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?
Lactalis Canada, a subsidiary of the French dairy giant, has introduced a new plant-based milk brand to the market, just after converting one of its facilities into a fully vegan hub.
In a huge sign of the plant-based industry’s potential amid middling returns, the world’s largest dairy company has made a move into the non-dairy space with a new brand.
The Canadian arm of French dairy giant Lactalis, which turned over $31.4B in 2023, has launched Enjoy, a plant-based milk brand skewed towards health-conscious individuals.
The six-strong lineup is unsweetened and high in protein, and comprises oat, almond and hazelnut milks. Each option has 8g of pea protein per 250ml serving, and while they’re not marketed as barista milks, the company suggests it has a “creamy texture that froths nicely”.
Enjoy joins Lactalis’s growing portfolio of dairy alternatives, which include Sensational Soy (which is why there’s no soy milk in Enjoy’s lineup), Lactantia margarine and yoghurt brand Siggi (which has a coconut-based range).
“We are delighted to make a splash with the launch of Enjoy, which only further complements Lactalis Canada’s wide-ranging portfolio of now 20 iconic consumer brands and expands our plant-based offering to Canadian consumers by leveraging our expertise in this dairy-free category,” said Lactis Canada president and CEO Mark Taylor.
A move towards Lactalis’s climate goals
Courtesy: Enjoy
The six SKUs comprise plain oat, almond and hazelnut milks, vanilla-flavoured oat and almond variants, and a hazelnut-oat blend.
“As nutritious, high protein, unsweetened beverages, Enjoy responds to a growing consumer demand for plant-based options that taste great and have positive health impacts including non-GMO and gluten-free certification with no artificial colours, preservatives or flavours,” said Nathalie Cusson, general manager of Lactalis Canada’s fluid division.
“What sets Enjoy apart is its uniquely high protein content which consumers are increasingly desiring in their daily diet.”
The plunge into non-dairy will aid Lactalis’s climate goals – as the world’s leading dairy company, its emissions footprint is large. In 2019, its scope 1 and scope 2 emissions alone reached 2.8 million tonnes, but these only make up a combined 5% of the business’s footprint – the remaining 95% comes from indirect scope 3 emissions.
Lactalis plans to halve scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 2033, compared to that 2019 baseline. However, it hasn’t laid out a specific strategy for scope 3 emissions, instead committing to reaching net zero across its operations by 2050. Emmanuel Besnier, CEO of the Lactalis Group, said in its 2022 sustainability report that the company must “extend our work on our indirect emissions” to more suppliers, and “intensify our efforts to track the risks of deforestation throughout our supply chain”.
In its ESG report for 2023, which came days before the Enjoy launch, the company revealed that it has reduced scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity by 11.2%, and reduced 14,000 tonnes of absolute emissions by reducing its reliance on road transport. Meanwhile, 84% of its packaging was recyclable in 2023, and it aims to increase this share to 90% this year.
According to Enjoy’s website, its milk alternatives feature paper-based packaging certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. Produced in Canada, it’s also part of the 1% For the Planet organisation, whose members devote at least 1% of annual revenues to environmental causes.
“Our ongoing commitment to raising quality and food safety standards includes a focus on validating suppliers and enhancing allergen management, particularly for the new plant-based Enjoy brand,” the company said in its ESG report.
Responding to market trends and consumer needs
Courtesy: Enjoy
The introduction of Enjoy, whose products are available in most major retailers in Canada, comes two years after Lactalis Canada announced its decision to convert its 33,150 sq ft plant in Sudbury into a dedicated hub for vegan product manufacturing.
The facility fully ceased its fluid milk production and processing in September 2022, partly motivated by low demand in Ontario and the high prices in the market, which affected its profitability. It is now fully operational, and will form the bedrock of the company’s goals for the alt-dairy segment.
The transformation project was aided by a C$1.4M ($1.02M) grant by the Ontario government, as part of the provincial administration’s fund to boost local production, create jobs, and expand and diversify the region’s food sector.
Canada’s plant-based milk market nearly doubled in value from 2019 to 2023, reaching $346M last year. Over the next five years, it’s predicted to swell annually by 9%, with an expected value of $531.6M in 2028. And as of 2022, non-dairy milk accounted for 10% of sales for the overall milk market, with 42% of households purchasing these alternatives.
These figures are likely major motivations for Lactalis’s latest move into plant-based dairy. After a turbulent year for the overall vegan sector – when dollar sales for dairy alternatives in Canada were down by 7% year-on-year – it’s a sign of confidence from one of the world’s largest animal protein players, a nod to the industry’s potential.
“While our core business is dairy, as an innovation leader and as demonstrated by our forthcoming expansion into plant-based, we are constantly following the consumer and continually seeking opportunities to innovate and respond to the market,” said Taylor said after announcing the decision to convert operations at the Sudbury plant.
“Our purpose is to enrich and nurture the lives of Canadians and this holds the same for our new offering which will provide consumers with complementary high-quality plant-based products that will benefit from our current capacity and capabilities as well as our rich and long-standing dairy expertise.”
Dutch plant-based meat startup The Vegetarian Butcher has teamed up with Californian precision fermentation pioneer The Every Company to use its animal-free egg whites in meat analogues.
Unilever-owned The Vegetarian Butcher will make use of The Every Co’s microbial egg whites as a clean-label binder in some of its meat-free formulations, marking a major collaboration in the alternative protein world.
The Vegetarian Butcher’s chicken, beef, pork and fish analogues are present in thousands of retailers and foodservice outlets across Europe and beyond. Its partnership with The Every Co – the only company that has commercialised precision-fermented egg proteins – is a step in its efforts to do away with chicken-derived eggs from its entire lineup.
Incorporating the animal-free egg white into its meat alternatives will allow it to provide a clean-label option to consumers who are increasingly apprehensive about ultra-processed foods and long ingredient lists.
“When on a mission, we love to work with the right partners to become even more impactful together,” The Vegetarian Butcher said in a statement. “This breakthrough, clean-label ingredient is a natural fit with The Vegetarian Butcher’s mission to release animals from the food chain.”
Ditching methylcellulose for the Every EggWhite
Courtesy: The Vegetarian Butcher
Currently, The Vegetarian Butcher uses methylcellulose in its formulations, which is becoming less and less popular among meat analogue makers. While it’s widely used in the industry as a binder and gelling agent, its overprocessed nature, complex moniker, and use in laxatives has garnered it a bad rep – in 2022, Beyond Meat was sued for using the ingredient while putting ‘all-natural’ claims on its burgers (it no longer labels them this way).
But it’s a highly functional ingredient – it is non-toxic and allergen-free, can dissolve in cold water, and forms a gel at high temperatures. One of its most unique properties is its thermoreversibility: methylcellulose can set when hot and melt when cold. This means it provides meat analogues with a juicy bite and meatier texture, making it hard to replace.
