In 2020, FoodWrite looked at the state of the market for meat analogues and the key developments that had taken place up to September of that year. Following that period when we started tackling the COVID-19 pandemic in earnest, a great deal of activity including launches has taken place up to the present day in the arena of meat analogues. We’ve also had COP 26 in 2021 which took place in Glasgow. That conference dwelt on sustainable agriculture and the need to minimise climate change. All in all, one of the crucial elements of this conference was how to reduce meat consumption and increase the use of plant-based foods.
It’s long been accepted that all food production, manufacture and consumption needs resourcing. It means extensive use of of water and land, of minerals and fertiliser and considerable amounts of energy input. One of the consequences of our current food manufacturing and consumption system is the production of substantial amounts of greenhouse gas. No getting away from it!
Most commentators in climate science argue very strongly that animal farming needs to change if not disappear altogether to reduce climate change.
In this article we’ll look at what has been happening since 2020 to meat analogues and where we think the market for these products is heading. We’ll start by looking at what people call alternative meat, what consumers perceive about it and how that’s reflected in the market-place, the type of products out there and then finish up on what is happening next.
What Are We Calling ‘Meat’ Nowadays?
Consumers may well be confused by the number of different names that blended meat and meat analogues are known by. Including the two different names just mentioned, I’ve seen terms like hybrid or faux, imitation and fake-meat, mock-meat, blended meat, alternative, extender, novel and hybrid, non-animal or plant, meat substitute and so on. Some of these terms such as fake or faux have derogatory connotations but they wont being going away any time soon. I suspect it depends which side of the divide you are on when it comes to naming.
All these terms are valid but for starters, the lack of a uniform terminology must be unhelpful to both consumer and those marketing the non-meat product.
Throughout this article we’ll refer to plant-based alternative meats as meat analogues but it must be emphasised that the term ‘meat’ really does refer to an animal source – it should never be a confused terminology as this is a disappointing misuse of the language.
What Proteins Are We Likely To Find?
As a consumer we must also be aware that meat analogues are made up of a variety of ingredients too. Plants such as pea and chickpea are often used but so are other legumes such as lentil and soya protein. Let’s not forget mushroom either. We find wheat has a part to play as does oat and barley. We also have to be aware as consumers on how the product has been prepared and what additional ingredients were used. It’s not vegan if the cooking process uses non-vegan oils for frying for example.
Another feature of the meat-free market is the desire to rebrand vegan products as ‘plant-free’. I wonder if this is because the term vegan is off-putting to the mainstream consumer? It is certainly the case that rebranding vegan foods to plant-based appears a play to remove an odd stigma that has become attached to vegan foods. A few market research reports and the IFT in the USA have argued that calling a food vegan makes it sound new-age. Would be interested to know what the opinion is out there?
Vegan Meat And Meat Analogues Seen In 2021
We didn’t try all of these but it’s worth seeing what was launched in the last two years. They’ve changed many people’s perception about what is possible and some are rather good. Others though are hopeless and could equally do as much damage as those that have enhanced the vegan food market.
The two leading brands in the USA, Impossible Burgers and Beyond Meat have adopted similar approaches in developing their foods. They are both known for their burgers and that perception has not changed one iota.
Beyond Meat relies on five key ingredients in their products. They use various beans and pulses as their source of protein; cocoa butter and coconut oil for their fats; potato starch and methylcellulose which is a plant fibre derivative for their carbohydrates, which also gives their products texture. They incorporate calcium, iron, salt and potassium chloride which are minerals found in animal-based meat; and lastly, they use beet juice and apple extract in their products to give their products that meat-like colour and taste.
Impossible Foods uses a similar approach but differs in its selection of ingredients and how it processes its plant-based meat. For example, the Impossible burger uses four main ingredients: soybeans and potatoes for protein; heme (haem) or soy leghaemoglobin, a yeast extract, for flavouring; coconut and sunflower oils for fats; and they use methylcellulose and food starch, a carbohydrate commonly found in foods like canned soup, to bind these other elements together.
The major retailers and fast food outlets have embraced vegan burgers and this is across the board. Beyond Meat and Impossible Burgers have continued their growth with plant-based burger patties. The businesses also have tie-ups with major fast food outlets. Beyond Meat has tied up with McDonalds which also sends a very strong message that alternatives are a commercial reality as well as embracing the plant food culture. We can also find various vegan products in places like Pizza Hut, KFC as well as some lesser known chains. The meat analogue producers also have strong connections with the restaurant trade so we can now eat a plant burger when we dine out as well as at home. The vegan burgers really do look very meaty nowadays.
