http://www.theepochtimes.com - A small group of Silicon Valley-funded tech companies is out to disrupt factory livestock farming with plant-meat alternatives that are better for the environment than meat, better for our health, and just as tasty as the real thing.
With a staff of not chefs but mainly chemists, biochemists, and physicists, they are engineering alternatives to meat that look, cook, and impress just like the real thing—blood and all—using only plant ingredients like yellow pea, soybean, spinach, beets, carrots, and the like.
With a staff of not chefs but mainly chemists, biochemists, and physicists, they are engineering alternatives to meat that look, cook, and impress just like the real thing—blood and all—using only plant ingredients like yellow pea, soybean, spinach, beets, carrots, and the like.
"By 2054, meat alternatives will comprise 33 percent of the overall protein market, up from just 2 percent today.
Prominent venture capitalists such as mega-billionaire Li Ka-shing, Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, business magnate and philanthropist Bill Gates, and others have invested $200 million in the two leading companies, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, according to Crunchbase.
While Redwood City, California-based Impossible Foods, backed by $183 million, continues to work in its labs on a beef burger and nondairy cheese, Manhattan Beach, California-based Beyond Meat’s grilled chicken strips and homestyle chicken have been on the market for a few years now.
In early 2015, the company released a beef-like Beast Burger, Beyond Beef Crumbles, and Beastly Sliders.
Lux Research, a strategic advisory firm for emerging technologies, predicts that by 2054, meat alternatives will comprise 33 percent of the overall protein market, up from just 2 percent today.
Driving this major shift in our eating habits is a perfect storm of consumer awareness: rising health concerns about consuming meat, the higher cost of meat due to increasing global demand (most notably for animal feed), and environmental concerns about animal agriculture, according to Lux.
Demand from Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers tends to be more health-related, while millennials tend to be motivated more by environmental concerns. Regardless, the market for plant food is now much larger and much more mainstream than before, pushing the boundaries of innovation past the typical vegetarian fare.
And this new group of plant-food explorers still enjoy eating meat. Call them “flexarians.” In fact, these people may even prefer that their meat substitute fool them into believing it’s the real thing.
Influential food writer Mark Bittman as well as Gates have both said they could not tell in a blind taste test the difference between Beyond Meat’s plant-based chicken and real muscle meat.
Food critic Corby Kummer, writing for the MIT Technology Review, said his impression was that Beyond Meat’s products were only getting close to the experience of “debased industrial meat.”
They are likely decades away from achieving the quality of a fine steak, “with the intramuscular marbling fat that bastes every bite,” Kummer wrote. But to be fair, he acknowledges for the company to achieve a product comparable to a Tyson chicken strip is indeed progress.
Gates wrote on his personal blog that the earth cannot support enough animal agriculture to feed the world’s growing population, and companies like Beyond Meat have taken on the challenge of finding alternatives that do not require asking everyone to become vegetarian.
He famously deemed his bite of chicken taco, made with Beyond Meat, no less than “a taste of the future of food.”
Driving this major shift in our eating habits is a perfect storm of consumer awareness: rising health concerns about consuming meat, the higher cost of meat due to increasing global demand (most notably for animal feed), and environmental concerns about animal agriculture, according to Lux.
Demand from Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers tends to be more health-related, while millennials tend to be motivated more by environmental concerns. Regardless, the market for plant food is now much larger and much more mainstream than before, pushing the boundaries of innovation past the typical vegetarian fare.
And this new group of plant-food explorers still enjoy eating meat. Call them “flexarians.” In fact, these people may even prefer that their meat substitute fool them into believing it’s the real thing.
Influential food writer Mark Bittman as well as Gates have both said they could not tell in a blind taste test the difference between Beyond Meat’s plant-based chicken and real muscle meat.
Food critic Corby Kummer, writing for the MIT Technology Review, said his impression was that Beyond Meat’s products were only getting close to the experience of “debased industrial meat.”
They are likely decades away from achieving the quality of a fine steak, “with the intramuscular marbling fat that bastes every bite,” Kummer wrote. But to be fair, he acknowledges for the company to achieve a product comparable to a Tyson chicken strip is indeed progress.
Gates wrote on his personal blog that the earth cannot support enough animal agriculture to feed the world’s growing population, and companies like Beyond Meat have taken on the challenge of finding alternatives that do not require asking everyone to become vegetarian.
He famously deemed his bite of chicken taco, made with Beyond Meat, no less than “a taste of the future of food.”
A Growing Industry
While the market for plant meat is still nascent today, it is growing at a healthy rate of 8.4 percent annually, according to Allied Market Research, nearly triple the overall growth in the food industry.
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| Byond Meat chicken strips made from all vegetarian ingredients that are free of antibiotics, GMO's, and gluten. (Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times) |
Already, a surprising variety of meat alternatives can be found at natural grocers. Meat substitutes made from seitan (a wheat product), and tofu and tempeh (made from fermented soybeans), have been around for decades and are associated with incumbent brands Tofurky, Yves Veggie Cuisine, and Gardein.
Lux researcher Sara Olson says soy’s dominant 95 percent market share is expected to reduce to just 22 percent by 2054 as other meat-alternative options develop.
Some of the newer companies out there now include Sophie’s Kitchen seafood made with the Southeast Asian superfood konjac, jackfruit meat introduced recently by Upton’s Naturals, and a savvy blend of whole foods offered in a wide variety of meaty options by Sweet Earth Foods.
In fact, some vegetarians say they find some of these new fake-meat products somewhat offensive, or they may even feel baffled by claims on the products that appeal to meat-eaters, such as “flame-broiled,” and “quarter-pounder.” That is a little too meaty!
Other vegetarians may find themselves utterly drawn in by the artful packaging and product allure.
Nadia Berenstein, a food historian who is also a vegetarian, called Beyond Meat in a recent telephone interview, “an exquisitely technological and artificial product.”
Lux researcher Sara Olson says soy’s dominant 95 percent market share is expected to reduce to just 22 percent by 2054 as other meat-alternative options develop.
Some of the newer companies out there now include Sophie’s Kitchen seafood made with the Southeast Asian superfood konjac, jackfruit meat introduced recently by Upton’s Naturals, and a savvy blend of whole foods offered in a wide variety of meaty options by Sweet Earth Foods.
In fact, some vegetarians say they find some of these new fake-meat products somewhat offensive, or they may even feel baffled by claims on the products that appeal to meat-eaters, such as “flame-broiled,” and “quarter-pounder.” That is a little too meaty!
Other vegetarians may find themselves utterly drawn in by the artful packaging and product allure.
Nadia Berenstein, a food historian who is also a vegetarian, called Beyond Meat in a recent telephone interview, “an exquisitely technological and artificial product.”
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| Chile made with Beyond Beef crumbles. (Courtesy of Beyond Meat) |
For more info, visit us at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/meat-substitute-market
