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7 Mins Read
The German Society for Nutrition has updated its dietary guidelines to recommend halving meat consumption, limiting dairy intake, and eating more plant-based foods – the latter should make up at least 75% of your diet.
Months after committing funds in its 2024 budget for a plant-based transition, Germany’s new dietary guidelines reflect the country’s attitude towards the future of food. Echoing the EAT-Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health Diet, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung (DGE) has outlined the importance of plant-forward eating habits.
The new dietary guidelines recommend that Germans eat less meat, less dairy, fewer eggs, and more plant-based foods – both for their own health, as well as the planet’s. It’s based on a new mathematical optimisation model, based on the idea that the larger a food group is, the more you can eat from it.
The DGE suggests that a “health-promoting and ecologically sustainable diet” comprises more than 75% of plant-based foods, and less than a quarter of animal-derived ones. “If we want to eat a healthy diet and at the same time protect the environment, we have to change our diet now,” said DGE president Bernhard Watzl, who is also the head of the Food-Related Nutrition Recommendations working group.
A new wheel emphasising plant-based foods
Courtesy: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung The new dietary guidelines are based on a model the DGE developed with experts from multiple disciplines, which calculates the quantities for specific food groups and generates an optimal consumption solution. The recommendations are aimed at adults aged 18-65 who eat both plant-based and animal foods, and have no special dietary needs.
A nutrition wheel illustrates what a healthy and sustainable diet looks like, according to the DGE’s revised guidelines. Drinks represent the largest food group – this essentially means water and unsweetened tea. This is followed by fruits and vegetables; legumes, nuts and seeds; and grains and potatoes. Animal-derived foods like milk and dairy products, fish, meat and eggs make up the rest of the wheel, representing less than a quarter of the total.
The guidelines suggest eating at least five fruits and vegetables daily, with an emphasis on seasonality, colours and variation. Essentially, the idea is that Germans eat more of these every day – and those who don’t eat meat are recommended to up their intake of plant-based whole foods. What they should be eating less, though, are animal-derived foods. The daily recommended value for milk has been reduced from three portions to two. This computes to 500g of dairy in total, which could mean two glasses of milk, a two slices of cheese, or two 150g pots of yoghurts.
As for meat and seafood, the guidelines have cut weekly values from a 300-500g range to a maximum of 300g, with an additional 30g set aside for sausages. The DGE points out how eating “too much beef, pork, lamb and goat meat – and especially sausages made from them – increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and colon cancer”.
Meanwhile, legumes and nuts have their own section for the first time, with Germans recommended to eat 125g of the former weekly, and 25g of the latter daily. The guidelines also suggest eating whole grains over processed, and vegetable oils over animal fats like butter. Moreover, processed foods high in sugar, fat and salt have been removed from the wheel, owing to their links to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
This is all consistent with a 2023 review of 37 health studies by researchers in Germany, which revealed that switching from processed animal products to whole-foods plant-based diets can significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and death. Replacing 50g of processed meat with 28-50g of nuts daily can lower the risk of death by 21% from any cause, while the likelihood of cardiovascular disease – by far the leading cause of death globally (responsible for a third of all deaths) – can be reduced by 25% if 50g of processed meat is replaced by nuts or legumes per day.
A lack of focus on plant-based alternatives
Courtesy: Veganz While the new recommendations have been welcomed by many, questions have also been raised about certain aspects of the guidelines. Anna-Lena Klapp, senior nutrition and health specialist at ProVeg International, noted that the food-based dietary guidelines classes beans, legumes and nuts as a separate, but very small, food group.
“This does not recognise the important role that beans and legumes have to play in transforming our food system,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “Legumes are an inexpensive source of protein, vitamins, complex carbohydrates, and fibre, and are also highly beneficial for sustainable agricultural practices. We really need to increase the role of legumes in our diets.”
And while the updated guidelines mark a departure from Germany’s previous stance of advising against veganism, Klapp called the exclusion of plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy “a missed opportunity”. A 2022 study revealed that 40% of dietary guidelines assessed from 100 countries contain data and recommendations on vegetarian and vegan diets, and 45% mention meat and dairy analogues in the guidelines.
“Crucially, 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 explained, adding that these guidelines should help identify which vegan alternatives can and can’t be part of a sustainable and 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,” she noted, pointing out that there are similar recommendations in most guidelines for animal-based products, with Dutch and Swedish recommendations the standouts here.
The DGE doesn’t completely overlook these products, however. It mentions plant-based milk, noting that these can be used as long as they’re fortified with sufficient amounts of calcium, vitamin B2 and iodine (which most major offerings in the category are). In an FAQ section on its website, the German Society for Nutrition explains that the nutrient profile of plant-based meat, seafood and dairy “often differs greatly from that of animal foods”, adding: “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.”
However, it does note that animal-derived foods have a higher climate footprint than plant-based products, contain cholesterol, and usually have more saturated fatty acids. “Therefore, they should complement the selection of plant-based foods in a balanced diet,” the DGE notes.
Germans are already eating less meat
Courtesy: Getty Images via Canva The German dietary guidelines cater to what is regarded as Europe’s largest group of flexitarians (estimated to be between 40-55% of the total population). A large EU-backed survey last year revealed that 59% of Germans were already eating less meat in 2022 than the year before – the joint-highest reduction in the EU.
Meanwhile, health was the biggest reason for buying plant-based meat and dairy (with 47% citing it), and given the country’s status as Europe’s largest plant-based market, it’s why Klapp called the non-inclusion of vegan alternatives odd. But the DGE explains that its mathematical optimisation model accounts for the average diet in Germany, stating that the reason animal-origin foods are included is because they’re already frequently consumed.
“The new optimisation model can simultaneously take into account several dimensions of the environment, such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use, when calculating the amounts of food consumed,” explained Anne Carolin Schäfer, a nutritionist in the DGE Science Department.
In any case, the consumption of plant-based foods will continue to grow in Germany, with retailers like Lidl, Kaufland, Aldi and the Rewe Group all making vegan analogues of meat and dairy the same price as or cheaper than their conventional counterparts. Last week, Burger King announced a similar move, with all its plant-based menu items now cheaper than meat. Meanwhile, the German government has earmarked €38M in its 2024 Budget to promote alternative protein consumption and a switch to plant-based agriculture, as well as open a Proteins of the Future centre.
“Eating mainly fruit and vegetables, whole grain cereals, legumes, nuts and vegetable oils does not only protect your health,” said Watzl. “The production of animal foods such as meat and dairy products, on the other hand, pollutes the environment more strongly, and a high level of meat consumption is associated with a higher risk of the development of certain diseases.”
Other countries that have recently realigned their nutritional guidelines to better focus on plant-based foods include the Nordic nations, Taiwan, and Canada. France, meanwhile, is facing calls to do the same.
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4 Mins Read
Today is International Women’s Day, a day all about raising visibility and awareness of women’s rights, and celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Even though the climate crisis seems too tall a mountain to climb sometimes, so many women are using their voices and pushing for change through food, the most powerful tool of action. Today, we celebrate these women, and what their plant-based companies are doing to change the world.
Hannah Carter and Polly Trollope founded OGGS, a UK-based vegan egg and baked goods company, in 2019 – since then, it has saved the equivalent of five million chicken eggs.
Kimberlie Le is the co-founder of Prime Roots, a mycelium meat company that makes deli meats, charcuterie and bacon from koji, and was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for social impact in 2021.
Aleah Rae Montague is the co-founder of Meat the Mushroom, which makes Shroomacon, a clean-label vegan bacon from king oyster mushrooms, and shot to fame on Shark Tank earlier this year.
Another Shark Tank company that’s making vegan bacon is Umaro Foods, whose co-founders Beth Zotter and Amanda Stiles are using seaweed to make plant-based proteins.
The plant-based sector is booming in India. On the meat analogue side, Bollywood actress Genelia Deshmukh co-founded Imagine Meats; Roma Roy Choudhury founded Evolved Foods; Pranjuli Garg co-founded ProMeat, Akanksha Ghai, co-founded BVeg Foods, and Nikki Arora Singh founded Blue Tribe Foods. And in the alt-dairy realm, there’s Sweta Khandelwal, who co-founded Better Bet; Aarohi Surya, founder of Dancing Cow; and Anushi Patel, founder of Soft Spot Cheese.
Based in Indonesia, Helga Angelina Tjahjadi is the co-founder of the country’s first plant-based meat company, Green Rebel Foods, and vegan restaurant chain Burgreens.
Vinita Choolani is founder of Singapore’s Float Foods, the maker of Asia’s first plant-based whole egg, OnlyEg. It recently secured a food safety certification for its Halal-certified facility to offer its tech to other manufacturers looking to ditch eggs.
Astrid Prajogo is the founder and CEO of China’s HaoFood, which makes meat alternatives using peanut protein. Its latest innovation is vegan xiaolongbaos (soup dumplings), with the peanut meat replacing the traditional minced pork filling.
Philippine Soulères Albrand and Sheryline Thavisouk are the co-founders of Le Papondu, a French startup whose vegan eggs come in shells.
Liron Nimrodi is the co-founder and CEO of Zero Egg, an Israel-based plant-based egg company that is available in multiple countries now, including the US.
Deniz Ficicioglu is the co-founder of Berlin-based BettaF!sh, which makes vegan tuna using European seaweed.
Tanja Bogumil is the co-founder of fellow German startup Perfeggt, which is making pea-protein-based liquid vegan eggs that you can use in scrambles, carbonara and pancakes.
Oyebola Adeyanju is the co-founder of Nigeria’s first plant-based food tech company, Veggie Victory, a Black-owned business rooted in its gender-balanced and social fairness values.
Christie Lagally founded Rebellyous Foods in 2017, and has shaped the company into a leader in the vegan chicken sector.
Courtney Boyd Myers is the co-founder of Akua, a New York-based startup that makes seaweed burgers from sustainable ocean-farmed kelp and has previously been named one of Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas for Food.
Hailey Swartz is co-founder of Actual Veggies, a fellow New York company that makes chef-crafted, whole-food plant-based burgers, made from sustainably sourced crops from regional farmers.
Canadian scientist Sujala Balaji is the founder of Rainfed Foods, a food tech company making plant-based milks from millets.
Monica Talbert is the co-founder of The Plant Based Seafood Co, an all-female, family-owned brand making fish- and crustacean-free crab cakes, scallops and shrimps.
Kerry Song is the founder of US plant-based meat brand Abbot’s Butcher, whose product range includes ground beef, chopped chicken, chorizo, and a burger.
Michelle Lee is co-founder at Lypid, a vegan fat company whose first innovation, PhytoFat, was used in a vegan pork belly, and is now part of plant-based meatballs suitable for multiple cuisines.
Hema Reddy is the founder of US company Crafty Counter, which makes WunderEgg, a range of plant-based boiled and deviled eggs, and egg patties.
And Marissa Cuevas Flores and Fanny Villiers are co-founders of MicroTERRA, a Mexican startup leveraging the power of duckweed to make plant-based proteins and ingredients, with its latest innovation aimed at sugar reduction.
This is by no means an exhaustive list – just a snapshot of all the female-founded companies doing incredible work for their communities, human health, and the climate crisis. Here’s to all the women in the world. More power to you and everything you do. Happy International Women’s Day!
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8 Mins Read
A recent trial revealed that serving plant-based options by default in college and university campuses can present significant benefits for the environment – the people behind the study explain why.
Last year, catering giant Sodexo revealed the results of an intervention study at three college campuses in the US. Led by behavioural science non-profit Food for Climate League (FCL) and dietary change think tank the Better Food Foundation, the trial explored what would happen if cafeterias offered plant-based dishes as a default option over meat-centric ones.
The researchers found that, when only vegan dishes were presented to college students – with a separate sign informing them that they could order a meat-based one instead – there was a significant uptick in the adoption of plant-based foods, a decrease in meat consumption, and an improved climate footprint.
With an estimated 235 million students eating around 148 billion meals each academic year, the greenhouse gas emissions add up. But if you serve them vegan food by default, it can result in as many as 81.5% more students eating plant-based meals in cafeterias, which in turn can reduce 23.6% of GHG emissions.
This is because meat’s emissions are twice as high as plant-based foods, with research suggesting that the latter can reduce emissions, water pollution and land use by 75% compared to meat-rich diets. “Having plant-based foods isn’t a buzz or a trend, it’s a need and a demand that we deliver with creativity and flavour,” Sodexo’s US Campus CEO, Brett Ladd, said at the time.
“We also recognise that reducing our animal-based food purchases is a key part of our carbon reduction strategy,” he added. “Having the plant entrée as the default demonstrated that people are open to trying and enjoying plant-based options with the added benefit of helping the planet.” The caterer has committed to making 50% of its campus menus plant-based by 2025, as part of a wider net-zero strategy for 2040, which it says is running ahead of schedule.
How default plant-based options change eating habits
Courtesy: Food for Climate League The trial was carried out in three universities: Tulane University in New Orleans, Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. The researchers assessed one dining hall station, that contained eight pairs of dishes (one plant- and meat-based each): the control day saw both options being presented side-by-side, while on the intervention day, only the plant-based dishes were put out, with students needing to request the meat version if they wanted.
During the design phase of the intervention, Foor for Climate League collaborated with Sodexo and the Better Food Foundation to identify test sites with a range of demographics, develop a recipe rotation specifically for the test, and keep the testing timeline to under one semester. “We also opted to test defaults at dining hall stations that already serve entrées containing meat in order to reach the widest number of students,” explains FCL design researcher Stephanie Szemetylo.
The research was the latest in a host of choice architecture studies, but was described as the first of its kind, given it covered multiple universities in an all-you-can-eat setting. In absolute terms, there was a 58.3% combined increase in the number of plant-based dishes served across the three campuses. On average, the take rate of vegan dishes jumped from 26.9% to 57.6% on days when they were the default option, but at Tulane and Lehigh, the change was even more pronounced, with the figure climbing up to 81.5%.
The researchers took into account a spillover effect, which indicates that students who would have visited an intervention station on a control day avoided it on the plant-based default day in search of meat options elsewhere in the dining hall. But even if all of them got a meat-based meal, there would still be around a 21% reduction in meat dishes served overall as a result of the intervention.
Why default plant-based options in cafeterias work
Courtesy: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute So why does this work? “There are many aspects to our environments that impact our decisions, whether we are aware of them or not. Editing the choices you present to people, and how they are presented, can impact the choices they make,” explains FCL founder Eve Turow-Paul.
Reflecting on the study, she notes: “We showed that a very slight change in the way menu options are offered can have a major impact on food choices, ultimately leading to selections that are better for the planet. In addition, this change was, for the most part, celebrated by both patrons and the serving staff.”
Szemetylo adds: “Most importantly, the success of defaults relies heavily on the proper implementation of the intervention by dining hall operators, line cooks, and servers. With incorrect implementation, the impact of the default on dish choice vanishes.” At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, for example, there were inconsistencies in implementation, which meant that there was barely any improvement in plant-based intake (it went from 26.3% to 27.2%).
There has also been a lot of discourse around using the term ‘plant-based’ versus ‘vegan’. In 2018, research revealed that for the 2,201 Americans surveyed, ‘vegan’ is the most unappealing descriptor for groceries, chosen by 35%. A year later, analysis showed that terms like ‘plant-based protein’ (56%) and plant-based (both 53%) are much more appealing than descriptors such as ‘vegan’ (35%).
“The goal with any food label is to be as inclusive as possible,” explains Szemetylo. “A very small percentage of the global population is vegan. A larger portion of the population will eat foods that are plant-based. And an even larger population will eat foods considered to be healthy, sustainable, or just plain delicious.”
She continues: “It’s important to consider your audience when labelling foods. At a college campus, ‘plant-based’ may perform well, while in other settings, it may ostracise many… Generally speaking, we recommend focusing on flavour over all else. ‘Vegan’ speaks mostly to those who hold that identity and seek visual cues on menus and food products to identify what is animal-free. Unfortunately, that term may turn off those who are not vegan, as it can signal that the menu option is not intended for them.”
‘Underseasoned tofu’ a thing of the past
Courtesy: Tulane University Turow-Paul suggested that foodservice and campus chefs are very interested in decarbonising their menus, but there are a few key hurdles. “Often, sustainability advocates – from corporate offices to government agencies – are siloed in their work. We need all staff to see sustainability as their responsibility, whether it’s in their titles or not,” she says.