In January 2022, KFC in the USA started serving up chicken nuggets produced by Beyond Meat in 4,000 locations. It is the biggest nationwide roll-out of plant-based poultry style meat anywhere. It will be served as as part of a combo meal, or in six- or 12-piece orders. The current pricing is $6.99 for 6 pieces. It currently costs $8.39 for an 8-piece order of Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets in most KFC outlets. The price is a fair reflection. The reaction so far has not been brilliant from those who’ve tried it but it must be possible to use consumer feedback to improve on the offer .
In Europe, a German food tech start-up called Greenforce has started selling its powder based burger mixes throughout much of Northern Europe. These “Easy Mixes” are made up from high-quality pea protein and only need water as an additional ingredient to make it into a versatile texture which can then be formed into, for example, burgers, meatballs or mince. That seems to have gained traction with some consumers.
The Market For Plant Based Meat Analogues
In recent years, many new businesses have invested considerably in meat analogues and alternative proteins. The boundaries are continually being pushed when you think of what is possible. A number of developers have launched copycat products and these are now being actively marketed.
The simple idea is to replace animal derived meats and their products. The implication is reduced emissions especially of greenhouse gas. The challenge for the product developer is to create high quality alternatives that mimic the taste and texture of meat. What remains the challenge is whether they work – are they acceptable to the consumer? At the moment the landscape for these alternatives is still being worked out. Some fake meats work extremely well whilst others are frankly shocking in terms of their taste.
If you look at overall meat consumption in one of the largest markets in the world, the USA, it is reckoned by the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board (CBB) that 57lbs of beef is consumed by each individual every year. That is a considerably high amount of meat being consumed. The Good Food Institute (GFI) believes that meat consumption is the highest ever recorded.
What is also happening their is that the plant-based foods have grown their part of the market by 43% in the last couple of years and that also includes meat analogues. The GFI has also noted that plant-based sales have grown 72% in the last few years and that over 6,500 new plant-based meat products have been hitting the marketplace since 2015. That’s quite significant given that a decade ago, meat analogues didn’t exist. The Allied Market Research organization thinks that the meat substitute market will reach a global value of 7.5 billion by 2025.
Most meat analogues are purchased by what marketers term early adopters. There are meat eaters who are trying these alternatives but what will undoubtedly drive continued purchase is product quality and most likely, cost. If the cost is forced downwards then uptake will grow. At the moment, the early adopters are happy to pay a premium for these meat analogues. Some market researchers in 2020 showed that early adopters will pay 10 to 30% more for a meat analogue but only 1 in 25 will pay over 50% more. It is likely that continued growth will be stymied if the costs does not drop. Think what has happened to ‘organic food’ when it has tried to enter the mainstream – cost has been the prohibitive feature for this market and meat analogues are in danger of being out-priced.
Very recently, financial woes have dogged the world’s largest meat-analogue business Beyond Meat in the USA. The warning bells are not sounding with any resonance. In October 2021, the business endured a sell-off of shares when it reported a significant hit to its revenue forecasts. Beyond Meat was founded in 2009 by Ethan Brown who took the company public in 2019. It has high profile backing from Leonardo DiCaprio, Bill Gates and Snoop Dogg.
One of the reasons was a fall in its retail sales which were downgraded at the time from around $120 million to just over $100 million. It’s also the case and a positive one in many ways that there is plenty of competition out there with rivals such as Impossible Foods. For most people though the pandemic has probably hit most businesses very hard.
Another feature of sales growth though has been loss of sales because consumers have stockpiled fake meat and sausages at home because they have started going out to eat again. This was evident according to Beyond Meat in Q3 and Q4 of 2021. They have also suffered however from issues with poor performances from their distributors and weather damage to products stored at their facilities.
Some other businesses such as Maple Leaf Foods and Morningstar have also suffered shortfalls in earnings. Impossible Foods though did report an 85% growth in retail last year which may be due to their recent expansion in the retail market.
The other issue for all producers of meat analogues is a shortage of raw material such as peas, beans, rice and potatoes. A number of plant-food products are made from these so supply issues have a very marked chilling effect on production and then demand if supply cannot be met.
