GUEST ARTICLE: Are plant-based meats cooked?
What is holding back the plant-based meat market? Poor taste and texture? The hefty price tag? Poor branding and positioning?
What is holding back the plant-based meat market? Poor taste and texture? The hefty price tag? Poor branding and positioning?
US retail sales of plant-based meat fell 12% in 2023 with units down 19%, while plant-based milk sales were up 1% with units down 8%.
GLP-1 drugs are “going to be a big disruptor for the food industry,” says Dr. Justin Shimek at California-based product innovation firm Mattson, which is expanding to the Midwest with the acquisition of Hyde Park Group.
Dutch startup Rival Foods will start deploying shear cell technology—a novel approach to texturizing plant-based proteins that can create whole cuts—at a “commercially viable scale” this summer.
Planted is deploying a “proprietary solid-state fermentation process” to make its beef steaks, says the Zurich-based firm.
Spanish plant-based meat startup Heura posted a 22% increase in sales to €38.3m ($41.5m) in 2023 and says it’s on course to turn a profit next year.
Beyond Meat Jerky, the first product to emerge from the firm’s JV with PepsiCo, is being discontinued less than two years after launch.
Here are some of highlights (and a few low lights😉) from 2023, plus some areas to watch in 2024, from designer probiotics to livestock methane reduction.
The continuous processing system will finally enable meat alternatives to reach cost parity with their animal-based counterparts, claims the Seattle-based startup.
As well as taking stock of the best read articles of the year, the AgFunderNews team also wanted to highlight our favourite stories of the year; the articles we’re most proud of and enjoyed reporting the most.
To find out, foodtech editor Elaine Watson fired off a few emails to startups she’s covered on AgFunderNews this year to get a sense of what is disrupting their sleep, with a particular emphasis on the alt protein space.
With sales declining, gross margins in negative territory, and debts of $1.1bn, what’s next for Beyond Meat?
Global investment in AgFunder’s ‘Innovative Food’ category (which is dominated by alt proteins) fell by 39% in 2022. However, funding increased by 26% in the Asia-Pacific region. So what should we make of this dynamic?
“We feel good about the relationship with Burger King,” says Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness. “We feel good about our sales, the Impossible Whopper is important to us and it’s important to them, and we are working with them exploring other innovations.”
While the beleaguered plant-based meat company achieved positive free cash flow in the third quarter, it does not expect to sustain it in the fourth quarter.
The plant-based protein market has been experiencing “destocking and consumer demand softness,” says ADM.
When you’re on a tight budget, your execution must be “flawless,” says Juicy Marbles CEO Tilen Travnik. “If something is not as tight as it should be, it keeps me up at night because it immediately translates into cash flow.”
Heüra Foods has unveiled its first product—plant-based ‘York Ham-style’ deli slices—manufactured using patent-pending technology that it claims is cheaper and more effective than extrusion at texturizing plant proteins.
London-based startup Hoxton Farms has opened a pilot facility to make cultivated fat, the ‘magic ingredient that makes meat smell, brown, sizzle, and taste incredible…’
Given the “fragility of its financial situation and the weak consumption patterns in the meat alternatives category,” Beyond Meat faces an “existential threat,” say analysts at TD Cowen.