It's not the best time to be promoting highly processed foods as healthy and delicious, but that's what two major plant-based meat producers are trying to do.
Beyond Meat wants to convince people that vegan versions of meat products are good for you. Rival Impossible Foods, which recently changed its packaging colors from green to blood red, is also better at attracting carnivores.
Last year, Beyond Meat reformulated some of its products to cut saturated fat and sodium and simplify its ingredient list. Impossible Foods created a “health hub” and rebranded to emphasize delicious meatiness. Both companies' products are considered healthy by the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association.
It's all part of an effort to reverse declining sales of plant-based meat at a time when processed foods with long ingredient lists are under increasing scrutiny. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, ordered to take strict measures against ultra-processed foods, new research has shown a link between ultra-processed foods and adverse health effects, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the processed foods President-elect Donald J. Trump chose as health secretary.
According to a number of experts, plant-based meat is highly processed, but not necessarily harmful. The products generally have less saturated fat, no cholesterol, and more fiber, and zero hormones or antibiotics than animal meat.
Moment analysis According to dozens of studies published last year in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, plant-based alternatives to meat “generally range from about neutral to beneficial,” said British Columbia naturopathic doctor Matthew Nagra. review.
Studies have found no evidence that some “associated aspects” of plant-based meat, such as food processing and high sodium, outweigh the potential cardiovascular benefits of eating it instead of animal meat, he said.
Health and nutrition concerns are among the main reasons people seek out plant-based meats, and Meats and Impossible Foods wants to move away from, or at least add nuance to, the over-processed label. Beyond Meat founder and CEO Ethan Brown said the company's method of extracting protein from legumes and turning them into meat-like products simply uses animals as intermediaries.
“It's a beautiful process that comes directly from the soil and the farm in a way that a CAFO or factory-raised animal doesn't,” he said, using the acronym for concentrated animal feeding operations.
If plant-based meats are to be classified as processed food, the argument is that they are more like canned beans than Twinkies and are far from processed meats, a category that includes hot dogs, bacon and deli meats. World Health Organization classified as carcinogenic to humans.
“Processed, if you really want to look at it nutritionally, means high artificiality and very little nutritional value,” said Peter McGuinness, chief executive of Impossible Foods.
“We are a nutrient dense crop,” he said. “This is not the traditional definition of processing.”
Whether more consumers will be swayed remains to be seen. In recent years, the plant-based food sector has sunk.
Five years ago, protein alternatives were poised to take over red meat by offering an option that was healthier, more ethical and better for the climate. The market has since shrunk and the sector has been overshadowed by the Beyond Meat saga. Since the company went public in a blaze of glory in 2019, its stock price has fallen from $234 to less than $4 a share, and the company has more than a billion dollars in debt.
Mr Brown blamed attacks from the meat and livestock antibiotic industry and criticism from whole food purveyors. Plant-based meats were also increasingly seen as “woke,” with a series of prominent ads attributed to Richard Berman, a former tobacco lobbyist and public relations strategist, characterizing the products as chemical-laden. Between 2020 and 2022, the number of plant-based meat consumers who believe the products are healthy fell from 50 percent to 38 percent, according to FMI, the Food Industry Association, a trade group.
Mr McGuinness said the sector was overheated and overhyped, leading other companies to rush in with inferior products that failed and prompting critics to say plant-based meat was a fad.
Privately owned Impossible Foods is more reliable than Beyond Meat. Mr McGuinness said it was “on the road to profitability” with a strong balance sheet and no debt. Still, it faces similar challenges as Beyond Meat in trying to win over meat eaters, the vast majority of whom have never tried plant-based products.
“I think this is one of the biggest communication challenges in the history of business,” Mr McGuinness said.
Compared to meat, the market for plant-based alternatives is relatively small. According to the Good Food Institute, a research organization, plant-based meat and seafood will account for $1.2 billion in U.S. retail sales in 2023, compared to $100 billion for conventional meat and seafood. And global meat consumption is increasing.
Emma Ignaszewski, CEO of the Good Food Institute, said the expansion of the plant-based sector depends on consumer priorities and how quickly companies can innovate, improve taste and lower prices – plant-based meats can be at least twice as expensive. their animal counterparts.
Mrs. Ignashevsky said: “Development is not inevitable. However, he said the study showed that the majority of young consumers in 10 countries plan to spend more on plant-based products in the future due to concerns about health, sustainability, animal welfare and climate change. According to the Good Food Institute, plant-based alternatives have an average impact of 11 percent on the environment of meat.
Beyond Meat hopes its reformulated burger and beef patties, which contain more legumes and avocado oil, will help silence critics and win over consumers. The company is founded by registered dietitian and nutritionist Joy Bauer and co-author of Forks Over Knives Plan and The Whole Food Diet. Consulted by Matthew Lederman. Both said the goal of plant-based meat is to provide healthier options when people crave burgers.
“For most people, myself included, putting beans and lentils on a hamburger bun just won't satisfy that need,” said Dr. Lederman. When his patients replaced plant-based meat with red meat, they often made other lifestyle changes, such as exercising more and eating more vegetables. “It catalyzes a healthier lifestyle change,” he said.
Dr. Lederman also challenged perceptions that traditional meat is natural; estimated 99 percent Most farmed animals in the United States live in factory farms.
“They're fed abnormal diets,” he said, referring to cattle raised on factory farms. “They were put in abnormal conditions. They pump them with hormones and antibiotics. They are in these small, confined areas. Their bodies are full of stress hormones.”
Not everyone will win. Michael Pollan, the influential author who once urged people not to eat any food their great-grandmothers wouldn't recognize critical plant-based meat. Mr. Pollan declined to comment for this article.
Marion Nestle, professor emeritus of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, said plant-based products are still too processed and long-term studies of their effects are needed. Still, he allowed for relative benefits. “I'm sure it's better environmentally than beef, that's all,” he said. “My prediction would be that if you don't eat beef and eat this instead, you'll be better off than people who eat beef.”
Even as more consumers swing by its products, Beyond Meat's problems remain large. The company reported revenue growth in the third fiscal quarter of 2024. But John Baumgartner, a consumer food analyst at Mizuho Americas, a financial services group, said the increase was driven by rising prices and that Beyond Meat's stock was unlikely to rise again. He also said that while Beyond Meat worked to improve its burger, Impossible Foods likely benefited from offering a wider variety of products, including fake chicken options.
In particular, with their recent messages, both Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have downplayed the climate benefits of meat, a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and water pollution. Under Mr McGuinness' leadership, Impossible Foods delivers on the message of “delicious and nutritious”. “You can talk about the climate once you cover it, but people are also quite selfish,” he said.