The German Nutrition Society has reassessed the impacts of plant-based foods and changed its official position on veganism, noting that it can be a ‘health-promoting’ diet.
The body responsible for creating Germany’s dietary guidelines, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung (DGE), says veganism is more climate-friendly than the average German diet and represents a “health-promoting diet”, after reevaluating its official position on plant-based foods.
The DGE had last published a position paper on plant-based diets in 2021, but said it has now taken more than just health into account when evaluating sustainable eating patterns. Environmental impact, animal welfare, and social benefits now also form part of its revised assessment.
There was an update in terms of the health dimension as well – previous position papers mainly looked at nutrient supply, but now, other parameters like blood lipid levels and the risk of diet-related diseases (such as cardiovascular diseases) have been included too.
The evaluation has led the DGE to make several new conclusions, softening its stance on vulnerable population groups eating vegan, championing the planetary benefits, and endorsing the nutrition completeness of a plant-based diet.
The move comes three months after the society updated its dietary guidelines to recommend halving meat consumption, limiting dairy intake, and eating more plant-based foods. It stated that the latter should make up at least 75% of Germans’ diets.
Plant-based diets healthy with proper supplementation
Courtesy: Alex Buess/Shutterstock
The DGE’s new position states that plant-based diets are a “health-promoting diet” for healthy adults, provided that they take supplementation for vitamin B12. It recommends a “balanced, well-planned selection of foods” and the sufficient intake of “potentially critical nutrients”, also via supplements if needed.
One such nutrient is iodine, which is usually sourced from seafood and dairy. “Plant-based milk alternatives are rarely fortified with iodine and contain very little iodine when unfortified. Choosing a plant-based drink fortified with iodine can help ensure adequate iodine intake,” the DGE states.
To meet iodine needs at home, the nutrition body recommends iodised and fluoridated table salt and foods made with it, as well as sea salt mixed with iodine-containing seaweed.
Similarly, vitamin A is a crucial nutrient too, whose central active form, retinol, is found exclusively in animal products. Plant-based foods contain precursors like provitamin A carotenoids, but these are needed in much larger amounts to convert into retinol. The most important precursor is beta-carotene, which is found in deep yellow, orange and green leafy vegetables and certain fruits.
“A sufficient supply of vitamin A in a vegan diet is, in principle, possible through the sole intake of provitamin A carotenoids, provided there are no disorders of fat digestion and the enzymes responsible for the conversion,” says the DGE.
Another significant change in the society’s stance surrounds vulnerable populations. Previously, it explicitly did not recommend vegan diets for pregnant people, breastfeeding mothers, infants, children, adolescents, and the elderly, on the basis of limited data availability.
But now, the DGE says it’s making “neither a recommendation for nor against” plant-based diets for vulnerable groups, based on improved but still limited data. “Even if the previous wording ‘not recommended’ should not be understood as a blanket rejection of a well-planned vegan diet, the wording chosen in the new assessment does better justice to the current data available,” it outlines.
Vegan food better for the climate
Courtesy: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung
The DGE acknowledges the planetary gains of a vegan diet, calling it “more environmentally friendly” than the typical mixed German diet heavy on animal products. It pointed to plant-based foods’ “great potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions” as a factor.
Meat production alone is responsible for 60% of global food emissions, and generates twice as much CO2e as growing plants. Germans recognise this – meat consumption fell to record lows last year, with climate and health cited as the major drivers. It came as a large EU-backed survey revealed that 59% of Germans were already eating less meat in 2022 than the year before – the joint-highest reduction in the EU.
The country is also the largest market for plant-based food across Europe, thanks to the high percentage of flexitarians (estimated to be between 40-55% of the total population). Retailers have doubled down, with Lidl, Kaufland, Aldi and the Rewe Group (which opened a 100% plant-based store) all making vegan meat and dairy the same price as or cheaper than their conventional counterparts. Burger King announced a similar move too.
Meanwhile, Germany’s government allocated €38M in its 2024 budget to promote alternative protein consumption and a switch to plant-based agriculture, as well as open a Proteins of the Future centre. And the country produced 17% more plant-based meat in 2023 than the year before, with its total value increasing by 8.5% to reach €583M.
“This new position ushers in a new era in nutrition policy in Germany,” said Anna-Lena Klapp, international nutrition and health lead at non-profit ProVeg International. “It takes vegan diets out of the shadows of the policy debate and places them front-and-centre instead.”
The Nordic nations, Taiwan and Canada have recently realigned their nutritional guidelines to better focus on plant-based foods too. France is being called upon to do the same. “We are delighted that this position has been published and we expect it to influence similar bodies around the world,” said Klapp.
Thailand’s food safety regulator has published draft regulations suggesting bans on meat- and dairy-related terms for plant-based analogues.
Plant-based meat and cheese products could face crippling labelling bans in Thailand if the draft regulations by its Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are passed.
The government agency is tackling what it says is a dearth of supervision and guidelines surrounding alternative proteins with a series of proposed measures for these foods. It has established a special research team to study how novel foods are regulated overseas to inform and develop its own legislation and standards.
“At present, alternative protein products are seeing popularity amongst consumers and there are many such items on the market, but the control and supervision of the safety aspect of these in Thailand still has no clear direction,” the FDA said, according to FoodNavigator.
“We are embarking on a study of the current production and imports of alternative protein products in the country, and studying the related regulations [to apply this knowledge] in the development of regulations and standards in Thailand,” it added. “This will start with analysis of the plant-based protein sector in Thailand [before moving to] other alternative proteins such as insect-based, cultivated meat or fermentation.”
As part of its draft regulations for plant-based foods, the Thai FDA has proposed a ban on certain meat- and cheese-related terms for vegan analogues.
‘Plant-based mince’ okay, but ‘plant-based beef mince’ not
Courtesy: More Meat
“First of all, product naming must be specified in the Thai language – additional English language labelling will be allowed, but this must be consistent with the vocabulary used in the Thai language naming,” the FDA said.
It suggested that plant-based meat producers can use names that correspond with the physical characteristics of the product. For example, ‘nuggets’, ‘tenders’, ‘mince’, ‘fillets’, ‘patties’, ‘sausages’, ‘bacon’, ‘pepperoni’, ‘chunks’, ‘roast’, etc. are all fair game – so long as they’re followed by terms that make it clear they’re plant-based (such as ‘from plants’ or ‘from soy/pea’, and so on).
These guidelines extend to certain alt-dairy products too. This means on-pack labels like ‘cheese analogue’, ‘almond milk’, ‘plant-based nuggets’, ‘soybean nuggets’ or ‘burgers made from almonds’ would all be legal.
“However, words that will cause consumers confusion or to misunderstand the product to be made from meat will not be allowed on the labels,” the agency added. This means terms like ‘meat’ or ‘meat product’, those specifying the type of animal (such as ‘beef’, ‘pork’ or ‘chicken’), and other descriptors like ‘Angus’, Wagyu’ and even ‘clean meat’ would be prohibited.
Essentially, ‘plant-based nuggets’ would be allowed, but ‘plant-based chicken nuggets’ would not.
Likewise, while terms like ‘soy milk mixed with nuts’ (if it has multiple plant sources) and ‘7-grain plant milk blend’ would be legal as well, words that “do not correspond to facts or are deemed ambiguous” would be banned.
“The term ‘dairy-free milk’ is not a real noun and cannot accurately describe plant-based milk alternatives, hence will not be allowed,” the FDA’s draft regulations read. “Manufacturers are also not allowed to use names generally understood to be unique to certain dairy products such as ‘Cheddar’ or ‘Mozzarella’, or phrases that indicate equivalence with conventional dairy products such as ‘yoghurt-style’ or ‘Cheddar-like’.
“Furthermore, any terms related to specific process names for the conventional dairy sector such as ‘whole’ or ‘skimmed’ for milk and ‘mature’ for cheese, will not be allowed.”
Thailand’s proposed regulations are outdated
Courtesy: Thai Union
The draft regulations also state that all plant-based products would need to display nutritional values of the food on labels, including energy values, micronutrients, and claims relating to ingredients that may affect consumer health directly or indirectly.
The FDA’s proposal would also prohibit companies from using images, symbols or any pictorial marks that suggest the product is of animal origin, either on the front or back of the packaging label. “Pictures that showcase the characteristics of the product will be allowed – so images of nuggets or burgers will be allowed, but not a picture of a pig or cow, even if the packaging also carries a ‘meat-free’ label,” it said.
The draft regulations entered a public consultation period that ended on June 7. It’s the latest episode in the long-running saga of restrictive regulations for plant-based meat and dairy products globally. These bans are often lobbied for by livestock interest groups, with consumer confusion a commonly cited concern.
But studies have shown this isn’t the case, with most consumers knowing the difference between plant-based and animal-derived proteins. Plant-based companies like Tofurky, Miyoko’s Creamery, Planted, Oatly and NotCo have all won legal battles over product labelling.
So Thailand’s proposed regulations seem ill-timed, and outdated. In actuality, its FDA should be paving the way for novel foods to thrive in the market, considering that two-thirds of Thai consumers plan to stop eating meat in the next two years, and only 9% say they wouldn’t consume alternative proteins in that period, according to a 1,500-person survey by Madre Brava.
In fact, 40% of consumers in Thailand are willing to swap half their meat intake with alternative proteins, and 70% support a reduced tax on the latter. “If the government has a policy to seriously support the production of plant-based protein and alternative protein, both for domestic consumption and export, it would be able to correspond with the direction of both the domestic and export markets,” said Jacques-Chai Chomthongdi, Southeast Asia director at Madre Brava.
PETA is erecting—ahem—launching new ads warning that eating animal flesh can cause impotence and is calling on people to join the sex strike, and stop having sex with their meat-eating husbands and boyfriends until they go vegan. Why? A study found that men contribute significantly more to the climate catastrophe than women through their consumption of animal flesh.
In addition, a different study published in the journal PLOS ONE found that men’s eating habits result in 41% more greenhouse gases than women’s, primarily due to their consumption of animal flesh.
“Meaty” men need to take accountability for their actions since research shows that their impact on the climate is so disproportionately large. The easiest, healthiest, and kindest way to do this is by going vegan.
Leave the Meat in the Sheets—Go Vegan in the Streets
PETA urges lovers everywhere to ditch deadly animal flesh and reach for vibrant vegan foods instead. Each person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals every year and reduces their own risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, obesity, and issues in the bedroom.
According to the United Nations, about a third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are linked to food production and the largest percentage of these emissions come from the meat and dairy industries. The production of vegan foods—such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, peas, nuts, and lentils—require less energy, land, and water.
Mia, one of Bangkok’s newly crowned Michelin-starred restaurants, is catering to vegans and vegetarians with dedicated tasting menus. But you won’t find any plant-based meat here.
Bib Gourmands are a big thing in Bangkok. It’s a Michelin marker of places with great food without the prohibitive prices of the high-end, starred eateries the tyre manufacturer has become famous for. It’s a sign of pride in the Thai capital, something I discovered during my three weeks there earlier this year.
A bunch of the Bib Gourmand places cater to vegans – from perhaps the most famous Pad Thai restaurant in the world, to a mango sticky rice stall – but if you’re after luxury dining as a plant-based eater, the options are few and far between.
At Soi 26 in Sukhumvit – Bangkok’s bustling district lined with malls, street food, the metro, red lights, and bars – Pongcharn ‘Top’ Russell and Michelle Goh are hoping to change that. At Mia, one of Thailand’s newest Michelin-starred restaurants, the emphasis is on inclusivity… and vegetables.
Courtesy: Mia
The fine-dining establishment gives an Asian tint to European cuisine, and has three tasting menus: one for meat, one vegetarian, and one vegan. “[Ever] since we were doing a tasting menu, we’ve always had a vegan menu,” Goh tells me. “And the reason for that is, I used to go out with my friend who was vegan and we would go to non-vegan restaurants, and I always felt like what they were able to offer her was a very small selection. And it was kind of sad.”
So catering to different diets was top of mind for Goh, who hails from Malaysia and is the country’s youngest woman to earn a Michelin star, and Russell (an alum of London’s Gauthier Soho). The idea was to have a place where non-vegans could come with vegans and “still have a fantastic experience”.
What a Michelin-starred vegan tasting menu looks like
Mia’s eight-course vegan menu starts with a small bite, followed by four snacks, bread, two cold starters, a hot starter, two mains, a pre-dessert, a dessert, and finally, bite-sized petit fours. Some highlights include Campari spritz granita, printed-open ravioli, and a signature Snickers bar.
Courtesy: Mia
The current main course is a roasted Jerusalem artichoke with a truffle-ponzu dressing. “We want to have something that is more meaty for our main course,” explains Goh. “We roast a whole Jerusalem artichoke and what you get is that really earthy flavour, and we pair it with the truffle dressing to amp up the umami and earthy tones.”
She adds: “But we also have some fresh herbs that go on top, so we use watercress to add the peppiness… some radicchio to add bitterness, and… some prune puree on top to add sweetness. “So when you have it all together, it’s kind of like a heavier, meatier dish without having any meat in it.”
One of Goh’s favourite dishes on the menu is the Snickers bar, given her love for a chocolate-peanut-caramel profile. “We make a coconut dulce de leche as our caramel base, [which is] just a reduction of coconut cream with coconut sugar, and then it gets reduced into this kind of toffee texture,” she says.
Courtesy: Mia
“We pair that with our homemade peanut cream, so it’s like peanut butter but we make ours in-house. After that, we have a chocolate crumble made from dark cocoa powder, and also some peanut maltose. We take maltodextrin – which is like a starch – and we emulsify that with our peanut-infused oil to give it that really roasted peanut flavour, and that acts as our crumble.
“After that, we have our candied peanuts. And the last thing on top is our dark chocolate sorbet. [This] is made only with water, a little bit of glucose, 70% dark chocolate and also some cocoa powder.”
Vegetables over meat analogues
Goh believes guests can expect a full Michelin-star fine-dining experience, “regardless of the fact that this is a plant-based menu”. “We have had quite a few people come in who are not vegan and have tried our vegan menu, and have felt that it was like any other fine-dining tasting menu out there… You really, really don’t feel like you’re missing out,” she says.
Courtesy: Diego Arenas
The menu is based on seasonal produce, and changes three to four times a year. So for the spring season, there’s a taco with green asparagus, a white asparagus-macadamia tart, a grilled fennel steak, and the artichoke main. “We find what is seasonal at the time, and then we try to highlight those fruits and vegetables in a way that it’s the main focus of the dish, and we find complementing flavours to go along with that,” says Goh.
As evidenced by the ‘meaty’ Jerusalem artichoke, the spotlight on vegetables was a conscious decision. “It’s just a personal preference, but I don’t really like a lot of meat substitutes. And also, I feel from a fine dining perspective, meat substitutes don’t really add value to a dish,” she explains. She and Russell endeavour to prepare vegetables in a way that’s “unique, delicious, hearty”, and doesn’t feel like just “a plate full of garnishes”.
Courtesy: Diego Arenas
While offering meatless menus is a good sign of inclusivity, having meats like foie gras or caviar doesn’t bode well with the planet. “We are by no means going for a Green star,” Goh says when I mention the climate aspect. “But we do try to make more conscious decisions in our restaurant to limit food waste and… farming practices. Although it is not our main goal, it is something we do try to improve wherever we can. However, we are still a modern European restaurant, so I don’t really see us never using foie gras again.”
Catering to consumer trends
But has Mia noticed a greater demand for plant-based options from its patrons? “People are starting to become more health-conscious and more environmentally conscious, and because of that, a lot of people are switching to plant-based diets,” says Goh. “That’s why we have seen quite an increase in our demand for it.”
The lack of plant-based meat also speaks to consumer trends. A 1,500-person survey by Madre Brava in January found that while 72% of Thai people are aware of traditional plant proteins like tofu and seitan, much fewer (43%) know about meat analogues. And of those who do, 63% believe meat alternatives are healthier, but 70% find them too processed.
Courtesy: Mia
So presenting vegan tweezer cuisine in an accessible and familiar way is key for restaurants like Mia. The poll also showed that the often-higher price of meat analogues is a barrier for 64% of the respondents. By eschewing these products, Mia is able to offer its vegan tasting menu for a lower price than the one with meat.
