marketplace development at the PBFA, said at the time.
Consumer trends on plant-based eating
Courtesy: Plant Based Foods Association
The report revealed that more than four times as many Americans increased instead of decreased their plant-based consumption, while a third say they’ll eat more vegan foods over the upcoming year. Overall, a third of consumers in the US use plant-based dairy alternatives at least once a week, followed closely by alt-meat.
When it comes to setting, around a quarter of home meals are entirely plant-based, compared to 19% of those eaten outside. And consumers are twice more likely to try plant-based foods in retail settings than foodservice ones, due to factors including convenience, cost and perceived health benefits. This follows the 27% year-on-year growth in plant-based retail sales in the US in 2021.
Meanwhile, 43% of consumers agree that the availability of plant-based food and beverages enhances the restaurant experience – a sentiment that was most prevalent among Gen Z and millennial consumers. The former demographic has a higher proportion of vegans, vegetarians and pescatarians, with 35% falling into the category of ‘meat limiters’.
Courtesy: Plant Based Foods Association
This is highlighted by recent product launches. Taco Bell introduced a vegan Crunchwrap in June, Chipotle added two plant-based options to its Lifestyle bowls as part of its ESG goals for 2023, while Charley’s Steak House collaborated with Chunk Foods to offer the latter’s plant-based whole cut on its Orlando menu.
Plant-based menu options at restaurants
Courtesy: Plant Based Foods Association
Four times as many foodservice operators plan to add plant-based meat to their menus than those who say they’ll remove it, while 8% who currently offer none plan to add vegan alternatives. The reluctance to add a plant-based meat substitute to menus is based on many considerations, including a lack of demand (53%), higher costs (46%), a higher difficulty in predicting demand and purchasing needs (33%), and vegan food not fitting the brand’s image (20%) – as well as factors like food waste and labour requirements.
But within the operators who do incorporate plant-based food into their menus, the fast-casual segment – which often caters to younger generations and those seeking healthy meals on the go – leads the way with nearly 70% menu penetration, followed by mid-scale and casual dining restaurants. Fast-casual chains Fine dining restaurants, meanwhile, are at the bottom of the list.
Courtesy: Plant Based Foods Association
In terms of food types, plant-based seafood and egg options have increasingly been featured on foodservice menus, seeing a 57% and 52% year-on-year growth, respectively. In February, Israeli startup Yo Egg debuted its vegan poached eggs at six Los Angeles eateries, before launching into Veggie Grill stores nationwide. And California’s Impact Food debuted its raw sushi-grade plant-based tuna at Bay Area restaurant Onigilly.
Meanwhile, coconut milk is the leading dairy alternative used owing to its versatility, followed by almond milk. But menu presence of alt-milk is still low, given that more than half of Americans will visit or pay more at establishments that feature specific plant-based dairy alternatives.
Courtesy: Plant Based Foods Association
The report also found that plant-based promotions and limited-time offerings receive higher uniqueness ratings from consumers compared to animal-based counterparts. There is precedent here with McDonald’s, which trialled the McPlant for a limited time before introducing it to the permanent menu, and Shake Shack, which launched its limited-edition Vegan ShackBurger in London in 2020, and debuted its vegan burger in permanent menus in the US earlier this year. Meanwhile, Impact Food struck a deal with Pokeworks for a limited-edition poke bowl in June.
The importance of inclusivity
“The focus of foodservice operators has shifted from simply offering a separate ‘vegan menu’ to creating inclusive dining experiences that highlight the abundance of plant-based choices available,” says Hannah Lopez, director of marketplace development, foodservice at PBFA.
Across all age demographics, the PBFA says there’s a stronger preference for the terms ‘plant-based’ and ‘dairy-free’ compared to ‘vegan’ and ‘vegetarian’. The clear labelling and intentional placement of plant-based food menu options at restaurants is essential for consumer awareness and inclusivity. It echoes a report by food awareness organisation ProVeg International last week, which expressed a preference for ‘plant-based’ over ‘vegan’ on menus.
According to the PBFA, this trend suggests that consumers are open to limiting their animal product consumption without completely eliminating it. It says nearly three-quarters of Americans are interested in blended animal- and plant-based proteins, like pasta dishes with plant-based proteins and dairy cheese. While only about 20% of operators currently offer such dishes, 30% show interest in exploring this idea. This concept has already penetrated the retail sector globally, with brands like Momentum Foods, Mush Foods and Nanka all offering hybrid plant- and animal-based meats.
