disclaimer: this isn't what playahaitian posted
If you turn off Highway 1 at just the right spot in Moss Landing, California, past fruit stands, roadside cafes and artichoke farms, you may catch a sudden whiff of bacon. It's surprising, because this exit leads to the headquarters of the vegetarian meal company Sweet Earth, where bacon — at least the kind made from pigs — is absolutely not on the menu.
Monterey County, where Moss Landing is situated, is the perfect place for a vegetarian business. Home of the Salinas Valley, the so-called "salad bowl of the world," it's one of the most productive agricultural areas on the planet, growing more than 150 crops including lettuce — lots of lettuce. It's been Sweet Earth's home for years, well before Nestlé acquired the then 350-person company in 2017. But these days, it's turning into something else — Nestlé's Plant-Based Protein Center of Excellence, the beating heart of the massive food company's recent foray into fake meat.
At the Moss Landing facility, where factory workers crank out the wheat-gluten-based Benevolent Bacon responsible for the scent, changes are afoot. Nestlé is spending more than $5 million to renovate the facility, adding new equipment, more freezer capacity, "meat" smokers and more. Construction is underway, and soon employees will start making a slew of new products, including the Awesome Burger, Nestlé's answer to the Impossible and Beyond Meat burgers.
Sweet Earth is located in Monterey County, California, home of the "salad bowl of the world."
Sweet Earth is located in Monterey County, California, home of the "salad bowl of the world."
The product, currently rolling out to retailers including Fred Meyer, Hy-Vee, Ralphs, Safeway, Stop & Shop and others, is hardly a breakthrough. Like Impossible and Beyond's version, the plant-based burger is designed to cook, look and taste like real meat. And like Impossible and Beyond Meat's products, a bite of the Awesome Burger patty, when topped with condiments, lettuce, tomato and onions and served in a moist bun, is a satisfying approximation of a real beef burger.
But the Awesome Burger is a big deal because it marks a turning point for fake meat.
Impossible Foods has been around since 2011, Beyond Meat since 2009. The buzzy startups have been growing rapidly, with orders pouring in from Burger King, Dunkin', Subway and Sodexo, which counts university and corporate cafeterias among its customers.
Like many young companies, Beyond and Impossible have struggled, as well. Impossible faced shortages, reassigning employees from its corporate office to its refrigerated warehouse to help meet demand (the shortages, it says, are over). Beyond had a wildly successful IPO and has since held a secondary offering, but its losses remain steep, and experts fear the inflated stock price may be a sign of a bubble. Impossible is private and doesn't disclose financial information.
The Awesome Burger is designed to look, cook and taste like real meat.
The Awesome Burger is designed to look, cook and taste like real meat.
Nestlé, on the other hand, is the largest food company in the world, according to Forbes. It has about 140 years on Beyond and Impossible. Its breathtaking scale dwarfs Impossible and Beyond: The Swiss company employs 308,000 people, rakes in tens of billions of dollars in annual sales, has offices in countries around the world and owns a wide variety of well-established brands, including Dreyer's and Häagen-Dazs ice cream, Toll House chocolate chips and cookie dough, Gerber baby food, DiGiorno frozen pizza, Lean Cuisine, Stouffer's and more. Sweet Earth has already benefited from that scale: While under Nestlé's umbrella, it has rolled out frozen pizzas, empanadas and new entrees.
Nestlé is a master of supply chains and a profit machine, unlike its younger competitors.
Its relationships and its broad product platform mean that Nestlé can ensure the Awesome Burger will, in some form or another, be everywhere — in restaurants, on grocery shelves and incorporated into frozen meals. Nestlé is already partnering with McDonald's on vegan patties in Europe — if that relationship extends to the United States, the Awesome Burger could be in the biggest burger chain in America. McDonald's, for its part, has said that it is still deciding whether to serve a meatless (but meatlike) burger in the United States. And through Sweet Earth, Nestlé is also launching a line of plant-based deli meats, including turkey, ham, salami and sausage, this spring. The products will be sold in a dedicated, branded deli counter as well as on shelves.
Tucker Bunch, culinary innovation and development chef at Sweet Earth, prepares food in the office's test kitchen.
Tucker Bunch, culinary innovation and development chef at Sweet Earth, prepares food in the office's test kitchen.
