Plant-based eggs, bacon, and everything inbetween… check out our gallery of plant-based brands and innovations to watch in 2021, from NotCo and Black Sheep Foods to Gold & Green. There are of course SCORES of exciting brands not covered here; this gallery just highlights some of the players we’ve covered this year.
A new player in the burgeoning plant-based meat space founded by former execs at cell-cultured seafood startup Finless Foods, Black Sheep Foods is looking to carve out a distinct position in the market with pea-protein-based lamb burgers and other products utilizing branched chain fatty acids (that could in future be produced via microbial fermentation) for flavor. Watch out for more news in January.
Two brands to watch in 2021 are Wicked Foods – which will make its US debut in mid-2021 after a successful launch with Wicked Kitchen at Tesco in the UK; and Strong Roots, which launched in Ireland, found success in the UK, and recently rolled out in 2,000+ Walmart stores in the US with spinach bites, root veggie fries and cauliflower hash browns.
Oats, rapidly emerging as star players in the plant-based milk category, have not made any real impact in meat alternatives … until now: "We want oats to be the #1 ingredient [in plant-based meat],” says Maija Itkonen, co-founder at Finnish startup Gold & Green, which has developed a proprietary mechanical manufacturing process enabling it to create fibrous plant-based meat products with oats as the primary ingredient – an industry first.
"Our Pulled Oats only have five ingredients [oats, pea protein, faba bean protein, rapeseed oil, salt] and no methyl cellulose, additives, binders or fillers.”
Pulled Oats launched in Helsinki, Finland, in 2015, where they were an instant hit. Moves into the retail market in The Netherlands came next, followed by foodservice launches in multiple European countries. A move into the US market via a partnership with Sysco (via its Cutting Edge Solutions program) came this year, with a US retail launch planned further down the line, says Itkonen. “We’re also developing our industrial portfolio [to sell ingredients to CPG companies].”
Founded in 2017 with a mission to reverse engineer popular animal-based foods (milk, mayo, ice cream, burgers) and rebuild them with plant-based ingredients, Santiago-based NotCo recently made its US debut in 450 Whole Foods stores with NotMilk, a pea-based milk containing 4g protein and 3g fiber.
NotCo – which recently closed an $85m Series C funding round - utilizes AI and machine learning to inform recipe generation and processing decisions, says co-founder and CEO Matias Muchnick.
Its pea-protein-based NotBurger, for example, contains spinach and cacao; while NotMilk features pineapple and cabbage, two ingredients you wouldn’t expect to see in a plant-based milk, which NotCo’s tech platform identified as a combination that would generate lactones, aroma compounds found in dairy products, which "make our brains understand that this is milk," he says.
While trial and error in the kitchen could have determined that this combination of fruits and veggies might work well, a computer algorithm determined this in seconds, he points out.
Retail buyers have plenty of almond, coconut, and oat ice creams to choose from, but “nothing that actually tastes like dairy ice cream,” claims Berkeley-based Eclipse Foods co-founder Aylon Steinhart. “We wanted to make products that are really similar, if not indistinguishable from their animal counterparts, which is the way to unlock the mainstream market.”
Eclipse - which closed a $12m Series A funding round earlier this year - started with ice cream, but has a broad range of products in the pipeline including milk and cheese.
Burger King was a little earlier to the party, teaming up with Impossible Foods to launch the Impossible Whopper nationwide in 2019, but McDonald’s is planning to make a splash in 2021 with the McPlant, ‘a delicious plant-based burger crafted for McDonald’s, by McDonald’s’ (‘co-created' with Beyond Meat).
In a Nov 9 blog post, McDonald’s explained: “Markets can adopt the McPlant when they’re ready and we expect some to test the burger next year."
San Francisco-based Hooray Foods – which launched its allergy-friendly vegan bacon (no soy or wheat) in restaurants late last year – made its retail debut last month with a roll out to seven regions of Whole Foods Market.
While most plant-based bacon utilizes vital wheat gluten or soy protein as a base, Hooray uses coconut oil, rice flour, tapioca starch and seasonings to create a product that looks and tastes distinct in the market, claims founder Sri Artham, who came up with his own recipes after watching Youtube University videos, signing up for a course on making plant-based meat from the Good Food Institute, and a lot of trial and error.