“Second, while there are many how-to resources on ways to make these changes, the motivation and emotional engagement are often missing, which is a challenge that FCL’s work aims to tackle. Third, the resources are limited, especially on-site staff, so any support we can provide to make this easy for them will help.”
But despite openness from staff and students alike to shift towards plant-forward choices, the study found that eating and serving meat continues to be the social norm in campus dining, signalling an untapped opportunity for interventions – like defaults – to change consumption behaviour. Szemetylo believes that “the myth that sustainable meals don’t taste good” is holding decarbonisation efforts back.
“Often, we speak with chefs who think that in order for their food to be climate-friendly, it has to be less flavorful, and that ultimately, people won’t want to eat it. Nothing could be further from the truth,” she states. “Eating more sustainably means greater diversity in ingredients that are full of flavour. We need to move past this idea that we’re asking everyone to serve under-seasoned kale and tofu.”
Embrace cultures, understand audiences, and educate staff
Courtesy: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute FCL has developed a follow-up pilot to its research, which comprises motivational training for front-line staff and an implementation toolkit for foodservice operators. “We have already secured some initial funding, but are looking for an additional $80,000 to get this work off the ground, and another $120,000 to run the pilot, analyse the results, and widely disseminate our findings and tools,” says Turow-Paul. “Beyond that, we are always looking for implementation partners, be they foodservice operators, city leaders, consumer packaged goods companies, retailers, and more.”
Szemetylo explains that leaders across business, public policy, and institutions must begin to understand and leverage the role of food in mitigating emissions and improving human health. “We need all kinds of people to understand the success of this simple yet effective behaviour change strategy – from eaters, to plant-based advocates, behaviour change researchers, food industry decision-makers, and anyone who is interested in encouraging sustainable food choices.”
The study identified key opportunities for foodservice operators. Adopting a plant-based default serving approach even at just one station can improve the sustainability credentials of their sites, but engaging staff early to facilitate more accurate implementation, and leveraging their relationship with diners is key. The researchers also confirmed that gender plays a role in meat consumption norms, with women more open to adopting plant-based options – so understanding audiences is key.
Plus, caterers can increase satisfaction with vegan dishes by leveraging local food culture and maximising verbal and visual dish appeal. For example, the meals used in the trial include lentil patties with mushroom Valencia casserole, tofu bulgogi rice bowls, sesame-ginger tofu tikka masala, veggie burritos, and lentil, olive and mushroom spaghetti.
Sodexo has begun implementing a shift to plant-based defaults in its universities, having built the Plants-by-Default model into its core station’s pre-selected menus from the fall 2023 semester, which are provided to over 400 university dining operations. “We undertook this study to help nudge Sodexo’s own operations to adopt plant-based defaults more widely across our operations, and we are already seeing the direct large-scale impact on institutional dining that we set out to achieve,” said Lisa Feldman, director of culinary services at Sodexo.
“Foodservice leaders need to integrate defaults as part of their climate action plans and decarbonisation targets,” says Szemetylo. “To do so – and I cannot stress this enough – we need to support on-site staff in the implementation. Every site has its unique culture and constraints that influence how defaults can translate.
It’s critical to engage with on-site staff to share the purpose of defaults, co-create solutions with them to implement defaults in ways that provide the least amount of disruption to day-to-day operations, and build intrinsic motivation so that onsite staff can become sustained stewards of these strategies.”
The post Serving Plant-Based by Default in Colleges Can Cut Emissions by 24% and Meat Consumption by 81% – Here’s Why appeared first on Green Queen.
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5 Mins Read
Chicago-based meat company Oscar Mayer, a subsidiary of Kraft Heinz, is launching a line of plant-based hot dogs, as part of an ongoing collaboration with NotCo. They will debut at Expo West next week.
The two-year-old joint venture between Kraft Heinz and Chilean food tech company NotCo is launching its first plant-based meat product range: a vegan hot dog under the former’s Oscar Mayer brand.
The NotHotDogs and NotSausages, which will be previewed at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim (March 12-16), mark Oscar Mayer’s first foray into plant-based meat, and the fourth innovation born out of the Kraft Heinz Not Company venture.
“We know people are hungry for plant-based meat options from brands they know and trust,” said The Kraft Heinz Company CEO Lucho Lopez-May. “In launching the joint venture’s first product in the plant-based meat category, we saw an opportunity to satisfy these consumer cravings, leveraging NotCo’s revolutionary AI technology and the power, equity, and legacy of the Oscar Mayer brand.”
Oscar Mayer’s vegan sausages put flavour over everything
Courtesy: The Kraft Heinz Not Company The plant-based wieners will come in original, Bratwurst, and Italian sausage flavours, and hit US supermarkets in Q2 this year. They’re said to replicate the ‘snap’ of the outer casing and the savoury, smoky taste experience associated with Oscar Mayer’s conventional products.
It’s big news for three reasons: Kraft Heinz is the third-largest food company in North America, Oscar Mayer has been making meat products for over 140 years, and the release of a product in a category that has struggled of late is a sign of confidence in the plant-based industry.
Retail sales of meat analogues dipped by 11% to just over $1B in the year ending January 28, 2024, with volume down by 16.5%. It has coincided with plant-based giants like Quorn and Beyond Meat losing sales (though the latter is doing better than expected), startups like New Wave Foods, Ordinary Seafood and Nowadays being forced to shut, and innovators like Meati and Impossible Foods enforcing staff cutbacks.
Many companies have rejigged their product formulations and lineups to better serve consumer needs, but The Kraft Heinz Not Company said vegan hot dogs and sausage links remain underdeveloped and under-consumed, pointing to a gap in taste and texture expectations for consumers. This is why the Oscar Mayer vegan wieners – made from bamboo fibre, mushroom, pea protein and acerola cherry – are all about a taste-first approach.
Multiple studies have shown that flavour continues to be the main factor drawing consumers to plant-based meat, as well as pushing them away. One global poll from 2022 found that the taste and texture of meat alternatives are as important as conventional meat products for more than 75% of consumers. Last year, a Mintel survey found that taste is the biggest reason putting off Americans from trying meat analogues.
Yet another study revealed that taste is the top consideration for Americans when making grocery decisions, and the top barrier for trying plant-based meat (or purchasing it again, for that matter). And an earlier poll by food giant Kerry found that 73% of consumers feel vegan alternatives should mimic the taste of conventional meat.
This is what Oscar Mayer is honing in on with its new vegan sausages. “What the consumer is expecting is a product replica, a product that looks and performs like the animal-based item,” Lopez-May told Axios, noting that the products will be the “first ones in the bun-length space”.
Speaking to Bloomberg, he added: “Being able to borrow the flavour note, the flavouring systems, and incorporate those into a completely different matrix — it’s a massive technological accomplishment.” It’s a nod to NotCo’s tech platform, which leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to find the right combinations between thousands of different plant-based ingredients to replace animal-derived foods.
Can consumers shake off the price tag?
Courtesy: The Kraft Heinz Not Company Oscar Mayer’s announcement comes three months after Impossible Foods said it would roll out a plant-based beef hot dog later this year as well. That product was very much skewed towards the health aspect, and for good reason: hot dogs are the epitome of processed food, with such processed meats categorised as a Class 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization. Impossible’s product contained 50% less fat, twice the protein and zero cholesterol compared to an animal-derived hot dog.
However, there has been a lot of clamour around plant-based meats, ultra-processed foods and their links to ill health. The overprocessed nature of vegan analogues can be off-putting to many consumers, especially at a time when health is the main reason six in 10 Americans eat meatless diets. But a survey of 2,000 Americans in October found that 82% of consumers eat UPFs, and 43% don’t believe they’re bad for health.
Additionally, nearly two-thirds (65%) would be open to incorporating UPFs in their diets if additional health or nutritional benefits were listed on-pack, which rises to 85% for parents with children under 18. And in any case, Oscar Mayer’s plant-based hot dogs will likely be geared towards flexitarians who are looking to cut down on their meat consumption.
So how do they compare to the company’s own beef franks? The NotHotDogs have 17% fewer calories, 44% less total fat, and 67% more protein, although their sodium content is 40% higher. The Kraft Heinz Not Company stresses that flavour is still the main focus – given they serve as an entry point to the plant-based category – and the sodium can eventually be lowered. “We wanted to make something that tastes great,” Kraft Heinz R&D president Robert Scott told Bloomberg.
The vegan products will also be slightly more expensive, with the NotHotDogs priced at $5.99 for a four-pack, and NotSausage at ($7.99). In contrast, its bun-length franks cost $4 for an eight-pack. But there’s evidence that consumers could shell out: 67% of Americans say they’d willing to pay more for UPFs with more nutritious ingredients that deliver better health benefits, irrespective of their household income.
The new Oscar Mayer plant-based hot dogs and sausages join a crowded category that already includes Field Roast, Tofurky, Lightlife, Upton’s Naturals and MorningStar Farms, and was estimated to be an $828M market last year. But the company will hope that its taste credentials help it stand apart. “At The Kraft Heinz Not Company, our goal is to create mouthwatering, plant-based foods that are delicious and accessible for everyone – from the devoted vegan to the plant-based curious,” said Lopez-May.
The vegan wieners follow the launch of NotCheese Slices, NotMayo and NotMac&Cheese – a plant-based version of the famous Kraft dinner – which leverage the market expertise and distribution channels of Kraft Heinz and the AI-led technology and innovation of NotCo.
Having already entered a new sector in plant-based meat, The Kraft Heinz Not Company now plans to expand into further categories, and has already begun expanding internationally.
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7 Mins Read
Beyond Meat enjoyed a bit of a small rally recently, especially after its latest earnings call. However, there has been a lot of negative discussion about Beyond Meat and its stock price over the past year, which indeed continues to struggle.
Is the negativity justified? Is it accurate? Is the product to blame? Is it CEO Ethan Brown? Below, I share the ten reasons investors of all culinary persuasions might be wrong about BYND.
1. Ceci N’est Pas Un ‘Consumer Staple’
Beyond Meat’s IPO valuation was more aligned with tech companies during the dot-com bubble than with consumer staples/food companies, per the image below. This proved to be a real Achille’s heel for the stock, as tech companies trade at higher multiples and have faster growth trends. Food products are not SaaS, and these companies tend to have much slower growth than their tech counterparts. The markets eventually corrected for this, bringing the company’s stock price way down.
2. Path to Profitability: No P/E, No Love‘
The media loves a founder with a ‘save-the-world’ dream. From Steve Jobs to Sergey Brin, Silicon Valley has trained us to love a visionary. Beyond’s CEO Ethan Brown may indeed make his vision a reality of shifting the global food system away from livestock meat eventually, but Wall Street analysts don’t want to hear about a future dream. They want to see consumer demand, revolutionary IP, and, more than anything else, a realistic path to profitability.
Financial analysts usually rely on a P/E ratio (share price per earnings) to evaluate a company’s performance and in the case of Beyond Meat, which has not achieved profitability yet, the ratio is negative, leaving analysts flummoxed. Additionally, analysts want to see revenue growth, not revenue declines, as is the case for Beyond Meat. Add to this that most Street analysts may not see the need to shift away from an animal meat food system, and it’s not hard to see why the stock has been battered by downgrade ratings.
3. Consistency For The Win. Confidence For The Bigger Win.
If analysts aren’t interested in the plant-based dream and are deprived of their crucial revenue growth and P/E metrics, how exactly can they analyze a company accurately and provide fair stock ratings? The answer is earning calls. Wall Street analysts tend to look to the CEO to accurately guide for financial expectations: Will the company be profitable? And if so, by how much? And when? They expect the CEO to be able to know their business well enough to accurately predict growth (or loss) from three months to a year out.
Much of Wall Street is about managing expectations. Consistently hitting quarterly expectations in earnings calls gives analysts confidence that the CEO is in control of the business. Consistently missing quarterly expectations and not being able to right the ship quarter after quarter will do the exact opposite. This is what happened to Beyond Meat for too many quarters in a row.
4. ‘I Have a Dream’ vs. ‘Show Me The Money
Dreams are great but profitability is the holy grail. Beyond Meat IPOed during the exuberant 2019 bull market. The stock rose 163% in one day of trading, the largest bump for an IPO stock since the 2008 crash. While institutional investors make up 85% of the market, it’s the retail investors that got really excited about BYND, and this resulted in the stock’s price being driven way up. Irrationally so, some might say. Ever since, the company has struggled to show analysts a convincing path to profitability.
As of the last earnings call, the Street seems to have regained some confidence in Brown as a CEO and the stock in general. While U.S. sales were down, the company still beat expectations and sales were down less than expected ($73.7 million rather than $66.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2023). This is 10% better than expected for the US. Further, international sales were up 22% in retail and 34% in foodservice.
The stock was rewarded for this, but losing less sales than expected is hardly revenue growth. Even in forecasting out for 2024, the best the company could do was state that it would hold steady at around $345M, and lose no more. Not exactly growth. The company hasn’t been able to hold on to all of its gains, but there was a moment when it rallied for the company. So why did The Street react positively?
5. It’s The Spending, Stupid
What was so different about the Feb 27th earnings call? Well, Brown shared that in 2023 the company brought operating expenses down to $107.8 million for the year, compared with $320.2 million in 2022, a two-thirds reduction in spending!
It appears The Street had been waiting to see this kind of leadership from the company since its IPO. Could Beyond Meat run a fiscally responsible company?
BYND was up 31% the day after the earnings call (Feb 28th, 2024), trading at $9.83, up from $7.52. It then surged 106% in after-hours trading. As of writing ten days later, it is $8.07.
Less interested in big visions around the future of protein, analysts had been hoping for a solid balance sheet and a realistic path to profitability, or at least stopping the bleeding, controlled spending and management focused on the numbers, not the dream- all of which Beyond delivered.
6. What’s Up with Consumer Demand? Inflation.
While some vegans claim that Beyond Meat’s cleaner labels are the reason why the company is having trouble, the more likely explanation for declining domestic sales is inflation. The average grocery shopper is facing skyrocketing food prices.
The Beyond Meat brand is intended for meat eaters looking to make a smarter choice for themselves and the planet. With the cost of its plant-based patty up to double that of a heavily subsidized livestock meat burger, it’s no secret why mainstream consumers can’t afford them on a regular basis.
The company appears to be working hard on price parity, but it’s key not to ignore food inflation’s role when looking at the whole financial picture. According to the industry think tank the Good Food Institute, what matters most to alternative protein consumers is taste, price, and convenience. I have come to believe it is price, price, and price.
7. Covid, (Supply) Chains and China, Oh My!
Often missing from Beyond Meat analysis is the bigger contextual picture. Since going public in mid-2019, the company has faced Covid-related complications (including restaurant closures), supply chain disruptions due to wars and pandemics, China’s economic crash, global inflation, and general societal angst. Even one of these externalities would challenge a healthy company- and yet Beyond has weathered all of these simultaneously. To still be standing and on the way to profitability is a testament to the young public company’s staying power. Can it continue to weather the storm?
8. Big Meat vs. Beyond Meat
In the past 18 months, the mainstream media has been relentless in its attacks on the plant-based meat sector. While many see the negative narratives as directed against the entire industry, in reality, as the only public company in the space, Beyond Meat bears the brunt of the hits and it’s undoubtedly had an outsized impact on the stock performance.
Lately, a slew of reports and investigations have detailed how Big Meat lobbyists are behind the attacks. Will analysts start to price in the cost of this misinformation? Most likely not. It is not their problem. The sector and the company are going to have to continue to deliver against misinformation by lowering prices and critical innovation.
9. Innovate or Die
All is not lost. Given the choice between innovating and dying, Beyond Meat has chosen to innovate. Despite expenses decreasing by two-thirds in 2023, the company released new ‘clean label’ products: AMA-certified cholesterol-free plant-based steak tips and a new burger patty made with avocado oil and fava beans that offers its consumers the same taste at a fraction of the saturated fat content.
The company is making it clear that it is hyper-focused on what works (healthier versions of its star products) and unattached to what doesn’t (Beyond Jerky, ending a distribution agreement with PepsiCo that didn’t perform well) as it journeys to profitability. This is what Wall Street wants to see.
