Page 15 - Food&Drink July 2019

All aboard the plant-based trend
The plant-based foods trend is an opportunity for every type of business. And it is a great example of how product development skills can create new markets. Julian Mellentin writes.
5
Plants replacing refined
carbs – plants on the plate
people to get more vegetables. This includes snack forms such as pickles.
Of these five strategies, we believe that the first has the highest risk of failure, thanks to its disconnect from consumer preferences. For most food companies, the other four offer much better opportunities for building a profitable business.
Plant-based meat substitutes such as the Beyond Burger will get intense attention over the
healthy, plant-based choices and ideally vegetables. They have proved that they are open to a wide array of possibilities. The meat substitutes will be competing with all of these, not only with meat.
only a fraction of the latter’s resources – because the cauliflower pizza aligns closely with consumer preferences and the meat substitute does not.
Even burgers blended with vegetables are more in line with what most people want than products like Beyond Meat. And that is why Tyson, one of America’s biggest meat processors, has joined the ranks of companies introducing burgers and sausages that combine meat with beetroot and other vegetables or mushrooms.
Plant-based products that have short, ‘natural’ and ‘least-processed’ ingredient lists align with what the health- consciousconsumerwants. ✷
✷ ABOUTTHEAUTHOR
$45M Youcanseewhereconsumer preferences lie by comparing
ON TREND
PEOPLE want to eat more plants – and they are open to trying plants in forms that were not available 10 years ago.
What has brought the trend to life and is driving its growth is creative product development by food companies, by retailers and vegetable growers, whose efforts to make vegetables more convenient have passed a tipping point.
Some of these new product development (NPD) efforts are quite sophisticated but many more are simple, retaining the natural identity of plants, with few ingredients. And the fact is, naturalness and simplicity are what align best with consumer needs.
Millennials in particular are motivated by ultra-convenient vegetables. The rising interest in low-carb eating patterns (for weight loss) is also increasing consumer interest in ‘more vegetables’ – and is already more important than veganism.
Not only that, but we are all food explorers now: people are looking for more novel and exciting ingredients and tastes, and NPD makes it far easier to choose plant-based meals that tick these boxes.
Putting aside plant-based beverages and dairy, if you are thinking about a plant-based foods strategy for your business you basically have five options:
1Plant-based meat alternatives – extruded, processed plant proteins (normally soy, pea, wheat) that are designed to mimic meats;
2Plants blended with meat – such as beef and beetroot burgers and sausages;
3Plants blended with ‘good carbs’ – such as bread with some vegetable content, or chips that combine broccoli and potato;
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in place of pasta or potato; and Plants remade as heroes –
primarily about enabling
FROM A $5 MILLION INVESTMENT, CAULIPOWER MADE $45 MILLION IN SALES IN ITS FIRST YEAR.
next five years. A number of high-profile and vocal businesses backed by Silicon Valley tech investors, looking for the next billion dollar “unicorn” believe they can transform the meat substitutes sector.
But most people do not want meat substitutes, which many will see as ‘too processed’ and failing the test of naturalness and few ingredients. They want
the first-year sales performance in the US market of Beyond Meat – which sells burgers based on pea protein and 22 ingredients in total – with that of Cauilpower, a maker of simple pizza bases based on the humble cauliflower.
Beyond Meat is backed by $270 million of Silicon Valley investment and massive publicity. Its first year retail sales in grocery stores were $50 million, according to the company’s accounts.
Caulipower is an entrepreneurial start-up with only $5 million in investment. It achieved first year sales of $45 million.
Caulipower’s first year sales are almost equal to those of Beyond Meat – despite having
Julian Mellentin is the founder of food consultancy New Nutrition Business. He advises on key trends
in foods, beverages,
nutrition and health, specialising in naturally healthy food and formulated functional foods.
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