Singaporean vegan chicken maker TiNDLE Foods uses methylcellulose to keep its plant-based meat together. On its website, it explains: “Think of it as a plant-based egg white.”
This is where The Every Co comes in. It genetically engineers yeast strains called Komagataella phaffii and feeds them on sugars to produce proteins found in eggs. Its precision-fermented EggWhite innovation contains ovalbumin, the most abundant egg protein, and provides aeration, whipping, gelling, binding, and foam stability properties.
Nick Toriello, The Every Co’s chief commercial officer, told AgFunderNews that The Vegetarian Butcher has been trying to get methylcellulose out of its formulations for “quite some time”. “What was key to them was that EVERY EggWhite was a relatively simple and straightforward product to work with as it could just serve as a drop-in replacement,” he explained. “The taste and texture of the end product is superior, and they get a cleaner label at the back end.”
The Every Co files for EU & UK approval
Courtesy: The Every Company
While its egg proteins are certified by The Vegan Society – as no animals are used or harmed to produce them – they must still carry an allergen warning. But the ‘animal-free’ or vegan message isn’t a priority for many of its partners, according to the startup.
“After years of dedicated effort to further veganise our product range, this new collaboration aims to accelerate the final steps of this process, while preserving the delicious taste and texture of our products,” The Vegetarian Butcher said.
As we reported in December, The Every Co has already been granted three ‘no further questions’ letters from the FDA in the US, but for The Vegetarian Butcher to sell any products featuring the Every EggWhite, the Californian startup will need regulatory approval in the respective countries. It has filed novel food applications in the EU and the UK.
“We aim to have that regulatory approval in parallel with the launch,” Toriello said, in relation to The Vegetarian Butcher partnership. “So the main market we’re targeting for this is the UK specifically, but we’re actively exploring near-term opportunities in other regions.”
The Dutch startup isn’t the first to use the Every EggWhite to fine-tune meat analogues – last year, Colombia’s Grupo Nutresa partnered with The Every Company to use its animal-free egg white as a binder for products under its Zenú and Pietran brands. The Silicon Valley startup has also collaborated with ingredients giant Ingredion and drinks conglomerate AB InBev in the past.
The Every Co’s 2024 priorities
Courtesy: The EVERY Company
The Every Co is actively producing two other products: Every Protein, a nearly transparent protein bioidentical to glycoprotein (found in egg whites) for neutral and clear-looking foods and beverages; and Every Egg, a whole egg that contains the EggWhite, plant-based oils, natural colours and flavourings, fibre and water.
These products make for viable options among the volatility of chicken eggs, which have always had unpredictable prices and are frequently affected by outbreaks of avian flu. This is a big attraction for the startup’s B2B clients. “Every customer is different. Some want to absolutely take animals out of their supply chain,” explained Toriello. “But the bigger thing we’ve noticed in the last two years is that they want stability on supply and price. And on price, we are competitive with cage-free egg white pricing today.” (The startup has raised $233M in funding so far.)
And it delivers on taste too, having impressed the likes of Daniel Humm, who hosted a special dinner at his three-Michelin-starred eatery Eleven Madison Park with the Every Egg as the centrepiece. “In collaborating with chef Humm and his team at Eleven Madison Park, we successfully demonstrated that EVERY Egg’s quality delivers on the highest standards of culinary excellence,” The Every Co CEO Arturo Elizondo, who co-founded the startup in 2014 with David Anchel, told Green Queen at the time.
Speaking to AgFunderNews, he labelled “onboarding additional manufacturing capacity and translating that into products in the marketplace” as the business’s two top priorities for the year. “We’ve proven that our technology works at scale; we’re producing regularly in 100,000-litre+ fermenters, making metric tons of product,” he said. “So it’s now a matter of continuing to dial up scale so we have enough capacity to ultimately bring the cost down.”
Lance Lively, the company’s VP and general manager, added: “What we’re thinking the most about is how can we get to the point where we can supply 20% of eggs to the top five egg users on an annualised basis.”
Health, e-commerce and almond milk are vital in a sector that shows long-term potential despite recent headwinds, according to a new report by the Plant-Based Foods Association.
In spite of a rough year for sales and investment in the vegan sector, if certain barriers are removed, plant-based food is here to stay. That’s the consensus of the 2023 State of the Marketplace report by US-based trade body the Plant-Based Foods Association (PBFA).
Leveraging data from multiple insight firms, the analysis looks at the retail, foodservice and e-commerce sectors to find the challenges and opportunities for plant-based brands.
“Despite inflationary pressures and economic challenges that have affected the entire food landscape, plant-based has held strong and established its faithful role in the shopping carts, shelves, and menus of a large and diverse group of consumers,” said PBFA’s VP of marketplace development, Julie Emmett.
“The plant-based foods segment remains an important priority offering for our customers that continues to evolve with changing customer trends,” added Lee Robinson, VP of merchandising at Whole Foods Market, a PBFA partner. “Putting the ‘plant’ back in ‘plant-based’ through simpler, plant-forward ingredient decks, elevated sourcing, and reduced processing are areas of focus to usher the industry into advancing agricultural practices.”
What can companies learn from the state of the plant-based marketplace in 2023? Here are the big takeaways.
Gen Z doesn’t make up a large majority of plant-based shoppers
Courtesy: PBFA
The share of vegan consumers is evenly split across age and income demographics. Over-65s actually accounted for the largest share (23.5%), followed by the 18-34 age group (19.5%). So it appears that Gen Zers don’t represent a large majority of plant-based shoppers, although their purchasing power is predicted to grow when 2024 tax changes take effect.
Meanwhile, over 41% of people who buy plant-based have high incomes, a trend that “aligns with unavoidable industry realities”, according to PBFA. Vegan food is still competing with the low prices of industrially farmed, government-subsidy-backed animal foods. But research has shown that plant-based consumers spend more overall, making them highly valuable to retailers and operators.
Additional data shows that 62% of US households are buying plant-based foods, and 81% are repeating these purchases, indicating their strong faith in these products.
Health over everything
Courtesy: PBFA
The importance of health has skyrocketed in the post-pandemic and mid-Ozempic eras. Industry leaders are already repositioning their brands to be more health-skewed to meet these needs, and PBFA’s analysis confirms the vitality of health.
The report outlines how health can mean different things to people, spanning personal illness, food safety or even specific nutritional requirements. Among primary US grocer shoppers, 80% consider themselves health-conscious, and 65% eat plant-based because they think these products are healthy.
Similarly, 51% of Kroger shoppers said they buy vegan products since they’re healthy, and 38% do so because they want to reduce animal consumption due to personal health concerns.
Only four categories actually declined in dollar sales
Courtesy: PBFA
Despite concerns about the industry’s alleged downfall (if you’re to believe certain media outlets), only four product categories saw sales dip, while the overall sector held relatively steady (down from $8.2B in 2022 to $8.1B in 2023), suggesting that it was a year of flatlines instead of declines.
