What Does the Future of Food Mean for Your Eating Habits? Plenty. – The Beet

Just twenty years ago, you would have been lucky to walk into a supermarket and find soymilk in its bleak rectangle shelf-stable box. The same was true for a veggie burgerthe underwhelming selection of bean or soy patties didnt offer more than a choice or two, and other than Tofuurkey or Eden Soy, you were basically out of luck.

A lot has changedsince then. Plant-based foods have reached an inflection point, almost like the tech world in the year 2007 which the iPhone first came out and 4G allowed faster loading of data. There is growth in nearly every plant-based category at the market: Meat alternatives, chicken substitutes, sausages made of pea protein, crumbles that masquerade as beef for your pasta sauce or taco filling, tuna from chickpeas and so much more. The pandemic has only accelerated the growth in plant-based foods, as nearly25 percent of all US consumershave embraced plant-based foods on a regular basis,even as they don't define themselves as strictly vegan but are instead moving toward a more plant-based diet with healthier flexitarian habits, better for human health and better for the planet.One of the key reasons for the mass acceleration of plant-based productsespecially plant-based proteinsis the fast-forward innovations coming out of the lab, otherwise known as food technology.

Now innovators are printing meatless steak with 3D printers and companies are creating foods that will never need animals to sustain human tastes and protein needs.Israeli startupRedefine Meatis working to creating a meatless steak using 3D printing, as the meatless food industry is expected to hit $8 billion in sales in the next five years, according to Business Insider. Recreating the texture oflean meat has been the Holy Grail of these new technologies butRedefine Meatis not the only one trying to do it with 3D printing technology asNovameat, based out of Spain, is also experimenting with this approach.The time is ripe for these new food systems to offer consumers healthier, more planet-friendly choices as pandemic-drivenmeat shortagesand COVID-19outbreaks in several large meat processing plants made consumers wary of meat supplies and ever more open to tasting alternatives such as Beyond, Impossible and more.

This emerging sector of plant-based innovation and productionis so significant to the economy that it already represents a multi-billion dollar industry, and in the past year, as traditional dairy companies have foundered and closed, those based in plant-based proteins like Oatly and Miyoko's Creamery, Califia and Blue Diamond have expanded, as more consumers are turning away from the hormone-laden fat-filled planet and animal unfriendly cow's milk and opted for vegan-friendly heart-healthy options like almond milk, or milks made from pea, hemp, cashew, and oatproteins. Meanwhile, the market for non-dairycoffee-creamers is exploding, as is consumer demand for non-dairy butter spreads, hard cheeses, eggs, and especially non-dairy ice creams.

This burgeoning plant-basedindustry category,VegTech (a term I coined in an interview on thePlantbased Business Hour podcast and Facebook Live) shows no signs of slowing down. Vegtech companies are more like technology companies that just happen to create food. At their core, VegTech companies are hyper-focused oninnovating new foods that are not thought of as second-choice substitutes, but as more desirable, healthier replacements for animal-based foods that are known to cause inflammation, a higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, weight gain and other lifestyle diseases. The defining characteristic of VegTech plant-based options is theirability to benearly indistinguishable from animal-based natives, but also better for you, or the planet, or animal welfare. This makes them more desirable to consumers concerned with any or all three.

VegTech companies are often builtsimilarly to software companies, with a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the helm of product development, and a "build fast and break things" approach. They establish locales in tech-hub cities like Seattle, San Francisco, or the Bay Area and they emulate tech-centric product development cycleswhile attracting big-tech money.

They even raid each other's ranks, asChange Foodsjust did, when the US-Australian food tech startup hired away a team of industry veterans;firstCMO Irina Gerry, from Danone and now luring Luis Espinoza, formerly VP of Manufacturing atEat JustInc. as COO. The food wars are underway and the gains will be ours, American consumers looking for new, healthier plant-based choices that are better for us, the planet and animals.

As more traditional food companies enter the VegTech sector (Nestle is doubling down on the development of its plant-based food in the form of meatless offerings from Stouffers and DiGiorno, as are big food makers like Conagra have bought in by purchasing Gardein which has quadrupled in size in the four years leading up to 2019 and growing its footprint tobecome the second-largestmeat-alternative company after MorningStar). Smaller players are attracting mammoth investments, as the plant-based food evolutionand revolutionis rollingfull-steam ahead. VegTech companies are helping usher in a new era of plant-driven foods that appeal to the masses, making your food choices healthier, cheaper, and less damaging to the planet at every new innovation.

