Plant-based foods crop up
Companies big and small are getting in on market for flexitarian and curious eaters
Riding the waves of success of soy, oat and other alternatives to milk, as well as vegan burgers made by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, a broad variety of plantbased foods are showing up on restaurant menus and in grocery store aisles. And now more companies — from small upstarts to established brands — are looking to get in on the action.
This summer, Panda Express started putting orange chicken made with Beyond Chicken from Beyond Meat on menus at some of its U.S. locations. Peet’s Coffee is selling a vegan breakfast sandwich made with mung-bean-based Just Egg. And the Long John Silver’s seafood chain tested plant-based crabcakes and fish fillets at five locations in California and Georgia this summer.
“It started with a plant-based burger, but now plant-based options are becoming available in all sorts of categories,” said Marie Molde, a dietitian and trends analyst at the research firm Datassential. “We think plant-based chicken is really going to take off.”
Restaurants and grocery stores are responding to the changing demands of consumers who are moving away from eating meat. Sales of fresh fruit in grocery stores have climbed nearly 11% and fresh vegetables 13% since 2019, according to Nielsen IQ.
While only a small percentage of Americans are true vegans or in the broader category of vegetarians — in a 2018 Gallup poll, 5% said they were vegetarians — that’s not the audience these new companies and products are chasing.
Rather, they are going after the vegan-curious or so-called flexitarians, a much larger segment of Americans who are seeking to reduce the amount of meat they eat. Some are shying away because of animal-cruelty concerns, while others say the environment or perceived health benefits are factors. (Whether the plant-based foods, many of which are highly processed, are healthier is subject to debate.)
“This is not for vegans only — that would be too tiny of a market,” said Mary McGovern, the chief executive of New Wave Foods, whose shrimp made from seaweed and plant proteins will be on restaurant menus this fall.
Restaurants are jumping onto the bandwagon with both feet.
Orders for plant-based products from large food distributors were up 20% in June from the same time in 2019, according to the NPD Group.
Still, appealing to flexitarians or occasional vegan consumers can be tricky. They know the taste and texture of real shrimp and turkey, and if vegan alternatives are not tasty, they won’t be back.
For six years, restaurant owner Reina Montenegro said she tried to create a vegan version of the Spam that she grew up eating.
Then she heard about OmniPork Luncheon, plant-based oblong pieces that look like Spam and are produced by OmniFoods of Hong Kong.
In April, her restaurant, Chef Reina in Brisbane, California, which specializes in vegan Filipino comfort dishes, became one of a dozen restaurants in the United States using OmniPork products.
“Right away, we sold out of it,” Montenegro said. “The only thing that’s different with the OmniPork product is the sodium level — it’s lower than the real thing.”