From 2021 to 2023, meat and seafood (-6.6%), ready meals (-7.9%), ice cream (-7.4%), and cheese (-5.4%) were the only plant-based categories that witnessed a decrease. PBFA recommends that retailers merchandise meat or seafood analogues with products that are frequently purchased together, such as conventional meat/seafood or dairy cheese, as about three in 10 people who buy the former also buy the latter.
Milk is still the plant-based leader
Courtesy: PBFA
Plant-based milk is still the leading category in the sector, making up over a third (36%) of all sales last year, and representing a 4.2% annual growth since 2021. In 2023, dollar sales grew slightly by 0.7%, but unit sales dropped by 7.5%, an indication of the higher cost of products (milk alternatives saw prices hike by over 8%).
Still, this category represents the highest dollar share in the overall market (15%) across the plant-based sector. This is even higher (41%) in the natural channel, which entails supermarkets with over $2M of annual sales and at least 50% of sales from natural or organic products (excluding Whole Foods).
Despite a 3.6% decline, almond milk is still the leader in the US, making up 55% ($1.6B) of the category’s total sales. Oat has held strong at second position with a 7.6% increase, while coconut milk saw the largest increase (24.8%).
In foodservice, meanwhile, operators increased their spend on plant-based milk much more than dairy. While they bought 8.2% more conventional milk and spent 7.1% more than the year before, their purchases of plant-based milk grew by 18.3% in volume, representing a 20.9% higher spend.
Watch out for the creamers
Courtesy: PBFA
Non-dairy creamers are expanding rapidly in the US. It’s a market that has seen constant growth over the years, and saw annual sales increase by 16.2% (the highest in the industry) from 2021 to 2023 to reach $701M. Last year alone, dollar sales were up by 10.4%, and units also increased by 3.7%.
Across the US, 15% of households bought plant-based creamers last year, and over 65% repeated their purchase. Among the 73% of Americans who drink coffee every day, a majority prefer to add creamers and/or sweeteners instead of drinking it black. Here, the preference for oat milk creamers climbed by 90% and almond-based options by 71% since 2022.
“As long as the demand for coffee exists, consumers will search for creamers to go with it – and as environmental awareness grows, consumers may seek out more plant-based options,” the report stated. “Brands and retailers can emphasize plant-based creamers’ environmental benefits to help consumers make choices that are more aligned with their values.”
Don’t sleep on e-commerce
Courtesy: PBFA
In the US, 33% of shoppers buy plant-based foods online – convenience, a wide array of options, and the absence of physical shelf space constraints make this channel attractive to brands. E-commerce plant-based sales reached $394M in 2023, with an annual growth rate of 16.4% over three years. They also occupy a larger share of online sales (6.8%) than brick-and-mortar retail (3.8%).
And while animal-based foods outpaced vegan categories in dollar sale growth last year, plant-based products actually saw a higher increase in unit sales than their conventional counterparts, illustrating strong, sustained shopper interest and engagement.
Restaurants are down on plant-based – other operators are not
Courtesy: PBFA
Dollar sales of plant proteins – including meat analogues and traditional food like tofu, tempeh, grains and nuts – in foodservice dipped slightly by 1% last year, with restaurants representing the biggest decline. Quick-service establishments spent 10% less on these foods, and full-service ones shelled out 7% less.
But this was offset by other industry operators – mainly workplace cafeterias, which bought 25% more plant proteins and spent 13% more on them. Dollar and pound sales of plant-based food also increased in education, healthcare and government establishments.
Rob Morasco, VP of innovation at Sodexo, which is aiming to make 50% of its food plant-based by 2025, outlined three main challenges for adding plant-based products to foodservice. “Our customers can be anywhere on the ‘knowledge spectrum’ on these products, especially those that don’t identify as vegan or vegetarian. Educating them on the choices available to them without ‘preaching or dictating’ is very important,” he explained.
“Second, our operators and chefs also need the same education on plant-based overall – whether alt products or whole food plant-based, there is work to do to help our chefs feel more comfortable in this space. Lastly, cost and distribution are still a challenge – normalization compared to their ordinary alternatives and achieving price parity will be a pretty big deal.”
Different forks, different strokes
Courtesy: PBFA
The business, industry, government, healthcare, casino and lodging sectors all invested the most in plant-based foods, especially tofu, representing the growing focus on whole foods.
“We do think, however, that the products that emulate the big ‘ordinary’ protein movers – beef, chicken, pork, seafood – are the most important to the non-commercial space,” said Morasco. “We sell a lot of hamburgers and chicken tenders and need plant-based alternatives to those that taste like the ordinary version.”
But for restaurants, plant-based meat, egg and cheese analogues present a major opportunity. An analysis of 20 eateries over six months found that introducing these options increased the total sales of all plant-based orders by 112% and mixed orders by 35%.
First-time guests placing vegan orders were twice more likely to return for a second visit than those who ordered animal-based foods. Moreover, plant-based orders boosted check averages by 8% (versus 1% for animal-based orders), indicating that higher-quality offerings justify the premiums on plant-based food.
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 a vegan salad partnership, a plant-based cheese rebrand and EU funding for cultivated meat.
New products and launches
UK fast-casual chain The Salad Project has partnered with Deliciously Ella on a new limited-edition menu, which will feature a Miso-Maple Aubergine Bowl, a DE Classic, a Super Green Salad, and a Little Plants Bowl (for kids).
Courtesy: Sheese
Scottish vegan cheese producer Sheese has had a complete rebrand – a new logo, new orange packaging, and a new recipe – to make its products look and taste more like their conventional counterparts.
Fellow plant-based cheesemaker I Am Nut OK has secured its first nationwide listing, with its cashew-based parmesan, feta and buffalo mozzarella now available on online retailer Ocado.
Also in the UK, plant-based food brand Squeaky Bean has launched a hoisin duck pancake meal kit and a new snack range – comprising Southern Fried Straws, Duck and Hoisin Style Bites, and BBQ Pork Style Rolls – at select Tesco scores this week.
Starbucks UK has collaborated with Nestlé on its new Mexican-Style Wrap for the summer menu, which features the latter’s Garden Gourmet pulled fillet, alongside a chilli-tomato sauce, peppers, spinach and vegan mozzarella.
Another British startup, Myco, will roll out the first 10,000 burgers and 20,000 sausages made from its Hooba protein (made using vertically farmed mushrooms). It has agreed listings with several suppliers, including artisanal and plant-based wholesalers.
Courtesy: Lidl
Lidl Belgium has followed its German counterpart in lowering the prices of its own-label plant-based alternatives to match the rates of meat and dairy, in a bid to double its vegan sales.
Across the Atlantic, US fermented protein producer Calysta has joined forces with German pet food startup Dr. Clauder’s to debut air-dried dog treats using the former’s vegan FeedKind Pet protein, which will first launch in Europe.
Meanwhile, Next Level Burger and Veggie Grill have rolled out the second phase of their Birds & Bees pollinator protection campaign for National Egg Month, with two new vegan egg sandwiches featuring Just Egg and WunderEgg.