The plant-based tasting menu ฿4,450 ($121) plus taxes, while the meat-based option sets you back ฿4,850 ($132). The price difference comes from the presence of expensive animal products like caviar, beef and foie gras on the latter. “Our plant-based menu does feature a lot of imported vegetables and fruits, which do contribute to the price as well,” says Goh.
She adds: “What we would like to highlight is the true flavour and complexities that we’re able to extract from cooking fruits and vegetables in such different ways.”
Massachusetts-based plant-based meat company Tender Food has raised $11M in a Series A funding round, and secured a contract with local vegetarian QSR chain Clover Food Lab.
Tender’s Series A investment was led by Rhapsody Venture Partners, with Lowercarbon Capital and Safar Partners returning alongside new investors Claridge Partners and Nor’easter Ventures. It brings the startup’s total capital raised to $23M, following a $12M seed round in 2022.
The funds will help Tender expand its production capacity at its new facility to millions of lbs, commercialise its first products at scale, lower manufacturing costs even further, and develop new meat products.
Additionally, they will be used to meet the demands of meatless fast-food chain Clover Food Lab, which is Tender’s latest foodservice customer, having introduced the latter’s meat analogues in all 13 of its restaurants (situated around the Boston area) in May.
Formerly known as Boston Meats, Tender’s plant-based meat stands out for the way it’s produced – it leverages a fibre-spinning technology licensed from Harvard University, which it spun off from in 2020.
Akin to how cotton candy is made, plant protein fibres are spun to create structured cuts of meat, which results in what the startup calls “hyperrealistic, nutritious, affordable” meat analogues like beef short rib, pulled pork, chicken breast, and crab.
The startup suggests that its meat analogue range “leapfrogs” current market-leading products by the likes of Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.
“Consumers are largely disappointed with plant-based meat products in the market – they’re too expensive, they don’t taste good, and are mostly limited to burgers and sausages with long, unrecognisable ingredient lists,” said Christophe Chantre, co-founder and CEO of Tender.
“We need new technologies to address these challenges and drive meaningful adoption in this category, which is crucial for decarbonising our food system. Our technology allows us to create healthy products that taste great, have the structure and feel of animal meat and are much cheaper to produce.”
The startup’s patented technology aims to replace the extrusion processes traditionally seen in plant-based meat, and ultimately animal agriculture. “Our production costs are already low today and we have barely started scaling,” Chantre added. “Offering products that compete with animal meat on price is critical for this industry to grow.”
Tender strengthens leadership while exploring hybrid meat
Courtesy: Clover Food Lab
Tender’s vegan meat and seafood products have been featured in restaurants and universities around the Boston area, including Saus Boston, Wusong Tiki Bar, and the Olin College of Engineering.
Clover Food Lab will feature the Tender fried chicken and pork as toppings on its bowls. “We’re a popular vegetarian chain, so, as you can imagine, we try a lot of new plant-based products. Tender’s stood out from the start – it’s innovative, it’s tasty, it’s a great addition to our grain bowls and salads,” said Chris Anderson, senior VP at Clover Food Lab. “And most importantly, we’re hearing lots of positive feedback from our customers – 90% of whom are meat-eaters.”
To advance its mission to decarbonise the food system, Tender has also received a grant worth nearly $1M from the US National Science Foundation for R&D into hybrid meat (a combination of cultivated meat and plant-based ingredients). The startup will collaborate with the Kaplan Lab at the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture to explore if cells can enhance the flavours, aroma and nutrition of its plant-based meats, and whether hybrid products are commercially viable.
Moreover, Tender recently appointed former Oatly North America president Mike Messersmith to its board of directors. Messersmith oversaw the oat milk giant’s US launch in 2017 and built its brand from the ground up in the region, and Tender aims to use his industry experience to help accelerate its own commercialisation plans.
It isn’t the only company using fibre-spinning technology for alternative proteins – Germany’s Project Eaden is doing the same. Research has highlighted the importance of texture in plant-based meat. A global survey in 2022 found that while meat analogues’ texture is as important as conventional alternatives for 75% of consumers, only about 60% were actually satisfied with it.
And a recent US poll found that only 16% of Americans would purchase plant-based meat products for their taste and texture attributes. In restaurant settings too, texture is the second-biggest reason deterring consumers from choosing meat analogues, chosen by 42% of respondents.
UK plant-based meat startup THIS has raised £20M ($25.4M) in a Series C funding round to expand its product range and drive profitability on its core offerings.
THIS, the London-based producer of meat analogues, has closed a £20M Series C round led by European impact investor Planet First Partners.
The financing involved a combination of primary and secondary equity financing, and brings total investment into the startup to £35M ($44.5M). Its previous investors include BGF, Backed VC, FiveSeasons Ventures, Idinvest Partners, Manta RayVentures, Seedcamp, ITV and footballer Chris Smalling (among others).
The development comes just as THIS’s ready-to-eat Chicken and Bacon Wrap (exclusive to WH Smith) was recalled in connection with the E. coli outbreak in the UK, which has affected more than 200 Brits. The Food Standards Agency said the recall was a “precautionary step” and that E. coli “has not been detected in the product”.
THIS drives Planet First Partners’ sustainability push
Courtesy: THIS
THIS will use its latest investment to accelerate growth in its home market and roll out new product lines that cater to “evolving consumer health preferences”. In the UK, health is the main driver of plant-based meat consumption, with 39% of Brits saying so in a survey last year. This focus was highlighted in its TV campaign with food critic Grace Dent in October.
The company will also continue to boost profitability on its core products, which include chicken, beef, pork and lamb analogues. Its growth strategy will be led by new CEO Mark Cuddigan (formerly of Ella’s Kitchen), who took over from founders Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman in February (both remain involved in the business).
“We are excited to welcome Planet First Partners into the THIS family,” said Cuddigan. “Our partnership will be key as we continue to lead a revolution through our plant-based food to protect animals and the environment, growing brand love to become market leaders in the UK.”
It marks the first investment through Planet First Partners’ Farm 2 Fork vertical, which aims to support planet-friendly agriculture and food systems, and complements previous investments in green energy and sustainable cities. It’s spearheaded by executive chairman Frédéric de Mévius, who also founded Verlinvest, an investment vehicle that built brands like Oatly and Vita Coco.
The find is classified under Article 9 of the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, which stipulates sustainability is the primary objective for portfolio companies. Its capital injection into THIS will see it take two seats on the board, and contribute to the increased adoption of plant-based diets, helping prevent the conversion of biodiversity-rich landscapes and release land for ecosystem restoration.
“We believe the company is uniquely placed to capitalise on growing consumer preferences for sustainable and healthy food alternatives, whilst supporting the environment,” said de Mévius. “I am personally excited to put my experience as a consumer investor behind a sustainable brand that is totally aligned with our fund’s sustainability objectives and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
THIS is working on tofu-like superfood
Courtesy: THIS
The Series C round follows a year of rapid expansion for THIS, which claims to be the fastest-growing plant-based meat brand in the UK. Its sales were up by 46.6% last year, and volumes rose by 66.6%, according to NielsenIQ data for the Grocer’s Top Products survey, reaching annualised revenue of £24M ($30.5M).
The company says it is the third-largest meat analogue brand in the UK, and has witnessed strong repeat sales in the Big Six supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl). While it became famous for its vegan chicken pieces, it has continued to introduce new lines in the last few years. This year alone, it has launched vegan chicken thighs, chicken breast, chicken shawarma, frozen beef mince, as well as skin-on chicken wings in collaboration with BrewDog.
THIS has also streamlined its operations, consolidating its production from 17 sites to just three. This involved combining its lab and office spaces into one London site, with production facilities in Northern Ireland and Rochester, England. It is additionally making operational enhancements to improve its gross margins each quarter.
“In terms of our profitability, the team has transformed the business in the last 12 months,” Cuddigan told Sifted last month. “We have transformed our margin, but we need to go much further to become a sustainable business.” The business is aiming to have its first profitable quarter this year.
The UK saw retail sales in the larger meat-free category dip by £38.4M ($48.8M) last year. But the country’s largest grocer, Tesco, reported a 20% hike in sales of plant-based steaks and chicken breasts since the start of 2024, with purchases of meat-free burgers increasing by 10% compared to 2023. Even traditional plant proteins like tofu and tempeh grew by 20%.
Speaking of, Cuddigan has hinted at the new products in the pipeline for THIS, telling Sifted that THIS is developing a plant-based ‘superfood’ for consumers to use as an ingredient in a number of ways – akin to tofu, but with more nutritional value than anything currently available on the market.
“As consumer awareness of environmental and ethical concerns surrounding meat consumption grows, we’re seeing continued interest in plant-based products, particularly with a lean towards health-focused choices and an ingredients list people recognise,” he said.
Sometimes, all you want to do is boil some noodles and call it a day – here are nine of the best instant ramen products that just happen to be vegan.
Like Maisie Peters, I could have noodles for breakfast. In fact, I’ve done so many a time. In fact, growing up where I did, a bowl of Maggi was the cure of all troubles, and at all times. Breakfast? Lunch? Afternoon grub? Dinner? Midnight snack? Any time and every time.
Instant noodles represent a comfort factor like no other, and as I’ve discovered more and more brands, I’ve also realised just how many brands make variants that are automatically vegan.
Whether you’re after something soothing, spicy, soupy, or a combination of all of the above, we’ve gathered the best-tasting instant ramen suitable for people on a plant-based diet.
Fair warning: this is not an exhaustive list, and it doesn’t include cup noodles. And it’s always important with ‘accidentally vegan’ products to check the ingredient lists – these can vary in different countries, which means the noodles in this list may not be vegan in certain countries.
With that out of the way, here are nine of the absolute best instant ramen products that happen to be vegan.
Indomie Mi Goreng
Courtesy: Indomie
Indomie is an Indonesian staple. You’ll find vendors on city streets literally selling these instant noodles as a dish – and who can blame them? These are awesome.
While there are multiple products in its lineup that are suitable for vegans, its signature Mi Goreng stands out. It comes alongside four separate packets containing seasoning powder, kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), chilli sauce and fried onion oil. These noodles aren’t meant to be eaten as a soup, so draining is recommended.
Salty, sweet, umami and with a hint of acidity and spiciness, you can have a bowl of Indomie ready to go in three minutes. If you’re concerned about E numbers, Indomie says there are no animal products in this product, making it suitable for vegans.
Nongshim Shin Ramyun
Courtesy: Nongshim
South Korea’s largest instant noodle brand, Nongshim has a huge range of instant ramen – and they’re all MSG-free, if that’s an important factor for you. Its original offering, Shin Ramyun, is also one of its best.
If you visit a grocery aisle crowded with instant ramen, it will be hard to miss Shin Ramyun, which stands out with its bright red packaging, an indicator of the broth inside. The soupy noodles can be cooked within four minutes – go for these if you’re after some heavy metal flavours, so to speak.
Salty and spicy is the name of the game here, with a flavourful broth and bits of shiitake mushrooms and spring onions providing you with a playful textural contrast.
Paldo Jjajangmen
Courtesy: Paldo
Staying in the Korean realm for a second, this one is vastly different from the other noodles appearing on this list. Paldo, another giant in the space, makes a number of vegan-friendly products, but its version of jjajangmyeon – the addictive black bean noodles – really does take the cake.
If you’re after something more earthy, rather than spicy and in your face, the Paldo Jjajangmen noodles may be what you’re looking for. The Korean-Chinese dish comes with a black bean sauce sachet, and contains soy sauce, ginger and onion extracts, spices, potatoes and cabbage.
These noodles are somewhere between soupy and dry, with the package instructions recommending you reserve a few tablespoons of water after boiling the noodles for five minutes.
Maggi 2-Minute Noodles
Courtesy: Bloomberg/Getty Images
An instant noodle classic, Maggi may mean different things to you depending on where you grew up, but for at least 1.4 billion people, it’s the name of Nestlé’s Indian-inspired instant ramen.
These noodles are famous for a “two-minute” claim, although it usually does take slightly longer to cook them through. There are many variants and flavours now, but the original is still the best. And it has always been vegetarian to cater to India’s huge meatless population, but this also happens to be vegan.
Expect a spicy, masala-packed umami bomb that will always leave you wanting more. There are no dehydrated vegetables – just noodles, seasoning, and a good time. As for soupy or dry, that’s a never-ending debate among Indians – and it’s also the beauty of it.
Nissin Demae Ramen Spicy
Courtesy: Nissin/Titus Group
The spicy name might deceive some, but Nissin’s entry in this list still more than holds its own. The brand that invented instant noodles does have other vegan products too, but Demae Ramen Spicy stands out for its flavour and versatility as both a soupy and dry dish.
These noodles are heavy on the salt and come with a packet of toasted sesame oil that balances the flavours. You can cook them in just three minutes, and while you can choose to go dry (which will have a nice concentrated flavour), most think the broth is the best part.
Samyang Buldak 2x Spicy Hot Chicken Flavour Ramen
Courtesy: Samyang/Clauii Campos/CaptureNow
Okay, so this one’s hot. Korean brand Samyang Foods’ Buldak Chicken Flavour Ramen is famed for being one of the spiciest instant noodles on the market. The 2x Spicy is rumoured to have somewhere between 8,000 to 10,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU) – for context, that’s the upwards end of a raw jalapeño or one of the milder Serrano chillies.
These noodles contain artificial chicken seasoning and vegan chicken pieces made from seitan, with a host of other spices like garlic powder, yeast extract, red pepper powder, black pepper and curry powder. Plus, there’s no MSG.
They’re meant to be dry, with a three-minute boil time followed by a two-minute stir-fry with the seasoning packets, which include roasted sesame and lavender.
Koka Spicy Stir-Fried Noodles
Courtesy: Koka/Bianca Marie Arreola/Corelens
Another one in the dry, spicy noodle camp, Koka makes Oriental-style noodles and has an array of vegan-friendly offerings. Its signature product is the Spicy Stir-Fried Noodles, which – as instant noodles go – has a relatively shorter ingredient list.
These noodles are said to be ready in two to three minutes, and come with a dry seasoning packet and flavouring oil. They’re slightly smoky, as well as quite peppery garlic-forward, with the chilli lingering at the back of your mouth.
Itsuki Kyushu Tonkotsu Artificial Pork Ramen
Courtesy: Itsuki
Right on the other end of the spectrum lies Itsukki’s instant tonkontsu ramen. Soupy, rich flavours with deeply meaty accents, these Artificial Pork-flavoured noodles can be made in two-and-a-half minutes.
The result is a thick, creamy ramen broth, thanks to the use of soy milk powder, with soy sauce, garlic, cabbage extract and onion powder rounding out the flavour base. The noodles themselves are the right combination of chewy and soft – but not overly so.
The vegan pork-flavoured instant Itsuki Kyushu Tonkotsu Ramen is perfect for cold winter nights when all you want is a soothing bowl to tuck you in.
Bonus: Nongshim Soon Veggie Ramyun
Courtesy: Nongshim
We classed this as a bonus because the Soon Veggie Ramyun isn’t accidentally vegan – it’s intentionally so. Nongshim’s second entry in this list is a highly loved instant noodle product among plant-based eaters, and like its signature Shin Ramyun, easily distinguishable on the shelf, thanks to its light-green and white packaging.
These noodles are also the only other product here to not contain MSG, with a mildly spiced broth flavour with red pepper, shiitakes and a host of aliums. Flakes of dried choy sum and carrots provide a nice crunch, which can be rehydrated alongside the noodles within four to five minutes.
McDonald’s is trialling a new line of dairy-free ice creams in select UK restaurants, with a potential nationwide launch slated for 2025.
Another vegan McFlurry is here – sort of.
McDonald’s has just launched the Scoop, a dairy-free ice cream range certified by the Vegetarian Society. It’s available in two flavours: Choco and Strawberry.
The new desserts – made from rice milk – are being rolled out as part of a trial in the UK. If successful, we could see the Scoop permanently at locations nationwide.
But that’s not all: the fast-food giant is also trialling the McFreezy, a frozen ice dessert that resembles a Calippo ice pop.
Where will McDonald’s vegan Scoop ice creams be available?
The vegan Scoop ice creams will be available at 52 locations to start with, all in the northwest of England. These include select stores in Manchester, Oldham, Failsworth, Stockport, Salford, Bury, Ardwick and Rochdale, among others.