Courtesy: Plant Based Foods Association
The report notes that inclusive menus are paramount: “As foodservice operators lean into menu innovation and expansion, having plant-based foods as staple menu options and ingredients will allow for more inclusive and wide-ranging customer bases, and a greater feeling among guests that their values, interests, and tastes are being served.”
In a January webinar, the PBFA presented data showing that 60% of US restaurants see plant-based as a long-term trend. This sentiment is mirrored by Jennifer DiFrancesco, director of culinary innovation at Sodexo Campus, which has committed to making its catering menu 50% plant-based by 2025. “Having plant-based foods isn’t a buzz or a trend, it’s a need and a demand that we deliver with creativity and flavour,” she says, adding: “Inclusive options are key – having the 1:1 animal to plant entrée makes it approachable, relatable, and tempting to try.”
The PBFA says it’s clear that the foodservice industry offers stability and reliability as a platform for plant-based food companies seeking long-term success in a rapidly evolving sector: “Key opportunities exist for companies and operators alike to forge meaningful, mutually beneficial partnerships to give consumers what they want: delicious, affordable, healthier, and more sustainable plant-based options.”
While it’s a rapidly growing industry, cultivated meat is still a new concept to people, with regulators in only two countries across the world approving its sale so far. A new study has analysed the impact of food technology neophobia – a fear of the new – and different images on consumer attitudes towards cultivated meat.
The research found that food technology neophobia strongly impacts consumer acceptance of cultured meat. It has negative effects on their behavioural intentions – but even then, participants indicated they are likely to embrace cultivated meat. Those who had higher levels of neophobia were less likely to regularly buy and eat it, but for people with a higher level of acceptance, neophobia wasn’t as significant in their potential to consume cultivated meat as it is in their behavioural intentions.
Published in the Food Quality and Practice journal, the study surveyed 727 potential cultivated meat customers in Germany, examining their willingness to try cultured meat, regularly purchase it, eat it instead of conventional meat, and pay more for it. It combined information about these alternatives with images centring on the tech surrounding them (like in a lab setting), those that focused on them in a more familiar context (where they look like conventional meat), as well as without any photos.
Receiving detailed information about the benefits of cultured meat or including pictures alongside this information proved to have no significant influence on people’s intentions to consume or regularly buy cell-based alternatives. Participants’ attitudes similarly did not change based on whether the information focused on the benefits of cultivated meat or remained neutral.
People were also tested on their preference for deliberative or intuitive thinking. The study found that those who favoured intuitive thinking are more likely to accept cultivated meat, while those preferring deliberative thinking are more likely to reject it.
Additionally, the researchers found that frequent meat eaters and those who regularly eat meat substitutes like tofu are the two groups most likely to eat cultivated alternatives, showcasing enthusiasm for the relatively new tech. The study also proposed further analysis of the effect of information about the risks of cultivated meat on consumer perceptions.
Courtesy: Ivy Farm Technologies
Research important to highlight consumer acceptance of cultured meat
The analysis adds to a body of research exploring consumer perceptions about cell-cultured meat. One study conducted last year found a correlation between people’s wellbeing and willingness to try cultivated meat in Singapore, while earlier research in the country showed 78% of its residents are willing to try it.
According to industry think tank the Good Food Institute, total investment in cultivated meat startups reached $2.78B last year, with more than 150 companies working in this sector and governments across the globe pouring funds into cell-based meat research. This is a marker of increased acceptance, and one study has highlighted consumer belief that cultured protein will make up 40% of their meat intake in the future. This is in line with industry sentiment, too, as 86% of chefs say they want to serve cultivated meat to their customers.
As more countries look to approve the sale of cultivated meat – and as it becomes more widely available – studies like these provide a key insight into what consumers think and want, and how they’ll perceive such alt-proteins.
Months after Switch Foods inaugurated the UAE’s first plant-based meat manufacturing facility in Abu Dhabi, consumers can now find its vegan kebabs, minced meat and burgers at retailers across the capital. It comes in the UAE’s Year of Sustainability, where it pledged to promote plant-based foods, and is hosting the UN climate summit COP28, which is confirmed to serve mostly vegan food.
In April, Switch opened a 20,000 sq ft facility in Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Industrial Zone – the first to make vegan meat alternatives in the country. Now, it’s launching the nation’s first locally produced vegan products into the retail market.