Courtesy: Next Level Burger
Fellow American company Mighty Yum has reformulated its vegan Munchables lunch kits in response to demand for more allergen-friendly options, with its Turkey and Cheese and Ham and Cheese varieties no longer containing soy or gluten.
Seafood giant Thai Union will unveil two new vegan shrimp SKUs at the THAIFEX-Anuga Asia event in Bangkok later this month. These include breaded shrimp and a shrimp patty.
Courtesy: Alma Resort
And in Cam Ranh, Vietnam, Alma Resort has introduced a vegan menu in its Asiana restaurant as part of its sustainability goals and in response to growing demand for meatless food. Highlights include chicken katsu curry, crispy California sushi rolls, and mushrooms and tofu in oyster sauce. Its other eateries have also expanded plant-based options.
Finance and company updates
Indonesian plant-based meat brand Green Rebel has temporarily suspended its D2C operations in South Korea to improve management efficiency amid ongoing financial losses.
Canadian vegan hot dog maker Sensible Foods has launched a strategic review that could result in a change in the company’s business strategy, with Shawn Balaghi replaced as CEO by Chris Jackson (on an interim basis).
Fellow Canadian company Else Nutrition, which makes vegan infant formula and cereal products, has closed a second tranche of a private placement worth $1M for clinical trials related to the FDA and general working capital.
Also in Canada, plant-based seafood startup Save Da Sea has netted C$650,000 ($475,000) in seed financing – led by a state fund for women-led startups – to expand the distribution of its products.
Courtesy: Save Da Seafood
Cultivated meat company ProFuse Technology has received a €2.4M grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Transition programme, a recognition of policy support for alternative proteins in the EU.
Isreli alternative protein company Steakholder Foods has inked a deal with Wyler Farms, which will manufacture its 3D-printed burgers, meatballs and minced meat at commercial scale and drive the startup towards profitability.
Research and policy developments
Berlin-based food tech startup Nosh.bio has opened a new factory in Dresden that can produce 1,000 tonnes of mycelium protein each year, with its first production run expected in the next four to five months.
US commercial kitchen equipment manufacturer Waring has launched the Planit POD Fermentation System, allowing chefs to ferment and pasteurise up to eight lbs of custom-built plant proteins within 24 hours.
According to analysis of Circana data by animal rights charity Wakker Dier, meat sales in the Netherlands have fallen by 16.4% since 2020. Last year, supermarkets sold 2.3% less meat than in 2022.
Czech startup Bene Meat Technologiesreleased the first samples of its cultivated pet food at Interzoo 2024 in Nuremberg, Germany, and is now on the lookout for an industry partner to put the product on shelves by year-end.
Courtesy: Bene Meat Technologies
There are concerns that the UN’s Bonn Climate Change Conference (June 3-13), an intersessional event that will lay the groundwork for November’s COP29 in Azerbaijan, will return to a meat- and dairy-heavy menu. But ProVeg International is urging the UN to keep two-thirds of the catering plant-based – similar to the predominantly meatless menu at COP28 – to continue progress.
In the US, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors have slated a citizen-led petition to ban factory farms for the ballot on November 5, a move that could have nationwide implications – although the board is opposing the initiative based on an inaccurate economic evaluation of a potential ban.
Over in the UK, a historic ban on live animal exports for slaughter or fattening has passed the final stage in parliament, meaning it will soon become law – 50 years after campaigners first started protesting the move.
Courtesy: Lee Hsien Loong/X
The Singapore Food Agency and the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment have proposed a bill outlining new requirements for the pre-market approval of novel foods, which may now be subject to additional provisions before being imported or sold in the island nation.
Researchers in Singapore have developed a cultivated meat prototype by co-culturing pig muscle and fat cells in a decellularised asparagus scaffold, which could unlock large-scale manufacturing of these foods.
Finally, ethical pantry startupVoyage Foods has won the food honour in Fast Company’s 2024 World Changing Ideas Awards for its peanut- and hazelnut-free spreads. Cultivated meat producer UPSIDE Foods, precision-fermented egg startup The Every Company, and home compost bin Mill were among the other finalists.
There’s a new luxury vegan hotel in Santorini, with biodegradable toiletries, bamboo slippers, and, of course, a plant-based breakfast. Co-owner Artemis Sorotou spills the beans on the Ethos Vegan Retreat.
While the world of ethical and sustainable hospitality is booming, some have been doing it for years. Ethos Santorini, the family-run company championing veganism and eco-friendly living, is one of them.
In 2021, it opened the Ethos Vegan Suites in Fira, the capital of one of the most popular islands in Greece. The five-room hotel was built with natural materials on Santorinian architectural principles, and provided a blueprint for cruelty-free hospitality offerings.
In the years since, it has gained a cult following (and exemplary ratings), which led to its owners – the wife-husband duo of Artemis Sorotou and Coskun Piskin – opening a second location this month. Situated in the village of Imerovigli, the Ethos Vegan Retreat builds upon the brand’s sustainability credentials, with four private villas exuding luxury and slow living with climate-friendly food and amenities.
Courtesy: Ethos Santorini
With bookings available from May to September, guests are treated to a breakfast platter that veganises local Greek dishes and international classics, as well as three-course meals traversing various cuisines, and vegan alcohol options. The sustainability aspect extends to all parts of the property, from the zero-waste slippers and biodegradable toiletries to glass water bottles and pottery containers.
Each villa has two bedrooms and bathrooms, with large indoor and outdoor spaces that encourage a tranquil environment. All the residences have a heated pool too, extending Ethos’s ethos of unwinding and rejuvenating in Santorini’s stunning landscapes.
We spoke to Sorotou about the decision to open the new property, its vegan and sustainable offerings, and her plans for the future.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.
Green Queen: What made you decide to open a second location? Why open it only seasonally?
Artemis Sorotou: With the resounding success of Ethos Suites in Fira, we were inspired to dream bigger. After two years of operation and an outpouring of love and positive feedback from our guests, we knew we had something special. This success, coupled with the unwavering support of my family – who stepped in to invest in the land – has paved the way for our new location to become a reality.
At Ethos Retreat Imerovigli, we are excited to offer a unique and more laidback style of vacation. From cooking classes to retreats, we are committed to sharing more with our guests. However, due to weather conditions, we have decided to operate the residences seasonally to ensure we can maintain the high level of experience we strive to offer. Certain things, like keeping the pools warm and clean, just aren’t possible year-round.
Courtesy: Ethos Santorini
GQ: Who is your target customer?
AS: Our commitment to veganism and nature is at the core of our brand. We have created a safe environment for vegans, where they can relax, knowing everything is made with respect to animals and nature. However, our ultimate goal is to attract more non-vegan guests and show them that they can enjoy life and vacations without any animal abuse and with a deep respect for nature.