McDonald’s describes the ice creams as “deliciously smooth and creamy”, which will be served in a tub just like a McFlurry, sans the toppings. They’ll cost £1.59, and the trial runs from June 12 to September 3. The aim is to launch the Scoop across the UK in 2025 – that is, if the ice cream machines aren’t broken.
Alongside rice, the plant-based ice creams are made from a base of coconut oil, glucose syrup, sugar and dextrose, with emulsifiers, thickeners and flavourings rounding out the ingredient list.
While the serving size of the vegan desserts is unclear, the chocolate-flavoured Scoop contains 94 calories per portion, 4g of fat (3.3g of which is saturated fat), and just under 8g of sugar. In comparison, a Mini Maltesers McFlurry has 133 calories, 5g of fat (3.4g saturated) and 17g of sugar.
Meanwhile, the McFreezy combines fruit juice and purée and is available in orange or mango-pineapple flavours. Apart from concentrated juices and purées, they contain stabilisers, citric acid and flavourings.
These will be available in 187 McDonald’s locations in the northwest (including Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Merseyside), and select locations in Ireland.
McDonald’s dairy-free performance in the spotlight
Courtesy: McDonald’s/Jakub Gojda
Vegan ice cream has had a rocky few years in the UK. Yearly sales in retail were already down by 2% in 2022, and this followed the withdrawal of products by multiple companies. Ben & Jerry’s took its Peanut Butter & Cookies off shelves, for example, while Oatly discontinued its entire line of oat milk ice creams in the UK.
“We launched an ice-cream tub which has been successful, was on sale in many markets, and does very well for Oatly,” a brand spokesperson told FoodNavigator. “But it didn’t hit the milestones we expected from a UK perspective.”
From a foodservice perspective, how McDonald’s vegan ice cream fares will be interesting to see. This is not the first time the fast-food behemoth has introduced a dairy-free ice cream. In 2022, it launched vegan versions of the iconic McFlurry in Germany in two flavours (including a KitKat version).
While those flavours are no longer on the menu, McDonald’s Germany continues to offer the range. Its plant-based McFlurry is now available in a plain chocolate flavour, and there’s also a dairy-free chocolate McSundae.
Germany and the wider European market have been successful for McDonald’s vegan offerings, with the McPlant burger (made with Beyond Meat’s beef) continuing to gain popularity, unlike in its home market in the US.
Within the UK, the McPlant is joined by a Vegetable Deluxe burger, a Spicy Veggie wrap, and Veggie Dippers as meatless options. The Scoop and McFreezy mark its first foray into the non-dairy world in the country.
As the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service reports, 6.6 million women and children will have expanded access to vegan staples through the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which helps low-income parents, pregnant people, and children access healthy foods.
Which vegan foods will WIC now cover?
Plant-Based Dairy
Say hello to vegan cheeses, milks, and yogurts. Previously, the program covered only certain soy milks, but under the update, coverage of plant-based dairy will be expanded. Now, benefits recipients will be able to buy cheese and yogurt that aren’t cruelly obtained.
The allotment for fruits and vegetables will be boosted by up to four times its previous limit. This is huge. This will allow program recipients to further reap the nutritional benefits of whole fruits and veggies.
Leafy green vegetables are rich in nutrients such as calcium, iron, and vitamin C. Fruits contain essential vitamins, slow-release carbohydrates, and other healthy compounds.
WIC will now cover canned beans. Previously, the program only covered dry beans, which require more prep time and labor to cook. This change will make beans—a staple food around the world—much more accessible to those most in need.
Beans really do have it all. They are high in protein and fiber and contain several healthy nutrients, including iron, magnesium, and potassium.
We’ve known for some time that whole grains have more nutrients and fiber than their processed counterparts and are therefore healthier. The program will now cover quinoa (a powerhouse “superfood” grain), blue cornmeal, and other whole grains.
All Mothers and Babies Will Benefit From the WIC Changes
The changes to this vital program will help humans and their children get the nutrition they need without exposing them to the health hazards of animal-derived ingredients. The new options will also allow the program’s participants to protect animal mothers and their babies from the cruel conditions on farms.
Farms treat mothers and babies like objects. Workers forcibly impregnate animals, separate them from their babies, and kill them once their bodies wear out from repeated pregnancies. Workers take the vulnerable babies, mutilate them (usually without painkillers), and confine them for the rest of their lives.
On pig farms, workers confine sows to crates so cramped that they can’t even turn around. A few weeks after piglets are born, workers take them from their distraught mothers and chop off their tails and snip off the ends of their teeth with pliers—without any painkillers.
Mother Chickens
Chickens exploited for their eggs, called “laying hens” by the industry, spend their lives crowded together inside wire cages with no room to spread their wings. This intensive confinement can cause them to peck at each other out of frustration, so workers often cut off part of their sensitive beaks. Once their exhausted bodies no longer produce enough eggs, workers load them onto trucks and send them to slaughter.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Alpro’s collaboration with Peter Crouch, a new alternative protein jobs platform, and a host of university-related news.
New products and launches
In the UK, Alpro has partnered with Peter Crouch to kickstart its new Alpro Plant Protein Morning Trials campaign. The former England footballer tests celeb fitness routines, including waking up at 2:30 AM, multiple gym sessions, and plunging into ice baths to promote the recently extended Plant Protein range.
Courtesy: Alpro
Also in the UK, there’s a new musical about the meat industry. Mad Cow will be coming to Canterbury’s new fully vegan Garlinge Theater next month.
Swiss meat analogues maker Planted has rolled out its fermentation-derived steak in Switzerland at Coop and in Germany at Rewe stores.
Belgian startup Bolder Foods is continuing to showcase its biomass-fermented cheese prototypes, with investors and entrepreneurs getting a taste of its product at an event hosted by ingredients leader Givaudan.
Courtesy: Ilana Taub/LinkedIn
San Francisco-based startup Impact Food has announced its sushi-grade plant-based salmon, with wholesale pre-orders running now. The product premiered at Oisixs Ra Daichi’s annual World Oceans Day event in sashimi and nigiri formats in Japan.
That’s not all for vegan salmon this week – German alt-seafood producer BettaF!sh has also entered the space with SAL-NOM, a hot smoked salmon analogue made from seaweed. It retails for €3.29 per 130g jar, and will be launched as a tinned SKU too in the summer.
As part of its roster of new mini-campaigns, Veganuaryran its Choose Fish-Free Week from June 3-8, shedding light on alternative seafood brands and recipes. A BBQ Month and Choose Dairy-Free Week will be next.
Courtesy: Veganuary
Israeli 3D-printed meat producer Redefine Meat has rolled out its New Meat range of lamb kofta mix, pulled beef, pulled pork, burgers, beef mince and bratwurst in German retail via e-tailer Velivery.
Hybrid meat maker Mush Foods has partnered with French specialty meat purveyor Dufour Gourmet to introduce a charcuterie range made from its 50Cut mycelium meat. Offerings include a bratwurst, breakfast sausage, Italian-style sausage, and chicken sausage.
Californian food tech company MeliBio‘s vegan honey, which retails in some parts of Europe under the Better Foodie brand name, is now available in Switzerland and Liechtenstein through a distribution deal with Swiss wholesaler Honeydew.
Courtesy: Better Foodie
Fellow Californian startup Upside Foodsserved its cultivated chicken at Industry Only LA, as part of buffalo chicken bao buns and cold sesame noodles.
In the US, catering giant Sodexo and the University of Cincinnati have introduced 513 Culinary Group, an immersive campus dining venture to spotlight inclusivity and local ingredients. The partnership entails new menu options with more plant-based foods and special care given to allergens.
If you’re in New York, the Fordham Plaza is hosting the Bronx Vegan Bazaar every third Saturday from noon to 6 PM starting this weekend on June 15.
Courtesy: Stella Artois
The Roots drummer Questlove partnered with Stella Artois to host the Questlove’s Cheesesteak Diner pop-up, which features Impossible Foods’ beef. It was the first event of the beer brand’s Let’s Do Dinner: Summer Series, which brings together food, lifestyle and entertainment platforms.
Speaking of which, Impossible Foods‘ new beef hot dog has made its way into Safeway stores in California and Jewel-Osco locations in Chicago – and it’s gone straight into the meat aisle.
Courtesy: Jake Berber/LinkedIn
And Singaporean beanless coffee startup Prefer has moved into the frozen world with a gelato launched in partnership with local dessert parlour Aphrodite Waffles and Gelato. The ice cream uses Prefer’s bean-free coffee concentrate.
Finance and company updates
Accelerator programme ProVeg Incubator has announced its latest cohort of alternative protein startups, featuring Atlantic Fish Co, Optimised Foods, Friends & Family Pet Food Company (all US), AIProtein (Egypt/US), and Fisheroo (Singapore). The initiative has also been extended from 12 weeks to 20.
Danish startup EvodiaBio has raised €7M to produce natural aromas for the food industry using precision fermentation. Its tech can improve the taste of non-alcoholic beer by producing yeast-derived ingredients that recreate the taste of hops.
Courtesy: The Better Meat Co
Fellow fermentation company The Better Meat Co has slashed the production costs of its mycoprotein, which is now on par with commodity beef when manufactured at scale.
Germany’s Veganz Group – which makes plant-based dairy, meat and snack products – has confirmed the drawdown of a grant from the State of Brandenburg’s investment bank to construct a new facility in Ludwigsfelde.
Fellow German company Tälist has introducedAltProtein.Jobs, an AI-led ‘matchmaking’ platform to connect employers with prospective candidates in the future food sector. Its algorithm has made 2,000 matches with a 9+ score, 9,400 with 8+, and 25,000 with a 7+ rating.
Courtesy: Tälist/Green Queen
The US Department of Defense has released a call for alternative protein funding proposals under BioMade, the public-private biomanufacturing consortium, with projects receiving between $500,000 to $2M. One of its key focus areas is on fermentation-derived and cultivated proteins for military rations. It has already spawned an outraged response from a cattle association.
Research and policy developments
Researchers at the United Arab Emirates University and the National University of Singapore have teamed up to explore novel plant protein sources that can be incorporated into meat analogues for better taste, texture and nutritional attributes.
In the US, Western Oregon University has signed the Humane Society of the United States‘ Forward Food Pledge, committing to transition its campus dining menus to 50% plant-based meals by 2027.
Courtesy: Nottingham Trent University
In more university news, the UK’s Nottingham Trent University has launched a master’s degree in smart agriculture, which will explore how AI, vertical farming and precision agriculture can enhance food security and reduce energy costs. Students will develop ‘recipes’ to produce food crops much more rapidly than currently possible outdoors.
Finally, plant-based food company Strong Rootsconducted a 1,000-person survey in the US, the UK and Ireland to find that 52% of consumers are more likely to purchase products with carbon footprints on their packaging, and 82% want to be informed about businesses that contribute to climate change.
Competitive eater Joey Chestnut has been banned from participating in this year’s hot dog eating contest by Nathan’s Famous over a commercial deal with plant-based meat maker Impossible Foods.
Joey Chestnut, who has won 16 of the last 17 Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest titles, will not be defending his title this year after making a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods and its newly launched plant-based beef franks.
First reported by the New York Post, Major League Eating (MLE) – which runs the competition on behalf of Nathan’s Famous – confirmed that the 40-year-old won’t be allowed to participate in the competition after he chose to represent a “rival brand”.
Chestnut was paid $200,000 to appear in the contest last year, and was offered a four-year contract worth $1.4M going forward. But a partnership with one of the biggest plant-based meat companies in the US, which is rolling out its beef hot dogs nationwide as we speak, was enough for Nathan’s Famous to block him from participating.
But for a competitive eating champion who has made a living by eating hot dogs to now endorse vegan versions is a major shift, and a nod to Americans’ increasing focus on health in the food they eat.
MLE & Nathan’s ‘changed past rules’
(1/3)I was gutted to learn from the media that after 19 years Im banned from the Nathan's July 4th Hot Dog Eating Contest. I love competing in that event, I love celebrating America with my fans all over this great country on the 4th and I have been training to defend my title.
Writing on X/Twitter, Chestnut said: “I was gutted to learn from the media that after 19 years I’m banned from the Nathan’s July 4th Hot Dog Eating Contest. I love competing in that event, I love celebrating America with my fans all over this great country on the 4th and I have been training to defend my title.”
The MLE said in a statement that it was “devastated to learn that Joey Chestnut has chosen to represent a rival brand that sells plant-based hot dogs” instead of competing in the contest. “MLE and Nathan’s went to great lengths to accommodate Joey and his management team, agreeing to the appearance fee and allowing Joey to compete in a rival, unbranded hot dog eating contest on Labor Day,” it said.
The organiser added that it has operated under the same “hot dog exclusivity provisions” for nearly two decades. Prior to the 2010 event, it banned Japanese former competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi over a contract exclusivity dispute as well, which meant the six-time champion never competed in the Nathan’s Famous contest again.
Courtesy: Kena Betancur/Getty Images
“To set the record straight, I do not have a contract with MLE or Nathans and they are looking to change the rules from past years as it relates to other partners I can work with,” Chestnut said.
“This is apparently the basis on which I’m being banned, and it doesn’t impact the July 4th event. Sadly, this is the decision Nathan’s and Major League Eating are making, and it will deprive the great fans of the holiday’s usual joy and entertainment.”
Speaking to CNBC, MLE president Richard Shea called Chestnut “a great champion and a friend”. “I hope he’s there on July 4th as we celebrate Independence Day and he changes his choice to promote a veggie hot dog rather than ours,” he said.
In response, Impossible Foods said: “We love Joey and support him in any contest he chooses. It’s OK to experiment with a new dog. Meat eaters shouldn’t have to be exclusive to just one wiener.”
Hot dogs are no longer hot
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
The Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest has been a Fourth of July tradition in Coney Island, New York since the 1970s (though unofficially, the competition dates back to the 1910s). It is broadcast nationwide on ESPN and is a marketing strategy for Nathan’s Famous, which is dealing with the continued decline of hot dogs.
While links are a quintessential American food, concerns around their ill health impacts are driving away consumers. Hot dogs are the epitome of processed food, and processed meats like these are categorised as a Class 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization (WHO). It means there’s “convincing evidence” that these foods cause cancer.
Last year, research published in The Lancet (and sponsored by WHO) revealed that while ultra-processed foods are linked with a greater risk of multimorbidity (when someone has two life-threatening diseases concurrently) of cancer and metabolic diseases, this is associated mostly with animal-derived foods and artificially sweetened or sugary beverages.
Despite misinformation efforts suggesting the contrary, the above study suggested that plant-based meats were not associated with this risk – thanks to the high fibre content and lower amount of saturated fat, sugar and calories than conventional meat.
Impossible Foods’ beef hot dogs contain 50% less total and saturated fat than “a leading animal-based hot dog served in restaurants”, 12g of protein (vs 6g), and zero cholesterol. The company’s research has also found that 71% of taste-testers agree its links taste like their conventional counterparts.
A win for the plant-based industry?
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
A 1,022-person survey last year found that health is the major reason Americans eat vegan or vegetarian diets, with six in 10 choosing it. Previous versions of this poll were part of a larger review outlining that 74% of Americans find plant proteins healthy, a number that drops sharply to 39% for animal protein. But while the adoption of plant-rich diets doubled between 2012 and 2022, this still only accounts for a quarter of the US population.
This is why brands like Impossible Foods are hoping to entice meat-eaters to try vegan analogues, which are also far better for the environment. Even Oscar Mayer, a brand synonymous with hot dogs, is launching a plant-based offering.
Chestnut has recognised this shift, and for a celebrated meat-eater to endorse plant-based meat is a big step forward for the alternative proteins sector. Nathan’s Finest banning him only punctuates this point further.
Even Kobayashi has felt the ill effects of eating hot dogs. In the Netflix documentary Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut, he announced his retirement from the sport after losing his appetite and feeling of fullness. At the end of the film, he expressed a desire to create a healthier hot dog.
“I see this as a win for the plant-based meat industry,” Arun Sundaram, VP and senior equity analyst at CFRA Research, told MarketWatch. “The fact that the industry was able to sponsor one of the greatest hot-dog eaters in the world about a month before the famous hot-dog eating competition makes for some great headlines.”
Today, PETA sent a letter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott urging him to name the lone star tick the state arachnid of the Lone Star State, noting that the tick’s bite could actually help Texans by causing an allergic reaction to red meat and dairy, which would steer them toward nutritious vegan foods that save animals’ lives and the planet.
