Today, plant-based sales account for 20% of food and beverage dollars spent by Americans, with beef alternatives making up 44% of that. In fact, a recent survey found that most Americans are even willing to give lab-grown meat a try.
Impossible Foods, the company behind the “bleeding” Impossible Burgers, will soon churn out 500,000 pounds of plant-based “meat” each month to satisfy demand from the 3,000-plus restaurants it supplies. Beyond Meat, meanwhile, recently opened a 26,000-square-foot food lab dedicated to recreating everything from your favorite ballpark franks all the way to steak.
As Fast Company recently reported, it’s a new era for plant-based alternatives, and innovative companies are putting out new products that go way beyond the usual vegan burgers and soy substitutes often found on supermarket shelves. “Eerily convincing” faux eggs are already here, so don’t be surprised if you soon hear about the world’s first plant-based oyster shack—or a meatless steakhouse.
Good Catch just released shelf-stable “tuna” made from lentils, chickpeas, and fava beans. The startup plans to deliver a range of products that reduce the environmental pressure brought about by overfishing. It joins similar companies such as Wild Type, which is attempting lab-grown salmon, and New Wave Foods, a shrimp alternative made from algae.
Brick and mortar is also seeing a plant-based revolution. Monty’s Good Burger, which won over fans at music festivals like Coachella, just opened a permanent outpost in Los Angeles. Everything on the menu is vegan, including the vanilla milkshakes. On a sweltering summer afternoon, dozens of fans waited over an hour for the vegan creation dubbed the “In-N-Out of Impossible Burgers.” “I don’t know when we’ll get into something like octopus, but our plan is to slowly but surely address as much [seafood] as we can,” Good Catch cofounder Chris Kerr recently reported to Fast Company. “We are in this for the long haul.”
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