After three years, we can proudly say that our success extends beyond the vegan community. Many of our guests aren’t vegan but return with glowing feedback. This achievement signifies our ability to cater to a diverse clientele, making them realise that a vegan lifestyle can be delicious, luxurious, and cruelty-free.
GQ: How would you differentiate your first property from your second for customers looking to choose between the two?
AS: Both properties are distinct and luxurious in their own unique way. Ethos Suites in Fira caters to those who prefer to be in the city centre. The location allows them to be in the midst of the action, explore easily, and use public transportation conveniently. However, they can still retreat to a cosy and stylish space with all the amenities and even a private hot tub. They can find a tranquil oasis when they step into Ethos.
Ethos Retreat in Imerovigli is ideal for laidback holidays, for families, friends, couples, or even solo travellers. This is an ideal escape for those who really want to relax and disconnect, and aren’t as interested in being in the middle of the action. Of course, with our assistance, they can still experience and explore the whole island.
Courtesy: Ethos Santorini
GQ: What are some of the highlights from your breakfast and à la carte menus?
AS: We offer complimentary breakfast and a special experience dining menu (not a traditional à la carte menu), which includes Greek mezze platters, fruit platters, a three-course dinner or lunch, cooking classes, champagne service, and a sunset picnic. The three-course dinner or lunch is themed either Greek, Italian or Middle Eastern.
For breakfast, we offer a different selection daily consisting of one savoury and one sweet option, homemade jams, fresh juices, and more. A few special breakfast dishes that we offer include a veganised version of my grandma’s pancakes, called tiganitous; Kagiane, which is traditionally a dish made with scrambled eggs (I use tofu and spices), and crêpes with tahini and tart apples.i
GQ: Do you plan to serve plant-based meats too, or have a whole-food approach? And what milks will you serve?
AS: We cook mostly whole-food plant-based, with many local ingredients. I’ve also veganised many traditional Greek recipes so guests can enjoy the cuisine without the cruelty. A few other traditional Greek dishes that we serve include moussaka, pastitsio, baklava, spinach pie, mushroom gyro, bougatsa, and more.
For plant-based milk, we use soy, almond and oat milk.
Courtesy: Ethos Santorini
GQ: The retreat uses Nespresso pods – but coffee capsules are notoriously bad for the climate. How do you deal with the waste created?
AS: We chose Nespresso because it is the only company that allows us to collect the capsules and send them back with no extra cost for recycling. For coffee, we didn’t have many options. We also offer fresh herbal tea leaves produced in Greece, served in pottery made at the locally owned Earth and Water Studio.
GQ: How did you approach the design, in regards to sustainability and local heritage?
We worked with a Santorini-based architecture team called Kapsimalis Architects to blend sustainability with local design. The exterior design incorporates the island’s aesthetics – domes and straight lines, as well as colours and fabrics. Most of the furniture and tableware are made by local carpenters and pottery artists.
Courtesy: Ethos Santorini
GQ: What other sustainability initiatives have you undertaken for the new property?
AS: We don’t use any plastic toiletries – we utilise biodegradable certified vegan pods for shampoo, conditioner and shower gel made by Biorama, a family-owned company based in Crete. We also provide bamboo amenities and slippers made from hotel towel waste.
We are trying to eliminate plastic by using glass bottles of water, providing tea and sugar in pottery, no plastic or paper bags, using biodegradable toilet paper that can be thrown inside the toilet, separating waste and recycling, and doing our own compost to manage food waste.
Unfortunately, the location of Ethos in Imerovigli doesn’t provide us with a connection to the public water system (it’s not safe for human consumption), so we have to purchase glass bottles of water. However, at Ethos Suites in Fira, we have installed a water filter, so we’re able to provide guests with water in refillable glass bottles daily.
We also only use eco-friendly and vegan cleaning products throughout the property.
GQ: Where do you see the company in five years? Do you envision more locations in the future?
We hope to inspire more businesses to take a more sustainable approach to hospitality and, of course, help more people enjoy a vacation with less cruelty and less of an environmental impact.
If we say we don’t envision more locations, it would be a lie. But that’s still far away, as we are just a single family running this business. This requires considerable financial investment and constant work. I have a few more Ethos projects that I hope one day will come to fruition, but for now, they are dreams.
This year’s Met Gala featured vegan products from Impossible Foods, Neat, Stockeld Dreamery and Tindle Foods, showcasing plant-based indulgence to the world’s most influential celebrities.
The Garden of Time was this year’s theme for the Met Gala, and actors, artists, models, influencers and all kinds of celebrities showed up in attires that spanned from gorgeous, to curious, to wild.
But true to the theme, the garden was also present in a way with the food served at the show. Hopes weren’t high when Anna Wintour banned garlic, onions and chives from this year’s event, presumably so everyone doesn’t have “bad breath”. “Those are three things I’m not particularly fond of,” she said ahead of the event.
It’s been reported that high-end cuisine was the name of the game at the Met Gala on Monday, with a fancy spring vegetable salad to start with, followed by a beef filet for the main, and almond cremeaux shaped like an apple for dessert.
But if you ask me, the best bits were before and after the actual gala. At fashion’s biggest show, some of the plant-based world’s biggest brands showed up too. It was out with haute cuisine, in with pure vegan indulgence.
Here’s how vegan food made a splash at the 2024 Met Gala.
Impossible’s indulgent sliders and BBQ nuggets
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
It was a big night for one of the premier plant-based meat producers, Impossible Foods, which kicked off its latest marketing drive at the Live from E! red carpet. Its new ads were aired during the pre-show broadcast at The Mark hotel, a smart choice given the Met Gala over-indexes on vegans.
But it wasn’t just the ads – Impossible Foods was also serving food to attendees on the red carpet, and it was all about plant-based indulgence.
The clue was in the name, with the brand showcasing its Indulgent Burger, its premium beef patty launched last year, which is thicker, juicier and meatier than its signature burger. Upon launch, the company said 82% of taste-testers found this burger as good as or superior to conventional beef – so it made sense to exhibit the product among some of the most influential people in the world.
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
The Indulgent Burger was part of a slider that was lined with a brie and truffle aioli – it’s unclear whether this was plant-based, but since the brand’s target audience isn’t vegan anyway, that would be in line with its marketing strategy.
Impossible Foods also served its famous chicken nuggets, but these were also dressed up – in a passion fruit BBQ sauce no less. Both the nuggets and burgers were served alongside what looked like edible flowers to honour the Garden of Time theme, but the former also came in a specially branded green box that read: ‘Garden of Meat’.
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
After the event, Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness called it an “important opportunity to build awareness as we roll into the summer grilling season”.
Stockeld Dreamery, Neat and Tindle turn it up at the afterparty
Met Gala afterparties are some of the most exclusive in the fashion world, and three brands got together to satiate the cravings of the, erm, inebriated attendees at one of the many, many parties.