We also sent Abbott a copy of our Lone Star Tick Cookbook to inspire him to try vegan recipes without encountering the potential state arachnid. We’re urging him to latch on to a good idea and celebrate this minuscule mite with a big title.
Why Should the Lone Star Tick Be the ‘State Arachnid’ of Texas?
Just as the Texas flag has one star, female lone star ticks have one star-shaped spot on their back.
What’s special about them is that their bite can lead to alpha-gal syndrome, causing an allergic reaction to red meat and dairy products.
Even though getting bitten really sucks, going vegan has significant health benefits, such as preventing clogged arteries, which can lead to heart disease—the leading cause of death in Texas and the rest of the nation—as well as protecting against certain types of cancer, strokes, diabetes, and obesity. In addition, it obviously helps animals as well as the planet, as animal agriculture is a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, ocean dead zones, water pollution, species extinction, and habitat destruction.
Since several Texas cities, including Austin, rank high on the list of the best U.S. locations for vegans, many residents are likely already aware of the nightmare that animals exploited for food experience.
On farms, their horns, testicles, and tails are gouged, cut, or ripped from their bodies, and in slaughterhouses, they’re petrified to hear the screams of the animals in front of them struggling to keep from being strung up so that their throats can be slit.
No one should still be clinging to that dirty old meat-eating habit, and anyone ticked off by the way the meat industry treats animals and destroys the environment should go vegan. PETA will even help you get started.
Nadia Schilling, director and chief marketing officer of Australian infant nutrition brand Sprout Organic, talks the lack of vegan formula, seed oils, policy barriers, carbon neutrality, and its UK launch.
As plant-based infant formula goes, the options are few and far between. With 90% of offerings being dairy-based, the category has long been a victim of monopolistic practices by giants like Abbott and Danone, leading to issues like shortages and anti-competitive investigations.
But there are some brands catering to mothers who opt to use formulas, but don’t want to feed their toddlers dairy – which some doctors have warned could trigger allergies, intestinal bleeding and electrolyte imbalances. One of the pioneers in this space is Australia’s Sprout Organic, which has been selling plant-based formula since 2021.
“The regulatory framework for infant formula is primarily designed for dairy, making it challenging to develop a vegan alternative,” Nadia Schilling, director and chief marketing officer of Sprout Organic, tells Green Queen. “We had to navigate uncharted territory and establish new standards. Many companies are intimidated by this complex process and are led to believe that creating a vegan infant formula is not feasible, as many people tried to tell us along our journey.”
The company stands out from other alternative formula makers in that instead of using soy, its formula is made up of rice and pea protein. “Pea protein has a high Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score (DIASS), which measures the quality of protein digestibility. Additionally, the pea protein we use is sprouted and fermented, enhancing its digestibility even further,” explains Schilling.
“When combined with rice protein, it forms a complete amino acid profile, comparable to soy or animal proteins. This makes it an excellent choice for creating a nutritious and easily digestible formula,” she adds.
Contending with seed oils
Courtesy: Sprout Organic
Speaking of ingredients, Sprout Organic uses a blend of coconut, canola and safflower oil. Seed and vegetable oils have come under a lot of scrutiny across the globe lately, with concerns over oxidisation, fatty acid content, and ultra-processing driving many away from these fats.
A major criticism comes due to the presence of omega-6, which contains linoleic acid. Some say this oxidises 40 times faster than saturated fat, and can become ‘toxic’ and cause a host of diseases, including inflammation.
“A lot of the controversy stems from concerns over chemical solvent extraction methods, but this is largely irrelevant when it comes to organic seed oils, where the use of such chemicals is prohibited,” says Schilling, nodding to the presence of trans fats in some highly processed oils. “Being a certified organic product, our oils are cold-pressed, ensuring they are extracted without the use of any heat or chemicals.
“Some customers ask why we can’t simply use coconut oil alone to avoid seed oils. Legally, all infant formulas sold in Australia must contain all essential fatty acids. When blended with coconut oil, safflower, and canola oil, it completes the required fatty acid profile, which supports brain and retina development and brings many beneficial properties to a healthful formula,” she adds.
“Once we have the opportunity to explain this to our customers, they are very supportive.”
Pricing, regulations and hospitals
Courtesy: Sprout Organic
As Schilling alludes to, unsupportive regulation is a major reason why we don’t see too many vegan formula makers. “Historically, dairy farmers in Australia relied heavily on government subsidies, with up to 60% of their income coming from these supports,” she says.
But the industry has been deregulated since 2000, and that has helped Sprout Organic reach price parity with organic dairy formulas (A$39.95 or $26.65 per 700g tin). “In fact, we are often more affordable than many other organic infant formula brands, allowing us to offer a high-quality, plant-based alternative that is accessible to more parents,” outlines Schilling.
She explains that formula brands are not permitted to partner with hospitals in Australia, a policy aimed at protecting breastfeeding. “We support this stance as voluntary signatories to the Australian MAIF [Marketing in Australia of Infant Formulas] agreement,” she says.
However, she believes there’s a need for legislative change in Australia to help mothers and caregivers make informed choices: “We strongly oppose the alienation and bullying of mothers who have made the personal or medically required choice to feed their child formula. It is a delicate balance that must be approached with the utmost respect and sensitivity.”
Going carbon-neutral, and dealing with offsets
Courtesy: Sprout Organic
This week, Sprout Organic announced it was the first Australian kids nutrition company to obtain carbon-neutral certification under the Climate Active standard, a public-private partnership that aims to drive voluntary climate action.
Since most infant formula contains dairy, there is a carbon cost to it. While estimates vary, one study from 2019 suggests that infant formula has twice the carbon footprint of breastfeeding (although contradictory research suggests otherwise). Having the option of using formula is the most crucial element for mothers, but more sustainable versions are only a good thing.
So how has Sprout Organic managed to become carbon-neutral? “Thankfully, the impact of our ingredients at a baseline level was relatively low being 100% plant-based,” says Schilling. “We have diligently measured the impact of each ingredient in our formula, including its packaging.”
“We worked on ways to further reduce our emissions, including sourcing from suppliers closer to our manufacturing site to reduce transportation, in addition to working with our suppliers to improve their environmental practices to ensure alignment,” she explains.
Courtesy: Sprout Organic
Climate Active advocates for carbon offsets for any emissions that companies can’t eliminate, and Sprout Organic also opts to do so by “investing in Australian projects that actively reduce or remove carbon from the atmosphere”.
“We’re well aware that there are some shady offsetting schemes out there, which is why we have been very selective about the projects we support. Our offset projects adhere to the strict integrity framework for Australian Carbon Credit Units, as outlined in the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011,’ says Schilling. “These principles ensure that each unit used to offset emissions represents a genuine and credible reduction, guaranteeing the integrity of our carbon-neutral claims.”
Climate Active also supports businesses hoping to put carbon-neutral logos on packaging. Will Sprout Organic display its climate footprint on its formula? “Due to incredibly strict regulations for infant formula labelling in Australia, we’ve reached out to the relevant authorities to see if this is permitted. We’re waiting for their response and are hopeful we can make this information available soon,” Schilling says.
International expansion on the cards?
Courtesy: Sprout Organic
Sprout Organic’s popularity has transcended its home country, with Schilling revealing that the brand has been “overwhelmed” by global demand through e-commerce, which now “dramatically surpasses” demand from domestic customers. “It’s an ongoing challenge, and we’re doing everything we can to scale in line with this demand,” she says.
“We receive e-commerce orders from over 60 countries worldwide,” she adds. Asked about the regulatory barriers, she explains: “Generally, purchasing for personal use is permitted. However, some countries enforce restrictions on quantity, weight, and commercial value per shipment.”
Regulatory challenges are also why the company hasn’t expanded to any other countries in retail. “In the US, the USDA approval process takes a long 24-36 months and is also designed in a way that can be financially prohibitive for foreign competitors, which played a major role in the recent formula shortages seen in 202,” suggests Schilling.
“With the right investment partner, we are prepared to tackle this challenge and scale our operations to meet the demands of this vast market,” she adds.
However, things are more encouraging if you’re in the UK. “We are actively developing an e-commerce strategy with in-country warehousing to accelerate our market entry,” Schilling says of the company’s British plans. “The rollout will be within the next 12 months.”
All charges against a 13-year-old PETA supporter named Evan have been dropped after he was wrongfully arrested on trespassing charges on March 8 while peacefully protesting against Starbucks for charging extra for the vegan milks it agrees are better for the planet.
Why Was a 13-Year-Old Arrested at Starbucks?
Evan and his family were joining other PETA supporters at a Starbucks store near Orlando, Florida—and although the store manager had given the protesters permission to hold a sit-in there, the coffee giant later called the police on the group.
When police directed the group to leave, Evan was complying by gathering up “Starbucks: Stop Vegan Upcharge” signs when an officer grabbed him, shoved him face-down onto a table, handcuffed him, and illegally questioned him without reading him his rights.
Starbucks’ hypocrisy apparently knows no bounds, from charging more for vegan milks to having a child arrested for asking it to reconsider.
PETA applauds Evan for standing up for calves and the loving mothers they are torn away from by the dairy industry and urges everyone to take inspiration from this passionate young activist by ditching dairy.
Workers in the dairy industry repeatedly forcibly impregnate cows and take their calves from them within a day of birth. The milk meant to nourish the babies is stolen and sold to humans. Once a cow’s body wears out from repeated pregnancies, she’s sent to slaughter.
Be Like Evan: Ask Starbucks to Stop Charging Extra for Vegan Milk!
Starbucks should encourage customers to choose animal-friendly, vegan milk rather than cow’s milk. Many other chains—including Panera Bread, Pret A Manger, Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Noah’s New York Bagels, and Philz Coffee—already offer dairy-free milk at no extra charge. Starbucks in the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, and the U.K. and most of the company’s stores in France have already dropped the vegan milk upcharge.
Global plant-based food leader Wicked Kitchen has been acquired by the newly formed Ahimsa Companies, which seeks to lead an “industry-wide consolidation effort”.
Ahimsa Companies, a newly formed holding company by the Ahimsa Foundation, has acquired vegan food brand Wicked Kitchen and its subsidiaries Good Catch and Current Foods for an undisclosed sum.
With global plant-based sales flatlining last year, investment on the decline, and meat analogues facing a downturn in purchases in the US, many have suggested that consolidation could be key to the future of the category. This is Ahimsa Companies’ aim too, leading a sector-wide consolidation effort to generate opportunities for vertical integration and scale-up.
“We’ve said all along that consolidation will drive success for the plant-based industry,” said group CEO Matt Tullman. “As Ahimsa Companies brings together more brands, it can leverage this strength to help stabilise and shape the new landscape for the plant-based industry.”
Why Ahimsa Companies acquired Wicked Kitchen
Courtesy: Wicked Kitchen
Wicked Kitchen, a maker of plant-based ready meals, desserts, snacks and ingredients, was founded by brothers Derek and Chad Sarno in 2016. Until last year, the former was head of plant-based innovation at Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, where which brought the brand to market in 2018.
The startup has since grown internationally, with products available in over 20,000 retail locations and a roster of more than 150 offerings. And as it began to expand, Wicked Kitchen itself brought other brands into the fold. In September 2022, it acquired vegan seafood producer Good Catch, another company founded by the Sarno brothers.
And last year, it bought another plant-based seafood startup, Current Foods. This came amid a rollercoaster-like period for seafood analogues, which made up just 1% of sales of the overall meat analogues category. While brands like Konscious Foods and Hooked Foods expanded their footprint, others were forced to shut, such as Ordinary Seafood and New Wave Foods.
Consolidation has been pinpointed as a solution to the volatility. Peter McGuinness, CEO of plant-based meat giant Impossible Foods, alluded to this in a recent interview with Bloomberg. “There are a lot of companies that are making food that’s not great food. There’s 200 plant-based companies in America – probably only need three, or two. So there’s a lot of small companies making not-so-great food and people are having bad first impressions,” he said.
“You’re going to be left with a couple of brands and private labels, and that’s going to be the category.”
Ahimsa Foods similarly believes consolidation is “critical to the growth and success” of the sector, and now plans to add multiple brands, as well as manufacturing and sales enablement businesses, to its roster, with the goal of vertically integrating and leveraging resources.
Wicked Kitchen, meanwhile, will expand to additional retailers, add to its foodservice offerings, and invest in further product innovation following the acquisition. “We are aligned in our mission, and we believe that Wicked Kitchen is stronger today and better positioned to serve the health and environmentally conscious consumer who does not want to sacrifice on taste or convenience,” said Pete Speranza, who has been the brand’s CEO since 2020.
He and the Sarno brothers will remain shareholders in the new business.
Plant-based M&A deals ramp up
Courtesy: Vegan Food Group
This is far from the only consolidation deal in the vegan sector recently. In fact, last year saw M&A deals in the overall food industry jump by 57%, according to one report, with the estimated value climbing by 20% to reach £2.1B.
“There is potential for increased M&A activity in areas of the plant-based market that are showing resilience or growth, such as indulgent categories or products offered by discount retailers,” said Sam Sharp, senior associate and food and drink head at British-Irish law firm Browne Jacobson. “Companies might look to acquire or invest in brands that have successfully navigated the current economic climate or are aligned with consumer trends towards healthier and more sustainable options.”
A month earlier, US non-dairy coffee creamer brand Nutpods was acquired by newly formed CPG investment arm MPearlRock, around the same time Australian plant-based meat maker v2food took over ready meal brands Soulara and Macros. Meanwhile, vegan fast-casual chain Next Level Burger purchased restaurant group Veggie Grill (alongside its Más Veggies taco chain) in January as well.
This followed Indian superfood brand Nourish You’s acquisition of alt-dairy startup One Good in late 2023, in one of the country’s largest plant-based M&A deals. British artisanal vegan cheesemaker Palace Culture was taken over by The Compleat Food Group (formerly Winterbotham Darby) a month earlier, just as Canada’s Protein Powered Farms bought Lovingly Made Ingredients, a plant protein extrusion facility.
And in October, Finnish alt-dairy brand Oddlygood acquired Nordic brand Planti, while recently founded US company Superlatus agreed to buy plant-based dairy and egg startup Spero, months after it agreed to purchase precision fermentation dairy leader Perfect Day’s consumer arm The Urgent Company.
That month, German food conglomerate Pfeifer & Langen also earned a majority stake in Rügenwalder Mühle, which produces vegan sausages. And Australia’s All G Foods spun off its alt-meat brand Love Buds, which merged with Fenn Foods’ vEEF to form The Aussie Plant-Based Co.
“In the context of flat or declining category demand, consolidation, and M&As are vital for rapid growth in the plant-based sector. These strategies allow companies to scale, innovate, and navigate through resilience challenges more effectively,” Vegan Food Group co-founder Matthew Glover told Green Queen in February. “Combining resources and expertise through M&As enables businesses to expand their market presence and improve supply chains efficiently, which is crucial when organic growth is hard to achieve.”
Following news that Red Lobster has filed for bankruptcy and closed dozens of restaurants, PETA sent the chain’s CEO, Jonathan Tibus, delicious, flaky crab-free crab cakes as well as a nip of whiskey and a note encouraging him to take a shot, then give vegan seafood a shot.
Hey, Red Lobster, Try Banking on Kindness
PETA celebrates the closure of many of Red Lobster locations, a sign that today’s diners are buying more vegan seafood and less sea life. But despite its financial floundering, the chain is leaving nearly 600 of its restaurants afloat while attempting to restructure.
How might large restaurant chains like Red Lobster prove that they’re not morally bankrupt? They could consider how using other animals for food is a leading cause of poor human health and the climate catastrophe, to start. PETA has another solid pinch of advice to offer when it comes to consideration for other species:
This is Red Lobster’s chance to stop treating other species like products instead of living, feeling animals—which the ocean will be empty of by 2048 if humans keep killing sea life.
Red Lobster cites its choice to permanently place “endless shrimp” on its menu in mid-2023 as the primary reason for going bankrupt. Rather than seeking the source of sinking finances, PETA urges Red Lobster—and everyone—to consider this: Bottomless shrimp? The number of animals in the ocean isn’t “bottomless.”
“Red Lobster’s day of reckoning for selling the flesh of sea animals who were abducted from their ocean homes or packed into filthy farms is here. PETA urges the chain to acknowledge the turning of the tide and embrace a vegan rebrand—for everyone’s sake.”
—PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman
And vegan seafood is booming. The global plant-based seafood market size was valued at $42.1 million in 2021 and is projected to reach $1.3 billion by 2031.
What Sea Life on Red Lobster’s Menu Endures
Crabs and lobsters are curious, social, sensitive beings, yet they’re often thrown into pots of scalding-hot water and boiled alive. Many whip their bodies wildly and scrape the sides of the pot in a desperate attempt to escape an agonizing death.
Other aquatic animals taken from their ocean homes are impaled, crushed, suffocated, or cut open and gutted, all while they’re still conscious.
Humans farm fish on massive, crowded aquafarms, where many fish endure early deaths from parasitic infections, diseases, and injuries. Workers starve those who survive for days before they’re sent to slaughter. And trillions of fish are taken from their homes each year for food.
Every person who goes vegan saves the lives of nearly 200 animals—including aquatic ones—every year.
It’s highly irresponsible for massive corporate chains like Red Lobster to keep serving animals as food since the production and consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy is devastating the planet and human health. Creating tasty vegan dishes is simple now, so there’s no excuse for restaurants to continue plating up cruelty and destruction.
How You Can Help
Every animal is someone—not food. And choosing vegan seafood is easier than ever. Never order a “meal” made from the corpses of sea life or any other animal. Try our free vegan starter kit, and send one to a friend while you’re at it:
Californian alternative protein leader Eat Just has debuted the fifth iteration of its vegan Just Egg, made from mung beans, which further closes the gap in taste and functionality with conventional eggs.
It’s five years, five versions for Eat Just’s market-leading Just Egg, which now promises to match chicken eggs on flavour and functionality better than ever before.
Announced in time for National Egg Day (June 3), Just Egg v5 is said to be the brand’s “biggest jump” in the taste, texture and functionality of its vegan liquid egg since its launch in 2019, with co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick calling it “the best Just Egg we’ve ever made”.
The enhanced egg alternative has had no changes in its ingredients – instead, it’s all about the manufacturing of its mung bean protein, which forms the base of Just Egg. “Since the day the idea for this product was born, our goal has been to create an egg that tastes better, is better for you, and has the same or better functionality than a conventional egg, and v5 Just Egg represents a huge step toward that goal,” said Tetrick.
This chimes with the brand’s 2024 goal, as a spokesperson told Green Queen in January, “to sell healthier, sustainable products to millions of consumers in a way that enables the company to sustain itself in the long term”.
Fluffier, lighter, eggier – but no new ingredients
The new liquid Just Egg is said to have a cleaner flavour profile than previous versions, which provides a more neutral palette for dishes from scrambles to quiches and allows its “pillowy, creamy texture” to dominate. The new formulation also elevates baking applications like breads, cookies, pancakes or muffins, thanks to better binding and aeration characteristics.
The latest in a series of updates comes as Eat Just works towards a mung bean egg with superior flavour, functionality and nutritional profile than chicken eggs. The efforts to do so have traversed multiple disciplines, ranging from culinary expertise and protein science to operations and engineering.
Just Egg’s newest iteration doesn’t have any new ingredients or alterations in its current ingredient list. It was actually born out of its team’s attempts to simplify the manufacturing process of its pourable vegan egg. But after testing out several process changes in its mung bean protein processing plant in Appleton, Minnesota, the company discovered positive benefits to the final product, alongside a more streamlined process.
The taste and performance of the resulting vegan egg has impressed professional chefs, including American celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern. “Well over a decade ago, I became one of the first people in the world to try the very first version of Just Egg,” he said, describing it as “absolutely unbelievable”.
“This latest iteration is fluffier and lighter, with better egg texture and more eggy flavour – and it performs better than any previous version I’ve tried. I cannot tell the difference between this and a conventional scrambled egg,” he added.
“And quite frankly, it’s so much better for me. No GMOs, no artificial flavours, no egg, no cholesterol, 50g of protein in this whole carton. That is a delicious egg,” Zimmern said in an Instagram video.
Eat Just has rolled out the Just Egg v5 at stores across the US, including Whole Foods, Sprouts, Walmart, Target, and Kroger. Its pourable and folded eggs are available in 48,000 retail locations, as well as 3,300 foodservice spots in the US and Canada, like Planta, Barnes & Noble, Caffè Nero, Peet’s Coffee, and Philz Coffee.
Meeting consumer needs to drive category forward
Courtesy: Eat Just
Just Egg is responsible for 99% of sales in the plant-based egg market, and Eat Just claims it is one of the fastest-growing egg brands – plant-based or otherwise – nationwide. To date, it has sold the equivalent of 500 million chicken eggs, preventing 87 million kgs of CO2e from entering the atmosphere, saving 18.3 billion gallons of water, and averting 26,900 acres of land from being farmed for soy and corn to feed chickens.
But its product reformulation speaks to a wider need for plant-based brands – whether they’re industry leaders or fledgling startups – to continue to innovate to meet consumer needs. Beyond Meat, for example, relaunched its flagship beef mince and burger earlier this year with a healthier recipe and enhanced taste credentials.
A recent survey of 1,500 Americans revealed that one of the main barriers to consumer adoption of plant-based foods is the health perspective, especially when it comes to vegan eggs. Despite the frequent threat of avian flu, this was the only food category where more respondents felt the animal-derived version was healthier (30%) than vegan analogues (27%).
It perhaps explains why plant-based eggs are only bought by 1% of American households (although repeat purchases increased from 38% in 2020 to 48% in 2023). Last year, sales dropped by 5% to $43M. So there’s a sizeable opportunity for companies like Eat Just, and meeting consumers’ health expectations with newer formulations is a no-brainer.
It will also help the business on its path to becoming profitable. “It’s the most important objective of the company and the team is focused on increasing the probability of achieving it,” Eat Just told Green Queen earlier this year, after relaunching its cult-favourite vegan mayo.
As of November, Just Egg made up 99.9% of its profits. But Eat Just’s cultivated meat arm Good Meat, however, has been embroiled in several legal battles over the years. The biggest dispute concerns contract manufacturer ABEC, which had sued the alternative protein company for $100M over unpaid bills. Last month, a judge in Pennsylvania sided with Eat Just on some matters, and ABEC on others. While the case is ongoing, ABEC has now accused Eat Just of “bad faith” and engaging with “the worst aspects of litigation practice in the profession”.
Good Meat, meanwhile, hit a milestone by becoming the first company to introduce cultivated meat in retail, debuting a hybrid version of its chicken (with 3% cultivated cells) at Huber’s Butchery in Singapore.
Hellmann’s has made a big splash by rebranding its vegan mayo to appeal to flexitarians, in a sign of the influence of labels on sustainable food purchases.
In the UK, Hellmann’s egg-free mayonnaise is no longer labelled ‘vegan’, with the Unilever-owned brand opting for ‘Plant Based Mayo’ as a way to become more “inclusive” to flexitarians.
The relaunched spread – which first appeared in the UK market in 2018 – now comes with a new recipe and redesigned packaging in a move that aims to solve multiple pain points at once: food waste, health concerns, and label barriers.
The decision to drop the term ‘vegan’ from packaging is a conscious one, with the brand saying there was “considerable headroom for growth” in the vegan mayo world, “particularly from consumers who want to cut back on animal-based products without becoming fully vegan”.
Currently rolling out across UK supermarkets, the new mayo now also has less rapeseed oil (down from 72% to 52%), supplementing it with a seemingly lower amount of sunflower oil. Plus, it now has xanthan gum.
Hellmann’s leans into vegan labelling research
Courtesy: GFI
Explaining its reasoning, Hellmann’s said its consumer research has shown that “the word ‘vegan’ can be a barrier for flexitarians, who see ‘plant-based’ as more inclusive”.
This chimes with a plethora of other studies on sustainable food labelling. In 2019, analysis by alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute found that terms like ‘100% plant-based’ and plant-based (both 53%) are much more appealing to consumers than ‘vegan’ (35%), which was amongst the least effective ways to label vegan food.
Similarly, an oft-cited study by the University of Southern California last year – covering 7,341 people – used gift baskets as a gauge for which labels work. Participants were asked to choose between a vegan and non-vegan food basket, with the former being labelled in five different ways.
Only 20% chose the ‘vegan’ gift basket over the meat and dairy one, while 27% picked it when labelled ‘plant-based’. However, describing them with impactful attributes represented a significant upturn: when marked as ‘healthy’, 42% went with the vegan basket, while 43% did so for those tagged as ‘sustainable’ or 44% when labelled as both ‘healthy’ and ‘sustainable’.
This is why phrases like “100% sustainably sourced oils”, “free from artificial colours and flavours”, and “good source of omega-3” are prominent in Hellmann’s messaging around the rebranded Plant Based Mayo.
Vegan giants like Impossible Foods and Eat Just have also been using terms like ‘meat from plants’ and ‘made from plants’ for their meat and egg analogues, respectively. In fact, the latter simply labels its relaunched vegan spread as ‘Just Mayo’ to attract flexitarians, who hold the key to success for plant-based food manufacturers.
But when the world’s largest mayonnaise brand – a subsidiary of one of the biggest CPG companies globally – bids adieu to the word ‘vegan’, it’s a telling reminder that labelling matters. Hellmann’s plant-based sales have been growing for four consecutive years, so for Unilever to make the change, it’s an indicator that ‘vegan’ wording may be blocking the full potential of climate-friendly food sales.
Since the company is aiming to reach €1.5B ($1.6B) in annual sales from plant-based products in categories that would have traditionally used animal-derived ingredients by next year, targeting flexitarians with its Plant Based Mayo is a shrewd move. In a similar move, its latest non-dairy ice cream is branded as Magnum Chill Blueberry Cookie, a departure from the Magnum Vegan moniker.
Redesigned packaging leaves less Plant Based Mayo in the bottle
Courtesy: Hellmann’s/Green Queen
The announcement accompanied a change in the egg-free mayo’s packaging, part of the brand’s long-standing efforts to cut food waste. Debuting in the UK and Ireland later this year, the new squeeze bottles are now lined with an edible plant-based coating that prevents the mayonnaise from sticking to the sides and minimises the amount left over after the spread is used up.
“We know consumers want to be able to squeeze out as much product as possible – it’s an important cost and value benefit,” Krassimir Velikov, senior science and programme leader at Unilever, said of the new “easy-out” technology. “Some of the ingredients used in the plant-based mayo presented us with specific challenges, as they made the mayo more prone to getting stuck in the bottle. Correcting this issue involved creating an edible, vegan coating that would prevent this sticking problem by making the inside of the bottle more slippery,” he explained.
“We had to make sure that this ‘easy out’ coating hit a balance that would achieve the desired ‘easy out’ effect without interacting with the product. Even a slight change could make an enormous difference. For example, a tenth of a percentage increase of the plant-based ‘egg’ could add a full 15g leftover portion to the waste.”
Velikov added that by minimising the leftover mayo, the tech helps keep its bottles – which are “made with 100% recycled plastic where technically feasible” – in the recycling process. “If they exceed the maximum weight threshold needed, they will be rejected for recycling. By helping consumers to leave less mayo in the bottles, we in effect help them recycle more successfully,” he said.
Hellmann’s has a commendable record with food waste, having launched a Make Taste, Not Waste campaign in 2018 to fight this issue. Its research shows that 59% of consumers feel brands have a role to play here, especially since food waste accounts for 8-10% of global emissions.
The mayo maker’s food waste initiatives have involved a four-week-long Fridge Night challenge, dedicated Super Bowl ads for the last four years, a partnership with Ogilvy for use-what-you’ve-got recipes, a Smart Jar that revealed hidden messages when placed in fridges at 5°C or lower, a Meal Reveal tool to provide recipe ideas from what people have in their fridges, and a collaboration with Italy’s ID.Eight to launch a collection of sneakers made from food waste.
That said, Unilever itself is walking back on several of its climate pledges, including abandoning its goal of cutting food waste in its operations by 50% by 2025. Its commitment to roll out carbon labels on the packaging of all 75,000 of its products by 2026 seems to be forgotten too. “It is possible that some of our brands may wish to communicate product carbon footprints in the future, and for this having accurate data is essential,” a company representative told Green Queen in April.
“We also know information must be provided in context to be meaningful to consumers,” they added, outlining that the business was “committed to improving transparency of GHG emissions” in its value chain. “Our collection of more accurate data will help Unilever to make more informed procurement decisions as we work towards our climate targets.
A new consumer survey highlights the three key barriers to plant-based food purchases in the US, and the opportunities for brands to overcome them.
Alternative protein finds itself at a bit of a crossroads in the US, where sales and investment have dwindled, as has the number of vegans. But while plant-based meat did lose a bit of steam in terms of purchases, dairy analogues remained on their growth trajectory, and traditional proteins like tofu and tempeh gained slightly.
Over the last year, the health focus has really taken over how people interact with food. Cleaner labels, whole foods, and high-fibre are all-important now. Taste still remains crucial, however, and plant-based meat brands are doubling down on the flavour and nutrition focus to regain customers who may have had a loss of faith.
So while there’s been a dip, there’s also a lot of opportunity. A new survey by Dig Insights – in consultation with the Good Food Institute and the Plant Based Foods Association – dives into the thoughts of 1,500 Americans to find out what’s missing in the alternative protein industry, and how to address it.
The poll revealed that 64% of US consumers are looking to increase their protein intake, especially younger demographics. But there’s a gap to fill with older respondents – 60% of Gen Xers, for example, haven’t tried tofu, tempeh or seitan, while 52% have never tried meat analogues either. Meanwhile, for 47% of Americans, finding plant-based meat in the grocery store isn’t easy.
All these challenges open up new opportunities for plant-based food companies. Here are the three major barriers to widespread consumer adoption, and how to address them.
Barrier #1: Not everyone sees plant-based as healthier
Courtesy: Dig Insights
The research found that the number of Americans who think plant-based meat or seafood products are healthier than their conventional counterparts (29%) is the same as those who believe the opposite to be true. Across the board, over 40% of people find vegan foods to be nutritionally on par with animal proteins.
In fact, there are more respondents who find tofu, tempeh, seitan and plant-based dairy healthier than those who don’t, with the largest gap appearing for milk – 40% say plant-based milk is healthier, but only 19% think it’s less healthy than cow’s milk. The perception of vegan eggs, however, is on the flip side, with more Americans finding them unhealthier.
But even with a majority of consumers trying to up their protein consumption, 47% aren’t too familiar with plant-based meat. And therein lies the opportunity, says the report, which found a correlation between those who want more protein and their willingness to buy plant-based protein in supermarkets and restaurants.
Among these consumers, 28% have ordered dishes with plant-based proteins in restaurants (4% more than those who aren’t looking to increase protein consumption) – 45% of these respondents state it’s very important for restaurants to have options with plant proteins. Similarly, nearly a third (32%) of protein-seekers expressed a willingness to buy these products in the grocery store, versus 28% of those not looking to eat more protein.
“The consumers becoming more accustomed to plant-based proteins are also those who will be dining out regularly,” the report suggests. “Creating plant-based protein-filled meal options, with an emphasis on protein content, caters to a wide audience of consumers, including those who may not typically consume plant-based protein.”
Barrier #2: Taste and texture need a perception change
Courtesy: Dig Insights
Despite 57% of survey respondents ordering food weekly, only 24% have opted for a plant-based dish off the menu. Meanwhile, 84% of people who will decidedly not buy plant-based meat in the supermarket never see themselves eating these analogues. Dig Insights ascribes this to “taste, texture, and familiarity”.
About 30% of consumers are just not familiar with plant-based meat, tofu, tempeh, et al. And, even among the Americans either likely to buy meat alternatives or leaning against it (but aren’t decided yet), only 16% would purchase them for their taste and texture attributes. Similarly, in a restaurant setting, taste (54%) is the biggest reason deterring consumers from choosing meat analogues, followed by texture (42%) and unfamiliarity (30%).
However, 91% of Americans who try plant-based protein like the taste and texture and are satisfied with it. This highlights a major perception gap for plant-based meat products, and the need for greater education. Focusing on product samples in retail locations and promotions in restaurants are two of the best ways of doing this.
This is because 31% of Americans would buy plant-based meat in grocery stores if they were offered free samples, and 30% would do so if it were on sale. And 15% don’t eat these products in restaurants due to a lack of offerings, and because the people they’re dining with don’t consume them either.
