VEGAN BACON SALES START TO SIZZLE
There's no denying the appeal of bacon. The pork product represents a heart-stopping 99 per cent of the total bacon market.
In 2020, sales of the breakfast staple totalled US$6 billion through November, up 20 per cent from the same time period a year earlier.
But plant-based bacon is carving out space in the frying pan. Sales are up 25 per cent — almost double that of meat-based bacon for the 52-week period ending April 18, according to data from Spins, which reports retailer data for natural and organic products. Nielsen, which aggregates data from conventional grocers, reported that the entire category of bacon alternatives almost doubled in 2020, to US$267 million, compared to 2019.
One reason for the surge is that more alternative options are available as a new breed of bacon makers taps into popular ingredients to create the faux-pig products.
They're edging into a market that has been dominated for decades by such products as Lightlife's Smart Bacon and Morningstar's Veggie Bacon Strips, which have yet to deliver on metrics such as flavour, texture and satiety.
The next generation of producers is using innovative ingredients, processes, or both. The San Francisco startup Hooray Foods knits together coconut oil, rice flour and tapioca starch through a patent-pending manufacturing process that encapsulates the fat droplets and lets the product cook more like the real thing. Prime Roots, which started in 2017 and came out of UC Berkeley's Alternative Meat Lab, makes bacon out of koji that's grown in large fermentation tanks.
The koji, a fungus, is formed into slabs and smoked, then wrapped in colourful packaging. Trophic, another Berkeley-based alternative protein startup, is rapidly prototyping a bacon made from protein extracted from red seaweed.
The highest-profile addition is Myeats bacon from Albany, N.y.based Atlast Food Co., which is made from mycelium, the underground root structure of mushrooms. Grown indoors in 100-footlong raised beds, the mycelium is cut into blocks that are then seasoned with liquid smoke and cut into strips. The startup recently raised US$40 million in Series B funding from well-known agriculture investors Gary Hirshberg, of Stonyfield Farm, and Stephen Mcdonnell, of Applegate Farms.
Actor Robert Downey Jr. invested, too. On July 13, Atlast was announced as a semifinalist in the Us$15-million Xprize Feed the Next Billion, a four-year competition that recognizes the most promising alternative proteins.
Reasons for the groundswell in fake bacon include the May cyberhack that shut down an estimated one-fifth of America's beef capacity.
“Consumers have really reached for these products. A lot of that was due to the bad press around meat processing facilities,” says Jeff Crumpton, Spins manager of retail reporting.
A further reason is price parity, as vegan products become almost as affordable as their animal analogues. The rise in flexitarian diets has driven the movement, too. “Folks are leaning into cruelty-free, pasture-raised, sustainable and animal-welfare styles,” says Crumpton.
There's also the steadily improving flavour of the new breed of bacon. Prime Roots continues to evolve its koji-based bacon, available in hickory, sriracha, maple and cracked pepper.
Consumers have really reached for these products. A lot of that was due to the bad press around meat processing facilities.
“We're collaborating with local chefs, and getting our protein in front of tastemakers,” says co-founder Kimberlie Le, whose product is sold on the website.
When I sampled Prime Roots in September 2020 for my book, Technically Food: Inside Silicon Valley's Mission to Change What We Eat, it was barely palatable.
When I tried it again six months later, I noted an improved chewy texture and smoky flavour.
Myeats bacon is a spinoff of the mycelium-based packaging company Ecovative Design. It's currently available only at Honest Weight, a small food co-op in Albany, N.Y. The product has shroomy notes that are hard to ignore, but it looks and cooks the most like bacon.
Only Hooray Foods is available nationwide, at Whole Foods and at Mollie Stone's in the San Francisco area plus other regional markets. Since its November 2020 launch, sales of Hooray's bacon have doubled and are close to six figures.
Still, plant-based bacon isn't yet good enough to convert meat eaters. Le of Prime Roots has a long list of areas to work on: “We fundamentally look for better flavour, better cooking experience, texture and taste,” she says.
Noticeably absent from the shelves are the category's biggest players. Pat Brown, founder of Impossible Foods Inc., announced a year-and-a-half ago at the Consumer Electronic Show that his team was “playing around” with bacon but wouldn't launch until “the most hardcore bacon worshipper thinks it's awesomely delicious.”