For consumers, this food innovation means better tasting products, available in more placesretail, food service, and direct-to-consumerat a price point that will rival, and eventually be lower than, animal-based products. Humans and the planet have a lot to gain from this emerging sector, as we are just beginning to ascertain the potential of what will be one of the most influential industry sectors in modern history.

When you envision VegTech innovation, you might imagine people in lab coats,growing protein in Petri dishesbut at least for now, 3D printing notwithstanding, innovations have been more likely to come from old-fashioned trial and error than Eureka discoveries. Josh Nixon, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Prime Roots, a Bay-area startup focused on innovation in the plant-based protein space, explains that technology often has to do with ingredient innovation, meaning mixing in new elements. Having a goal of where you want to end up,in terms oftaste and texture, and adding newingredients to reach that goal. Prime Roots is using aberry called Koji to create plant-based meat products that are the right color and texture to satisfy traditional tastes. Koji has not been used before to create texture and primary protein, says Nixon. Weve taken this 8,000-year-old Japanese superfood and repurposed it. Nixon says that production looks more like a breweryor a kitchen than a lab, and their innovationlooks more grounded to earth in solving problems this century.

Nugg is another food company with technologists grounded in this century. Founded by tech entrepreneur Ben Pasternak, who brought in Thierry Saint-Denis, former senior director of research and innovation at Danone,as Nuggs CTO, Nugg's keystone product is chicken nuggets. Chances are you've seen their adsin your Instagram feed. As the Tesla of chicken, as the company calls itself, they use advanced soy protein technology that enables a hyper-realistic simulation of the texture and flavor of an animal-based nugget. And currently, they are on version 2.0.

Bay area-based Eclipse ice cream prides itself on a non-dairy option that they claim is indistinguishable from dairyice cream. While our ice cream was created in a kitchen, not a lab, weve discovered a blend of plants and a revolutionary process that allows us to unlock the magic of milk in a plant-based milk, says Eclipse Foods CEO Aylon Steinhart. We are able to create indistinguishable dairy products from plants because we've discovered microscopic structures called micelles that allow dairy milk to turn from liquid (milk) to semi-solid (cream) to solid (cheese). Recreating these micelles in their milk enables them to create a plant-based, non-GMO ice cream doppelganger. Their ice creams are also equivalent to dairy products in terms of protein and calcium, but are allergen-free, and have almost no cholesterol or saturated fat found in conventional dairy.

Another majorplant-based player in the VegTech space isJUST Inc., known for their JUST Egg product that uses mung bean to recreate the protein, texture, and taste of egg without all the heart-clogging cholesterol or the suffering of caged birds. They manipulate the mung beans to make an exact replicaof liquified eggs for scrambling, omelets, and delicious other recipes such as French Toast or vegetablequiches.

And of course, there are household names like Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND), one of the first modern-day VegTech companies, founded in 2009 that has changed the way people think of plant-based meat s (no longer the stuff of tree huggers but of mainstream America, especially when it comes to Dunkin's Beyond sausage sandwich).Beyond uses technology to transform pea protein into meat-like burgers, meatballs, and more. Their constant innovation is leading to better-tasting beef replacements, a better nutritional profile, and lower cost for the consumer.

Impossible Foods is another major player and perhaps best epitomizes a VegTech company, as their CEO Patrick Brown recently said on Mad Money that the meat industry will be obsolete in 15 years. Their innovation comes in the form of heme, amolecule found inbloodthat carries oxygen to the cells, and which gives red blood cells their color. Heme is what also gives Impossible meatits realisticsmell and look (but turns off some vegans). Using a heme-containing protein that is also found in plants, Impossible Foods makes a burger that looks, tastes, and is in many ways so close to the real thing, that most people in a blind taste test would never guess itsmade of vegetables.

Based in Silicon Valley, Impossible Foods looks more like a traditional tech company than a food company;theirlatest products, Impossible Sausage andPork, were introduced a year ago when actual events were still being held, atthe Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2020. CES is the country's largest technologyevent, not a food expo. Impossible continues to pull in investments, raising $1.3 billion since it was founded a decade ago.