At Casa Cipriani South Street, fast-food chain Neat was invited to hand out its plant-based cheeseburgers and hot dogs to the guests. Swedish brand Stockeld Dreamery joined in to help out, given its vegan Cultured Cheddar cheese tops the patty on Neat’s burger.
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
Another one of Neat’s collaborators, Singaporean startup Tindle Foods, brought out its vegan chicken tenders. “They went like crazy. We had to keep bringing out trays because they’d be gone in seconds,” the company said in a video montage.
The vegan junk food was served at a party that included Leonardo DiCaprio, Camila Cabello, Lil Nas X, SZA, Lizzo, Jaden Smith, Cardi B, Usher, Serena Williams, and Offset.
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
“This ended up being a huge win for the plant-based space as celebrities were spotted with Neat Burgers, Stockeld and Tindle flags all night long,” Stockeld Dreamery founder Sorosh Tavakoli said.
“If there’s a better way to make plant-based foods sexy, let me know.”
After a mixed start to the year, with both revenues and sales declining in Q1, Beyond Meat remains optimistic about the rest of 2024, pointing to the rollout of its healthier and costlier plant-based beef.
As the fourth iterations of its burger and mince begin replacing their predecessors on retail shelves, Beyond Meat has reported an eight straight quarter of year-on-year revenue decline, which reached $75.6M in Q1 2024, dropping by 18% from the corresponding period last year.
However, this was slightly higher than analysts expected ($75.2M), and in line with the company’s guidance for the quarter after a tough 2023. The net revenue was also up by 2.6% from the previous quarter. Moreover, the plant-based meat leader reported a gross profit of $3.7M (down by 41% from Q1 2023), meaning that its products made more money than they cost to produce.
But operating expenses lead to a total net loss of $54.4M for Beyond Meat this quarter. Keeping with the mixed-bag theme of its earnings report though, its deficit actually narrowed by 8% from Q1 2023 – this was thanks to an 8% reduction in operating losses and losses from its Planet Partnership with PepsiCo, which saw the launch of the Beyond Jerky. The slow-selling SKU was discontinued last year, with the El Segundo company rechannelling its focus to the new Beyond IV platform.
The new burger and mince, which are said to be meatier and healthier, are also more expensive – Beyond Meat is banking on these three factors to drive growth in the rest of the year. “Through this fourth-generation project, which we expect will be fully distributed by Memorial Day, we took a leap forward on a continuous improvement journey that is a rapid and relentless innovation programme,” CEO Ethan Brown said in a conference call with investors.
“We really do believe that we are at the early stages of a terrific and pivotal year for Beyond Meat,” he added. “We’re doing the things you need to do to get through a period that is challenging and resume growth.”
Sales down across channels, but McDonald’s deal to drive growth
Courtesy: McDonald’s Germany
Over the last year, Beyond Meat’s distribution points have declined globally, down from 146,000 in Q1 2023 to 130,000 today. This has coincided with a decrease in sales across both retail and foodservice. In the US, both channels saw a 16% decline in net revenue, which the company ascribed to a softening of demand despite discounts on its products, a dip in the volume of products sold, the discontinuation of its jerky SKU, as well as the loss of distribution.
Internationally, it experienced a 12% decline in retail sales, but a much larger 29% drop in foodservice revenue. This meant its sales were down by 21.5% in non-US markets in Q1. In retail, this was due to softer demand for its beef and pork products in Canada and chicken SKUs in Europe. The foodservice performance proved to be a tough comparison with Q1 2023, when Beyond Meat had just finished a large order for McDonald’s as its vegan nuggets went on sale in Europe.
Speaking of which, Beyond Meat reported its Q1 earnings the same day McDonald’s announced a campaign for its famous meals promotion, exclusively featuring the McPlant burger in menus curated by Tokio Hotel members and twins Bill and Tom Kaulitz. It’s similar to the Travis Scott, BTS and McJordan meals in the US.
Beyond Meat’s partnership with McDonald’s has now expanded into Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, a marker of its plans to boost distribution and sales in Europe – one of its five key priorities for the year. The Beyond Burger has now expanded into more Co-op stores in the UK, while Beyond Steak has been launched into Dutch foodservice. And after satisfying local shelf life requirements, the company will expand its retail presence in Germany too.
A new cookbook to showcase healthier Beyond IV products
Courtesy: Beyond Meat
Despite representing a significant improvement from the previous quarter, the company’s gross profit and margin fell short of its expectations, owing to factors like including higher manufacturing and material costs, long-running discounts, and transitional costs related to bringing production in-house (which is also one of its priorities this year). But Beyond Meat is optimistic about its margin for the rest of the year, given that the Q1 figures don’t account for the price hikes attached to its more premium beef products.
Brown said the consumer reception of the higher markups – another business priority for 2024 – is “too early to tell”, but noted that it’s not just a new pricing stricture, but also a new product altogether. “We did have long discussions with a lot of the main retailers we work with around why we’re doing this,” he added. “And with limited exception, most were accepting.”
The new burger and mince represent the most significant renovation of its core product line to date, with a much more prominent focus on health and flavour – two of the most important factors to Americans. They have 60% less saturated fat and 20% lower sodium content than their predecessors, with more protein than most conventional 80/20 beef products.
Brown explained the company’s product development process relies upon a framework called FAAT, “for flavour, aroma, appearance, and texture, while driving improvements in nutrition, cost, and other considerations”. He said the team “delivered a home run and improved sensory experience with a nutritional build – so impressive that it goes to market with a host of important validations”.
The Beyond IV products meet the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) nutritional guidelines for its Better Choices for Life programme, and carry Good Housekeeping’s Nutritionist Approved Emblem. They also featured in a collection of ‘heart-healthy’ recipes by the American Heart Association (AHA), and Brown revealed that the latter and Beyond Meat are co-launching a cookbook to highlight the nutritional credentials of its products.
He highlighted “getting leaner” as another of the company’s 2024 priorities, which almost serves as a double entendre. It referred to its operations becoming more efficient and a tightening of its focus on product portfolio and consumer messaging, but it ties in with the health-forward message emanating from the new products, which represent another key goal for this year.
Heart-healthy product line set to expand
Courtesy: Beyond Meat
The CEO also pinpointed “orchestrated misinformation regarding our product lines” as one of the brand’s biggest challenges – for years, Beyond Meat and its main competitor Impossible Foods have been the subject of a targeted campaign by the Center for Consumer Freedom, a meat industry interest group. In August, the company responded with a marketing initiative quashing the misinformation.
This summer, Beyond Meat will launch an “impactful and significant” marketing drive to promote its fourth-generation beef. “We believe – as do the nutritionists, institutions and dietitians standing behind Beyond IV – that we offer consumers a delicious yet powerful choice that can help them and their loved ones with healthier lives,” said Brown.
“My emphasis on the health side of things is simply because of the misinformation campaign. We would not make these changes at the expense of taste,” he added. “We want to bring back in that very close and early adopter consumer that maybe has been scared away.”