Nestlé is not the only major food company angling for a piece of the plant-based pie. Kellogg plans to launch a line of meat substitutes called Incogmeato under its Morningstar Farms brand next year. Kroger is introducing its own plant-based products, from burger patties to Bolognese sauce to sour cream, this fall. Hormel Foods, maker of Skippy, Spam and AppleGate, has also introduced a line of plant-based and blended products, as has Tyson, one of the world's biggest meat, pork and poultry processors.
Big Food launching plant-based products is "literally the best thing that could happen for the sector," said Bruce Friedrich, executive director of the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that supports plant-based businesses. "When the biggest food and meat companies in the world are launching plant-based meat products, that will do more to mainstream plant-based meats and to make the pie significantly bigger than probably anything else."
By partnering with fast-food companies and selling in retail, Impossible and Beyond are making plant-based foods available to many consumers. But "there's a difference between 'able to get' and mainstream," Friedrich added. "It's about omnipresence."
When the biggest food and meat companies in the world are launching plant-based meat products, that will do more to mainstream plant-based meats and to make the pie significantly bigger than probably anything else.
Once all the new products hit shelves, consumers will be able to take their pick — they'll make choices based on ingredients, taste, nutritional profile and packaging. If the trend develops, it'll give Big Food a chance to compete in a new and lucrative space. But if plant-based meat proves to be a fad and phases out, it could mean the loss of millions of dollars for big companies who made a bad bet.
But Nestlé thinks plant-based protein is here to stay. And it's banking on Sweet Earth to put it at the front of the pack.
The Awesome Burger in all its glory.
How vegetables became sexy
It may seem like the plant-based trend came out of nowhere, but vegetarian products have been around for decades.
Veggie burgers started hitting grocery shelves about 30 years ago. Gardenburger, which makes burgers primarily out of vegetables and grains, was founded in 1985. Slowly, the market expanded. Dr. Praeger's, which also makes veggie burgers, launched in 1992. Tofurky debuted its holiday roast in 1995.
It took about another 15 years for mainstream eaters to start paying attention.
Several factors led to popular interest in plant-based foods, noted Kara Nielsen, vice president of trends and marketing for CCD Innovation, a food and beverage innovation consultancy. "When we look back and look [at] what were the steps that preceded this, there were quite a few. Including vegetables becoming really sexy and interesting," Nielsen said.
CONTINUED:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/24/business/nestle-awesome-burger-plant-based-meat/index.html
If you turn off Highway 1 at just the right spot in Moss Landing, California, past fruit stands, roadside cafes and artichoke farms, you may catch a sudden whiff of bacon. It's surprising, because this exit leads to the headquarters of the vegetarian meal company Sweet Earth, where bacon — at least the kind made from pigs — is absolutely not on the menu.
Monterey County, where Moss Landing is situated, is the perfect place for a vegetarian business. Home of the Salinas Valley, the so-called "salad bowl of the world," it's one of the most productive agricultural areas on the planet, growing more than 150 crops including lettuce — lots of lettuce. It's been Sweet Earth's home for years, well before Nestlé acquired the then 350-person company in 2017. But these days, it's turning into something else — Nestlé's Plant-Based Protein Center of Excellence, the beating heart of the massive food company's recent foray into fake meat.
At the Moss Landing facility, where factory workers crank out the wheat-gluten-based Benevolent Bacon responsible for the scent, changes are afoot. Nestlé is spending more than $5 million to renovate the facility, adding new equipment, more freezer capacity, "meat" smokers and more. Construction is underway, and soon employees will start making a slew of new products, including the Awesome Burger, Nestlé's answer to the Impossible and Beyond Meat burgers.
Sweet Earth is located in Monterey County, California, home of the "salad bowl of the world."
Sweet Earth is located in Monterey County, California, home of the "salad bowl of the world."
The product, currently rolling out to retailers including Fred Meyer, Hy-Vee, Ralphs, Safeway, Stop & Shop and others, is hardly a breakthrough. Like Impossible and Beyond's version, the plant-based burger is designed to cook, look and taste like real meat. And like Impossible and Beyond Meat's products, a bite of the Awesome Burger patty, when topped with condiments, lettuce, tomato and onions and served in a moist bun, is a satisfying approximation of a real beef burger.
But the Awesome Burger is a big deal because it marks a turning point for fake meat.
Impossible Foods has been around since 2011, Beyond Meat since 2009. The buzzy startups have been growing rapidly, with orders pouring in from Burger King, Dunkin', Subway and Sodexo, which counts university and corporate cafeterias among its customers.
