In 2020, the Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit that advocates for the meat, alcohol, and tobacco industries, took aim at a new target: the plant-based meat industry
its super bowl TV advertisement Children are shown in a spelling bee trying to spell “methylcellulose,” an additive used in some packaged foods, including fake meat burgers. “If you can’t spell or pronounce it, maybe you shouldn’t eat it,” the voiceover says.
American advertising struck a nerve. Amid common criticisms of plant-based meats—that they are expensive, still have an impact on the environment and don’t taste as good as the animal meats they imitate—the industry is concerned that one of the ongoing issues is the perception that these products contain too many additives and are highly processed. processing.
After declining sales, bankruptcies and rapidly disappearing funding, the plant-based meat industry is now on a mission to win back consumers by explaining its manufacturing processes and emphasizing its health benefits.
Ethan Brown, founder and CEO of industry leader Beyond Meat, said that between 2020 and 2022, the proportion of U.S. consumers who think plant-based meat is healthy dropped from 50 to 38.
“As a brand and category, we still have a lot of work to do to educate consumers about the health benefits,” Brown told the Financial Times, adding that the category needed to “unite around a single and impactful message.” Get Up,” focusing on craftsmanship and ingredients.
In August, Beyond Meat launched a campaign with the slogan “There’s beauty here” to showcase the farms where its products are sourced. It is also working with several medical institutions, including the American Cancer Society and Stanford University, to study the health effects of a plant-based diet.
Impossible Foods, Beyond’s biggest competitor, has also stepped up its marketing efforts, creating ads that directly compare the Impossible Burger with meat burgers, promoting the product as being cholesterol-free and low in saturated fat.
Impossible Foods chief executive Peter McGuinness disputed the idea that the company’s products are unhealthy, arguing that Impossible products are a good source of protein, iron and B vitamins and, unlike some animal meat products, do not contain hormones.
“Sixty-five percent of the entire grocery store is processed,” he added.
Plant-based meat makers recreate the texture of meat by combining plant proteins from foods like peas or soybeans, binders like methylcellulose, vegetable oils, nutrients and flavors. They are run through an extruder to produce a mince-like mixture that is then shaped into products such as burgers and chicken nuggets, or further processed to mimic cuts of meat such as bacon or steak.
Like most packaged foods, plant-based meats have been under scrutiny due to a backlash against “ultra-processed” products, following a growing body of scientific research linking them to obesity, cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. subject to stricter scrutiny.
Rabobank analyst JP Frossard said companies now realize that simply copying meat is not enough. “Consumers need to feel that they are making an informed choice for their bodies. They need to strive to not only be the alternative, but the better choice.”
A 2022 consumer survey by The Boston Consulting Group found that 75% of 3,700 respondents across seven countries said a healthier diet was their main motivation for starting eating alternative proteins.
Frossard noted that the plant-based dairy industry has continued to grow since entering the market and convincing consumers that products like oat milk and plant-based cheese are better for them than dairy. Therefore, they can be sold at a premium and consumers will not hesitate at this price.
When the current generation of plant-based meat products entered the market in the late 2010s, the main selling point offered to customers was the environmental benefits of moving away from meat. McGuinness believes this should be a health benefit. “I don’t think enough time, attention and money have been invested in the quality of the product.”
Making products more attractive to health-conscious consumers comes at a difficult time for an industry that initially benefited from the tail end of a stock market boom that followed a period of historically low interest rates. For example, Beyond Meat’s stock price soared after its 2019 IPO, giving the company a market capitalization of nearly $12 billion.
However, investor enthusiasm for the sector has waned as interest rates have risen and sales have stagnated during the cost-of-living crisis. Beyond Meat is currently valued at approximately $560 million.
U.S. retail sales of plant-based meat increased 47% year-over-year in 2020 and continued to grow during the coronavirus pandemic before falling 9% in the first quarter of 2023, according to data provider IRI.
New entrants to the industry have learned from the criticism of established players and are paying more attention to health. New products include brands such as Planted and Heura, each of which uses only four to five ingredients to make chicken nuggets.
Carlotte Lucas, senior corporate engagement manager at plant-based advocacy group Good Food Europe, said more plants will enter as the industry responds to “consumer expectations around taste, price and nutrition” market.
Reducing the number of ingredients allows for what the food industry calls “clean labeling” – products labeled on packaging as trustworthy and natural, without artificial ingredients or ingredients consumers can’t pronounce.
Impossible Meat’s McGuinness said the company is tweaking its recipes to improve taste, texture, flavor and nutritional content, adding that he is prepared to replace ingredients that consumers are concerned about.
“If someone has a problem with something in our product, please change it. I’d rather not spend my money . . . my money trying to explain an ingredient that people are questioning.”
Some players in the alternative protein space are not convinced health concerns are the problem.
“The barrier to plant-based meat is not the level of processing, but the taste and cost,” said Didier Toubia, CEO of Aleph Farms, a company that produces real meat in labs Start-ups. “Burgers are primarily an indulgent food and are not considered healthy. . . . It’s unfair to focus solely on plant-based burgers.”
Despite the bad news and criticism, established players like Impossible believe the industry can return to growth if they continue to improve the taste, price, impact and healthiness of their products.
“You can sit there and be the victim and say, ‘Oh, that’s not fair.’ Or you can do something about it,” McGuinness said.
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