10. So What Now?
A few things are transpiring. Firstly, coming off of COP28 and the push for financing food system change fast, the Street is beginning to process what many in the plant-based industry have known for years: food tech IS climate tech. Society won’t achieve its collective global net zero goals without investing in meat reduction, given the livestock sector’s emissions footprint. Beyond Meat’s future trajectory is inextricably linked to this reality.
Secondly, if Ethan Brown can continue to manage earnings call expectations, then analysts may welcome the CEO they want to see: an Ethan Brown dialed into the priorities of The Street; marching towards profitability, fiscal control, a commitment to products at price parity with meat and innovation-led R&D.
No doubt, the company has a long way to go to get a justified stock price rally that can last, but with operational spending cuts and potential profitability on the horizon amidst the environmental messaging finally taking hold in the financial community, it may be a step closer to turning a corner.
The post BYND: 10 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About Beyond Meat appeared first on Green Queen.
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5 Mins Read
Burger King has made all plant-based products and meals cheaper than meat across its German operations to encourage increased vegan consumption. It will develop a new flower-shaped patty with The Vegetarian Butcher to differentiate beef burgers.
Burger King Germany has made a groundbreaking move to make veganism more accessible to customers, with all plant-based dishes now cheaper than those containing meat.
It has unveiled a new motto, ‘Plant-Based for Everyone’, to coincide with the announcement, which will see the markup for its vegan items like the Whopper, chicken nuggets and Long Chicken sandwich be reduced by 10 cents.
It’s a landmark decision: the fast-food chain says it has the largest vegan range in German QSR, with a meat-free (sometimes vegetarian) alternative to almost every menu option. The price cuts play into consumer trends in the country, with a large EU-backed survey last year revealing that 39% of Germans find plant-based alternatives too expensive, making price the biggest purchase barrier.
“Since the mid-1990s, we have been investing in vegetarian alternatives and have shown that fast food doesn’t always have to mean meat. As a pioneer, we offer by far the largest plant-based range in the German foodservice industry – and now even with a price advantage,” said Burger King Germany CEO Jörg Ehmer. “We are thus providing a strong impetus to try out plant-based options. Our goal: to offer guests freedom of choice – without compromising on taste.”
A new flower-shaped vegan beef patty
Courtesy: Burger King Germany Alongside the price reductions, Burger King is working with Unilever-owned plant-based meat brand The Vegetarian Butcher on a new flower-shaped patty for its vegan beef burgers, which will be rolled out in the coming weeks. This is meant to help distinguish between the conventional beef and plant-based options, and follows the development of a breading with parsley sprinkles to differentiate between its chicken patties and nuggets.
The Vegetarian Butcher has supplied plant-based beef and chicken analogues to Burger King since 2019. Their partnership exists in multiple markets, including the UK, Indonesia, China, the UAE, Mexico and Costa Rica (in the US, the fast-food chain works with Impossible Foods).
For Veganuary, it launched the Veggie King Deluxe, which the company says was “very successful”, and now, it plans to develop more plant-based products for its menu. It cements Burger King’s vegan leadership in the European fast-food space, with a report last year noting that it has the highest number of plant-based mains across the leading chains in Europe.
“We are the first choice in terms of plant-based options in the foodservice industry, and continue to drive the growing trend towards alternative protein sources in Germany,” added Ehmer. “For this, we are not only developing our products and processes further, but also focusing on greater product variety and easier access.”
The company has established a credo for all its plant-based products: ‘0% meat. 100% flavour.’ This focus on taste is smart, given that flavour is the top motivating factor for choosing plant-based alternatives in Germany, with 55% citing it.
Burger King follows consumer trends in Germany
Courtesy: Burger King Germany | Composite by Green Queen Burger King Germany’s price cuts for plant-based meat represent a shrewd move, considering that it is the largest vegan market in Europe, and with a growing willingness to cut back on meat consumption. In fact, 59% of Germans reported eating less meat in 2022 than the year before – the joint-highest in the EU.
This makes sense when you realise that Germany has the largest flexitarian population in Europe, with the EU survey putting that figure at 40%. An earlier USDA report, however, says as many as 55% of Germans follow a flexitarian diet. Burger King Germany’s marketing head Klaus Schmäing has previously said that flexitarians are the company’s main target.
“The large group we want to address are flexitarians,” he said. “But beyond that, of course, also vegetarians and vegans.” (The EU poll found that Germany had the second-largest vegan population in the region too, at 4% of the population.) And last year, Burger King Germany revealed that one in every five Whoppers it sells are plant-based, and likewise for nearly one in four Long Chickens.
So the demand is clearly there – and it’s something the government has identified too, having earmarked €38M in the 2024 federal budget to promote alternative protein consumption and a switch to plant-based agriculture, as well as open a Proteins of the Future centre.
“With this decision on the protein transition, the coalition is taking a big step towards the transition to a sustainable food system laid out in the coalition agreement,” said Ivo Rzegotta, senior public affairs manager for Germany at the Good Food Institute Europe, an alternative protein think tank. “The agreed funding measures for research and transformation will put Germany on the path to becoming a leader in this emerging field.”
Burger King isn’t the only company to reduce prices and make plant-based food more accessible in Germany. In October, discount retailer Lidl announced that most of its own-label products from the Vemondo plant-based range would be at price parity with or cheaper than conventional meat and dairy products, explaining that “conscious and sustainable consumption” is only possible if these foods are “affordable and more easily accessible for everyone”.
Lidl’s announcement was swiftly followed by Kaufland, which dropped the prices of 90 vegan products to make them competitive or more affordable than their animal-based counterparts. Rewe Group’s BILLA and Penny have made identical moves, as has Aldi Süd.
With its whopping decision, Burger King Germany has added itself to that list.
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5 Mins Read
UK supermarket Tesco is witnessing a rise in demand for plant-based food, following a slight dip in sales last year. The retailer says the plant-based industry is now in its “second phase”, with whole cuts a key growth point.
It’s no secret that the plant-based industry endured a challenging 2023, with sales of meat-free products in the UK (which include Quorn’s vegetarian SKUs too) falling by £38.4M. It was among the worst-performing grocery categories, with plenty of factors affecting the market, not least the cost-of-living crisis, concerns around ultra-processing, and dissatisfaction with the taste and texture of the products.
The UK’s biggest retailer, Tesco, also witnessed a decline (albeit a small one), which it ascribed to a drop-off in interest from “dabblers and the merely curious” for the “biggest food trend this century”. But things are turning around, with the retailer noting that the plant-based revolution is moving into its second phase now, as demand rises for meat-free ingredients and whole cuts.
The retailer’s plant-based food buyer Cate May said the “initial level of interest was inevitably going to drop off slightly”, but in this phase two, “we are seeing flexitarians now wanting to take more control over what they eat, whilst continuing to reduce their meat intake”.
Whole cuts and whole foods drive Tesco’s vegan growth
Courtesy: Tesco In the last three months, sales for plant-based fish products at Tesco are up by 100% compared to the same period last year. Similarly, vegan steak and chicken breasts have seen a 20% hike, while meatless burger purchases have increased by 10%. Even traditional plant proteins like tofu and tempeh grew by 20%.
Long touted as the “holy grail” of plant-based meat, whole cuts have slowly begun creeping into supermarkets across the world, and the steaks from Slovenia’s Juicy Marbles were one of the most notable successes for vegan food at Tesco. In fact, in the lead-up to Valentine’s Day, Tesco sold 100,000 vegan steaks, which it called “an unprecedented number for that occasion”.
“Customers are starting to understand the versatility of plant-based ingredients and whole cuts, and are creating a wide variety of meals such as tofu stir-fries, meat-free curries using chicken alternatives or beans and pulses, and classic steak and chips using plant-based steaks,” said May.
“Awareness is also starting to increase around the health benefits of making some simple swaps in their diet, for example, to reduce saturated fat whilst maintaining strong levels of protein by increasing the amount of plants and plant-based foods in their diets and then supplementing with more fresh veg.”
To highlight the increased consumption of whole foods, Tesco commissioned a survey of 2,000 UK adults in December, and found that 46% of Brits are eating more vegetables than they were five years ago. For 47%, introducing more vegetables to their plates was a deliberate decision, with the main reasons being health (82%), environmental impact (25%), and cost savings (22%). Even Sunday roasts – or the equivalent family meals – have seen an uptick, with 48% of respondents saying their roast dinners involve more vegetables now. For 60%, this meant three or more different types of vegetables.
This speaks to the prominence of whole-food plant-based mains on restaurant menus this Veganuary too: Burger King brought back its black bean burger; Wagamama, Pret A Manger and Zizzi highlighted mushrooms; Leon went all-in on gut health with a bhaji wrap; and Pizza Express introduced a veggie-packed calzone.
Vegetable and meat consumption trends in the UK
Courtesy: Tesco To May’s point about flexitarianism, there has been a drop in meat-eating in the UK. Government data from 2023 showed that meat consumption was at its lowest since records began almost half a century ago. So it perhaps may come as a surprise that fresh meat was actually one of the fastest-growing sectors in terms of retail sales, which were up by £352.5M.
However, inflation is key here: for example, the rise in sales for chicken (the top-performing food) was largely driven by a 13.4% price hike. This is why it wasn’t just meat intake that saw record lows among Brits – dairy went through the same thing. Those government figures also showed that Brits were eating 6% fewer fruits and vegetables than pre-pandemic levels.
But the renewed optimism for vegetables – at least according to Tesco’s data – can be explained by inflation too. A 1,000-person survey in October found that 62% of Brits feel plant-based meats cost much more than their conventional counterparts, with a fifth citing costs as the biggest reason for reducing their intake of these alternatives. Whole foods like vegetables will always be cheaper than meat analogues, so are naturally an appealing option for consumers with squeezed wallets.
This survey can explain the growing interest in whole cuts as well. For 66% of consumers, plant-based meat products taste much worse than their conventional counterparts, while 51% cite taste/texture as the biggest reason for reducing their consumption of meat alternatives. With whole cuts, which mimic the texture of muscle fibres in meat, consumers get the same mouthfeel and an elevated flavour experience.
These products are thus effective gateways into plant-based eating for meat-eaters looking to become flexitarians. There’s some way to go, though. A 2,003-person YouGov survey published in January shows that only 13% of Brits consider themselves flexitarian, which is a three-point drop from two years ago. Conversely, 73% call themselves meat-eaters, a three-point rise from January 2022. The poll revealed that only 2% of Brits are vegans, and 5% vegetarians. In contrast, research by Finder – published in January as well – estimated that 4.7% of UK adults follow a plant-based diet.
Either way, what’s clear is that food prices and associated health aspects are increasingly important for Brits, and vegetables will go a long way in alleviating those concerns. Tesco’s own-label Plant Chef range, which has over 180 items, features products like Vegetable Fingers, Spicy Bean Burgers and Katsu Style Veggie Crispbakes, alongside meat analogues too, in a bid to appeal to a wide range of consumers.
Even after cutting its private-label SKUs by over 500, the grocer managed to grow value sales by 10% with an innovation focus on “fast-growing categories such as plant-based”, with the five new frozen Plant Chef ranges rolled out this Veganuary. It was also the retailer that introduced Wicked Kitchen to the world. With a strong plant-based pedigree, Tesco will be hopeful of turning the category’s fortunes around in the UK this year.
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5 Mins Read
Israeli food tech company Yo Egg is launching its vegan sunny-side-ups and poached eggs in US retail, starting with stores in Los Angeles, before a nationwide move next year.
A year after making its foodservice debut in Los Angeles, Yo Egg is moving into retail with its vegan fried and poached eggs, starting with the west coast.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, the startup will introduce its plant-based eggs in the city through a distribution deal with Whitestone Natural Foods. This will mean its products – which are priced at $6.99 for a four-pack – will be available in the freezers of Hanks Organic, Besties Vegan Paradise, Rainbow Acres Natural Foods, Follow Your Heart Market and PlantX (XMarket Venice), among others.
The company then plans to expand into California, New York and eventually nationwide next year. “We’re starting small with individual operators in the better-for-you natural foods category,” Yo Egg CEO Eran Groner told AgFunderNews. “Then we’re targeting regional players such as Bristol Farms, before going after accounts such as Sprouts and Whole Foods.”
Pondering co-manufacturing to scale up vegan egg production
Courtesy: Yo Egg Founded in 2021 by Groner and chef Yosefa Ben Cohen – who had developed the eggs with both restaurants and home cooks in mind – Yo Egg is the world’s first startup creating vegan fried and poached eggs, complete with runny yolks.
Unlike other plant-based egg companies, which either produce a powdered version or liquid eggs to make omelettes and scrambles, Yo Egg focuses on pre-prepped frozen sunny-side-up and poached eggs that can be boiled or fried. Made from a base of sunflower oil and chickpea and soy protein, the eggs leverage the startup’s patent-pending tech for whites and yolks (which are sealed using alginate, a seaweed extract).
The egg white system enables Yo Egg to produce the ideal structure for each format, and can be fried, poached or boiled. “It’s all about the phasing, timing and temperatures, not just the recipe, so it would be very hard to reverse-engineer it,” Groner explained.
Meanwhile, the company can make 50,000 yolks each day with a single piece of equipment. “In a room that’s 200 square feet, we can have four such machines, so that’s 200,000 yolks per day, which – if you do the math – is already a scaled egg farm in the United States if you have 200,000 birds laying eggs,” he noted.
Yo Egg currently has a pilot facility in North Hollywood, with which it can already compete with the prices of market leader Just Egg, whose scale is way higher (it recently announced the sale of the equivalent of 500 million eggs). But Groner, who said the company is hoping to bring retail prices down to $5.99 per pack, floated the idea of using a co-manufacturer too. “We would make the egg whites and the yolks and the co-manufacturer would form the egg, and we provide the plug-and-play equipment for that process. They form the egg and then they cook it, freeze it and package it,” he said.
“This way, we maintain the IP, the recipe and the protocol of mixing, and the yolk manufacturing using our specialised equipment,” he added, stating that after line testing with “a fairly big manufacturer”, the eggs came out better than what Yo Egg’s own equipment can deliver.
Yo Egg’s foodservice-first strategy
Courtesy: Yo Egg Yo Egg, which has raised over $5M in funding, made its debut in US foodservice last February, targeting brunch spots in Los Angeles, including Real Food Daily, Flore Vegan, Swingers Diner, Coyote Grill, and Loma Linda’s Vegan District Asian Eatery.
This was followed by a nationwide launch in April, with Yo Egg appearing on the menu at restaurants like Coletta and Beyond Sushi, and even the offices of Google. Its poached and sunny-side-up offerings are also part of menu options at fast-casual chain Veggie Grill (now owned by Next Level Burger).
This foodservice-first approach is a tried-and-tested strategy in the plant-based sector. Oatly, for example, debuted in the US through specialty coffee shops, with word of mouth and barista approval stamps propelling it to widespread popularity before its retail launch. A similar route to market was taken by plant-based meat giant Impossible Foods, which has an outstanding foodservice record and was specified by Groner as a reference point for Yo Egg.
“There are definitely advantages in launching a brand in foodservice before you go into retail. It’s easier to iterate quickly in foodservice, get rapid feedback, and iterate again. It doesn’t work like that in retail,” he explained. “What people like is that we’re going after every format of eggs. We’re starting with fried and poached eggs and we’re planning to launch a patty next quarter, where we already have major accounts signed up. This will be followed by hard-boiled eggs later this year, and a liquid yolk product next year.”
Yo Egg will hope these innovations allow it to take a large slice of the vegan egg market, which is currently dominated by Just Egg (it represents 99% of all sales in the sector). Other retail players include Follow Your Heart, Hodo, Simply Eggless, WunderEggs and Neat Egg, alongside private-label offerings from Target and Kroger – but succeeding in this space is tough. Plant-based eggs make up just 0.5% of the total US egg market, as of 2022. In terms of units, while plant-based eggs grew by sevenfold between 2019-22 to reach 10 million sales, animal-based egg sales were around 2.3 billion.
Additionally, the number of American households buying plant-based eggs was just 2% in 2022 – but the sector has outpaced dollar sales growth for animal-derived eggs, growing by 348% versus 67% for the latter from 2019-22, albeit with a much smaller base. So there has definitely been progress, but there’s room for a lot of progress too, given the scale of the conventional egg industry.