Some technology has come under fire for "over claims" that it's healthy, clean or better for the environment. This is especially true ofcellular agriculture (aka cell ag) and some companies tout their proteins as cultured meat or clean meat or lab-grown meat." So far, cell ag is still in its infancy. These companies areaiming to make animal-like foods without the animals.

While heralded as a technology that will revolutionize food and eliminate environmentally-destructive animal agriculture, no cell ag products have reached the market, yet. Questions remain, including the high costs of development, regulatory and health concerns, plus peoples psychological acceptance of lab-created meatless meat. A study from the University of Sydney and Curtin University found that 72 percent of Generation Z (anyone born between 1995 and 2002) would not be interested in eating lab-grown meat, even if it means eliminating the need to slaughter animals. Despite this, big money is being poured into cell ag.

One cell ag company, Memphis Meat, which has attracted high-profile investors like Bill Gates, Richard Branson and giants Cargill and Tyson Foods, has cautioned the industry around releasing a product too soon, stressing the need to make it right, or risk tarnishing the image of the industry for years, according to an interview with MarketWatch. The company has though demonstrated their proof of concept, making cultured chicken nuggets and beef meatballs, as well as duck tissue ini the lab. BlueNalu in San Diego, Calif, has also shownit can make fish meat from fish cells (obtained by swabbing skin tissue). The living cells are isolated and placed into a solution to proliferate. The end product is a fleshysubstance that is biologically identical to meat. The company demo'ed its bluefin tuna fish meat last year.

A question remains as to whether or not cultured-meat is considered vegan by those who eschew animal products; it might depend on how cells are obtained. While no animals are slaughtered to make lab-grown meat or dairy created in large drums in a lab, the cells needed to make the meat product still need to come from animals. The health concerns are still relevant if that meat or dairy contains saturated fat known to increase risk of heart disease.

The bottom line is, we are still a ways away from cellular agriculture-derived foods that are bound to be lining the shelves at the grocery store or being served at your local sushi joint.

Fermentation is a lesser-known, but highly important, pillar of plant-based food innovation. Fermentation uses microbial species to produce or transform a food product or ingredient. Fermentation can be harnessed in a lab to produce cultivated meat, eggs, and dairy, or as a primary protein source.

Fermentation technology is already delivering next-gen sustainable and efficiently-produced plant-based meat and dairy products with more on the way. Fermentation companies raised 435 million in 2020, according to the Good Food Institute, which was about one-third of whatplant-based meat, egg, and dairy companiesbrought in.

The fermentation industrysdarling is now non-animaldairy company Perfect Day, which raised $300 million in a Series C. Perfect Day uses microflora (a microorganism such as bacteria, yeast, or in their case, fungi) to make proteins based on starter cells from animal proteins. They use fermentation tanks to grow floraand develop milk proteins that serve as the basis of their dairy products like ice cream and cheese. We use fermentation to make the foods people love while delivering the same taste, texture, and nutrition as conventional dairy without the environmental, food safety, or welfare concerns, says Perfect Day CEO and Co-founder Ryan Pandya. But thats just the start. By working with food and dairy companies to bring a new category of animal-free products to market, were building a next-generation supply chain to provide more nutritious, scalable options globally.

Fermentation shows promise for the potential of greater scale, at a lower cost, with improved efficiency, and enhanced sustainability, the company argues. The opportunity landscape for technology development is completely untapped in this area, says Good Food Institute (GFI) Associate Director of Science and Technology Dr. Liz Specht. Many alternative protein products of the future will harness the plethora of protein production methods now available, with the option of leveraging combinations of proteins derived from plants, animal cell culture, and microbial fermentation.

What the current product-in-market VegTech companies have done welland continue to improve onis tackling the three factors critical to ushering in plant-based food adoption: Availability, price, and taste. As these companies scale, availability will continue to increase, the prices will continue to go down and taste will continue to get better. The question remains, however: Are plant-based meats better for you than the real thing? Dr. Kim Williams,Head of the Cardiology Department at Rush Medical Center in Chicago, and Past President of the American College of Cardiology weighs in with a warning about sodium content, saturated fat, and overall habit-forming patterns. Essentially, he nets out that they are great "gateway" foods that work to convince consumers that they can live without relying on a diet of meat and dairy, but ultimately a whole-food plant-basedapproach, free of all oils and additives, is still best when considering your health.

See the original post:
What Does the Future of Food Mean for Your Eating Habits? Plenty. - The Beet