Food & Climate
Plant-based meat market size now worth $ 8 billion, while animal meat market is $ 1.4 trillion. Although the huge deference between them, everyone uses the climate change as weapon to fight other. Is this war for profits or to protect human food?
Impossible food’s CEO Peter McGuinness believes that plant-based players need to drastically pivot their marketing strategy to compete with the deep pockets of the traditional meat industry, according to a report seen by “food & Climate” platform.
“I want to go to the idea that plant-based food is critical to the climate crisis. It certainly is, but how important is that to your business, to your customers, to your investors. Or is it more like an internal issue for your team, for you personally? The ultimate mission is to reverse climate change. How you go about that can be debated and discussed?” he said to “Fast company”.
Now, the problem is people don’t equate it, so i would love the government to assist in availability, awareness, and also incentives without making it political.
Government help
“It would be nice if the government looked at this thing in a very intuitive way. Food’s the most important thing. It’s the largest industry in the world. It’s the one thing we have to do. You can live without a car. You can’t live without eating. So, it’s pretty mind-boggling that this was completely omitted and missed. But we didn’t lobby hard enough. So, we’re to blame as well”, Impossible Foods’s CEO Peter McGuinness said.
The more plant-based meat that’s consumed, the less water is used, the less land is cleared, and the less GHG [greenhouse gas] is emitted, he added. We are trying to change eating habits that have developed over hundreds and thousands of years. It just doesn’t happen overnight.
But according to recent research hub EIT Food Consumer Observatory, which surveyed nearly 10000 people across 17 European countries, 54% say they’re deterred from adding products like plant-based burgers, sausages and mince to supermarket trollies amid concerns they could be classed as (UPFs).
Though the same proportion (55%) admit to eating UPFs regularly, 65% connect with them poor health outcomes and 60% say they’re bad for the environment.
It’s left brands and manufacturers in the plant- based meats category – many of which are already struggling to grow penetration – battling to change perceptions, according to “Food Navigator”.
Though there is no single agreed definition the Nova system of classification categories UPFs as products that use many ingredients, such as additives hydrogenated fats and modified starches that are rarely used in home cooking.
The NOVA Food Classification system was designed by Center for Epidemiological Studies in Health and Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, according its website.
Poor health
Research has linked them with a range of poor health outcomes, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer.
“Although more research is needed to determine whether these foods are bad for your health, many of these meat – free products such as sausages, nuggets and burgers are bulked with food additives and preservatives that label them UPFs, says nutritionist Emma Scott.
And according to research published in June by the University of Sao Paulo and Imperial college London, while plant-based diets overall are linked with reduced disease risk, eating these plant-based UPFs could undermine this, creating 7% increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
Already some leading plant-based brands have taken steps to address concerns around UPFs in plant-based meats.
US supplier Beyond Meat which has scaled down operations amid ongoing sales declines, continues to expand its fourth generation or (IV) product line.
The reformulated products use avocado oil rather than canola and coconut, to reduce saturated fat content by 66%, contain 20% less sodium and contain more nutrient dense ingredients like red lentils and Fava beans. The brand has said it is no longer trying to mini the taste and texture of real meat with the redeveloed range.
Despite of that, Beyond Meat, once the darling of the plant-based boom and the first one of its cohort to go public, in 2019, has become a cautionary tale about the tough road ahead for similar companies.
Beyond Meat announced mixed results for the second quarter of 2024. Revenue was down 8.8 percent, and sales volumes declined by 14 percent compared to the second quarter of 2023, but the margin the company made on each of its products was up, according to “wired”.
“We are encouraged by many of the results we see this quarter, results that demonstrate clear progress against our 2024 plan and our longer-term goal of profitable operations,” Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown told investors in an earnings call Wednesday.