“Consumers like the fact that animals are not involved and it’s better for the environment, but what really drives consumption is you have a third of the saturated fat, zero cholesterol, and less sodium [compared to chicken eggs],” explained Groner. “And foodservice operators love the fact that finally, they have a plant-based option on their menu that they can be proud of. It’s a surprising, innovative, versatile product.”
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If a photographer asked you to say “cruelty” before snapping your photo, would you flash a toothy smile? In PETA’s new thought-provoking public service announcement, codirected by Christian Carl and Jon Walley with Philadelphia-based production company Format, we’re reminding everyone what “Say ‘cheese’” really means for cows who suffer and die in the abusive dairy industry:
“Calf-cow separation” and “repeated forced impregnation” are nothing to smile about—so why do we keep saying “cheese”? Mother cows are fiercely protective of their precious babies, but the dairy industry denies them this important bond, stealing their calves from them shortly after birth. Dairy farms repeatedly impregnate female cows in order to exploit them like milking machines until they’re no longer able to produce milk. Then, these sensitive, gentle mothers are sent to slaughter so that humans can eat their flesh.
Say ‘Compassion!’ Instead
Today’s young people understand that the language we use should reflect our shifting values. Studies suggest that going vegan is growing in popularity among younger generations, as it’s better for our fellow animals, the environment, and our own health. Reportedly, 79% of the Gen Z population goes meatless one day a week and 65% say they want a more plant-forward diet. Another study shows that 19% of Gen Alphas ask their parents to buy plant-based foods.
Replacing tired, outdated phrases with more conscientious ones is a piece of vegan cake. Instead of saying “cheese,” opt for an animal-friendly phrase with that long “e” sound that helps you smile, like “trees,” “bees,” or “nutritional yeast.” There are endless ways to get creative while being kind to our fellow animals.
Go Vegan!
By going vegan, you can spare nearly 200 animals a year, reduce your environmental footprint, and improve your health—now that’s something to smile about. The best part? We’ll help you do it. Order a free vegan starter kit to make the compassionate switch today:
Order a Free Vegan Starter Kit
The post Why You Shouldn’t Say ‘Cheese’ Before a Photo appeared first on PETA.
This post was originally published on Animal Rights and Campaign News | PETA.
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Next time someone says, “But bacon …,” show them this cartoon. A beaming father and his young daughters are about to tuck into a meaty breakfast when the curious girls ask about their father’s job. He launches into a catchy tune about his work as a pig farmer—but things quickly take a sinister turn. It’s all singing and dancing until the video reveals the horrific reality of what’s involved in turning gentle pigs into sausages, bacon, and ham.
We’ll say no more—just watch for yourself:
PETA U.K. released this video, which features rubber hose animation reminiscent of beloved cartoons such as The Ren & Stimpy Show, in collaboration with top London advertising agency Grey.
Pigs Enjoy Music
Pigs are sensitive, intelligent individuals who, like humans, enjoy games and music. Mother pigs even sing to their babies.
They value their lives, just as we do, and they don’t want to be turned into bacon.
‘Happy’ Pig Farms? A Big Fat Lie
Most of the 121 million pigs killed for their flesh in the U.S. every year are crammed into barren concrete pens and deprived of fresh air and sunshine.
Farmers routinely subject pigs to painful mutilations, such as cutting off their tails and grinding down their sensitive teeth, usually without painkillers.
At slaughterhouses, the animals are hoisted upside down by their back legs and their throats are cut—often without effective stunning.
Eating Sausages Is Linked to Health Issues
Studies show that even moderate consumption of processed meat increases the risk of bowel cancer. Conversely, vegans are less likely to suffer from heart disease, certain types of cancer, diabetes, and strokes.
Meat Production Costs the Earth
The United Nations Environment Programme has called meat production the world’s “most urgent problem” on account of the huge quantities of greenhouse gases the industry produces, which contribute to the climate catastrophe.
On the flipside, vegan diets generate 75% less climate-heating emissions than diets containing more than 100 grams of meat a day.
Open Someone Else’s Eyes to Pigs’ Suffering
You can help pigs simply by sharing this video:
Go Vegan for Pigs
The best way to spare clever pigs suffering and a painful death is to go vegan. Grab your free vegan starter kit to learn more:
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This post was originally published on Animal Rights and Campaign News | PETA.
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The post In Memory Of The Pigs Killed Nearby In A Fire. appeared first on PETA.
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The post Look Carefully: He’s Him, Not Ham. Go Vegan. appeared first on PETA.
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6 Mins Read
Continuing its flexitarian-targeting marketing drive, Canadian vegan cheesemaker Daiya might be ruffling a few feathers with its latest campaign, which features a cheeseburger with conventional beef and plant-based cheese.
“Enough controversy – let’s eat.”
That’s the message portrayed by a new ad by Daiya, the vegan cheese giant that recently overhauled its recipes and packaging to introduce a better-tasting product that would appeal to flexitarians, with a tagline reading: “100% plant-based. Even if you’re not.”
The company is doubling down on that shift away from an “all or nothing” approach to eating vegan. With the ‘Not So Controversial’ campaign, it is accepting that the idea of combining a beef burger might be blasphemous to both meat-eaters and vegans, but that’s exactly the point.
If manufacturers and consumers can take to blended meat – a combination of animal-derived meat with plant-based ingredients – what’s stopping them from mixing beef with vegan cheese? The no-judgement sentiment aims to counter what Daiya says is the “bougie sentiment” and “elitist attitude” of the plant-based industry, and appeal to the mainstream.
“Our aim is not to convert, but to invite everyone to discover and enjoy the benefits of plant-based eating, showing how our products can add delicious variety to their meals, enhancing the culinary experience for all, regardless of dietary choices,” Daiya chief marketing officer John Kelly told Adweek.
Appealing to flexitarians in a heavy cheese-eating country
Courtesy: Daiya The ad campaign celebrates Daiya’s reformulated cheese, which was the result of a months-long, multi-million-dollar project that replaced chickpea protein with a fermented oat cream base. This also meant a new direction for packaging and branding for the company, which described the new cheeses as “creamier” than their predecessors, and “tastier, meltier, and stretchier than any other on the market”.
The 30-second spot is centred on a backyard barbecue with burgers sizzling on the grill, topped with its vegan cheese slices that melt as they cook. Daiya says its goal is to be inclusive and appeal to American flexitarians, a cohort that is growing in numbers. While one survey revealed that a US-wide survey by the International Food Information Council revealed that only 6% of Americans followed a flexitarian diet in 2022, Numerator data suggests that 72 million US households contain flexitarians – that’s over half of the total.
Meanwhile, US cheese consumption hit an all-time high in 2022, but vegan cheese lags behind. The latter represents just 1.1% of the country’s cheese sector in retail sales, with only 5% of households buying plant-based cheese (compared to 96% for conventional cheese). That’s essentially where Daiya’s argument lies: its target consumer is the American who eats animal products, and it’s banking on the pedigree of its products to change their mind and boost the vegan cheese category.
“We should’ve had this conversation two years ago, and we’ve had our heads down a little bit,” said Jonathan Schoenberg, executive creative director and partner at TDA Boulder, the ad agency that worked with Daiya. “It’s a safe bet to talk to the loyalists, so let’s start talking to that larger audience. If we don’t, we’re fringe companies.”
On average, Americans eat about three hamburgers a week – Daiya’s use of burgers as a pricing staple in a familiar barbecuing backdrop could therefore go a long way in reshaping consumer opinions about vegan cheese. “This appeal to tradition is used to dissuade consumers from seeing the product as an ‘alternative’,” Vegan Women Summit founder Jennifer Stojkovic told Adweek.
She added that the “melt and stretch” of Daiya’s cheese in the video will likely be the USP, breaking away from the mould of ‘rubbery’ vegan cheeses of the past. A study leveraging Kroger data from 60 million American households revealed that nearly three-quarters (73%) of Americans are unhappy with the flavour (which they describe as “plastic” or “unnatural”) and texture (“grainy”) of vegan cheese. They want cheeses that taste better, melt well and have a creamy texture.
Daiya’s new oat cream cheeses boast these very characteristics, with the brand claiming fermentation helps its products reach “dairy parity”, especially in terms of meltability. “We expect this advancement to not only rejuvenate consumer confidence in the category, but revitalise the category’s market potential, finally offering retailers a product that truly bridges the gap between consumer expectations and dairy-free offerings,” its chief commercial officer Melanie Domer had said during the launch.
Response to Daiya ad seems mixed – but meat reduction remains crucial
Courtesy: Daiya “Many brands make the mistake of overwhelming consumers with information that is irrelevant to a food purchasing decision – Daiya has done the exact opposite,” added Stojkovic. “We taste with our eyes, and they surely know it.”
Having said that, there’s an argument to be made that commercials like Daiya’s could inadvertently encourage even greater meat consumption, which is the opposite of what scientists have been calling for. Americans consume six times more red meat than the amount outlined by the Eat-Lancet Commission‘s planetary health diet recommendations. In fact, just 12% of Americans are responsible for half of the country’s meat consumption.
But 74% of these consumers don’t believe eating meat is linked to climate change, and that rises to 78% for dairy. This is despite one study revealing that the country needs to cut its meat intake by 82% if it wants to avoid further climate disasters. Daiya’s mix-and-match approach has market potential, but equally, the potential impact of eating more beef – which has the worst emissions of any food – on the climate cannot be understated.
The vegan cheese company has said it is ready to face backlash from vegetarian or vegan customers. And it seems like it already is. “As a vegan, I’ll have some faux meats, but cheese kind of sucks. Someone who eats meat likely has an even lower amount of patience for analogs, this is not going to net them sales,” one Reddit user wrote.
Another added: “Putting veggie cheese on [an] animal flesh product? I am confused. Why would that appeal in any way to a meat eater?”
But – to Daiya’s point – many agreed with the campaign’s potential efficacy. “As long as they literally aren’t selling a product made with meat, I recognize they need to appeal to those who just don’t eat dairy,” said one Reddit user. “Honestly, I get it. Lots of [omnivores] are willing to drop meat, but won’t drop cheese. Maybe starting with showing how good the [plant-based] dairy can be people will give up the meat too,” wrote another.
Daiya would argue that if this could help Americans eat less dairy – and subsequently less meat – it’s a win for the planet and the plant-based sector. This is also crucial in an election year where climate is high on the agenda, and fears persist that a reelection of Donald Trump (who is edging Joe Biden in the polls at the time of writing) could spell disaster for environmental policy. The importance becomes even more apparent when you realise that 15% of Americans don’t believe climate change is real.
“The more people eating this food, the better—better for the environment, better for human health, better for animal welfare,” said Schoenberg. “We’re thinking about how we can have a long-term impact. These companies matter, and we need to make them relevant to more buyers.”
The post Conventional Beef, Vegan Cheese: Can Daiya Lure In the Flexitarians with New Ad Campaign? appeared first on Green Queen.
This post was originally published on Green Queen.
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6 Mins Read
Californian cultivated meat producer Eat Just has paused its Singapore operations, three months after Huber’s Bistro stopped selling its Good Meat chicken. The production facility set to open in Q3 last year has also been shut, as the company says it’s reevaluating its strategy in Asia.
2024 will mark the four-year anniversary of Eat Just’s historic regulatory approval for the sale of cultivated meat in Singapore. Since then, the Californian startup received clearance in the US too, and restaurants began selling its Good Meat chicken in both countries.
However, you can’t find Eat Just’s chicken – or any cultivated meat, for that matter – in restaurants anymore. In Singapore, its product is no longer available at Huber’s Bistro, which was the only restaurant offering the chicken last year.
And now, it has emerged that Eat Just has pressed pause on its operations in the island nation, with the company telling the Straits Times it’s reassessing its Asia strategy. “We’re evaluating various processing conditions, the unit economics, and a larger strategic approach to producing in Asia,” a spokesperson said.
The Singapore newspaper has revealed that Eat Just is no longer producing in Singapore, with the $61M Good Meat manufacturing plant in Bedok – which was slated for a Q3 2023 launch – seemingly not in operation anymore, while the $120M factory for Just Egg in the city’s Pioneer area also cancelled.
Manufacturing facilities shuttered, but products to return ‘very soon’
Courtesy: Eat Just The Strait Times visited Bedok Food City, the site of Good Meat’s 30,000 sq ft facility – last week, but employees from other companies in the building said Eat Just’s two units on the ground floor were closed. They added that these had rarely opened for about six months. One of the closed units had boxes full of air-purifying equipment sitting outside, and the other had benches piled up.
The newspaper said a separate commercial plant that previously manufactured Good Meat’s chicken is not producing for the company anymore either. Eat Just said there was “no firm timeline” on when the Bedok facility would be operational, noting that the startup had “produced and paused and produced and paused” since it began selling the chicken.
However, they added: “We’re planning to produce at least twice as much in Singapore this year than any year before.”
Eat Just had announced that it had broken ground on a plant protein facility for its vegan Just Egg product in March 2022, stating that it would take about two years to complete. But when asked about progress on this, the spokesperson said: “We are not building a facility in Pioneer.”
Meanwhile, the company indicated that Good Meat will soon be back at Huber’s Bistro, which offered the chicken as part of skewers and salads. The spokesperson said the products will return to the eatery “very soon”, once the supply is ready.
The foodservice pause isn’t just in Singapore – Good Meat used to be available at the José Andrés-owned Washington, DC restaurant China Chilcano, but the eatery passed reservations for its tasting menu featuring the cultivated chicken back in September. “The most important activities for GOOD Meat are related to process development and lowering costs long-term. We are focusing our efforts and resources on those tasks at this time,” Eat Just’s global communications director, Carrie Kabat, told Green Queen last month.
Eat Just looks to overcome challenges for a profitable 2024
Courtesy: Eat Just This is the latest in a growing list of challenges faced by Eat Just over the last year. As the company – which has raised over $850M to date – aims for profitability in 2024, it is in the middle of multiple legal battles with suppliers and manufacturers over non-payment.
Eat Just has been involved in at least seven lawsuits since 2019 – and while it has settled some of them, its case with bioreactor manufacturer ABEC is still ongoing. The latter sued the alternative protein startup for $100M, which included payments for changes to the scope of the work, alongside unpaid invoices. But last month, Eat Just filed a counterclaim alleging that it was ABEC that breached contractual terms.
The Californian startup also shut down production on the facility that was going to house the ABEC bioreactors, which was announced in May 2022. Speaking to Green Queen in September, Eat Just CEO Josh Tetrick said: “In the past few years we have invested a lot of capital in the design and engineering for a large-scale cultivated meat facility, knowing we would have to raise additional capital to complete the rest of the facility.”
He added: “Because of market conditions, we found ourselves in a position where it became very challenging to raise that additional capital. At this point, we’re re-assessing how we think about a large-scale facility in a more realistic way – which will still be very challenging.”
But conversely, the company has made several strides to ensure it can break even this year. The news about its Singapore operations comes a week after Eat Just announced it had sold the equivalent of 500 million eggs since Just Egg’s launch in 2019. And in January, it relaunched its cult-favourite Just Mayo and Ranch lines.
“Challenges, doubts, and unforeseen hurdles have not stopped Eat Just from continuing to drive innovation in plant-based foods to give consumers better choices and more ways to change the food system for the better every time they sit down to a meal,” the brand told Green Queen during the launch.
Cultivated meat is still progressing in Singapore and elsewhere
Courtesy: Eat Just It shows how it’s not all doom and gloom for cultivated meat. Kabat confirmed that Good Meat planned to resume tastings in the US this year, as did Upside Foods, the only other company to have the regulatory greenlight for cultivated meat in the US.
And as for Singapore, the country still remains a hotbed for alternative protein in Asia – it was the world’s first to approve these novel proteins for sale, and it’s now expected to grant the next clearance in the sector, with Dutch company Meatable anticipating the go-ahead by Q2. This would make it the first European startup – and first cultivated pork producer – to be allowed to sell cultivated meat anywhere in the world. France’s Vital Meat and Israel’s Aleph Farms (which is already approved in its home country) have also filed dossiers in Singapore for their products.
Additionally, last month, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore ruled that cultivated meat can be halal under specific circumstances. It was followed by South Korea inviting applications for safety assessments of cultivated meat for regulatory approval. Meanwhile, Australia’s Vow Food has advanced into a public consultation process for its cultivated quail in Australia and New Zealand, before it will enter a 60-day review period for ministers.
“Transforming the global food system is a relay race, not a sprint,” said Mirte Gosker, managing director of alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute APAC. “With more than 150 companies operating in the cultivated meat sector worldwide, progress is bound to come in fits and starts, as has been the case in clean energy, electric vehicles, and other emerging technologies.
“What matters most is that cultivated meat as a category succeeds, because there is no path to limiting global warming to 1.5°C without reimagining the way meat gets to our plates.”
The post Eat Just Pauses Singapore Operations – But Plans to Double Cultivated Meat Production This Year appeared first on Green Queen.
This post was originally published on Green Queen.
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4 Mins Read
By Laura Marchese, PhD Student at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University; and Katherine Livingstone, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University
If you’re thinking about buying plant-based foods, a trip to the supermarket can leave you bewildered.
There are plant-based burgers, sausages and mince. The fridges are loaded with non-dairy milk, cheese and yoghurt. Then there are the tins of beans and packets of tofu.
But how much is actually healthy?
Our nutritional audit of more than 700 plant-based foods for sale in Australian supermarkets has just been published. We found some products are so high in salt or saturated fat, we’d struggle to call them “healthy”.
We took (several) trips to the supermarket
In 2022, we visited two of each of four major supermarket retailers across Melbourne to collect information on the available range of plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy products.
We took pictures of the products and their nutrition labels.
We then analysed the nutrition information on the packaging of more than 700 of these products. This included 236 meat substitutes, 169 legumes and pulses, 50 baked beans, 157 dairy milk substitutes, 52 cheese substitutes and 40 non-dairy yoghurts.
Plant-based meats were surprisingly salty
We found a wide range of plant-based meats for sale. So, it’s not surprising we found large variations in their nutrition content.
Sodium, found in added salt and which contributes to high blood pressure, was our greatest concern.
The sodium content varied from 1 milligram per 100 grams in products such as tofu, to 2,000mg per 100g in items such as plant-based mince products.
This means we could eat our entire daily recommended sodium intake in just one bowl of plant-based mince.
An audit of 66 plant-based meat products in Australian supermarkets conducted in 2014 found sodium ranged from 316mg in legume-based products to 640mg in tofu products, per 100g. In a 2019 audit of 137 products, the range was up to 1,200mg per 100g.
In other words, the results of our audit seems to show a consistent trend of plant-based meats getting saltier.
Courtesy: v2food What about plant-based milks?
Some 70% of the plant-based milks we audited were fortified with calcium, a nutrient important for bone health.
This is good news as a 2019-2020 audit of 115 plant-based milks from Melbourne and Sydney found only 43% of plant-based milks were fortified with calcium.
Of the fortified milks in our audit, almost three-quarters (73%) contained the recommended amount of calcium – at least 100mg per 100mL.
We also looked at the saturated fat content of plant-based milks.
Coconut-based milks had on average up to six times higher saturated fat content than almond, oat or soy milks.
Previous audits also found coconut-based milks were much higher in saturated fat than all other categories of milks.
A first look at cheese and yoghurt alternatives
Our audit is the first study to identify the range of cheese and yoghurt alternatives available in Australian supermarkets.
Calcium was only labelled on a third of plant-based yoghurts, and only 20% of supermarket options met the recommended 100mg of calcium per 100g.
For plant-based cheeses, most (92%) were not fortified with calcium. Their sodium content varied from 390mg to 1,400mg per 100g, and saturated fat ranged from 0g to 28g per 100g.
Courtesy: Vitasoy So, what should we consider when shopping?
As a general principle, try to choose whole plant foods, such as unprocessed legumes, beans or tofu. These foods are packed with vitamins and minerals. They’re also high in dietary fibre, which is good for your gut health and keeps you fuller for longer.
If opting for a processed plant-based food, here are five tips for choosing a healthier option.
1. Watch the sodium
Plant-based meat alternatives can be high in sodium, so look for products that have around 150-250mg sodium per 100g.
2. Pick canned beans and legumes
Canned chickpeas, lentils and beans can be healthy and low-cost additions to many meals. Where you can, choose canned varieties with no added salt, especially when buying baked beans.
3. Add herbs and spices to your tofu
Tofu can be a great alternative to meat. Check the label and pick the option with the highest calcium content. We found flavoured tofu was higher in salt and sugar content than minimally processed tofu. So it’s best to pick an unflavoured option and add your own flavours with spices and herbs.
4. Check the calcium
When choosing a non-dairy alternative to milk, such as those made from soy, oat, or rice, check it is fortified with calcium. A good alternative to traditional dairy will have at least 100mg of calcium per 100g.
5. Watch for saturated fat
If looking for a lower saturated fat option, almond, soy, rice and oat varieties of milk and yoghurt alternatives have much lower saturated fat content than coconut options. Pick those with less than 3g per 100g.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The post Analysing 700 Plant-Based Foods in Australian Supermarkets to Find Out What’s Healthy appeared first on Green Queen.
This post was originally published on Green Queen.
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Welcome, fellow travelers of Arrakis! In a universe filled with sandworms, spice, and intrigue, one might wonder, Can one still uphold compassionate values amid the tumultuous sands of Dune? Fear not, for we shall embark on a journey through the desert, armed with stillsuits and spice, to uncover the secrets of being vegan in the Dune universe.
The Vegan Path in a Desert World
Arrakis, or Dune, is a planet where water is more precious than gold and the flora and fauna have adapted in fascinating ways to the harsh environment. For a vegan traveler in this universe, the key to sustenance lies in understanding and respecting these adaptations.
The first step to vegan survival on Dune is to embrace the local plant life. Despite the scarcity of water, some resilient plants have carved out a niche in this harsh world. Xerophytic plants, which have adapted to conserve water, can provide nourishment. These might include the fictional “Arrakeen cacti,” capable of storing moisture in their thick leaves, or the “spice melange” plants, which, in moderation, offer unique flavors and nutrition without harming the ecosystem.
Kangaroo Mice: The Clever Foragers
It’s no wonder that a powerful warrior, Paul Atreides, would choose his Fremen name Muad’Dib after the strong and resourceful kangaroo mouse. Observing their ingenious survival tactics, such as using their big ears to collect water to drink, can teach us much about sustainable foraging and living in harmony with the land. Eating the kangaroo mouse diet of seeds and desert plants can guide you to nutritious sources that require minimal environmental impact.
© Legendary EntertainmentThe Perils of Harvesting Sandworm Bile
In Dune: Part Two, stealing sandworm bile, the bright blue liquid called “the Water of Life,” is fraught with danger. Not only is it a violation of the sacred bond between the Fremen and the sandworms, it also unleashes untold chaos upon the desert. Let us heed the lessons of the past and refrain from such folly. Instead, let us honor the sandworms as guardians of the spice and stewards of the desert, ensuring that their bodies remain undisturbed beneath the sands.
© Legendary EntertainmentSandworms Aren’t Taxis
In the annals of Arrakis, riding sandworms not only disrupts the delicate balance of the desert ecosystem but also risks angering the mysterious forces that govern the sands. Instead, let us marvel at the sandworms from afar, honoring their role as guardians of the desert.
Using Our Language to Respect Our Fellow Animals—Including Humans
In Dune: Part Two, the Harkonnens call the Fremen “rats”—well, we think there is no greater compliment! The Harkonnens’ derogatory use of the term is a call to action for us to challenge our perceptions of and biases against other beings, no matter the species. The Harkonnen mislabeling of the Fremen as another animal species inadvertently highlights a fundamental truth: All of us share a common bond. By recognizing that every animal is someone and living in a way that honors everyone’s rights, we move closer to a world in which labels of division give way to bridges of empathy and understanding.
In the first Dune reboot, Gaius Helen Mohiam says to Paul, “An animal caught in a trap will gnaw off its own leg to escape,” a testament to their survival skills. Here on Earth, we can help animals whom hunters trap and kill by never buying fur or any other animal-derived material. In Dune: Part Two, Paul Atreides references the Bene Gesserit’s comment, saying, “Die like an animal,” when he kills [spoiler] at the end. It’s a device to show he’s not a perfect leader. But we can all learn from our mistakes. Whether a kangaroo mouse, a sandworm, or a human, all animals deserve respect and freedom from exploitation.
Sustainable Living on Dune
Being vegan on Dune is about more than just food—it’s a holistic approach to minimizing one’s impact on the planet’s delicate ecosystem. Conserving water, adopting renewable energy sources like wind or solar (harnessing the power of the relentless desert sun), and supporting local, sustainable spice production can contribute to a harmonious existence on Arrakis.
So let us tread lightly on the sands of Arrakis, extending our kindness to all beings, from the smallest desert mouse to the great Shai-Hulud, as we navigate the stars guided by universal compassion. Let’s bring that compassion back to Earth, where most of us live on terrain much kinder than the stormy, turbulent desert. Unlock humanity’s fullest potential by respecting all of our fellow animals by not eating them, riding them, or stealing their body parts.
The post Desert Mouse Wisdom: Vegan Tips From Dune appeared first on PETA.
This post was originally published on Animal Rights and Campaign News | PETA.
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5 Mins Read
Catalan plant-based meat company Heura has announced its year-on-year sales grew by 22% last year, thanks to increased distribution deals across Europe. The business now aims to be profitable by 2025.
Weeks after closing a €40M ($43M) Series B fundraiser, Heura has revealed that it posted €38.3M ($41.4M) in turnover last year, marking a 22% increase in annual sales. The positive figures were bolstered by both international growth, where its sales rose by 63% from the year before – particularly in France (88%) and the UK (81%).
The plant-based meat company also cemented its leadership in its home market, capturing what it says is a record 26% market share and boasting the highest repeat rates in the category (50% above the average). Meanwhile, Heura’s portfolio accounts for four of the top five most-sold products in this sector in Spain.
“In a pivotal year of transformation for the plant-based sector, we emerged as a category developer leader, enabling other companies to accelerate the protein transition by introducing a licensing B2B division aimed at extending its impact to a global scale via breakthrough technologies,” said CEO Marc Coloma, who co-founded Heura with Bernat Añaños in 2017.
Expanding distribution and new B2B model fuel Heura’s growth
Courtesy: Heura The announcement caps off a year of successes for Heura, which makes plant-based alternatives to chicken, beef, pork and fish in multiple formats. The company ranked 10 on the UK’s Forward Fooding FoodTech 500 list (described as “the Fortune 500 of agrifood tech”), won the Pyme del Año 2023 (which recognises the contribution of Spanish SMEs to the UK economy), and secured the EU’s Marie Curie Grant.
Outside of accolades, individual products experienced commercial triumphs too. The latest iteration of its signature beef patty, the 3.0 Burger, is the best-selling vegan burger in southern Europe, and has triple the rotation of the second-best brand in Spain. Meanwhile, the York-style ham slices launched in October became the top-selling plant-based deli product in its home market within three months, accounting for 52% of the category’s growth in Q4.
Heura also inked several new distribution deals across Europe, including with Vueling, Hilton and Royal Caribbean in foodservice, and Intermarche (France), Auchan (Portugal), Pam (Italy), Colruyt (Belgium) and Waitrose (UK) in retail. Plus, it boosted its presence in Spanish schools via a collaboration with catering company Serunion.
The other major development in Heura’s 2023 was the launch of its B2B licensing division, powered by its patent-pending Good Rebel Tech system, which was unveiled in April. The proprietary process involves a novel thermomechanical processing technique, which relies upon mathematical models similar to AI.
“We are basing our approach and models on new scientific understanding of plant proteins that we generate in the tech lab,” Coloma told Green Queen in October. “We can improve [the] accuracy of our predictions, limit biases and, most importantly, develop breakthrough technological solutions which are based on new scientific knowledge; rather than optimising technologies that already exist based on published existing data.”
The tech can create additive-free, affordable plant-based foods with superior sensory and nutritional values and fewer ingredients, using only protein, water and oil to structure the product. This is how its 11-ingredient clean-label ham slices were created, and it opens up a new business model for Heura, allowing the manufacturers to leverage the tech in multiple food categories. Just earlier this month, it entered a partnership with plant-based CPG giant Upfield (which is an investor in the company) to license its tech.
The clean-label, nutrition-forward aspects will speak to a European population that is eating less meat, and primarily due to health, a reason cited by 47% of respondents in a 7,500-person survey last year. The poll further revealed that nutritional inadequacies of plant-based food were a concern for 24% of consumers. Globally, too, an Ingredion survey found that 78% would spend more money on products with ‘natural’ or ‘all-natural’ packaging claims.
Heura finds success in a year of challenges for the sector
Courtesy: Heura It’s not all about health for Heura, of course. The climate is just as important, and an ISO-compliant life-cycle assessment has revealed that its products have a 70-98% lower environmental impact than their conventional counterparts. Last year’s sales represented water savings equivalent to 6,600 swimming pools, carbon savings of 36.5 million kg (which could power 4,600 homes for one year), and the sparing of 1.3 million animals.
Heura’s €40M Series B financing was the second-largest publicly announced funding round for a vegan company in 2023, and took total investment in the business to €88M ($95M). The plant-based meat player had said it would use the funding to “boost its impact in the food industry”, accelerate international expansion, introduce new products, and explore more collaborative models beyond its own meat alternatives.
Most notably, Heura said the investment would help drive the company towards profitability – and now, it has confirmed its aim to become profitable by 2025. To do so, the business has “transitioned from a hypergrowth approach to a sustainable growth strategy”, which has involved changes to “improve efficiency and focus on the milestones nearing profitability”.
The financial results come just a week after plant-based meat giant Beyond Meat published its own Q4 earnings, which revealed an 18% decrease in annual revenue (which reached $343M), but a 2.5% reduction in net losses ($338M) from 2022 too. Its performance in the last quarter was better than analysts predicted, signalling a shift in fortunes for the company as well as the sector as a whole.
While VC activity has largely slowed down and sales have been disappointing over the last year, some feel that the sector’s slump will turn around this year. Matthew Glover, co-founder of the Vegan Food Group, told Green Queen this week: “The signs are that the declines are reducing, and I think we’ll be cheering the news that the categories will be back in growth during this year.”
While he acknowledged that double-digit growth won’t be a reality just yet for most plant-based meat companies – Heura has turned out to be an exception here – he added: “The economic climate generally seems to be improving, and there are some powerful advocacy programmes, which should help reengage consumers to the category.
“Whilst it’s a tough trading environment, I do feel like we’re soon to be over the worst of it. The planet and the animals need us to be successful, and I’m confident we will be.”
The post Heura Seeks Profitability After International Growth Spurs 22% Increase in Sales appeared first on Green Queen.
This post was originally published on Green Queen.
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To memorialize the more than 12 cows who were killed when the truck carrying them overturned on I-380 and fell into Lime Creek on Friday morning, PETA plans to place a sky-high message near the site, reminding everyone that the crash victims were thinking, feeling individuals.
“At least a dozen cows died in terror and agony because of this crash, and the survivors were hauled off, presumably for workers to slit their throats and carve up their bodies for meat and leather,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges everyone to help keep cows out of trucks and slaughterhouses in the first place by going vegan.”
In 2023 alone, there were at least 74 documented animal-transport accidents. Each year, millions of cows are trucked to slaughterhouses, where workers shoot them in the head with a captive-bolt gun, hang them up by one leg, and cut their throat—often while they’re still conscious. Each person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals every year, dramatically shrinks their carbon footprint, and reduces their risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and obesity. PETA’s free vegan starter kit can help those looking to make the switch.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
The post Cows’ Deaths in Semi Crash Prompt PETA Highway Memorial Urging Empathy appeared first on PETA.
This post was originally published on Animal Rights and Campaign News | PETA.
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With the Smokehouse Creek fire scorching the Texas Panhandle, reportedly killing a woman in Hutchinson County and dozens of cows desperately trying to escape the blaze, PETA is making moves to erect a sky-high appeal in the area pointing the finger at the culprit—a climate catastrophe fueled by animal agriculture—and calling on people to fight back by going vegan.
Pollution, deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions from meat, egg, and dairy production are among the worst drivers of the climate catastrophe. A recent study published in the journal Earth System Science Data found that greenhouse gas emissions are at an all-time high, threatening to push the world into “unprecedented” levels of global heating.
“The planet is burning because people are still eating animals, who need massive amounts of land, energy, and water and emit enormous quantities of greenhouse gases,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Animal agriculture is an existential threat to the Earth, and PETA urges everyone to go vegan before it’s too late.”
Research shows that every person who goes vegan lowers their food-related carbon footprint by up to 73%—making it conceivably the biggest way to reduce one’s negative impact on the planet—and spares the lives of nearly 200 animals a year. PETA offers a free vegan starter kit on its website for those ready to make the switch.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
The post As Wildfire Rages, PETA Says Go Vegan to Save Your Own Community AND the Planet: Meat Brought the Heat! appeared first on PETA.
This post was originally published on Animal Rights and Campaign News | PETA.
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PETA is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the death of a cow—who was killed in a fire authorities believe was deliberate—at the Rock Island Livestock Auction Barn on Saturday. Of the approximately 23 other cows who were confined to the barn, one escaped and the rest were moved by firefighters and employees to pens farther from the blaze.
“A helpless, terrified cow burned to death inside a barn, unable to escape the flames surrounding him,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges anyone with information to come forward immediately before his killer harms anyone else, and we encourage anyone disturbed by the thought of his agonizing death to go vegan.”
Tipsters should contact the fire marshal’s office at 309-732-2803, call the Rock Island Police Department at 309-732-COPS (2677), or submit a tip through Crime Stoppers of the Quad Cities at 309-762-9500 or P3tips.com.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
The post Reward of Up to $5,000 Offered in Case of Barn Arson That Killed Cow appeared first on PETA.
This post was originally published on Animal Rights and Campaign News | PETA.
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Following reports that the Tyson Foods slaughterhouse in Corydon is one of eight plants that the company is shutting down in an effort to cut costs, PETA sent a letter today to Kelly Hanna-Carroll, manager of the Corydon Capitol State Historic Site, requesting permission to place a sculpture of a maimed chicken next to the Capitol building or Corydon Capitol Square in remembrance of the millions of chickens who were tormented and killed at the slaughterhouse. PETA notes that the statue would remind everyone that animals—who feel pain and fear just as humans do—don’t have to be mutilated to make nuggets and other Tyson products if humans take personal responsibility for what they eat and choose to leave animals off their plates.
“Chickens are gentle birds who don’t deserve to be slammed into shackles and violently killed, especially when we have a wealth of vegan food choices,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges everyone to recognize this closure as an invitation to leave animals in peace and is ready to help anyone go vegan by providing free resources at PETA.org.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to Hanna-Carroll follows.
February 29, 2024
Kelly Hanna-Carroll
Site Manager
Corydon Capitol State Historic SiteDear Ms. Hanna-Carroll:
I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—PETA entities have more than 9 million members and supporters globally, and PETA U.S. is the largest animal rights organization in the world—to ask permission to place our maimed chicken sculpture on the lawn next to the Corydon Capitol Building or the Corydon Capitol Square to commemorate the closure of the Corydon Tyson Foods slaughterhouse, where millions of chickens were sent to a terrifying death and then hacked to bits for a fleeting taste of flesh.
We want people to consider who animals are, what makes them tick, and how they experience the world. Chickens are smart, sensitive animals who feel pain and empathy, have distinct personalities, and can count and perform basic addition and subtraction at just a few days old. Mother hens communicate with their chicks while they’re still inside the shell so that they recognize her call when they hatch.
Designed by Harry Bliss, an award-winning author and a cartoonist for The New Yorker, PETA’s chicken statue is 66 inches tall, measures 60 inches from tail to beak, has a 48-inch wingspan, and weighs 250 pounds. Our statue would let people know that the best way to prevent the violent deaths of animals is to go vegan—because animals shouldn’t be condemned to a slaughterhouse in the first place.
The Tyson plant that slaughtered millions of chickens is now part of Corydon’s history, so a statue to memorialize them would be a fitting gesture. An image of the chicken sculpture can be found here. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
Danielle Katz
Senior DirectorThe post Statue of ‘Maimed’ Chicken Would Memorialize Animals Killed at Old Tyson Foods Slaughterhouse appeared first on PETA.
This post was originally published on Animal Rights and Campaign News | PETA.
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13 Mins Read
Matthew Glover, co-founder of the Vegan Food Group, speaks to Green Queen about the decision behind acquiring its portfolio companies, the ambition to become a “vegan Unilever”, the challenging period for the sector, and the need for a plant-based checkoff programme.
“I know… it’s a bit of an ambiguous title,” admits Matthew Glover, chief mission officer of the Vegan Food Group (VFG), the new company that evolved from plant-based chicken startup VFC Foods.
Glover co-founded VFC with Adam Lyons in 2020, replete with wacky marketing, undercover chicken farm investigations, and – if sales are a barometer – a finger-lickin’ good product. The brand grew exponentially last year, with sales value up by nearly 200%, but things turned in a different direction halfway through.
Fellow plant-based meat maker Meatless Farm was on the brink of collapse – and VFC swooped in to purchase its UK operations and revive its market presence. Months later, it acquired pie company Clive’s Purely Plants. And in January came the grand reveal. VFC was now VFG, a holding company that has rapidly become a leader in the vegan sector. Just yesterday, VFG announced the acquisition of 35-year-old German tofu manufacturer Tofutown, an indicator of its wider European ambitions.
Courtesy: VFC “I’d like to say this was always the masterplan,” Glover tells me. “But the reality is that circumstances came into play. VFC was making good progress, but like many startups, the progress wasn’t as fast as we’d hoped or expected.” The competition was fierce, the demand was levelling off, and the team sensed that businesses in this space would need to be proactive if they were to survive.
“When we heard that Meatless Farm might be going out of business, we saw synergies with what we were doing, and felt the brand was too good to fail,” he recalls. The rescue of Meatless Farm is when the idea of VFG began to take shape. When the rebrand materialised last month, Glover stepped into the more active role of chief mission officer.
“When Adam and I set up VFC, my motivation was removing animals from the supply chain, and Adam wanted the world to taste better. We were both very focused on the ethical imperative,” he says, explaining his new position. “The way I see it is: I’m here to keep the original values of the business front of mind as we grow and bring on more brands.”
Why the Vegan Food Group acquired the brands in its portfolio
So VFG made its first two acquisitions before officially being formed, and now is a company that houses four businesses with over 80 SKUs in more than 21,000 distribution points across the UK and the EU. Reflecting on the Meatless Farm deal, Glover says VFC was an admirer of the brand and product range: “There’d been so much invested over the years in marketing and product development that it seemed such a shame for the movement to lose such a big name.”
He credits the progress made by the team, led by founder Morten Toft Bech (who exited the company after the sale), in terms of listings in major retailers and foodservice. Crucially, consumers liked the products. Moreover, the product range of chilled beef and pork analogues was complementary to VFC’s frozen vegan chicken. “By not cannibalising our VFC range we knew we could make our proposition stronger,” says Glover.
Meatless Farm was also local to VFC, with both businesses hailing from Yorkshire, and the latter’s head of innovation previously worked at the former. “When the business instructed an administrator, we decided to take a look. The staff had all been laid off, and we knew that customers were being let down as the company had run out of cash,” notes Glover.
Courtesy: Meatless Farm “We knew it was going to be a huge challenge to get the supply chain back up and running, but suppliers and customers were generally very receptive in those early days and we gradually managed to get things moving again,” he adds. Meatless Farm returned to UK retail in September, three months after the takeover. “I had little involvement in the rebuild, and the VFC team led by [CEO] Dave Sparrow put in all the hard work.”
The acquisition of Clive’s Purely Plants was a different state of affairs, however, given that it wasn’t in a distressed situation. Glover’s investment firm Veg Capital had bought 90% of the business in 2021, with Clive’s managing director Esther Pearson staying on at the helm. “She’d helped steer the company from a local supplier of organic pies in health food stores, to gaining national listings with Waitrose and Ocado, whilst moving to a larger manufacturing site in Dartmouth, Devon,” says Glover.
“As Veg Capital is also the major investor in VFG, we began to see how having Clive’s as part of the group would make sense for both parties. VFG would have direct access to manufacturing, and a veg-led brand as part of the portfolio, whilst Clive’s would have access to the support of the wider VFG team and resources, and benefit from the additional sales and marketing,” he explains.
“The integration is still ongoing, but the signs are good that Clive’s will play a leading role as part of VFG’s future development.” (Pearson remains a shareholder in Clive’s.)
The cross-Europe move for Tofutown
In the works for a while, Tofutown takeover was a major move, giving VFC access to its two manufacturing sites sprawling a combined 55,000 sq m, and a gateway into further European expansion. “There’s a number of reasons why we saw Tofutown as an attractive addition to the Vegan Food Group,” says Glover. “The fact that Germany is the biggest market for plant-based food in Europe was top of the list, providing so many opportunities to expand.”
He adds: “The business also has an existing senior management team in place with an enthusiasm to grow and learn as part of a wider group structure. We’re very excited about how we can merge the start-up culture of VFC and Meatless Farm, with the established nature of a food company where manufacturing and delivering high-quality food is second nature.”
While VFG is unable to disclose the acquisition sums, Glover did highlight the value of employees of the acquired brands. “It is indeed our priority to retain the workforce whenever possible. We believe that the success of our acquisitions is significantly enhanced by the contributions of these individuals, and we are keen on integrating them into our team, fostering a culture of growth, innovation, and mutual respect,” he states.
Courtesy: Vegan Food Group With a diverse portfolio of brands, could we see a blend of the different offerings in new product launches? “We’ll be looking at a variety of ways to enhance the brands, and co-branding opportunities could be a possibility. We’re particularly excited about expanding the Meatless Farm and VFC brands into Germany, and then using our base there to expand into other EU countries,” confirms Glover. (Tofutown products will soon be available in the UK as part of the deal too.)
“As Tofutown is known for natural, organic, clean-label product ranges, then we’ll be looking at ways to leverage this expertise and create new SKUs, which could be private label, branded as VFC, Meatless Farm, Clive’s, or we may even bring new brands to market,” he adds. “The beauty of having significant manufacturing capacity and expertise is we can listen to our customers and create the products that consumers are buying.”
Turning VFG into ‘a vegan Unilever’
VFG made a significant statement upon launch, setting its sights on becoming “a vegan Unilever”. “Our strategy is to establish VFG as a leader within the plant-based food sector, where customers, suppliers and industry leaders look to us for what’s coming next,” explains Glover.
“We’ll be offering a much wider range of options to customers, so they don’t need to deal with so many smaller suppliers,” he says. “Operationally, there are efficiencies and better buying power we can leverage, whilst providing our teams with a more diversified portfolio of brands to manage. There’s likely to be flexibility with some brands managed in-house (like VFC and Meatless Farm), with other brands being stand-alone subsidiaries.”
VFG aims to become profitable this year, with a goal of collecting €100M in revenue. Unilever, meanwhile, turned over nearly €60B last year, with its nutrition and ice cream divisions alone bringing in €21M. Becoming a vegan Unilever is a lofty ambition – does Glover fear it could almost become an albatross?
“Only if we fail, but we’ve no intention of failing,” he says. “We believe we have a very good strategy and a team that can develop our model into a large plant-based CPG company. We’ve got strong financial backing from mission-aligned investors who are keen to support us on this journey. The early signs are good, but I’ll reflect on your question in a couple of years and let you know!”
Courtesy: VFC When laying out this goal initially, Glover had said: “Imagine a ‘vegan Unilever’, but with the majority of future profits being donated to effective animal charities and diet change initiatives – that’s what we’re creating at the Vegan Food Group.” This is where his role as chief mission officer comes in. “As we grow the team both organically and through M&A, we’re bringing on staff who don’t necessarily have the activism background or know about all the impacts of animal agriculture. I see my role as making sure we don’t lose sight of why we’re doing this as a company,” he explains.
VFG is majority-owned by Veg Capital, which is committed to donating 100% of its profits from its stake to effective animal charities. “We see our work as a virtuous circle, working on both the supply and demand side of the equation,” notes Glover.
“We expect to be profitable in 2024 if all goes to plan, with consistent profits feeding through over the coming years. As the group will be focused on fast-track growth (either organically or through acquisition), then we’ll likely be reinvesting profits back into the organisation for the next few years,” he adds. “The most likely time that we’ll be able to fulfil our charitable ambition is after an exit event, but there’s a lot of work to do before we get there.”
Glover will additionally assume the role of group chair at VFG, which will see him support Sparrow and the leadership team to navigate the M&A opportunities and advise on the organic growth of its existing brands.
A vegan checkoff programme to support plant-based meat
Alternative protein as a whole suffered from dwindling sales and waning consumer interest globally last year. In the UK, meat-free products were among the worst-performing grocery categories last year, with sales declining by £38.4m, and volumes down by 4.2%.
“We can’t hide away from the fact that plant-based meat categories have been in decline over the past year, or two,” says Glover, before pointing out that the British downturn isn’t as severe as it has been in the US. “There’s a multitude of factors at play, including the cost-of-living crisis, meat industry misinformation campaigns successfully turning consumers away, as well as products not meeting expectations. Retailers reducing shelf space hasn’t helped.”
Courtesy: VFC There has been a disconnect with consumers too, many of whom perceive plant-based meat to be unhealthy because they’re ultra-processed foods (UPFs), despite experts suggesting that not all UPFs – which are a mark of processing, not nutrition – are bad for you. “The meat industry has been adept at sowing seeds of doubt about the processed nature of meat alternatives and the healthfulness of plant-based diets, contributing to consumer scepticism,” says Glover. And government support for these systems doesn’t help.
In the US and the UK, meat and dairy industries collect government-backed funds from livestock producers to help fund promotional campaigns that encourage the consumption of these foods. These schemes, called levies in the UK and checkoff programmes in the US, enable the animal agriculture industry to “develop large multi-million-pound category campaigns” transmitted nationwide. With plant-based companies facing tough times, promoting the category to the public “with all its benefits is one way to get businesses moving again”.
In line with that notion, Glover is working with Indy Kaur, founder of vegan consultancy firm Plant Futures, on the plant-based industry’s own checkoff programme. “We are looking to level up with this, consolidate funding and create a campaign which can fairly compete and give consumers a reason to choose to eat plants and not animals,” he outlines.
The project will take “best practices from the meat and dairy industry”. Glover – who is also the co-founder of Veganuary – cites the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s anti-Veganuary drive last month, as well as the US Milk Processor Education Program’s ultra-successful Got Milk? campaign as “proven models driving demand” for meat and dairy. “We’ll be doing the same, with plants,” he says.
For the majority of its funding, the vegan checkoff project aims to raise at least £3M from donors and investors, which would be supplemented with businesses’ marketing spend, though Glover acknowledges that these budgets are tight. “We are starting with a UK pilot, a test-and-learn methodology and potentially starting in the north where we know meat consumption is disproportionally higher than the south. Backed with a fast follow, [we’ll go] nationwide around Q3 with US rollout soon after,” he says.
Courtesy: VFC “We’re going big because we have to. We’re aiming for all plant-based protein businesses in the UK and US to sign up, whether they can financially contribute or not. We are speaking to a lot of businesses and expect to have spoken to most in the plant-based protein space by the end of Q1/start of Q2,” adds Glover.
He notes that this will also help “take the burden off the shoulders of young businesses who need support” in the current climate. “There’s no holding Indy back, and she’s working with the smartest minds and a global network of advisors – it’s impressive,” he says. “We all know the future market potential for plant-based remains huge and this checkoff is designed to unlock this. We’re in it together, and that’s exactly how we are designing [the] checkoff from day one.”
Giving consumers what they want
Going back to VFG, which has teased more acquisitions in the near future, I ask Glover about the profile of the businesses it wants to take over. “There’s no target number of brands to acquire. Instead, we’ll look at every opportunity on merit and decide whether the brand or manufacturing site adds value, whilst not cannibalising our current range,” he explains. “We’ll focus primarily on frozen and chilled meal occasions where we already have expertise and relationships with buyers and suppliers.
“Ideally, we’re looking at companies which are already established, have gained decent distribution and have a run rate in excess of €3M,” he says, adding: “And the products have got to be good.”
That last point is crucial. A 1,000-person survey last year found that 66% of Brits are unhappy with the taste of plant-based meat, and 62% find them too expensive. For 51%, taste and texture are the main reasons for reducing their alt-meat consumption, but on the flip side, 39% are eating these products because of their flavour and texture. Attitudes around health were also mixed.
Does Glover know what people really want? “Oh gosh, I wish I had the definitive answer, as it’d make it far easier to scale VFG if we knew exactly how to appeal to the broadest range of consumers,” he responds. “Unfortunately, we’re navigating a nuanced interplay of factors.
Courtesy: VFC “Taste and texture often stand at the forefront; people choose plant-based options that don’t compromise on the sensory experience traditionally associated with animal products. However, achieving this without the additional price tag remains a challenge for the sector,” he explains. This is significant, as the price gap will always deter the budget-conscious.
“Health considerations are also a driving force, with many turning to vegan options for a diet seen as cleaner and more beneficial. But there’s been a meat industry-sponsored backlash in the media, which has discouraged some consumers,” he says, referring to the aforementioned misinformation campaigns.
“Beyond these immediate concerns, broader issues play into consumer decisions. Environmental sustainability and ethical considerations are increasingly influencing purchasing behaviours,” suggests Glover. “Convenience, too, cannot be overlooked, with the demand for easy, quick-preparation vegan options rising.”
Additionally, there are some cultural and informational challenges as well. Over half of Brits want more information about plant-based meat, with occasional and former frequent eaters most likely to want more details. “Our societies have been centred around meat consumption for thousands of years, supported by over a century of targeted advertising by the meat industry. This deep-rooted history creates a significant barrier to changing dietary habits overnight,” he says.
Courtesy: VFC This is why winning back consumer trust and shifting dietary dynamics are complex tasks that “will undoubtedly take time”. It would mean improving products’ functionality and prices, as well as involve transparent communication to combat misinformation. “As we move forward, understanding and addressing these multifaceted consumer needs and concerns will be crucial for the growth and acceptance of vegan food in the broader market,” says Glover.
He believes it will still be a tough year for plant-based companies. “I can’t see growth being back to the double-digit figures we had previously, and a lot of companies are running on empty financially,” he explains. However, the VFG co-founder says the economic climate generally seems to be improving”, and signals that the “declines are reducing”, with advocacy campaigns like the checkoff programme aimed at reengaging consumers. “I think we’ll be cheering the news that the categories will be back in growth during this year.”
The post Vegan Food Group’s Matthew Glover: ‘We’re Going Big, Because We Have To’ appeared first on Green Queen.
This post was originally published on Green Queen.
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5 Mins Read
Los Angeles County has passed a motion to make all departmental food purchases plant-based by default, citing the environmental and human health benefits of vegan diets.
US politicians Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis have spearheaded a successful effort to make it mandatory for all purchase orders from Los Angeles County departments to be plant-based.
Passed yesterday, the new law requires that all new contracts between foodservice providers and county departments – including Parks and Recreation, Health Services and Public Works – follow default plant-based policies. The move is aimed at mitigating the climate and public health impacts linked with the county’s food purchases.
“In order to reduce emissions from our food system, changes must be made from producers to consumers,” reads the legislation. “Transforming the county’s food procurement policies presents a unique opportunity to advance health outcomes, address climate change, and meet economic goals.”
Leah Garcés, CEO and president of Mercy For Animals (which worked closely with Horvath’s office to develop the policy), called it a “huge win”. “As more Americans choose plant-based food for reasons such as health, environmental protection, and animal welfare, public purchasing must reflect this shift,” she noted.
Championing health and climate benefits in line with sustainability plans
Courtesy: Rudisill/iStockPhoto The motion highlights how plant-based food has a much lighter impact on the environment. Research has shown that veganism can lower emissions, water pollution and land use by 75% compared to meat-rich diets. In fact, meat accounts for 60% of the food system’s total emissions, a number twice as high as that of plant-based foods. Plus, even just swapping half of our meat and dairy intake with vegan alternatives can cut emissions by 31%, halt deforestation and reduce undernourishment by 3.6%.
The Los Angeles County supervisors also outline the health benefits of vegan diets, which have been shown to reduce the risk of obesity, which plagues over a third of Americans. Eating plants has been linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease too, which is the leading cause of death in the US, while processed red meat is associated with a higher likelihood of developing these conditions. Additionally, plant-based diets and lower meat consumption have been proven to reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes.
It’s benefits like these that made it vital for Los Angeles County – the most populous in the US – to promote plant-based consumption. The move is in line with the county’s sustainability plan, which underlines the need to support the “consumption of plant-based foods (such as beans and grains) over more land- and resource-intensive animal products (such as meat)”.
Action 134 of the plan reads: “Promote plant-based menu options through nutrition and food procurement policies in food service settings such as county facilities, hospitals, higher learning institutions, school districts, jails, and other food settings.”
A 2018 report from the Department of Public Health revealed that there were 111 foodservice contracts with 15 Los Angeles County departments that involved offering, selling or distributing food and beverages – this indicates the significant impact the new law stands to make. And it comes with public support: a recent survey found that 79% of respondents supported legislation encouraging plant-based food purchases with taxpayer dollars, and specifically for Los Angeles County, 82.2% felt it should pass such a legislation.
Los Angeles County’s plant-based push comes amid backlash elsewhere
Courtesy: AI-Generated Image via Canva The law directs the Department of Public Health to review its nutritional standards and incorporate evidence-based recommendations on purchasing, selling and serving more plant-based foods, to help integrate these in foodservice proposals and contracts.
It asks multiple departments to suggest ways to increase interest and participation in plant-based eating in the county, which includes providing incentives. Los Angeles County departments will additionally take steps to measure the carbon footprint of their food purchases, with recommendations to reduce the consumption of animal-derived foods and cut food waste, alongside potential targets to ramp up plant-based food purchasing in the county.
The motion noted how other US cities have implemented policies to promote plant-based food. Los Angeles’ own City Council became the largest in the US to adopt the Plant Based Treaty in October 2022. And a year earlier, the Berkeley City Council voted to divert half of its spending from animal-based to plant-based foods by 2024, with the goal of converting that into 100% and a pledge towards promoting vegan diets to tackle climate change.
The University of California, Los Angeles Health increased its plant-based food procurement for students and patients too. It signed on to the Cool Food Pledge as well, which commits to reducing food-related GHG emissions by 25% by 2030, in alignment with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
New York City has also been at the forefront of this shift, pushing plant-based meals into schools, hospitals and even jails. Public schools have Plant-Powered Fridays, jails have vegan meals for lunch or dinner at least one day a week, and as 11 of its public hospitals offer plant-based dishes as a primary option for inpatients – the latter has reduced both costs and food-related emissions by 36% since being implemented in January 2023, while patient satisfaction for the menu has jumped to more than 90%.
In Maryland, the city of Baltimore officially proclaimed January as the month of Veganuary earlier this year, while Austin, Texas declared January 2024 as Plant-Based for the Planet Month. However, the policies of the state of Texas are contradictory, with governor Greg Abbott signing a bill requiring clear labelling of plant-based and cultivated meat, seafood and egg products.
It’s part of a wider movement to discredit alternative protein, especially cultivated meat, in an election year. Nebraska’s Real MEAT Act, for example, would mandate the word “imitation” on alternative protein if passed, and Arizona’s HB 2244 would make it illegal to “intentionally misbrand or misrepresent” an alternative meat product as meat. Likewise, Wisconsin has proposed two bills against alternative protein, one of which put restrictions on the labelling of plant-based milk.
It makes Los Angeles County’s legislation all the more important. “Mercy For Animals greatly appreciates supervisors Horvath and Solis for sponsoring this policy change and the county’s commitment to providing healthy plant-based options to residents who benefit from county food programmes,” said Garcés. “We look forward to working with LA County in implementing this policy.”
The post Los Angeles County Passes Law to Make All Departmental Food Purchases Plant-Based appeared first on Green Queen.
This post was originally published on Green Queen.
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4 Mins Read
California’s Eat Just has reached a significant milestone, with its plant-based Just Egg completing sales equivalent to 500 million chicken eggs. The development comes weeks after the startup, which owns 99% of the vegan egg market, relaunched its popular mayonnaise lineup.
On the back of a tough year, Eat Just has started 2024 with some positive announcements. First, it brought back its cult-favourite vegan mayo, and now, it has announced that its Just egg line of products has sold the equivalent of half a billion chicken eggs since its debut in 2019.
The lineup has captured 99% of the entire vegan egg market in the US, and it is one of the fastest-growing egg brands – plant-based or otherwise – nationwide.
“We started with a hope that one of the many tens of thousands of plants in nature would be able to scramble like an egg. And a team made up of scientists, engineers and chefs from across the world turned that hope into one of the most innovative and impactful products in the market,” said Eat Just CEO Josh Tetrick.
Just Egg drives company’s growth with major footprint and sustainability credentials
Courtesy: Eat Just When it was first launched, the mung-bean-based Just Egg came in liquid form. But in 2020, the offering was expanded into a frozen folded format that serves as an alternative toaster eggs. These products are now available in 48,000 retailers, including Whole Foods, Target and Sprouts Farmers Market, as well as over 3,300 eateries and coffee shops in the US and Canada, such as Planta, Barnes & Noble, Caffè Nero, Peet’s Coffee and Philz Coffee.
Last year, the company overhauled the packaging for its pourable egg, switching from a plastic bottle to a paper carton, which it claims is 100% recyclable and would no doubt advance its climate credentials. Using its life-cycle assessment tool CONDOR, Eat Just says its vegan egg uses 98% less water and 83% less land than a chicken egg, while emitting 93% fewer emissions.
Put another way, with the number of eggs it has sold, the company says it has prevented 87 million kgs of CO2e from entering the atmosphere, saved 18.3 billion gallons of water, and averted 26,900 acres of land from being farmed for soy and corn to feed chickens.
Just Egg has been the major growth driver for Eat Just (which is also the parent of cultivated meat company Good Meat), with Tetrick telling Green Queen in November that the vegan eggs make up 99.9% of its current revenue. He noted that Just Egg saw a 173-percentage-point increase in income (before non-operational expenses are taken into account) – aka EBITDA – in the first half of 2023 compared to all of 2022, while witnessing an 80-point growth in gross margin.
“Our business plan is on track to achieve break even in 2024, with half of our current SKUs selling at a positive margin today,” said Tetrick, who was named in the TIME100 Climate list last year.
Profitability highlights 2024 plans for Eat Just
Courtesy: Eat Just The news comes a month after Eat Just, which has raised over $850M to date, reintroduced its Just Mayo to retail shelves following a four-year hiatus. It was the brand’s latest step towards reaching profitability after a challenging 2023, when it emerged the company had been under financial stress and facing a cash crunch. Good Meat has been involved in a number of lawsuits, and last month filed counterclaims against one of its suppliers.
“Challenges, doubts, and unforeseen hurdles have not stopped Eat Just from continuing to drive innovation in plant-based foods to give consumers better choices and more ways to change the food system for the better every time they sit down to a meal,” a company spokesperson told Green Queen after the Mayo launch.
They reiterated that financial sustainability and breaking even remained the main focus. “It’s the most important objective of the company and the team is focused on increasing the probability of achieving it,” the representative said, adding that the company’s goal for 2024 was “to sell healthier, sustainable products to millions of consumers in a way that enables the company to sustain itself in the long term”.
While Just Egg is a market leader in its space – which includes companies like Follow Your Heart, Simply Eggless and Bob’s Red Mill – the vegan egg sector itself just makes up 0.5% of the total US egg market, as of 2022. In terms of units, while plant-based eggs grew by sevenfold between 2019-22 to reach 10 million sales, animal-based egg sales were around 2.3 billion.
Moreover, the number of American households buying plant-based eggs was just 2% in 2022 – but the sector has outpaced dollar sales growth for animal-derived eggs, growing by 348% versus 67% for the latter from 2019-22, albeit with a much smaller base. It highlights the progress – and potential – of plant-based eggs, and the scale of the industry these companies are trying to disrupt.
Tetrick, whose company is planning to launch more products this year, put it best: “We’re 500 million steps closer to a more sustainable food system, but we’ve got a long way to go.”
The post In Five Years, Plant-Based Pioneer Just Egg Has Sold Half a Billion Worth of Eggs appeared first on Green Queen.
This post was originally published on Green Queen.
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7 Mins Read
Plant-based giant Beyond Meat witnessed an 18% decrease in annual net revenue in 2023. Despite posting losses in Q4 too, its sales were better than expected, sending the company’s shares soaring and signalling a turnaround in fortunes for 2024.
Fresh from a product revamp with new recipes for its beef and burger analogues, Beyond Meat’s stock jumped by 78% yesterday after it posted higher-than-expected numbers in the last quarter of 2023. Quarterly revenue dropped by only 2% – compared to a 26% decline from Q2 to Q3 – to $73.7M, better than the $66.7M predicted by analysts. For the full year, the Californian company’s revenue fell by 18% to $343M.
“In 2023, Beyond Meat undertook extensive initiatives to reset the business toward sustainable operations and, ultimately, profitable growth. Much of this reset is now coming into view,” said CEO Ethan Brown. He added that the company’s plans for this year include reducing operating expenses, changing pricing structures, and right-sizing its production footprint, and rolling out the Beyond IV line of products.
“We believe these sweeping changes, together with measures we plan to pursue this year to bolster our balance sheet, will strengthen our near-term operations as we pursue our vision of being the global protein company of the future,” Brown said.
Beyond Meat discontinues jerky and forecasts improved margins
Courtesy: Beyond Meat Beyond Meat’s Q4 net losses doubled from the previous quarter, reaching $155M. These were heavily impacted by the one-off charges of $85M from its global operations review last year, which was launched last November to reassess elements of the business that don’t line up with profitability plans (this also involved a potential restructuring of its China operations). The company finished the year with $10.6M in capital expenditure, 85% less than 2022.
It further managed to bring down its operating expenses by 19% to $259M, following a year where it laid off 19% of its global non-production workforce (about 65 employees), consolidated its operations from 13 co-manufacturing locations in North America to just one, and discontinued its slow-selling beef jerky line (which it launched in 2022 through a partnership with PepsiCo).
“These refinements allow focus and resources to be put against our latest product platform renovation, Beyond IV, and other SKUs,” Brown said in an earnings call to analysts and investors, outlining why the company decided to discontinue the jerky, despite its position as the top-selling vegan jerky. He added that the reformulated beef products and its other analogues have a higher growth potential in the US, and that the changes reflect the business’s increased focus on Europe.
Moreover, the alt-meat giant’s yearly losses shrunk by 2.5% at $338M, and the significant restructuring and cost-cutting activities last year mean it is able to forecast improved margins for 2024 (these were in the negative in 2023).
Beyond Meat has an outstanding debt of $1.1B – owing to convertible notes (a type of investment that begins as a loan and turns into equity) that are due to be paid back in 2027. “We’re doing everything that we need to do to fix the fundamentals of the business so that we are a lower cash consumption business with a longer-term goal, obviously, of getting to sustained free cash flow positive,” said CFO Lubi Kutua.
US sales falter but McDonald’s deal boosts European performance
Courtesy: McDonald’s Beyond Meat witnessed a 32% fall in year-over-year sales in its home market in 2023. Despite pricing its products lower in grocery stores, retail revenue dropped by 27%, while foodservice figures were also down by 26%. It reflects the larger decline in US retail sales of plant-based meat, which dipped by 11% to just over $1B in the year ending January 28, 2024.
Brown ascribed this to the polarisation and politicisation of plant-based meat in the US, noting that the biggest consumption barrier for Americans is the health attributes of these products. While half of US consumers found meat alternatives healthy in 2020, that number fell to 38% in 2022. And this loss in faith has since continued, with a Mintel survey from last year showing that nutrition is the second-biggest reason (35%) for Americans’ reticence to try plant-based meat. “It’s not just the animal protein players and their lobbyists, it’s actually members of the pharmaceutical industry, which I find to be kind of disturbing, actually,” said Brown.