In March, Beyond Meat unveiled a new product line in its Beef Crumbles, which were certified by the AHA and ADA. Brown revealed the alt-meat giant will introduce another heart-healthy product later this year. With these innovations, the company reiterated its full-year forecast of net revenues between $315-345M, and expects sales to reach $85-90M in the next quarter.
“2024 is a pivotal year for change and progress for Beyond Meat. We began the year making solid strides along our 2024 strategy and correspondingly, our path to sustainable operations and a return to growth,” said Brown.
“We believe that our determination to sharply reduce our operating expenses and cash use, consolidate our production network, implement pricing changes to help restore margins and launch our most significant renovation to date Beyond IV for purposes of reinforcing, as well as raising the bar on the health benefits of our plant-based needs, amidst sustained misinformation campaigns are beginning to pay off.”
Geared towards meat-eaters, Impossible Foods’ first ad campaign since its rebrand is all about flavour and health – the two things Americans care most about in their food.
A hot-dog-eating contest, lusting over nuggets, and an overly long sub are all featured in Impossible Foods’ first marketing campaign after refreshing its brand identity in March, with the plant-based meat pioneer declaring: “We’re solving the meat problem with more meat.”
The new campaign debuted at last night’s Met Gala red carpet show, which over-indexes on Impossible Foods customers, according to the company. At the garden-themed event, the celebrity attendees got to sample Impossible sliders with brie and truffle aioli, and passionfruit BBQ Impossible chicken nuggets.
The hero 30-second ad is a fast-paced walk-and-talk spot, with the protagonist outlining how “meat has problems”, and to solve them, we should eat more of it – only caveat? It should be made from plants. Describing the meat problem on its website, the brand notes how it’s “too delicious”, but that we eat so much of it, it’s causing problems – for our bodies as well as the planet.
“We see this campaign as a way to let meat eaters know Impossible meat is the best way to keep eating meat you love, just without a lot of the problems associated with animal meat,” said chief marketing and creative officer Leslie Sims. “Whether you’re a vegan, hardcore meat eater or somewhere in between, we have you covered.”
Changing how we see meat
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
The months-long campaign – which will run on TV and streaming, and digital, social media and billboards – was conceived via a collaboration between Impossible Foods’ in-house creative team and three-time AdAge Small Agency of the Year winner Erich and Kallman.
It features a distinct Americana feel designed to feel familiar and relatable to meat-eaters, with cultural traditions like a backyard barbecue, hot-dog-eating contest and a burger joint referenced ahead of grilling season. One scene also depicts a family-style meal with a giant bowl of spaghetti and Impossible meatballs.
The 30-second spot is accompanied by 15-second ads each spotlighting a different product – beef, chicken or pork – in a tongue-in-cheek tone, which follows the brand’s Making Meat History campaign from 2023. The latter compared an Impossible burger with a conventional one, which resonated with meat-eaters, leading the company to realise it could hone in even more on the similarities between old meat and new meat.
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
This is why there’s a call to action directed to meat-loving Americans – who eat way more meat than is recommended or needed – with Impossible Foods imploring them to solve the meat problem with more burgers, hot dogs and meatballs. The idea is to reframe meat as a delicious food made from plants, instead of forcing meat-eaters to change their lifestyles.
“For this latest campaign, we wanted to have a clear value proposition for them – you love meat, so why not try us and be better for the planet?” Sims told AdAge. On the humorous tone of the ads, she explained: “We are talking to hard-core meat-eaters, but we don’t want to be preachy.”
Taste and health over environmental messaging
With the new marketing campaign, Impossible Foods is doubling down on its food- and health-forward messaging, with the focus very much on flavour and nutrition. For example, one of the hero commercial’s scenes urges consumers to “punch cholesterol in the face”, highlighting how its meats have zero cholesterol.
The environmental emphasis is no longer a centrepiece in the ads, which was expected after the brand’s refresh put taste and health at the heart of its packaging. Speaking to Reuters last month, Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness outlined why the brand has taken this direction: “We’re not leading with the planet because not enough people care. It’s the reality now.”
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
And he’s right – the environmental pull of plant-based eating isn’t as strong as it used to be. One 2023 survey found that the top two attributes discouraging Americans from trying plant-based meat are flavour (48%) and nutrition (35%). Another poll revealed that health is the major reason Americans eat vegan or vegetarian diets, with six in 10 choosing it.
It’s why the brand launched a Beef Lite version of its mince, which is approved as heart-healthy by the American Heart Association. But a company spokesperson told Green Queen in December that taste is the main reason behind consumers deciding to purchase a product again or not”.
The shift was most visible in the rebrand two months ago, which saw the company switch from teal green to red packaging with a larger imagery, and a higher focus on taste descriptors, saturated fat and sodium. The colour change was designed to reinforce the meatiness of its products and their likeness to conventional counterparts. Red is a colour more naturally associated with meat, as opposed to green, which is the symbol of eco-friendliness and vegan food. At the time, Impossible Foods laid out its aim to appeal to the “carnivorous cravings of meat-eaters”.
“Our intent with the new packaging – and the overall design of our new brand identity – is to lean into the craveability of meat,” a representative told Green Queen. “Taste is, of course, a big part of this. Between the bold red aesthetic and new food photography highlighted on the front of each product, we’re deliberately putting the deliciousness of our meat from plants front and centre.”
Courtesy: Impossible Foods/Green Queen
And consumer testing shows they do love its products – the brand says 80% of people who try its burgers like them, and that taste-testers preferred its chicken nuggets three-to-one in a head-to-head comparison with conventional nuggets.
The marketing campaign comes amid a flurry of activity for Impossible Foods. It has been rolling out its new beef hot dogs at baseball stadiums across the US, serving its meat to the US army, transitioning a cattle ranch into a farm that produces plant-based meat ingredients, and – more long term – weighing up a liquidity event that could include a sale or an IPO, all while entering into Whole Foods nationwide and rejigging how it sells its meat. It’s a busy time for Impossible Foods, and one it will hope translates into success.
UK plant-based meat challenger brand THIS is launching the country’s first nationally distributed vegan chicken thighs, starting with Tesco next week.
THIS, the cult-favourite plant-based meat brand, is rolling out a first-to-market vegan chicken thigh SKU in the UK next week. The product is the only nationally distributed plant-based chicken thigh, and will be introduced at the UK’s largest retailer, Tesco, on May 13.
Available in packs of four, the THIS Isn’t Chicken Thighs cost £3.80, with the company noting it could be used across a variety of dishes, such as traybakes, burgers, curries and stews. Made from a blend of soy and fava bean protein, they can be used whole too, and cooked in a pan or in the oven.
“We’re reinventing the way people experience plant-based dining,” said recently appointed CEO Mark Cuddigan. “We’re on a mission to lead a revolution to change what people eat, to protect animals and the environment – and with our ridiculously delicious and nutritious plant-based food, we’ve got you covered with the ultimate plant-based chicken thigh.”