Courtesy: Dig Insights
Another key aspect of consumer education is the environmental impact of plant-based foods compared to meat. The latter emits twice as many greenhouse gases as the former, and makes up 60% of the food system’s emissions. Despite this, 62% of Americans think the climate footprint of plant-based meat is the same or even bigger. This should come as no surprise, as previous research has shown that 74% of Americans don’t think eating meat is bad for the planet.
“There’s a large opportunity to educate omnivores and carnivores (who make up 45% and 21% of consumers, respectively) on the environmental benefits of eating plant-based meats,” the report says. “Educating consumers on the impacts will lead to them being more persuaded on purchasing and incorporating plant-based proteins in their diet regularly.”
Barrier #3: It’s hard to identify plant-based products
Plant-based meats are going through a bit of an identity crisis, both in the metaphorical and literal sense. Only 38% of Americans find it easy to identify meat analogues on supermarket shelves. And, surprisingly, Gen Zers and millennials have a harder time doing so than Gen X consumers. Similarly, spotting these products is most challenging for vegans (50%), while omnivores and carnivores are much more adept at this.
“Convenience, visibility, and brand awareness are crucial factors when it comes to consumer purchasing decisions in grocery stores,” says the report. While conventional practice is to separate plant-based from animal-derived meats, study upon study has shown the benefits of putting the former in the meat aisle.
The survey saw a majority of Americans agree that all plant-based foods should be placed in the same refrigerated section as animal foods, with 69% saying so for meat and 75% for milk. There are two ways of doing this: fully incorporating plant proteins alongside their animal counterparts, or putting them in the same aisle but in a separate subsection – more respondents preferred the latter, although preferences vary based on purchase frequency.
Courtesy: Dig Insights
When it comes to restaurants, menu descriptions and placements are influential. Four in five (81%) want the words ‘plant-based’ in the dish’s name, and another 80% want the source of the protein mentioned. Customisation options (78%) and flavour indicators (86%) are vital too.
Finally, brand recognition and recommendations/reviews continue to be important purchase drivers for plant-based meat in retail, and clear labelling and differentiation in restaurants represent further education opportunities for consumers.
“Despite the surge in popularity, there remain significant untapped markets and consumer misconceptions to address. By focusing on education, product visibility, and catering to the increasing demand for protein-rich options, brands can effectively expand their reach and capitalise on the diverse preferences of consumers,” states Dig Insights.
“Through strategic initiatives such as sampling programmes, promotional offers, and enhanced product placement, the plant-based protein industry can overcome existing barriers and pave the way for sustained growth in the future.”
Imagine you’ve just cooked dinner: Chewy but firm noodles, still a little wet, are sitting in your pan—and you’re panicking. Why? Because you’re not cooking spaghetti—you were planning on eating a chicken’s flesh. Why does my chicken breast look like noodles? Since 2015, reports of “spaghetti meat” chicken breasts have flooded the internet. But what exactly is “spaghetti chicken,” and is it OK to eat? Find out why chicken flesh is getting “spaghettified” and what you can do to avoid having “spaghetti chicken” on your plate.
What Is ‘Spaghetti Chicken’ Breast?
When you see “spaghetti chicken,” think “painfully crippled chicken,” because the meat industry’s manipulation of chickens’ bodies to grow unnaturally large has caused roughly 5% to 7% of the 8 billion chickens killed for their flesh in the U.S. each year to have stringy, spaghetti-like pectoral muscle fibers.
We call that “spaghetti meat” chicken breast. It happens when chickens (broilers) are grown too fast, and the pectoral muscles become stringy and loses its value. It is safe to eat but that’s why it’s cheap. It’s an abnormally within the muscle from fast breeding chickens https://t.co/nkJOkDjKzi
Breeding and drugging chickens to grow so large so quickly that their legs and organs can’t keep up not only results in muscle damage that appears as “spaghetti meat,” “woody chicken breast,” or green chicken flesh but also causes the birds to suffer from the following health problems:
Heart attacks
Organ failure
Crippling leg deformities
Many hens become crippled under their own weight and eventually die because they can’t reach water nozzles.
Is Stringy Chicken Breast OK to Eat?
“Spaghetti chicken” breast is never OK to eat. Chickens are capable of feeling pain, grief, love, joy, anxiety, and a whole range of other emotions, just like humans.
When these birds are permitted to engage in their natural behavior, they are social and like to spend their days together, scratching for food, taking dust baths, roosting in trees, and lying in the sun. But chickens are arguably the most abused animals on the planet—and most of those raised in the U.S. don’t get to enjoy anything that’s natural or important to them.
Almost all chickens raised for their flesh in the U.S., called “broilers” by the speciesist chicken industry, spend their entire lives in filthy sheds with tens of thousands of other birds, and the intense crowding and confinement often lead to outbreaks of disease, such as bird flu.
When the birds are only 6 or 7 weeks old, workers cram them into cages and truck them to slaughter.
Those who survive the journey are shackled and hung upside down by slaughterhouse workers. who then send them through an electrified water bath intended, but often failing, to stun them, and many are still conscious when their throats are slit and they’re scalded to death in defeathering tanks.
What About ‘Humane’ Labels Like ‘Cage-Free’ and ‘Free-Range’?
Many companies slap misleading labels touting compassion on the same cruelly sourced products they’ve sold for decades. This is known as humane washing, and it’s a marketing ploy meant to deceive consumers into believing they’re making kind choices when they actually haven’t. There’s no compassionate way to obtain chicken flesh.
What About Eggs From ‘Cage-Free’ Chickens?
The egg industry tries to deceive consumers through humane washing just as the meat industry does in an attempt to hide facts such as the following:
Hens are confined to severely crowded warehouses.
The tips of chicks’ beaks are commonly burned or cut off.
Up to 86% of hens used in “cage-free” egg production have broken bones.
All male chicks are killed—often by being ground up while they’re still alive or thrown into the trash to suffocate—because they’re considered useless.
How to Avoid ‘Spaghetti Meat’ Chicken Breasts
It’s easy to avoid “spaghetti meat” chicken: If you buy only vegan chicken, you won’t end up with a dead animal’s stringy muscle fibers on your plate, and you’ll be able to enjoy your meal knowing that no birds suffered for it. Your takeaway order or shopping cart shouldn’t have heads, wings, breasts, or thighs in it. Chickens need their body parts,—and humans don’t!
Finding out about “spaghetti meat” isn’t the first time that the animal-eating side of the internet has been shocked to find animal body parts in their order of… animal body parts: There’s been a chicken head in an order of chickens’ wings, a “zombie” chicken carcass, a frozen duck head—these viral anecdotes serve as dramatic reminders that no one wants to be killed for food. If you’re tired of finding body parts in your food, there’s only one thing to do: Go vegan!
With a wave of urgency calling for action to protect coral reefs, PETA has placed a provocative new ad that reads, “Beef or Reef? We Can’t Have Both,” in two major cities. Near various beef restaurants in Chicago—including Al’s Beef—the ad was posted ahead of National Italian Beef Day on May 25. In Miami Beach on 14 transit shelters near meat-centric restaurants, the ad hit just before World Reef Awareness Day on June 1. Highlighting how meat consumption is a massive part of the ongoing climate catastrophe, PETA urges everyone to consider coral reefs and cows—and go vegan.
Oh, Chicago: Help a Reef, Cut Out Beef
PETA supporters handed out free vegan jerky to Chicago diners headed into Al’s on Wells Street on National Italian Beef Day.
Our sky-high appeal nearby warns folks in the Windy City that animal agriculture is a leading cause of the climate catastrophe that’s killing coral reefs.
Dear Miami Beach, Ditch Beef
Ahead of World Reef Awareness Day, PETA plastered the ad across Miami Beach and close to the following restaurants: 1977 Fly and Grill, New Campo Argentino Steakhouse, Fresh Restaurant, Grill House, Baires Grill, Ocean Grill, Wok to Walk, A Fish Called Avalon, Smith & Wollensky, LT Steak & Seafood, and Safron Mediterranean Grill.
Just as in Chicago, the striking visual plea reminds everyone dining in Miami Beach that eating meat is a leading cause of the climate catastrophe that’s destroying coral reefs and to choose reefs over beef by going vegan.
The Link: Cows and Coral Reefs
Coral reefs face threats from pollution, the fishing industry, and the ongoing climate emergency, which is partly caused by animal agriculture and is raising seawater temperatures and causing coral bleaching worldwide. The reefs are dying since humans keep eating other animals, who need massive amounts of land, energy, and water and emit enormous quantities of greenhouse gases. Animal agriculture is an existential threat to the planet, and PETA is urging everyone to go vegan before it’s too late.
Oxford University research shows that every person who goes vegan lowers their food-related carbon footprint by up to 73%, making it the most effective way to reduce one’s negative impact on the planet. By doing so, each human also spares nearly 200 fellow animals’ lives per year. PETA offers a free vegan starter kit on our website to make the switch even simpler.
Along with caring for the environment, having compassion for other animals is crucial. Cows are playful, social animals with good memories. The mother-and-calf bond is particularly strong, and there are countless reports of mother cows who continue to call and search frantically for their babies after the calves have been taken away and sold to veal or beef farms. Every cow is someone, so be considerate and leave them and all other animals off your plate.
What You Can Do
Help cows and coral reefs by making the environmentally conscious and kind choice: Please, go vegan. Try our free vegan starter kit, and send one to a friend while you’re at it:
Taylor Swift fans could buy plant-based meat dishes at her Eras Tour concerts in Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.
“You smoked then ate seven vegan nuggets.”
Taylor Swift may not exactly have butchered the lyrics to her latest title track the way I’ve done, but fans attending her Eras Tour shows in Madrid’s Bernabéu stadium could certainly do one of those two things this week.
While she performed at Real Madrid’s iconic home on May 29 and May 30, her team enlisted Spanish food tech startup Heura to offer plant-based meat products to the 130,000 concertgoers. Fans in both the general and VIP areas could choose dishes like vegan chicken nuggets, pork sausages, and burgers, but it was still a somewhat surprise move by the artist.
It marks another feather in the cap for Heura, which saw sales hike by 22% annually in 2023, and bring in another €40M in Series B funding. The company is now aiming to become profitable this year.
“Heura is present this year at many festivals in Spain and France, being the official gastronomic partner at Madcool (Madrid), Arenal Sound (Valencia) and Marsattac (Marseille), offering plant-based options for all attendees,” Anna Monreal, head of public relations at Heura, told Green Queen.
The vegan meat options at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour
Courtesy: Heura
The Madrid shows weren’t exclusively plant-based, but did feature a bunch of different vegan options. So whether you’re Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus, there was something for everyone while you watched it happen on the stage.
Heura’s soy chicken pieces were part of three different dishes. There was a snack wrap with marinated chicken and mustard mayo; a sandwich with spicy chicken, morsels, sundried tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and a black garlic mayo; and a curry with Heura chunks. The brand served its vegan chicken nuggets as well.
Additionally, Swift’s fans could opt for a chorizo roll with Heura’s pork sausage, and a Heura beef burger with pickles, sauce and vegan cheese.
This is not the first time Swift has offered meat analogues at the Eras Tour. In her four-day stay at Mexico City’s Foro Sol stadium in August, local startup Propel Foods served vegan tacos made from its plant-based Bistec steak, Chorizo and Pastor products.
And in April, vegan seafood producer The Ish Company presented its plant-based Shrimpish as part of a grain bowl during her shows at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
“Taylor Swift has been making positive strides towards promoting plant-based food and sustainability through her influence and actions,” said Monreal. “These initiatives not only provide healthier and more sustainable food options at large events but also help reduce the carbon footprint associated with meat production.”
Taylor Swift and climate change: a complicated love story
Courtesy: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
As the world’s biggest artist and one of its most influential people, Swift’s climate change impact is a closely watched phenomenon.
There are, of course, the infamous private jets, which earned her the distinction of being the biggest celebrity polluter in 2022. Last year, a now-defunct Instagram page called Taylor Swift’s Jets went viral, tracking the 34-year-old’s journeys on private jets and calculating her emissions to be 138 tons in just three months – that’s about the annual climate footprint of nine Americans.
Swift’s representatives have noted that her “jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals”, and attributing “most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect”. But when you fly 5,500 miles to see Travis Kelce win the Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs (who are already facing their own animal cruelty crisis as we speak), three months after you’re named Person of the Year by TIME Magazine, you can’t be upset about the backlash.
And while purchasing “more than double the carbon credits needed to offset all tour travel” ahead of the Eras Tour might be a well-intentioned thing to do, carbon credits are highly problematic. Maybe she could convince 70,000 Swifties to cut their beef consumption in half, which would offset all of her flying emissions would be offset, if you’ll believe the rigorous back-of-the-envelope calculations of one Reddit user.
All that said, Swift has been vocal about her anti-fur stance, choosing to wear faux in the music video for Lavender Haze (from the 2022 album Midnights). “It’s not real fur ’cause we’re not, you know, heathens,” she said memorably.
“Taylor Swift has collaborated with fashion designer Stella McCartney on a vegan fashion line. This line, launched in conjunction with her album Lover, included eco-friendly and animal-free products such as jackets, tops, and bags. This collaboration emphasises sustainable manufacturing processes and fur- and leather-free designs, highlighting Swift’s commitment to ethical fashion,” says Monreal.
“These efforts collectively enhance Taylor Swift’s positive impact by promoting plant-based products and sustainability, encouraging her vast fan base to consider more environmentally friendly choices.”
Let’s hope the Eras Tour keeps serving more vegan meat (Taylor’s Version).
As the famed hazelnut spread turns 60, confectionery giant Ferrero will introduce a vegan version of Nutella in Europe later this year.
In the TV show How I Met Your Mother, there’s an episode where all the main characters contend with the essence of being a New Yorker. The consensus? Steal a cab from someone who needs it more. Cry on the subway and not care what anybody else thinks. Kill a cockroach with your bare hands.
This is what makes you a New Yorker, according to the characters in the show.
If you live in New York, you could argue all day about these stipulations – just as you could if you’re vegan. What makes you a true vegan? I don’t really know, but there is one thing I feel is almost a rite of passage if you follow that lifestyle.
At some point, I’d wager most vegans have attempted to make their own version of Nutella at home. You know the drill: you make hazelnut butter, add some kind of sweetener, some kind of cocoa powder or chocolate, maybe a little vanilla, and voila! There are countless recipes online and on cookbook pages that tell you how to make a copycat Nutella, just using your kitchen.
Forgive the garrulous introduction, but it’s hard to understate how big a deal it is that Ferrero – the world’s second-largest confectionery company – is at long last catering to vegans with its flagship product. This autumn, the Italian brand will unveil a plant-based Nutella in Europe, marking the spread’s 60th anniversary with a highly sought-after version.
Keeping up with the times
Courtesy: Giorgio Santambrogio/LinkedIn
The announcement came at Nielsen IQ’s annual Linkontro event in Sardinia, which convened over 270 FMCG brands. The event saw Ferrero present the gianduja spread, titled Nutella Plant-Based, to large-scale retailers.
Rumours about the move have been swirling around ever since Ferrero filed for a patent for the product in December 2023, a year when its net profits swelled to €53.2M. Nutella production also reached 500,000 tonnes globally in 2023, a 20% rise from a decade earlier.
During the conference, Giorgio Santambrogio, CEO of retail and distribution giant Gruppo VèGè, confirmed the launch on LinkedIn. “Gruppo VéGé, as is tradition, is the first retail group to be informed of Ferrero’s innovation,” he wrote. “Well done: with plant-based, the target audience for this iconic treat expands… Enjoy your Nutella, without milk, everyone.”
In a statement, Ferrero confirmed the news, saying: “At Ferrero, we are constantly exploring new categories and emerging food trends. Taking advantage of the innovative spirit and decades of experience of our global brands, we are now preparing to launch plant-based Nutella starting from autumn 2024.”
“It surely won’t convince everyone, but it certainly cannot be said that Ferrero is not in keeping up with the times: in a market where demand for plant-based products is becoming increasingly high, a giant like Nutella will certainly create a lot of competition, pushing other companies to focus on the sector and perfect their products,” added Santambrogio.
Ferrero promises same taste for vegan Nutella ahead of Europe launch
Courtesy: Ferrero
Nutella Plant-Based will be launched in select European countries, and will carry a vegan certification label on the packaging. While it’s unclear which nations it will start with, Italy and Germany are likely to be on the list, since Ferrero has filed patents in both markets.