The own label retailers in the UK all have their own particular ranges. M&S, Sainsburys, Waitrose etc. are all vying for space. To meet the demands of Veganuary, M&S launched 175 vegan foods including a range of meat-free options.
Sausages
Sausages are very popular as meat products. Some of the best use rehydrated pea protein. Birds Eye have meat-free sausages in their ‘Green cuisine’ range which is an accurate term to use. They have gone soy free too. employing pea protein with herbs and spices to create a product as a source of iron and fibre although the latter is not claimed. It’s a product that makes heavy use of pea (63%) along with apple fibre and onion for texture and overall flavour. The additional umami flavour comes from mushroom powder and extract which makes sense as well as sage and other non-descript spices.
Birds Eye want you to oven bake these or grill. The level of cooking is typical for a plant-based food as opposed to one that could be fried. Most consumers find these overly spiced but they stand up well. Unfortunately, the meat lovers argue they lack a fatty texture so there is some work to be done here.
Richmond have their own thick frozen sausages. A relatively new business called Taste & Glory have also produced their own herby flavoured vegan sausages but using rehydrated textured soy protein. It’s not clear if using soy is an issue for them but it must make sense especially as this is combined with wheat protein. This was a Great Taste winner in 2020 so they have some form. Their fibre comes from chicory root (inulin) and the colour is from beetroot and safflower. The idea is to cook from chilled, and under the grill or in the oven. Most reviewers seem positively warm to the product.
The Linda McCartney range still continues years on with a variety of vegan sausages – the chorizo ones using rehydrated soya protein look good. The Plant Kitchen range from Marks & Spencers is also one to watch for.
The ‘No Chorizo Puppies’ from M&Smay not look chorizo-like but they have a strong authentic spice flavour. It look as if the developer here got the combination of red pepper right with the correct level of smoked paprika and roasted garlic to produce that authentic northern Spanish flavour. A number of reviewers across the board think the musky red colour is spot on as is the tomato and spice flavour. What’s missing is the slightly unctuous mouth feel that chorizo needs.
The ingredients? We have mildly spiced mushrooms, soya, red pepper, caramelised onion, smoked paprika, roasted garlic and chilli powder.
All these flavours are well balanced. The texture seemed a little dry but opinion differs as some consumers find the level right. It seems at the moment these are ones that are close to the mark.
Bacon Rashers
Bacon rashers are complex meats to replicate and judging by the reviews you see on line, they are quite polarising. For some the latest offerings are the best ever, but for others, cat treats or flabby strips seem to be all that anyone can praise them for. Why is it so dificult? One of the issues is having a pea or soy protein replacement perform robustly when fried. Will it get crispy? Can it retain the cooked meat flavour that is so important. Frying is a very aggresive food process and clearly most rashers cannot survive effectively.
In the UK plant-based bacon rashers have been about since 2018. Richmond who are famous for sausages and bacon do a vegan version. There offer is the meat-free smoked bacon rasher which uses rehydrated and textured soya and wheat proteins (22% w/w). This one has something that no meat can really claim – a good source of fibre. Interestingly, they use a combination of gums such as carrageenan, guar gum and methylcellulose to get texture along with chicory root fibre which is inulin. The colour is a mix of radish, blackcurrant and apple with added natural smoke flavour.
Views on this product are polarised with some folk thinking its brilliant and others saying its awful. It seems achieving a genuine meat flavour is extremely challenging. For some though they are the best of the bunch.
A recent example is, ‘This Isn’t Bacon’ Plant-Based Rashers have what look like realistic bacon rashers made from soy and pea protein. The product is mainly soy protein concentrate (22%) and soy protein isolate (7%) with pea protein isolate (4%). Colour is contributed by a clever combination of carrot, paprika and radish. Any fat comes from rapeseed oil. Extra starch comes from potato which makes sense as a binding agent.
The rashers are typically high in protein (always a strong but obvious call), high in vitamin B12 and iron. Whilst they have a green light on fat, (saturated too) and sugars, they are high in salt. Unfortunately, bacon is naturally salty in flavour so any mimic must emphasise that salty note if the consumer is to be convinced about the product. The product is best fried like all rashers in the pan for between 3 and 5 minutes or until crispy with a just a teaspoon of oil. That’s an absolute given of the consumer is to be convinced they are eating crispy bacon.
