Plant-based burgers became ubiquitous in 2019. In grocery stores, at restaurants nationwide and even at theme parks, consumers could easily pick up plant-based options that look and taste like something made from ground beef. The plethora of plant-based burger options is welcome news to vegans and consumers looking to reduce their meat intake alike. However, burgers and ground beef are just one small sector of the meat options out there. As 2020 dawned, there were few options for consumers looking for other alternatives, like products imitating chicken or fish.
Plant Based Foods Association Executive Director Michele Simon says there are good reasons the plant-based sector has been dominated by burgers so far. “America has had a love affair with burgers for decades, and, you know, it’s sort of the quintessential item at a fast food restaurant,” she said. “…The fact that it’s ground gives companies the ability to simulate that texture and so forth with various ingredients.”
But in this new decade, consumers will be looking for different meat alternatives to fill the centers of their plates. And several companies are getting ready to make that happen. As the year started, Impossible Foods announced its newest product, Impossible Pork. Nuggs, a plant-based chicken nugget startup, launched last year with a $7 million investment round led by frozen potato giant McCain Foods. Rebellyous Foods is working to bring down the cost of plant-based chicken nuggets, a product it’s selling to some foodservice outlets in the Seattle area. Kellogg’s MorningStar Farms is launching vegan Incogmeato Chik’n nuggets and tenders this year. And Beyond Meat — which actually started with plant-based chicken strips in 2013 and quietly discontinued them last year — says it is working on plant-based chicken again. A trial last summer of the reformulated Beyond Fried Chicken at KFC sold out in five hours.
As these companies get more capital and products on shelves and menus, consumers will have more exposure to this category. And while it’s important for plant-based chicken to replicate the experience of eating the real thing — plant-based burger companies make pink patties that brown when cooked and “bleed” with pink centers — some people in the business say there is more that the category needs to do. In an editorial in Food Dive, Rebellyous founder and CEO Christie Lagally detailed the size and economic volume of the poultry industry. She wrote that success for plant-based chicken depends on being able to financially beat that system.
Simon said that aside from the all-American aura of the burger, what really made plant-based burgers catch on was their widespread appearance on menus. “I think that’s probably what we’re going to have to see to know that the plant-based chicken nugget has arrived,” she said. Another thing that will shift consumers’ perception of plant-based meat is seeing it included in other products in the grocery store. Nestlé announced it will be adding its plant-based ground beef product — Awesome Grounds — to some of its iconic products, including DiGiorno Pizza and Stouffer’s Lasagna.
“Plant-based protein, plant-based meats are going to be the future of meat, more and more,” says Ryan Riddle, R&D specialist of vegetarian meal solutions at Nestlé USA. “I fully expect that this is just the beginning of incorporating plant-based meats into our prepared meals.”
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