The actual ingredient change wouldn’t be massive, as the only thing that makes Nutella unsuitable for vegans is the skimmed milk powder. But this only accounts for 8.7% of Nutella’s composition, and while it’s unclear what the company plans to use to replace the dairy element, some have suggested soy milk powder.
“This further entry into the Nutella family will offer the same and unmistakable taste experience, offering a new choice capable of welcoming even more people among Nutella consumers,” Ferrero said.
The raw material costs are also expected to vary very little – if not decrease – which could make the vegan Nutella accessible to a wider number of people. With the new SKU, Ferrero is hoping to target the flexitarian market – in Italy, 12 million people are estimated to be following this lifestyle. It will also be aimed at people with lactose intolerance or dairy allergies, with research suggesting that as many as 72% of Italians have some sort of lactose intolerance.
The news comes as Italy’s plant-based market continues to grow, with sales reaching €681M in 2022. Milk analogues made up a large chunk of this figure, accounting for €310M. Across Europe, meanwhile, spreads were the fourth highest-selling vegan category, growing by 13% annually to cross €247M.
“The expectations, without a doubt, are very high: will it be able to convince even the most sceptical?” wrote Santambrogio. “Here we are with the innovation of innovations: Nutella changes, evolves, and here is the launch of Nutella Plant-Based.”
Green Queen has contacted Ferrero for a comment on the story.
A Danish court has thrown out a case brought by a woman who claimed her rights were violated after a hospital did not offer adequate vegan options during her pregnancy.
Despite one district court recognising veganism as a protected belief earlier this year, another has gone the opposite way, ruling against a woman who claimed she was discriminated against by a hospital that failed to provide her with enough plant-based food options while she was pregnant.
Mette Rasmussen was twice hospitalised in Hvidovre (just north of Copenhagen) in 2020 – once for acute pain, and the second time in connection with her pregnancy – and was offered food categorised as “side dishes” on the hospital’s menu, since they were the only vegan options available. This meant she was given items like rice, root vegetables and apple juice as her meals, prompting concerns about her nutrition.
Worried that she may not be able to breastfeed properly, Rasmussen left the hospital early during the second hospitalisation. In fact, the hospital suggested she bring a packed lunch when she returned for childbirth.
The Danish Vegetarian Association (DVF) filed a suit against the administrative unit responsible for hospitals in Copenhagen and its surroundings on Rasmussen’s behalf, arguing that her dietary choice was protected by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (which contends with the right to freedom of thought, belief, and religion).
In February 2020, the Danish Ministry of Justice acknowledged in a reply to the parliament that vegetarians and vegans were protected by the convention, and in some situations, probably have the right to be served vegetarian and/or vegan meals in public institutions. But on Thursday, a court acquitted the Capital Region, ruling that the patient wasn’t prevented from being vegan as she could eat the side dishes, and “had the opportunity to bring food herself or to have it delivered via relatives or others” to the hospital, or even buy food at 7-Eleven.
“It is very surprising that the court believes that what I was offered is considered adequate as vegan food, both in terms of nutrition and taste. Dry white rice, baked carrots, celery and boiled potatoes,” said Rasmussen. “And then I’m just happy that I didn’t have to be hospitalised longer than I actually was, because then I would have become decidedly underweight from malnutrition and a lack of calories.”
The experience led her to choose a home birth for her second child.
Hospital admits vegan food it offered is not nutritious enough
Courtesy: Danish Vegetarian Association
In 2015, the Danish national dietary recommendations included concrete proposals to satisfy hot vegan dishes, in which pulses play a key role. Hvidovre Hospital says it has adopted these guidelines in its policy, but of the 20 lunch and dinner meals on its menu, none were vegan. And while several vegetarian dishes on the menu follow these recommendations, employees told the court in Hillerød last month that these could not be made vegan.
The lawyer representing the defendants argued that it was too much to ask the hospital to offer vegan food or adapt vegetarian meals to be made plant-based, suggesting that vegans don’t have the right to demand more than the items listed as side dishes. Two employees reiterated this, but when asked if they thought the vegan food on offer was sufficiently nutritious or met the dietary guidelines, they conceded it didn’t.
The court also heard that there was oatmeal and shortbread in the kitchenette for patients, but this would have required patients to be able to physically move. Meanwhile, soy milk and yoghurt were also present on the kitchenette’s range of available items, but hospital staff weren’t aware of this, and so never ordered them for the department.
“I honestly cannot understand that all hospital kitchens cannot prepare nutritious vegan dishes that can benefit all patients, now that they have an entire menu full of meat dishes. It goes against all recommendations to let sick people live on side dishes for all the others’ meals during their hospitalisations,” said Rasmussen.
“For me, it would be the obvious and easy choice to make a few delicious vegan dishes that everyone can eat. In this case, Hvidovre Hospital does not even follow its own meal policy or dietary guidelines set by the state. I think it’s crazy that they are allowed to do that.”
Hundreds of similar complaints against Danish hospitals
Courtesy: Danish Vegetarian Association
“The plaintiff has not been prevented from eating vegan food in accordance with her beliefs during her otherwise short-term admissions,” the court said after acquitting the Capital Region, basing the judgement on the fact that Rasmussen’s hospitalisations were only one and three days long. But would the outcome have been different if these were longer stays?
This is what the plaintiff is considering as the DVF and prosecutor assess whether the verdict should be appealed to the high court. “The court says that the hospital could offer Mette ‘vegan food’. But there were no full vegan meals to be had, only individual vegan food items. In addition, it states that hospitalised vegans have the option of paying themselves to have food delivered from outside or to buy in the hospital’s kiosk, but this is also clear discrimination, and moreover impossible for many if they do not have family nearby or are bedridden,” said DVF general secretary Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl.
“Having to buy food from outside every day can add up to a large amount. Thus, it becomes a user fee for hospitalised vegans, which is not fair,” he added.
The DVF has received 450 complaints from people who have had problems with accessing vegan food in hospitals, with many having to ask family or friends to bring in food, get ready meals from 7-Eleven, or live on supplements during their hospitalisation. While several hospitals in Denmark offer vegan food, many others don’t, the association said.
“We are surprised that the country’s hospitals do not follow the excellent official recommendations for what vegan hospital food should consist of – and that some of the suggested dishes are not on the menu at all,” Dragsdahl said last month.
“It is paradoxical that by having 20 different meals on the menu, the hospital takes into account many different personal preferences based on taste and pickiness. But when it comes to a conviction protected by the Human Rights Court, no consideration is given. It simply does not make sense, and we hope that the district court comes to the conclusion that it is illegal discrimination,” he added.
In February, a district court in the city of Hjorring protected veganism as a belief under the European Convention, after a school denied a kindergarten student the right to plant-based meals, and refused to allow her to bring a packed lunch as well. The Danish government, meanwhile, became the first to adopt a national action plan to transition towards plant-based food last year.
Lidl Netherlands has completed a successful pilot experiment by placing plant-based analogues next to meat in stores. The results? A 7% sales growth.
Discount retailer Lidl is continuing its recent efforts to ramp up its vegan product sales, following the lowering of prices from its private-label plant-based range in certain markets.
In the Netherlands, Lidl partnered with the Wageningen University and the World Resources Institute to find the answer to a much-debated question in the plant-based world: does placement matter?
There have been plenty of trials and studies to determine whether putting meat analogues in the conventional meat section has an effect on the sales of vegan products. Some have found that the move boosted purchases of plant-based meat but didn’t decrease the sales of conventional meat, others have discovered a smaller hike for the former, but no effect on the latter.
So there’s been a slight lack of clarity, but the results of Lidl’s pilot couldn’t be much clearer. After placing plant-based meats next to animal-derived meats in 70 of its branches in the Netherlands for six months, the retailer saw a 7% spike in sales of the vegan products.
Visibility, taste and volume were key factors, and Lidl is addressing each of them as it progresses towards its goal of having 60% of its protein sales sourced from plants by 2030.
Lidl promises tastier, healthier meat analogues
Courtesy: Lidl
While the positive sales impact on meat analogues decreased slightly over time, the overall effect was still significant at the end of the trial, according to Monique van der Meer, a researcher at Wageningen University. “Sales figures for meat products also fell slightly, but this was not significant,” she said.
“During the pilot period, customers were also interviewed in the store and customer cardholders could complete an online questionnaire,” added van der Meer. “This showed, among other things, that most customers generally think the placement of meat substitutes on the meat shelf is a good idea.”
The pilot revealed a clear need for larger quantities of plant-based meat. “We immediately put this into practice. The large packages are now in all our 440 stores,” said Chantal Goenee, sustainability and health advisor at Lidl Netherlands.
The retailer has promised an improvement in the quality of its plant-based meat products by the end of the year, both in terms of flavour and health, which were shown to be important consumption drivers. In fact, an EU-wide survey last year suggested that taste is the most influential aspect pushing people to eat plant-based, with 59% citing it. On the other hand, health is why most are reducing meat intake (45%).
Lidl’s plant-based push has seen it reduce the prices of own-label vegan meat and dairy products to match their conventional counterparts in its German and Belgian stores. In the former, it now also places plant-based analogues in the meat and dairy aisles, following a trial that increased the visibility of its four bestselling meat alternatives.
The results chime with previous research. A 2020 trial by US retailer Kroger and the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA) revealed that when sold in the meat aisle, plant-based analogue sales rose by 23%, with one consumer explaining that their first thought is that these products will be in the meat section, while another said it makes buying vegan a lot easier.
And in 2021, a UK-wide report by the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) found that 57% of respondents strongly agreed that moving plant-based products into the meat aisle would make it easier for them to follow healthier and more sustainable diets.
Lidl to focus on in-store visibility of plant-based meat
Courtesy: Lidl Germany
The aforementioned poll also found that nearly half (49%) of Dutch consumers had reduced their meat intake over the previous year. The country comprises 53% meat-eaters, and another 38% who identify as flexitarians or pescetarians.
Meanwhile, supermarkets are their preferred purchase point for meat analogues (59%), and a third of consumers say they’re cutting back on meat for environmental reasons. “If consumers choose more climate-friendly food in the supermarket, it makes a big difference,” said Stientje van Veldhoven, VP and director of Europe at WRI. “The question is how food producers and supermarket chains can respond to such a change as effectively as possible.”
Dutch animal rights charity Wakker Dier has been facilitating this push. One of its campaigns is to get retailers to commit to plant-based proteins making up 60% of protein sales by 2030, in response to the national health guidelines. This is why Lidl has adopted that target. As part of the move, the nine supermarkets involved have pledged to have 50% plant protein sales by next year, and agreed to monitor and publicly report sales data.
Plus, meat sales in Dutch supermarkets have plummeted by 16.4% since 2020, falling 2.3% last year. “This joint research project with Lidl Netherlands and Wageningen University is helping us build scientific evidence on what really works to shift consumer demand, and it’s encouraging to see Lidl responding to the findings,” said van Veldhoven.
“We know from the research that visibility of our meat substitutes is an important factor in the customer’s choice to purchase or try a meat substitute, especially for customers who do not yet purchase meat substitutes,” said Lidl Netherlands’s Goenee. “That is why we will focus even more on this in our stores and marketing in the near future.”
And it’s not just retail that such interventions have been shown to work. Last September, McDonald’s Netherlands began promoting plant-forward eating by listing its vegan offerings before beef on the menu. It came after a ProVeg International report on fast-food chains stated: “Integrate plant-based options with similar items and list them first, while repeating them in a separately labelled plant-based section. This will nudge consumers to choose more plant-based options while making it easier to navigate the menu.”
And earlier this month, WRI published an updated version of its foodservice playbook. One of the 18 most promising strategies derived from its analysis of research involved integrating plant-based products into meat sections on menu displays. It received an expert score of 11.04 out of 15 (which was at the higher end), and a ‘promise ratio’ of 5 (the proportion of effective versus ineffective trials).
Speaking on his Prof G Pod, marketing expert and professor Scott Galloway laid out the steps plant-based meat brands need to take to secure their future.
Scott Galloway is a man known for being right when it comes to the business world. He’s the face behind WeWTF, the famous critical report that accused WeWork of having an inflated valuation, and questioning if an IPO would actually happen. As he predicted, it didn’t, and WeWork’s stock crashed.
He’s also the guy who prophesied Amazon’s takeover of Whole Foods Market, as well as where its new headquarters would launch. Oh, and he said Twitter would be sold in 2022.
A founder and entrepreneur with several successful exits, Galloway knows a thing or two about business. He’s a professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, and his work on WeWork was a catalyst in the company’s fortunes, memorialised by the 2022 series WeCrashed.
On the latest episode of The Prof G Pod: Office Hours, where he takes listener questions and provides them with advice and insights, he was asked by the founder of a plant-based dumpling brand what he would do to a plant-based meat company’s branding and marketing to take a bigger chunk of the overall meat market.
Last year, meat analogue sales in US retail fell by 12% to $1.2B, on the back of a multitude of challenges for the sector, including high production costs and supply chain shocks, concerns over ultra-processed foods, misinformation about these products, and a loss of faith from investors. Several companies called it quits, some made employee cutbacks, and some withdrew products from the market.
Currently, plant-based meat makes up only 0.9% of the overall meat market. Here’s how companies in this space can succeed, according to Galloway.
1) Cut your losses – you’re in survival mode
Courtesy: GFI
Galloway started off by recapping the challenges of plant-based meat over the last couple of years. “During the pandemic, more people bought alternative meat products due to health concerns, environmental reasons and meat shortages. Since, sales have plummeted and experts suggested the ‘plant-based bubble has burst’,” he said.
He pointed to data that shows plant-based beef is twice as expensive as conventional beef, and vegan chicken is four times as high in cost. Investment in the overall alternative protein category, meanwhile, dipped by at least 44%.
Galloway praised the founder’s startup (which is likely Sobo), saying it has good packaging, a nice website, and elegant branding. “And to be blunt, I don’t think it matters,” he said. “I think you’re in a nuclear winter, and you go… I think you cut costs like crazy.
“If I was on your board, I’d… lay off 60% of my staff, cut my burn, and get through this nuclear winter. Because I would bet somewhere between 50% and 80% of alternative meat companies go away in the next 24 months, because they assumed that it was going to be the next big thing – and it might be, but ‘next’ is the dangerous word. When is ‘next’ gonna happen?”
2) Don’t spend much on marketing, and focus on taste
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
Galloway suggested that meat analogues will eventually work and be a viable part of our food ecosystem. But once companies have bought into that mindset, they’re going to “have to get to the other side”, where there will be “a valley of death”.
“It’s got to be near impossible to raise money right now. So you want to, quite frankly, just hunker down. I wouldn’t focus on the sustainability of it, I’d focus on the taste of it,” he said.
This was echoed by Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness in a recent interview with Bloomberg Television, where he suggested that the plant-based meat sector launched incorrectly. His company has moved away from highlighting its products’ planetary advantages, instead honing in on taste descriptors and health benefits. “It’s gotta be delicious… It’s gotta be nutritious… And then you gotta be price-competitive,” said McGuinness.
In a similar vein, Galloway said: “I would not spend much money on marketing at all, and I’d keep my prices as low as I could. I would just try and extend my runway as long as possible and execute well, have really good relationships with my partners, do a lot of sampling a lot of earned media, try and write a lot, a lot of thought leadership.”
3. Plant-based meat will be resurgent – but consolidated
Courtesy: Vegan Food Group
“I would be really scrappy. I would not spend a lot of time on traditional branding here because I would be throwing nickels around like they’re manhole covers. Because the bad news is, I think this ecosystem is gonna lose a ton of players,” suggested Galloway.
“The good news,” Galloway continued, “is that when the market comes back, it should be champagne and cocaine for alternative beef, whatever that would be. Because there’ll be just much fewer players. And if you can survive, you’re gonna come out the other end really, really robustly.”
We’re already seeing this happen – a host of businesses in this sector have merged or been acquired as part of the alternative protein industry’s consolidation era. “In the context of flat or declining category demand, consolidation, and M&As are vital for rapid growth in the plant-based sector,” Matthew Glover, founder of the Vegan Food Group, told Green Queen after the company acquired TofuTown. “These strategies allow companies to scale, innovate, and navigate through resilience challenges more effectively.”