Like many young companies, Beyond and Impossible have struggled, as well. Impossible faced shortages, reassigning employees from its corporate office to its refrigerated warehouse to help meet demand (the shortages, it says, are over). Beyond had a wildly successful IPO and has since held a secondary offering, but its losses remain steep, and experts fear the inflated stock price may be a sign of a bubble. Impossible is private and doesn't disclose financial information.
The Awesome Burger is designed to look, cook and taste like real meat.
The Awesome Burger is designed to look, cook and taste like real meat.
Nestlé, on the other hand, is the largest food company in the world, according to Forbes. It has about 140 years on Beyond and Impossible. Its breathtaking scale dwarfs Impossible and Beyond: The Swiss company employs 308,000 people, rakes in tens of billions of dollars in annual sales, has offices in countries around the world and owns a wide variety of well-established brands, including Dreyer's and Häagen-Dazs ice cream, Toll House chocolate chips and cookie dough, Gerber baby food, DiGiorno frozen pizza, Lean Cuisine, Stouffer's and more. Sweet Earth has already benefited from that scale: While under Nestlé's umbrella, it has rolled out frozen pizzas, empanadas and new entrees.
Nestlé is a master of supply chains and a profit machine, unlike its younger competitors.
Its relationships and its broad product platform mean that Nestlé can ensure the Awesome Burger will, in some form or another, be everywhere — in restaurants, on grocery shelves and incorporated into frozen meals. Nestlé is already partnering with McDonald's on vegan patties in Europe — if that relationship extends to the United States, the Awesome Burger could be in the biggest burger chain in America. McDonald's, for its part, has said that it is still deciding whether to serve a meatless (but meatlike) burger in the United States. And through Sweet Earth, Nestlé is also launching a line of plant-based deli meats, including turkey, ham, salami and sausage, this spring. The products will be sold in a dedicated, branded deli counter as well as on shelves.
Tucker Bunch, culinary innovation and development chef at Sweet Earth, prepares food in the office's test kitchen.
Tucker Bunch, culinary innovation and development chef at Sweet Earth, prepares food in the office's test kitchen.
Nestlé is not the only major food company angling for a piece of the plant-based pie. Kellogg plans to launch a line of meat substitutes called Incogmeato under its Morningstar Farms brand next year. Kroger is introducing its own plant-based products, from burger patties to Bolognese sauce to sour cream, this fall. Hormel Foods, maker of Skippy, Spam and AppleGate, has also introduced a line of plant-based and blended products, as has Tyson, one of the world's biggest meat, pork and poultry processors.
Big Food launching plant-based products is "literally the best thing that could happen for the sector," said Bruce Friedrich, executive director of the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that supports plant-based businesses. "When the biggest food and meat companies in the world are launching plant-based meat products, that will do more to mainstream plant-based meats and to make the pie significantly bigger than probably anything else."
By partnering with fast-food companies and selling in retail, Impossible and Beyond are making plant-based foods available to many consumers. But "there's a difference between 'able to get' and mainstream," Friedrich added. "It's about omnipresence."
When the biggest food and meat companies in the world are launching plant-based meat products, that will do more to mainstream plant-based meats and to make the pie significantly bigger than probably anything else.
Once all the new products hit shelves, consumers will be able to take their pick — they'll make choices based on ingredients, taste, nutritional profile and packaging. If the trend develops, it'll give Big Food a chance to compete in a new and lucrative space. But if plant-based meat proves to be a fad and phases out, it could mean the loss of millions of dollars for big companies who made a bad bet.
But Nestlé thinks plant-based protein is here to stay. And it's banking on Sweet Earth to put it at the front of the pack.
The Awesome Burger in all its glory.
How vegetables became sexy
It may seem like the plant-based trend came out of nowhere, but vegetarian products have been around for decades.
Veggie burgers started hitting grocery shelves about 30 years ago. Gardenburger, which makes burgers primarily out of vegetables and grains, was founded in 1985. Slowly, the market expanded. Dr. Praeger's, which also makes veggie burgers, launched in 1992. Tofurky debuted its holiday roast in 1995.
It took about another 15 years for mainstream eaters to start paying attention.
Several factors led to popular interest in plant-based foods, noted Kara Nielsen, vice president of trends and marketing for CCD Innovation, a food and beverage innovation consultancy. "When we look back and look [at] what were the steps that preceded this, there were quite a few. Including vegetables becoming really sexy and interesting," Nielsen said.
CONTINUED:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/24/business/nestle-awesome-burger-plant-based-meat/index.html