Switch’s lineup includes kebabs, koftas, soujouks, minced meat and burger patties in varying sizes, with all products being GMO-, soy- and gluten-free. The range is allergen-friendly and halal-certified, and can be found at retailers including Carrefour, Organic Food Café, Grandiose, Geant, Union Coop, Sharjah Coop, Al Maya, Abella and Spinneys in Abu Dhabi. Switch’s products are also available on online platforms like Talabat, Careem, Kibsons and Noon.
A 250g pack of minced meat costs 14 AED ($3.81), while a 240g pack of the soujouk is priced at 19 AED ($5.17). Meanwhile, a four-pack of burger patties is 34 AED ($9.26), and 240g of kebab meat comes to 20 AED ($5.45). These prices, while not super cheap, are still affordable when compared to imported plant-based meat.
Switch founder and CEO Edward Hamod said: “It has been a true pleasure to witness the excitement and willingness of the leadership and management of prominent retailers and online platforms across the UAE to support locally produced and sustainable foods like the ones we produce at Switch Foods.”
Courtesy: Switch Foods
Plant-based boom in the UAE
2023 is also the UAE’s Year of Sustainability, part of which is a push to promote plant-based eating in the country. Later this year, the UAE will also host COP28, and it has famously announced that this year’s conference will serve predominantly plant-based food.
The company’s launch, along with COP28’s decision, is in line with consumer sentiment in the UAE – 44% of its residents are open to substituting meat and dairy with vegan alternatives.
The country has already seen multiple overseas plant-based producers enter the market in recent years. In 2021, US giant Impossible Foods made its Middle East debut at Dubai World Expo, while Singapore-based TiNDLE also launched in this region for the first time at 20 UAE restaurants.
Neighboring nation Saudi Arabia has also been actively promoting more plant-based foods – officials from the Saudi Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture are co-developing alt-protein products with locally sourced plants.
Plant-based newcomer Recreate Foods has appointed Michael Salem, creator of Burger King’s Impossible Whopper, as its president. Previously the curator of Kevin Hart-owned restaurant Hart House‘s menu, he joins a vegan chicken brand that faces stiff competition in an increasingly populated category – and he’s betting on taste and texture.
Founded earlier this year, Arizona-based Recreate Foods’ vegan chicken range – which includes filets, tenders, nuggets and grounds made from pea protein – is crafted by chefs to prioritise high quality.
A premium brand in an overpopulated category
The US plant-based chicken sector is over-congested and highly competitive – there are around 20 brands making vegan nuggets alone. Just last week, Californian alt-nugget startup Nowadays announced it is ceasing operations amid a continued decline in plant-based meat sales in the US.
But Salem believes Recreate Foods’ positioning as a high-end company separates it from the crowd. “What clearly differentiates Recreate from others in the category is it’s simply a delicious chicken-based analogue,” he told trade publication Food Dive. “And we’re not a value-oriented brand, we’re a premium brand.”
He doubled down on this aspect by explaining the producer focuses on flavour and texture – two key components of concern about plant-based meat for consumers. “A lot of these big companies have a ton of resources, they have a lot of passion, they have a ton of exposure and media, but they don’t really necessarily have a great product,” said Salem.
“The ethos that we operate under as a company is that we’re not a science-based company. We’re not in the business of creating formulas. We’re in the business of creating delicious recipes.”
Photo: Recreate Foods/Instagram
From Burger King to Recreate Foods
Salem was the head of culinary development at Burger King for four years, and found his love for the plant-based category after launching the vegan Impossible Whopper burger exactly four years ago (8 August 2019). He called the unique impact of product launches one of the industry’s main attractions: “Not to trash the product launch of McCafé – it was a great launch – but it didn’t really change the world.”
He added that some brands prioritise virtue over quality: “We start to see companies position themselves as ‘It’s the right thing to do’ or really leaning in on vegans to kind of shame you into doing the right thing.”
However, he was also quoted as saying: “In the plant-based category, a product can be profitable, creative, incremental, and make perfect business sense. But more importantly, and more impactful for me, is it can have a tremendous impact on the pressure that we’re putting on livestock.”
During the launch of Hart House, he had a similar response: “I’ve seen too many animals die. I’ve been too guilty about the food I’ve been serving the community, making people really unhealthy for a long time, and I just don’t think it’s necessary. I think this is really the future of fast food, so that’s why I took the gig. I just thought it was an incredible chance to really make a difference and leave a legacy on food service and an industry that’s been so good to me.”
Whether it’s virtue- or flavour-first, the jury’s out on how a premium player will perform in an oversaturated and sales-hit category, but Salem is up for the challenge.