Daring Foods – which is seeking to punch above its weight in the plant-based chicken category via a lower calorie product with a shorter, cleaner, ingredients list and bold branding – uses soy protein concentrate, sunflower oil, and seasonings, with no methyl cellulose, wheat gluten, carrageenan, gums, or starches.
With most retail chains now stocking a wide selection of plant-based burgers, sausages, and grounds, retailers and investors are looking for areas of untapped opportunity in the plant-based meat space, says Berkeley-based startup Renegade Food, which makes vegan charcuterie.
While Renegade Food spells out on the front of the pack that the products are ‘made entirely from plants,’ the packaging and branding emphasize the products’ gourmet credentials and flavor profiles, and target anyone looking for premium charcuterie products, rather than narrowly focusing on vegans and vegetarians.
Beef and pork are just the beginning, says Impossible Foods, which is "working on all major categories of animal-derived foods, including steak and milk, fish, chicken and eggs.” It hasn’t released a launch timetable for 2021, but founder Dr Pat Brown gave reporters a virtual glimpse of its new plant-based milk during a recent webinar.
The mission, he says, is to “create foods that outperform, don’t just match, today’s animal-derived products in every way that matters to consumers: deliciousness, nutritional value, convenience, affordability and sustainability.”
Rival Beyond Meat, meanwhile, will gradually replace its flagship plant-based Beyond Burger in 2021 with two new variations: a “juicier and meatier” burger featuring 35% less saturated fat than 80/20 beef burgers, and its “most nutritious patty yet,” featuring 55% less saturated fat.
Details are sketchy, but it is also collaborating with McDonald’s on the QSR giant’s new McPlant range.
The LIVEKINDLY Collective – which recently raised a cool $135m to support its global ambitions in the plant-based arena – is gearing up for the US launch of several portfolio brands (The Fry Family Food Co., LikeMeat, Oumph!) that have already proved themselves in Europe, Africa, and Australia, but will also develop new products, including plant-based chicken and eggs.
Egg replacers utilizing starches have been used by food companies for years, but a new generation of products deploying plant-based proteins are riding on the plant-based wave and targeting consumers as well as food manufacturers and foodservice companies. Two key players to watch include San Francisco-based Eat Just, which is mulling an IPO at the end of 2021, and Israel-based Zero Egg, which is hoping to crack the US market.
‘Big Meat’ firms – which now like to describe themselves as ‘protein’ specialists - are investing heavily in plant-based alternatives: JBS has created a standalone business dedicated to this market (Planterra Foods); Smithfield has developed the Pure Farmland range; Tyson Foods is expanding its Raised & Rooted brand; Cargill is investing in plant-based proteins and its own plant-based meat products; Hormel has unveiled Happy Little Plants, and Conagra Brands continues to invest in its Gardein brand.
Perdue Farms is also exploring the space after dipping its toes in the water with its Chicken Plus nuggets, tenders and patties, hybrid products featuring a 50:50 blend of chicken and plant-material (the latter supplied from The Better Meat Co).
Several leading retailers are investing heavily in private label plant-based meat and dairy products, including Walmart (Great Value), Kroger (Simple Truth), Albertsons (O Organics), Target (Good & Gather), Whole Foods (365), Ahold (Nature’s Promise), and Wegmans.
There are several exciting players in the small but growing plant-based seafood space. One to watch this coming year is Good Catch, which has global ambitions.
Earlier in the year, it raised $36.8m in a Series B,which enabled it to open a production facility in Ohio and has since entered into a joint distribution agreement with Bumble Bee Foods, making its products available on a wider scale. It has also expanded into Canada and attracted celebrity backing from the likes of Woody Harrelson, Shailene Woodley, Paris Hilton and Lance Bass.
Now it has set its sights on the European market in what has been described as its ‘largest retail expansion since the brand’s inception’.
On the ingredients front, chickpea protein is gaining traction. Two players to watch are Nutriati and InnovoPro, which have both developed highly functional chickpea protein concentrates that can be used in a wide variety of products from plant-based eggs, dairy and meat products to functional beverages and healthy snacks.
Canola protein is also one to watch. Two players to highlight here are DSM, which has teamed up with Avril Group to launch commercial quantities of CanolaPRO canola protein isolate in early 2022; and Merit Functional Foods, which has teamed up with Burcon NutraScience to develop canola and pea proteins, secured backing from Bunge, and struck a deal with Nestle.