Food non-profit ProVeg International agrees with this take too. Hédi Farhat, investment manager at ProVeg Incubator, told Green Queen last month: “We expect to see the effects of consolidation, along with signs of recovery in the sector, between 2025-26, with more corporate investors driving innovation in the sector.”
4) Animal rights (and TikTok) are major drivers of plant-based meat
The business expert’s final point outlined that he still loved meat, and eats his fair share of it. But he’s starting to question his intake now, thanks to TikTok. He saw a video of a rancher playing ‘catch’ with his bull with a barrel, who is jumping up and down waiting to retrieve it. This reminded him of his Great Dane.
“[It’s] just impossible for me to ignore the fact that these are mammals with big brains, very emotional, but subtle. They’re young, they give live birth, and want to be around other beings, and are probably at their core, you know, kind, wonderful beings,” said Galloway.
“And when you have the unfortunate experience of learning anything about the industrial food production business, what we do to these animals is… ‘inhuman’ is the wrong word, because we would never treat humans this way. It’s just totally amoral… no, it’s not amoral, it’s immoral. And it’s starting to weigh on me for the first time that there’s more birds in captivity than birds in the wild because of chickens and the way they raise veal.
“We should hope there’s not a hell. Because if there is a hell – or even if there is a heaven – and we have to reconcile our activities with animals, it’s going to be pretty fucking ugly.”
Galloway concluded by telling the founder his work is important, and that we should all be thinking about plant-based alternatives. “I come at it from a humanity standpoint, or just, you know, having dogs has just changed my outlook on the industrial food complex.”
As for the plant-based meat world, it’s “in survival mode”, but it’s “going to work” and “grow”. “You want to be one of the survivors and have your sales up, or at least have your sales and tax such that when the winds come back, you’re ready,” he said.
“It’s not aspirational. Branding is not going to save you right here. This is about survival.”
For a man who’s got so much right in his predictions, you’d bet on him being spot on about plant-based meat too.
Germany – Europe’s largest vegan market – produced nearly 17% more plant-based meat last year than in 2022, according to federal data.
Two months after the German Society for Nutrition updated its dietary guidelines to recommend halving meat consumption, it has emerged that the country’s annual production of plant-based meat grew by 16.6% in 2023, reaching 121,600 tonnes.
That’s according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), which noted: “Whether veggie burgers, tofu sausages or seitan mortadella – the demand for vegetarian or vegan meat substitutes continues to increase.”
When looking at longer-term trends, manufacturing of meat analogues has more than doubled since pre-pandemic levels, up by 113% from 2019. The growth has been constant with each passing year, and this is an indication that the adoption of plant-based meat remains unbroken, said Destatis.
Value gap between animal- and plant-based meat shrinks
It’s not just the amount of plant-based meat that has increased – the number of companies manufacturing these products has too. In 2022, 51 businesses were making these analogues, but last year, this jumped to 67.
Moreover, the value of the plant-based meat produced in Germany also grew by 8.5% last year, going from €537.4M in 2022 to €583.2M in 2023. That said, this is still relatively low when compared to conventional meat, whose value grew by 5.6% year-on-year to reach €44.8B in 2023 – nearly 80 times higher than vegan analogues.
But while still large, this gap has shrunk in almost half since before the pandemic. In 2019, meat products produced in Germany were worth €40.1B, 150 times more than plant-based meat (around €300M). This is a marker of the latter’s growth in the country, which is the largest market for vegan food in all of Europe. Sales of plant-based products grew by 11% from 2020 to reach nearly €2B in 2022.
Courtesy: Destatis
Meanwhile, Destatis noted that the rising demand for meat alternatives was accompanied by a continuing decrease in both production and consumption of animal-derived meat. Despite the value growth, conventional meat production has actually fallen for seven consecutive years in Germany, reducing by 4% in 2023 compared to the year before. Since 2016, it has dipped by 21%.
And preliminary data released by the Federal Institute for Agriculture and Food revealed that per capita consumption of meat had dropped by 12% compared to 2019, reaching 51.6 kg on average in 2023. Separate research backed by the EU has shown that 59% of Germans were eating less meat in 2022 than the year before.
Germany’s support for plant-based food
Germany’s increasing meat production will serve what is considered Europe’s largest flexitarian market – 55% of its population follows such a diet, according to the USDA. It has been supported by federal policies promoting plant-based foods too: the country’s latest nutrition strategy from 2022 spotlights vegan eating as one of its main focuses, particularly in government-run establishments like hospitals and schools.
The German government has also set aside €38M in its 2024 federal budget to encourage the manufacturing and consumption of alternative proteins and a switch to plant-based agriculture, as well as open a Proteins of the Future centre.
“Germany needs a roadmap for the transition towards more alternative protein sources and such a centre can be the first step in developing such a strategy with all relevant departments and stakeholders,” said Ivo Rzegotta, senior public affairs manager for Germany at industry think tank the Good Food Institute Europe.
And in March, the country’s new nutritional guidelines suggested a 50% reduction in meat, advocating for a “health-promoting and ecologically sustainable diet” that is comprised of 75% plant-based foods. . “If we want to eat a healthy diet and at the same time protect the environment, we have to change our diet now,” the nutrition society’s president, Bernhard Watzl, said at the time.
Courtesy: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung
But the dietary guidelines were criticised for not highlighting the benefits of plant-based meat. The society noted that the nutrient profile of plant-based meat, seafood and dairy “often differs greatly from that of animal foods”. “Based on the usual consumption habits in Germany, the complete or partial replacement – especially of milk and fish – with plant-based alternatives without appropriate substitution can lead to nutrient deficiencies,” it said.
Writing on LinkedIn, Anna-Lena Klapp, senior nutrition and health specialist at ProVeg International, said: “Plant-based alternatives to popular animal products play an essential role for people transitioning to a more plant-based diet as these products often closely resemble the foods people are used to and like.”
She added that the guidelines should identify which plant-based products can and cannot be part of a sustainable or healthy diet: “They should differentiate between plant-based alternatives that can be consumed frequently, and those that should be eaten in moderation or seen as merely for enjoyment.”
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Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness sat down with Bloomberg Television to talk about the struggles of plant-based meat, consumer preferences, and a potential IPO.
The plant-based meat category was launched incorrectly, there are too many brands in the space, meat-eaters are key to their success, and someday, an IPO would be nice. These were some of the highlights of a wide-ranging chat between Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness and Bloomberg Television’s Alix Steele and Romaine Bostick.
Over eight minutes, the head of one of the industry’s giants reiterated a lot of things he’s said over the past year, clarified a few others, and revealed a couple more. “We don’t like the sector and the category being where it is, and there’s a lot of reasons why,” he said.
If you read between the lines, you see an executive confident in his company’s position, apprehensive about the wider sector and other brands, and comfortable about not being invited to the Met Gala.
Jokes apart, there are hints that Impossible Foods is using Big Food and Big Meat’s playbook to beat them at their own game and displace those industries. Here’s what McGuinness said over the eight-minute interview, and what it all meant.
“I think it was launched incorrectly from the beginning. It was very climate[-forward], it was very zealot, there was a lot of rhetoric, it was anti-cattle industry. So it got political, it got woke, it got bicoastal, academic, elitist – so that all has to stop.”
McGuinness said something similar in an interview with AgFunderNews last September: “I think the category was not launched in the best possible way. It was launched against the cattle industry. And, you know, no one wants a civil war in America.”
Speaking at the Adweek X conference a few months later, he said: “There was a wokeness to it, there was a bicoastalness to it, there was an academia to it… and there was an elitism to it – and that pissed most of America off.”
Meat industry interest groups and cattle-protecting lawmakers have long been using words like ‘elite’ and ‘woke’ to describe alternative proteins – that rhetoric has become much more noticeable around cultivated meat in the wake of statewide bans in Florida and Alabama, but these phrases have been successful in driving a large portion of consumers away from plant-based analogues.
Courtesy: PBFA
Particularly, the focus on sustainability hasn’t attracted customers the way meat analogue makers would have hoped, and that has led to a shift in their messaging. In March, Impossible Foods unveiled a major brand refresh that saw it switch from green packaging to red to appeal more to meat-eaters, and put a greater spotlight on flavour descriptors and nutritional points (like saturated fat and sodium content”.
This is because these factors are much more important to consumers. According to a Mintel survey from 2023, the top two attributes discouraging Americans from trying plant-based meat are flavour (48%) and nutrition (35%). A poll of Kroger shoppers found that over half (51%) of people buy plant-based meat because they’re healthier, which is the top motivation for these purchases.
“It’s gotta be delicious… It’s gotta be nutritious… And then you gotta be price-competitive.”
This was perhaps the most succinct explanation of where plant-based meat marketing is headed. As alluded to above, Impossible Foods is already focusing on these factors, as is Beyond Meat. In the UK, too, THIS is doing the same.
“Taste is the #1 reason why consumers will decide to purchase a product again or not,” an Impossible Foods spokesperson told Green Queen in November, after its Beef Lite product received the heart-check certification from the American Heart Association.
Courtesy: Impossible Foods/Green Queen
But while flavour is key to bringing consumers back and nutrition important to keep them long-term, in the cost-of-living crisis, price is what will decide whether they pick up these products in the first place. “We’re on average about $1-1.50 less than grass-fed, organic, but we are premium to what I would call ‘the well’, you know, the saran-wrap cellophane stuff,” McGuinness told Bloomberg.
He revealed that the company has brought its prices down by 20% in the last year and a half, while conventional meat is up 18-22% because of higher input and labour costs, and the culling of herds due to famine, drought and diseases.
“We’re in 48,000 foodservice locations, so we’re number one in foodservice in plant-based, but there’s 1.4 million, so we have a lot of work to do.”
The statement outlined Impossible Foods’ intention to roll out its products in more foodservice locations – there’s a general consensus that the risk of chefs preparing a bad meal is lower than individuals cooking these products at home for the first time. This makes restaurants a great entry point.
In fact, McGuinness hit back at Bloomberg’s suggestion that plant-based meat isn’t as “prominent” in fast-food chains anymore. “I just had one at the airport the other day, and it was pretty prominent on the menu board,” he said of the Impossible Whopper, which is available at all 5,500 Burger King locations in the US, as part of a collaboration that began five years ago.
Courtesy: Burger King
That partnership is one of a number of long-term foodservice deals cultivated by Impossible Foods over the years – the company, it must be said, has an outstanding foodservice record. Its eight-year-long link-up with American chef David Chang and his Momofuku restaurant group is just one example – it’s also present in 15,000 Starbucks stores (five years), Disneyland (four years), White Castle (six years) and Bareburger (seven years), among others.
“What keeps me up at night is the opportunity, not the cynicism.”
McGuinness underlined the company’s goals to increase retail distribution – it’s on under 1,000 store shelves (though it recently launched in Whole Foods). “We’re in first gear, it’s nobody’s fault. And we have 15% awareness, 85% of the country hasn’t heard of us… and 6% household penetration – so 94% of America is yet to try an Impossible product.”
He added that the steps the company needs to take to grow aren’t “high math, crazy things”. “You can expand awareness through paid advertising. You can expand household penetration through more distribution. Food companies do this every day.”
Courtesy: Bloomberg Television
This is why Impossible Foods’ launched its first-ever campaign last summer, followed by what McGuinness described as “plant-based’s biggest” marketing drive ever earlier this month. Launched at the Met Gala, it will be a three-month campaign across TV, streaming, digital, social media and billboards – and focuses on “solving the meat problem with more meat” (plant-based, that is).
It’s a forward-looking, optimistic statement by the company’s CEO, who looked visibly excited about the new marketing initiative. Whether it will translate into more customers, time will tell.
“We want to encourage meat-eaters to try and eat our food… I’m not interested in stealing share from other plant-based companies.”
This is a familiar but important assertion from McGuinness. “My job is not to steal share from Beyond Meat – then I’ve just moved the deck chairs around, and the category stays at the same size. We have to make the category bigger,” he said at Adweek X in December.
The same week, after announcing the Impossible Hot Dog, the company told Green Queen: “We’re trying to reach meat eaters – not vegans, vegetarians or those already eating sustainable diets. That’s why we focus on making products that appeal to actual meat-eaters. Our goal is not to compete with fruits, vegetables, and other whole foods, but to offer meat-eaters products that are better for them and the planet.”
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
McGuinness echoed this sentiment in his Bloomberg interview, suggesting that appealing to non-meat-eaters is “not going to move the needle”, whether that’s from a value, revenue or mission perspective. “If you’re trying to have less water, less [deforestation], less GHG, it only works if you’re displacing animals,” he said.
While vegans and vegetarians are obviously important to plant-based meat companies, the real value is bringing over the meat-eaters. “People might be surprised to know that 90% of Impossible consumers also eat meat, and more than one in two who try us for the first time intend to do so again,” Impossible Foods told this publication in March.
McGuinness highlighted the importance of speaking to this target audience “in a respectful, inviting way, not an insulting way, which is what I think was done in the past”. Alienating meat-eaters won’t help – this is precisely why Starbucks’s Impossible Breakfast Sandwich has cheese and eggs, and the Impossible Whopper contains cheese and special sauce. They’re not vegan, but that’s not the target market anyway.
“There are a lot of companies that are making food that’s not great food. There’s 200 plant-based companies in America – probably only need three, or two. So there’s a lot of small companies making not-so-great food and people are having bad first impressions.”
You can look at this two ways. There is definitely a case to be made about oversaturation in the industry – 2023 saw several startups cease operations as they ran out of cash in a highly competitive market. But on the other hand, suggesting a monopoly of two or three companies in the entire category sounds a bit… Big Food?
“Many consumers have unfortunately had a less-than-positive first impression of various plant-based products, and that casts doubt on the rest of the category as a whole,” the company has previously told Green Queen.
McGuinness alluded to this in an interview with Food Dive earlier this month, where he took aim at what he labelled “the biggest ‘all other’ I’ve seen in any category”. “There are 100 of these little micro companies that are throwing out products that are not particularly good,” he said, particularly describing fungi and mycelium startups. “I think there are certain brands and products that are the problem,” he said.
Courtesy: Meati
“Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat [are] the only true meat alternatives in the category,” he added. “You’re going to be left with a couple of brands and private labels, and that’s going to be the category.”
We’re already seeing consolidation in the industry, but diversity and consumer choice are vital – that Kroger survey found that the range of options in supermarkets is the second-most influential purchase factor for plant-based meat (with 39% choosing it). Monopolies, meanwhile, are dangerous, especially in the food industry. It’s exactly what the meat giants have been doing for years, with National Beef, JBS, Cargill and Tyson owning a jaw-dropping 85% of the US meat market.
It’s something the documentary Food, Inc. 2 highlighted. “Monopoly power is a threat to our freedom,” the film said in one of its calls to action. Take the case of Abbott Nutrition, which – along with Meat Johnson Nutrition – owns 80% of the baby formula market. When there were safety issues with its products, Abbott recalled its formula and shut its largest plant, sparking an infant formula shortage.
Courtesy: Bloomberg Television
Things are more evenly split in the plant-based sector – according to Bloomberg, Impossible Foods leads the refrigerated space with a 9% market share, but is trumped by Kellogg’s (which owns MorningStar Farms), Beyond Meat and Conagra (the parent company of Gardein) in the freezer aisle, where it commands a 5% share.
“We don’t need to go public in the near future… That said, it would be nice to go public at some point on our terms, to further capitalise and cement the legacy of the company.”
An Impossible Foods IPO has long been rumoured, with speculation rife last month after McGuinness indicated to Reuters that the company is exploring a liquidity event that could result in a sale or a public offering. Green Queen understands that the company isn’t committing to this – it has maintained that it’s the fastest-growing brand in the category.
Any liquidity event, if it were to happen, wouldn’t take place for another two to three years. And at present, expanding distribution and strengthening its portfolio are the business’s key priorities.
Courtesy: Impossible Foods/Green Queen
“We’re lucky enough to be pretty well-capitalised right now,” McGuinness told Bloomberg. Not needing to go public was a good position to be in, he explained as the IPO markets are not “great right now”. “We’ll go public when we’re prepared and we’re ready. I think things were rushed maybe in the past – we don’t need to rush, luckily.”
The company will hope that this will put IPO rumours to bed for a while, as it ramps up its marketing efforts to meet the meat-eaters where they’re at, shrug off the elitist tag, and keep the price tag wallet-friendly. But would a monopoly make sense?