The new chicken thighs are touted to be high in protein and fibre, with a similar recipe to its flagship THIS Isn’t Chicken Pieces SKU. It will appeal to the increasingly health-conscious UK consumer – a 1,000-person survey from last year found that health benefits are the top reason why Brits eat plant-based meat, cited by 39% of respondents.
But the whole-cut nature of the new product is the biggest differentiator from the chicken pieces. The company binds together soy and fava bean protein with an olive-oil-based fat to mimic the texture of thighs, which are then coated in a layer of seaweed to replicate the structure and texture of chicken skin.
This meaty, fibrous cut is achieved through THIS’s extrusion technology, which has three pending patents. Whole-cut products like thighs, wings and legs have complex, three-dimensional structures, where protein fibres are bound together by a network of connective tissue and intramuscular fat. This provides the juiciness and texture associated with these meats, which THIS said it has managed to recreate in its chicken thigh analogue.
It’s not the company’s first whole-cut meat either. It also makes plant-based chicken breast and roast chicken and stuffing SKUs, both of which have been launched in the last eight months.
THIS has gone from strength to strength
Courtesy: THIS
The new product comes at a time of rapid progress for THIS, which says it is the fastest-growing brand in the plant-based meat segment. The company’s 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. Its annualised revenue reached £24M last year.
This has been aided by a range of new products. Within its chicken range, the roast chicken SKU was the best-performing line in the category in 2023, even though it was only introduced in September. But the company also launched a chicken and bacon pie in partnership with Pieminster around the same time, and this year alone, it has rolled out the chicken breast, chicken shawarma, frozen beef mince, as well as skin-on chicken wings in collaboration with BrewDog.
“Innovation has been a core part of its growth over the last two years as it has diversified into a wider range of segments, including frozen, ready meals and food to go, as well as continuing to launch new products in its core segment of chilled meat alternatives,” NielsenIQ senior insight analyst Carol Ratcliffe told the Grocer last year.
THIS marketing director Dee Bulsara added. “The number one THIS rule is that we don’t proceed to launch unless we think the product can trick a meat-eater once it’s in a dish.”
The company has recently undergone a change in leadership as well, with Cuddigan taking over from founders and former co-CEOs Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman in February (who remain involved in the business). While THIS is aiming to have its first profitable quarter this year, the larger meat-free category in the UK has suffered, with sales down by £38.4M last year.
. “For too long, there’s been too many brands with wildly varying product quality, that have put off meat reducers from truly believing in the category. It’s also been confusing to shop – no supermarket needs to list 15 types of plant-based sausage,” Shovel told Green Queen last year. “We’re now at a stage where the sector is consolidating and poor-quality brands are coming out the market, with more brands consumers can trust and shelves that are way easier to navigate.”
When Donald Trump gets around to trying vegan food, it’s gonna be huge. That’s why PETA is sending the former U.S. president—who said in a recent campaign rally that he was going to have to try vegan food—a hearty vegan gift basket. The package includes Oreos, vegan fish fillets, vegan chicken and burgers, vegan jerky, PETA’s vegan starter kit, and the American Vegan Kitchen cookbook.
Donald Trump Isn’t the Only Person Who Has to Try Vegan
The meat, egg, dairy, and fishing industries exploit and kill billions of animals every year while destroying our environment. Every animal issomeone, from cows who nurture their young, to chickens who establish complex social hierarchies. Our fellow animals have unique personalities, interests, wants, and needs, so it’s due time to relate to who is on your plate and make America great by trying vegan.
By going vegan, you can save nearly 200 animals every year, improve your health, and protect the planet. Check out PETA’s guide to the best vegan snacks and order our free vegan starter kit today:
Note: PETA supports animal rights, opposes all forms of animal exploitation, and educates the public on those issues. PETA does not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office or any political party.
An investigation by Animal Justice into the caviar industry reveals what PETA has been saying all along: the true cost of this expensive “dish” is extreme cruelty. In the world’s first caviar farm exposé and Canada’s first fish farm investigation, Animal Justice found filthy tanks and workers slicing fish open at Northern Divine Aquafarms—a self-proclaimed “sustainable” and “organic” caviar farm.
The damning investigative footage revealed the following:
Sturgeons and salmon trapped in crowded, dirty tanks
Workers stabbing fish repeatedly in the abdomen to check for egg maturity
Workers sucking eggs out of fish with a straw-like tube
Fish with deformities and injuries
Workers throwing fish on ice and freezing them to death
Workers cutting fish open while they were still alive
Sturgeons, one of the oldest species groups on the planet, are now endangered due to the fishing industry and the caviar trade. These fascinating fish are capable of complex learning behavior and are known to leap out of the water to communicate with others.
Misery at a Caviar Aquafarm
Northern Divine Aquafarms allegedly keeps female sturgeons alive in tiny tanks for at least 11 years until they’re old enough to produce caviar eggs. According to staff at the facility, some sturgeons who apparently attempted to escape from their tanks remained suffocating on the floor hours later.
To check whether their eggs are ready to be sold as caviar, workers force the animals onto a stretcher, stab them in the abdomen, insert a tube, and suck out the eggs with their mouths. Workers apparently do all of this without giving the fish any pain relief.
About 38 fish at the facility—including a 7-foot sturgeon named Gracie, who has reportedly been suffering in a tank there for at least 25 years—are used as breeding machines. Workers routinely cut their eggs out of their bodies to breed more sturgeons.
Before slaughtering the fish for their eggs, the facility reportedly starves them for weeks to “improve the taste.” Then, workers shoot and kill them with a captive-bolt gun.
Northern Divine Aquafarms also exploits salmon for their eggs, known as “roe” or “ikura.”Salmon are curious and intelligent and have impressive long-term memories. In nature, young salmon learn the smell of their home stream. After maturing in the ocean, a female salmon will return to where she was born to lay her eggs.
At Northern Divine Aquafarms, salmon spend their lives in small, miserable tanks before humans slaughter them for their eggs. Animal Justice investigators reportedly saw workers throwing conscious salmon onto ice and leaving them there for over an hour before beating the animals over the head with a metal club and then cutting them open. According to the investigation, many fish writhed in agony when workers sliced them open.
Fishes’ Eggs Belong to Them—Not Humans
When we dive deep into the complex lives of fish, we learn that these animals have distinct personalities, types of behavior, ways of communicating, and needs. Some species of fish sing or create artwork to impress potential partners. Some use tools to access food or communicate. As unique as these individuals are, they share one crucial thing in common with humans and our fellow animals: the capacity to suffer. Every fish is someone and does not want to be exploited and killed for their eggs or flesh.
YOU Can Spare Fish by Never Buying Caviar and Going Vegan
Sustainable, delicious vegan seafood brands dominate the market and don’t cause fish to suffer. PETA Business Friends’ fish-free options—like Cavi-art’s vegan caviar and ZeaStar’s sashimi—allow you to keep cruelty off your plate and taste great. So what are you waiting for? Choose compassion today:
