Elmhurst 1925—best known for its clean label plant-based milks and creamers—is moving into the plant-based meat arena with a single-ingredient chicken alternative designed to disrupt the declining category.*
Elmhurst TerraMeat Plant-Based Chick’n—featuring 26g protein per serving—is an ambient product containing one ingredient: hemp protein. Consumers add water and oil and microwave for 90 seconds to create cutlets that can be seasoned and grilled, baked, braised, or fried.
Manufactured by Steuben Foods, the product will initially be sold direct to consumers in a box containing individual pouches of hemp protein powder, which are light and easy to ship with a long shelf-life. The company will also be testing the waters in the foodservice market at a handful of restaurants in New York City in the coming weeks.
“At 90 years old, I have seen many changes in the food industry, but I believe Elmhurst TerraMeat Plant-Based Chick’n has the potential to redefine the plant-based meat market. Thanks to the innovative HydroRelease technology developed by Dr. Cheryl Mitchell, we are able to harness the full nutritional quality of hemp protein, making it a wholesome, protein-rich option that satisfies both dietary preferences and the desire for a more sustainable food future.” Henry Schwartz, founder and CEO, Elmhurst 1925
‘You get a piece of meat in just over a minute from a powder that looks, cuts and cooks just like chicken’
While anyone can buy off-the-shelf hemp protein powder, add oil and water and put it in the microwave, they will not get an appetizing meat alternative, said Dr. Cheryl Mitchell, SVP ingredient manufacturing at Steuben Foods, who developed the ‘HydroRelease’ milling process behind Elmhurst’s plant-based dairy products.
“We start with hemp grain [seeds from industrial hemp plants], which we’ve been working with to make hemp-based creamers,” Mitchell told AgFunderNews. “And we apply the same water-based technology that enables us to liberate all the different components, rather than taking nuts or grains and dry milling them to a flour or paste and then having to add stabilizers, emulsifiers, and oils.”
She added: “We had the hemp cream for our plant-based creamers, and it was a case of what do we do with the protein? So we started working with it and the functionality and the applications were endless. At relatively low temperatures, the protein starts to coagulate and change.
“By contrast, when you extrude plant proteins at very high temperatures [the standard method for texturizing plant-based proteins to make meat alternatives], it impacts their digestibility, and what I realized with this protein from the hemp seed, was that using our technology to liberate it, it had a functionality at relatively low temperatures, so you can set it at low heat.
“When you add water, a little bit of oil and you heat it, it develops the texture and the layering that you get in muscle meats, so you basically get a piece of meat in just over a minute from a powder that looks, cuts and cooks just like chicken.”
She added: “It has no real taste, so you can season it with whatever you want or just add salt and pepper and it has a far more appealing texture than extruded plant based meats, which can be like chewing rubber bands.”
What is industrial hemp?
A drought-resistant crop historically grown for fiber, industrial hemp comes from Cannabis sativa, the same plant species as marijuana, but contains little to no THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
Seeds from industrial hemp are safe and legal food ingredients permitted in the US market with strong nutritional credentials, containing 25-35% protein, fiber, iron, and the short chain omega-3 fatty acid ALA plus a small amount of the lesser-known fatty acids gamma-linoleic acid and stearidonic acid.
*According to Circana data crunched by 210 Analytics, US retail sales of meat alternatives fell 10.7% to $1.1 billion in the 52 weeks ending June 30, 2024 (total US, MULO, integrated fresh). Volume sales fell 13.3%. For context, fresh meat department dollar sales were up 2.3% over the same period with volumes up 0.7%, while frozen processed meat sales were up 3.9% with units up 8.1%.
