Industry focus points Spotlight on plant-meat blends: A mixed success? With consumer surveys showing that plant-based sales are being driven primarily by flexitarian eaters, product marketers have identified hybrid meat and plant blends as potential successes. These products have the advantage of living up to meat-reducers’ sensory expectations while answering their health and environmental concerns. US meat processor Perdue Farms makes Chicken Plus – chicken nuggets with added cauliflower and plant protein – and markets the product as an easy way to get children to eat vegetables. Hormel introduced a blended burger under its Applegate brand while meat giant Tyson launched The Blend, a burger made with Angus beef and pea protein isolate. However, Tyson recently announced plans to discontinue The Blend and remove egg white from the entire Raised & Rooted range to make it vegan, suggesting hybrids may not be as lucrative as thought.51 Product developers should conduct extensive market research on their target consumer before launching meatplant bends.
How fermentation will change the plant-based category There are three types of fermentation processes, all of which are of great interest to plant-based players: traditional, biomass, and precision.52
Traditional fermentation This involves using live microorganisms to process ingredients, resulting in a final product with a different flavour, texture, and nutritional profile. A classic example of traditional fermentation is using lactic acid bacteria to ferment milk to make cheese and yoghurt. Traditional fermentation can also be used to make plant-based proteins. Tempeh is an Indonesian food made by fermenting soy with the Rhizopus fungus. UK company Better Nature makes several tempeh varieties including with fermented lupin while Brazilian start-up Mun makes chickpea, black-eyed peas, and red quinoa tempeh. Another company harnessing traditional fermentation techniques for meat alternatives is US company Prime Roots, which uses Aspergillus oryzae, also known as Japanese koji.
Biomass fermentation Many fungal, bacterial, and algal species have a high protein content of over 50% by dry weight and can be produced using inexpensive and prolific feedstocks.53 In biomass fermentation, the biomass itself is the ingredient. These cells can be kept intact or minimally processed. In some cases, breaking down the cells to create a flour may improve digestibility. Examples include Quorn, Atlast Foods, Meati, and Nature’s Fynd, which cultivates highprotein ‘extremophile’ organisms from Yellowstone National Park using a liquid-air fermentation interface.54
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