The reviews from the Waitrose site are polarised. Some consumers don’t think these look like rashers at all and more like cat treats which is a real turn-off. Generating a crispy texture can be possible with frying but only if the frying oil content is really low. Too much oil and the rashers are flabby and quite chewy too- not great. . We tried them and they do have a distinctive fishy aroma but this may be due to the flavourings – opinion can be very divided on synthetic smoky flavours as this product is aiming to achieve but it certainly detracts if the developer get s the flavouring wrong.
Haggis
It is Burns night on the 25th January. Having tried a couple of vegan haggis I’m afraid none are worthy of the name! Appalling would be appropriate. The two I’ve tried lack the fatty flavour and frankly they should not be called haggis. I wont name until later next month!
What Influences The Consumer About Meat?
When you look at traditional and conventional meat products, for most consumers taste is the number one attribute. Taste has always been the key attribute that people hone in on when they choose what to eat. It applies equally to both meat analogues as well as traditional meat products. Likewise, consumers are familiar with the appearance of meat and this attribute must be carried over into a meat mimic too. Plenty of product development time is spent attempting to make plant-based analogues such as vegan burgers look like their meat counterpart.
The consumers who are most interested in meat analogue products tend to be skewed to the younger generations. Gen Z consumers are most likely to buy these products, followed by millennials and Gen X. Among those who purchase plant-based meat products, their most common reason is animal welfare and wishing to save the plant’s climate and overall environment.
Plant-Based Meat Analogues Can Meet The Needs Of A Sustainable Healthy Food System
When you consider the manufacture of plant-based meat-like foods it is generally accepted that pound for pound, they require less resources to produce and manufacture and contribute far less to greenhouse gas emissions when compared to the production of red meat coming from animals.
The other major benefit is that food from plants bears a lower risk of foodborne disease and virally transmitted diseases. This is a major issue for animal agriculture and because of the use of antibiotics, continues to exacerbate antimicrobial resistance. I think the jury is still out though on whether the benefits of a plant-based diet means that diet-related disease risks are lessened. There is still plenty of research needed to categorically nail this view.
What really intrigues me about the meat-mimics as a much more sustainable solution than the traditional vegetarian and vegan diet is simply because taste is too important to ignore and drives dietary choice. Taste is still the number one factor in driving our choice of diet irrespective of the dietary benefits. The meat-mimics appear to be getting very close to that perfect sensory perception that characterised meat flavour and texture.
The Rise Of Chronic Diseases
Throughout the world’s health, the diet-related non-communicable diseases are still the number one killer in our population. Cancer and heart disease are probably the greatest threats with diabetes coming in a close third. A good case study in the exploration of chronic disease is what is currently happening on the continent of Africa.
It is thought that in the next ten years, diet-related disease will overtake deaths due to infection including COVID-19. It is sadly the caswe that 15% of th adult population on that continent has diabetes and its increasing. There is 30% of all adults are overweight and with that an alarming rise in high-blood pressure and hypertension. The young are not escaping either: Africa is the home of 25% of the world’s overweight children under five, an extraordinary percentage however it is couched.
When you have challenging public health issues such as these, the whole continent faces a steadily increasing economic burden as the young carry their condition through to adult life. It’s also the situation that poor nourishment means children face limitations in the education system.
New Technology Makes Producing Meat Analogues Much Easier
New technologies are helping to drive the production of meat analogues. In Europe, we have seen the use of 3D bioprinting to make extraordinary products. MeaTech produces cultured steak using this technology and it is ground-breaking. They are well on the way to large-scale production of bio-printed steak.
The Negative Connotations Of Being An Ultra-Processed Food
One factor that is helping with continued support for real meat is that a number of consumers perceive meat as a low-processed food even though cattle are fed a variety of ingredients. A large number of vegan foods are considered by definition as ultra-processed. It’s an issue which appears to be dogging Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat as they try to battle against the ebb and flow of consumer perception about their products containing too many extra ingredients.
According to the definition, over five ingredients at least are used in the production of meat analogues and that is a turn off for consumers concerned about the health issues associated with these type of products. Some of the ingredients have scary names as well – always a turn-off for the consumer. Unless you are well versed in the subject, who knows what leghaemoglobin might be? It sounds like a meat-based blood product. Whatever your views it is apparent that for a product developer, creating a vegan-based food means that it is unlikely the negative connotation of being ‘ultra-processed’ will go away.
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