Beyond Meat has made health the focal point of its marketing efforts, with its latest marketing drive honing in on the Beyond Steak, which was certified as ‘heart-healthy’ by the American Heart Association (AHA). It has continued to do that with its new Beyond Burger and Beef, which has undergone a recipe change that now includes avocado oil, fava beans and red lentils, and has 60% less saturated fat, 20% less sodium, 20% more calcium, and 12% higher potassium content.
“The current climate of misinformation and efforts by incumbents – including, sadly, pharmaceutical interests – to poison the plant-based meat well push us to accelerate gains in the health profile of our product platforms,” noted Brown, adding: “We had to right the message. We can do that by yelling from the rooftops about the benefits of our existing products, or we can just try to make them even more healthy and unassailable.”
The company’s performance internationally, however, has improved by 18% from 2022-23, with both retail and foodservice sales up. This is thanks in large part to its European deal with McDonald’s, which uses the Beyond Beef patty for the vegan McPlant burger. Brown highlighted that the business had witnessed “continued traction at McDonald’s across countries such as Austria, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, UK, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, and Switzerland”.
Beyond Meat to increase prices in the US this year
When Beyond Beyond Meat announced its product reformulation last week, Green Queen reported that the new burger and mince would be more expensive, given the use of premium ingredients like avocado oil. Now, it has emerged that this will coincide with a larger overhaul of the company’s pricing structure, which will see some of its products in the US become more expensive. Brown insisted that this “does not reflect an abandonment of our long-sought price parity goal, which we in fact achieved in certain very specific offerings”.
“Pricing just wasn’t as effective a tool,” he revealed. “We probably ended up selling a lot of our products to the same consumer at a reduced price. So we learned that and moved away from it.” Outlining the reasons for the higher markups, he said restoring margins was important, while the pricing programmes the company previously implemented failed to convert early adopters into the mainstream.
“In certain areas, there will be more of a delta between animal protein and ourselves, but in others, there will not be. And so, this is not a kind of crude application of a price increase. We have some very important partnerships and relationships where getting on the product line, there won’t be much change,” explained Brown.
“In retrospect, the noise and swirl surrounding the category reached decibels that were perhaps sufficient to ground out pricing and other messages,” he noted, adding that the new cost structure would take on a tiered approach across its product lines. “I do think there’s a real opportunity to continue to offer outstanding innovation year after year that does have a more premium price on it, while you continue to offer some of the rest of your portfolio at lower pricing.”
This is something Beyond Meat’s chief communication officer, Shira Zackai, highlighted last week. “Based on the significant nutritional benefits and elevated taste profile of these new products, we feel confident in the value we will be providing to consumers relative to their cost,” he told Green Queen.
The price hikes will be implemented in the US this year, but in markets like Europe, Brown admitted that the company had to adjust retail prices, which were “just too high”. Kutua highlighted that a big reason for this is the higher level of private-label penetration in Europe compared to the US. He explained that the company narrowed the price gap with its competition two years ago in Europe, but it still carries a premium in certain categories, and over time, the goal would be to further bridge that gap – though it’s not an immediate concern.
One thing the company will look to do in 2024 is expand its presence in German retail, which would be a shrewd move considering it is Europe’s largest plant-based market. Beyond Meat forecasts its 2024 revenues to be level with last year’s, between $315-345M, with Q1 sales for this year also expected to remain in the $70-75M range.
“We’re cautious in our optimism,” said Brown. “We’ve obviously had some tough years, but by making these changes and creating the sustainable baseline for which we can grow, we’re going to create some room for ourselves to execute and get back on track for growth.”
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4 Mins Read
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 Oato’s oat milk launch in retail, Maple Leaf Foods’ consolidation, and a spate of alternative seafood developments.
New products and launches
A week after announcing its financial results for 2023 and promising product expansion, Oatly has launched a new line of oat milk creamers in four flavours for the US market: sweet and creamy, mocha, vanilla and caramel.
Courtesy: Oato UK startup Oato has secured a listing for its fresh oat milks at Scottish supermarket Booths. The barista whole oat milk comes in 1l bottles shaped like cow’s milk.
London-based oat milk chocolate brand HiP (Happiness in Plants) has upgraded its vegan Easter eggs, which are now 50% bigger and contain chocolate buttons inside. They’re available in Salted Caramel and Cookies No Cream flavours.
In the US, plant-based milk maker Mooala has introduced single-serve versions of its banana milk in Sprouts stores nationwide. The range is available in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavours, and priced at $1.49 per 8oz bottle.
Chicago-based dairy company Truly Grass Fed has launched a premium gluten-free oat milk line in original and extra creamy variants, which are available at select The Fresh Market locations, and at Lowes Foods and Natural Grocers soon.
Meanwhile, US food tech startup microTERRA has unveiled a duckweed-based ingredient aimed at sugar reduction. The innovation amplifies sweetness perception to help cut back on sugar in food and beverages without compromising on any functional attributes.
New York-based company InnovoPro has developed a plant-based barista product with chickpea protein, which can remove the need for buffers and emulsifiers in high-protein beverages and fruit shakes.
Courtesy: Ichiran Japanese ramen chain Ichiran is introducing a vegan tonkotsu ramen kit in the US, which is the result of six years of R&D. Comprising a liquid broth concentrate, tamen oil, togarashi seasoning and Hakata-style noodles, it will be available from tomorrow.
Californian plant-based meat player Beleaf has inked a new distribution partnership with Dot Foods to expand the presence of its meat, shrimp and egg analogues nationwide in the US.
US fast-casual chain Pokeworks has expanded its partnership with vegan seafood producer Impact Food, which will see the eatery serve the latte’s vegan tuna in its Bay Area locations.
It’s a big week for seafood news. Dutch plant-based brand Vegan Zeastar will open a pop-up restaurant Zèta, a vegan eatery at Grote Markt in The Hague. Running from March 5-10, it will showcase dishes using its vegan crab, shrimp and sashimi.
Fellow Dutch vegan producer The Vegetarian Butcher is launching its first fish SKU, called Krosse Flosse. The breaded product is now available in Germany.
Courtesy: The Vegetarian Butcher And Brazilian plant-based meat startup Future Farm is reformulating its entire product range to elevate the taste and texture attributes of its vegan chicken, beef and seafood analogues.
Finance and closures
British vegan sweets startup Tasty Mates has bagged a £60,000 Dragons’ Den investment for a 15% stake from Peter Jones, though negations are still ongoing over a lower share.
UK vegan burger chain The Vurger Co has shut its doors over a year after it was rescued from administration, citing post-pandemic challenges and insufficient government support.
Courtesy: The Vurger Co Across the Atlantic, Brooklyn-based specialty mushroom company Smallhold, which specialised in vertical farming, has filed for bankruptcy, after it emerged that the business was in worse financial shape than previously disclosed.
Portland, Oregon’s fermentation-focused vegan deli and restaurant Fermenter is also closing. But it’s a positive sign, as the team is revamping the concept for a launch in April. The brand, meanwhile, will live on through products and classes.
Policy and corporate moves
Canadian meat giant Maple Leaf Foods is merging its meat and plant protein businesses – includafing Lightlife and Field Roast – into a single unit to simplify its operations and drive growth across all categories.
Dutch cultivated pork producer Meatable has appointed industry executives Lorne Abony and Patricia Malarkey to its board of directors as it awaits the regulatory greenlight in Singapore ahead of its planned launch later this year.
Courtesy: Meatable France has officially banned the use of meat-related terms on the product labelling of plant-based alternatives, which includes 21 terms – although ‘burger’ is not on the prohibited list.
And in the UK, the Green Party mayor of Worcester, Louis Stephen, has taken meat off the menu for the council’s receptions to serve an exclusively plant-based menu to highlight food’s impact on climate change.
Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.
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5 Mins Read
Following its rebrand from VFC Foods last month, the newly formed Vegan Food Group is set to acquire German tofu manufacturer Tofutown for an undisclosed sum. With four businesses under its portfolio, the company aims to bolster revenue beyond €100M and become profitable this year.
The Vegan Food Group (VFG) will soon complete its third plant-based M&A deal in less than 10 months, taking over 35-year-old German brand Tofutown. The deal will allow VFG to scale up total revenues to over €100M and set it on a path to profitability this year.
It’s part of the company’s mission to become “a vegan Unilever”, as co-founder and chief mission officer Matthew Glover noted during the rebrand from VFC Foods last month. The move to become a holding company – which now comprises VFC, Meatless Farm, Clive’s Purely Plants, and Tofutown – allows VFG to become “one of Europe’s largest plant-based manufacturers”, and the latest acquisition delivers on CEO Dave Sparrow’s promise that there would be more takeovers to come.
“VFG will now be a major player in plant-based food, with a significant manufacturing scale across three sites, employing over 300 staff, and with a strong network of strategic manufacturing and supply chain partners,” said Sparrow. “This acquisition allows VFG to fast-track our growth across the UK and the EU in chilled, frozen, and ambient products, in both branded and own-label retail, as well as foodservice.”
“There’s a number of reasons why we saw Tofutown as an attractive addition to the Vegan Food Group,” Glover told Green Queen. “The fact that Germany is the biggest market for plant-based food in Europe was top of the list, providing so many opportunities to expand.”
Why the Vegan Food Group decided to buy Tofutown
Courtesy: Vegan Food Group “The business already has significant scale with circa €60m revenue, 300 staff and manufacturing capacity, producing a wide range of 100% natural, organic tofu, spreads, and meat alternatives,” Glover said of Tofutown. “[Founder] Bernd [Drosihn] and the team have invested heavily over 40 years developing a business with distribution into major retailers and foodservice across Germany, which we can continue to develop.”
Headquartered in Wiesbaum, Tofutown supplies major retailers including Aldi, Lidl, DM and Edeka. It has two manufacturing sites sprawling a combined 55,000 sq m, with the Lüneburg, Lower Saxony facility one of Europe’s largest plant-based factories, “with the capacity to produce a wide range of new plant-based lines”.
“Joining the Vegan Food Group is an exciting opportunity for Tofutown to successfully continue Bernd’s vision over the coming decades,” said Touftown CEO Markus Kerres. “With Germany and the UK being the two biggest markets for plant-based foods, we’re well-positioned to thrive over the next decade.”
The tofu maker joins VFG’s growing family of vegan brands, a portfolio the company says will continue to expand with more M&As on the way. “We’ll be looking at opportunities to expand our brands into Europe through the distribution already in place, whilst expanding the current Tofutown product ranges into the UK market,” said Glover.
“The business also has an existing senior management team in place with an enthusiasm to grow and learn as part of a wider group structure. We’re very excited about how we can merge the startup culture of VFC and Meatless Farm, with the established nature of a food company where manufacturing and delivering high-quality food is second nature.”
Consolidation deals ‘vital’ for rapid plant-based growth
Courtesy: Vegan Food Group VFG was launched in 2020 as a vegan fried chicken brand by Glover and Adam Lyons, and after witnessing strong growth, has evolved from a challenger brand into a sector leader. Last year, the group rescued plant-based meat company Meatless Farm from the brink of bankruptcy, purchasing the latter in a £12M deal for its UK operations (VFC paid just a small portion of the sum, keeping the brand assets intact).
This was followed by the acquisition of Clive’s Purely Plants in October, which positioned VFC as “a formidable player” in the market, according to Sparrow. “What excites us the most is the diverse range of products we can offer consumers, from enticing meat alternatives to wholesome and delicious vegetable-based options, making us one of the most diversified players in the category,” he said at the time.
Moreover, 2023 saw VFG’s sales value grow exponentially by 199.3%, according to NielsenIQ data for the Grocer’s Top Products survey. However, it still represented a small chunk of the overall UK meat-free sector, which experienced major headwinds in a consumer landscape hit by the cost-of-living crisis. Vegan meat analogues were among the worst-performing grocery categories in the country, with sales declining by £38.4m, and volumes down by 4.2%.
With manufacturers like Plant & Bean and LoveSeitan ceasing operations – and VBites being bailed out of administration – and Nestlé and Heck pulling products from their plant-based meat ranges, it’s been a challenging year, and that’s before you take note of the lack of investment in the space.
“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,” explained Glover, who is also the co-founder of Veganuary. “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.”
He added that in a tough fundraising environment, acquisitions allow brands to circumvent the risk of running out of operational cash, save valuable product lines, and emerge stronger from the current market slump. “Ultimately, consolidation and M&As are not just about growth; they’re about sustaining the innovation and competitiveness of the plant-based sector in a rapidly changing market,” he noted.
VFG’s purchase deal with Tofutown, which will see the former acquire all shares, is pending final authorisation, but is expected to close soon. It is the latest in a rapidly growing line of M&A deals in the vegan sector, including Australia’s v2foods’ buyout of ready meal brands Soulara and Macros, Indian company Nourish You’s purchase of alt-dairy startup One Good, and Next Level Burger’s acquisition of Veggie Grill (and its Más Veggies taco chain) in the US – all of which have come in the last couple of months.
The post Vegan Food Group to Acquire Germany’s Tofutown in Latest Consolidation Deal to Drive Profitability appeared first on Green Queen.
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Starbucks saboteur! People visiting the local Starbucks Reserve Roastery—and executives working in the company’s headquarters—will be served a venti shot of disgust at the chain’s disgraceful vegan milk upcharge, courtesy of geofencing technology and PETA. For up to a month—and even after they’ve left the area—Starbucks’ top brass and customers will see an inventive ad spot as they browse the web starring Succession actor James Cromwell. In the video, Cromwell appears as a greedy, fictional Starbucks executive who exploits eco-conscious customers by charging them up to 90 cents more for vegan milk—even though the chain reported $4.1 billion in profits last year alone.
Spliced with images of cruel milking machines, baby cows being torn away from their mothers, melting ice caps, and wildfires, the video features Cromwell in the chain’s signature green apron explaining that Starbucks is aware of dairy’s contribution to “a giant burning hellscape” and that customers choose vegan milks to slash greenhouse gas emissions. “And it’s good that you pay. I mean care,” he says. “Because we also have other things to care about. Like a $1.6 million cash sign-on bonus for our new CEO.”
“You just keep caring about saving the world, and we’ll keep caring about our savings account. Because Starbucks cares about money. Hey, it’s right there in our name,” he says with a smirk, handing over a latte with a dollar symbol outlined in foam.
In addition to driving the climate catastrophe, the dairy industry tears calves away from their mothers within a day of birth so the milk meant to nourish them can be stolen and sold to humans. PETA’s investigations into dairy facilities have found workers electroshocking a cow in the face, hitting cows with poles and a cane, and abusing them in other ways. Once their bodies wear out from repeated pregnancies, they’re sent to slaughter to be used for ground beef or dog food.
Cromwell previously supported PETA’s campaign against the coffee giant by supergluing himself to a Starbucks counter in Midtown Manhattan to pressure the company to end the upcharge for vegan milks (which other chains offer at no extra cost).
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
The post Phones of Starbucks Execs, Patrons to Play James Cromwell Video Slamming Vegan Upcharge appeared first on PETA.
This post was originally published on Animal Rights and Campaign News | PETA.
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Ahead of St. Patrick’s Day, PETA has a shamrockin’ idea for Mayor Brandon Johnson and other city officials: Make the entire month of March green by going vegan and encouraging other Chicagoans to do the same. In exchange, PETA is offering to host a delicious vegan St. Patrick’s feast complete with meat-free corned “beef” and lentil shepherd’s pie.
Johnson is clearly concerned about the climate catastrophe—as evidenced by the city’s recent lawsuit against five major oil companies—and PETA points out that animal agriculture is responsible for nearly 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Going vegan would help make Chicago as green as its river, as well as sparing millions of animals a miserable life and a terrifying death. And since meat consumption is linked to cancer and heart disease—by far the two leading causes of death in the Windy City—vegan eating is the simplest way for residents to improve their health.
“Chicagoans don’t need the luck of the Irish to make this St. Patrick’s Day a happy and healthy one for themselves, other animals, and the planet. They just need to go vegan,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is ready with free vegan starter kits to help everyone make the switch.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
The post Mayor Johnson: Make Chicago Truly Green This St. Patrick’s Day by Going Vegan—and PETA Will Throw You an Irish Feast appeared first on PETA.
This post was originally published on Animal Rights and Campaign News | PETA.
