Food From Thought: September 2021

Oatly continues to grow, Unovis has joined the Green Protein Alliance and more.

Where is the next frontier in plant-based foods? The freezer aisle.

That’s because frozen meals have an incredibly long shelf-life and offer both variety and convenience. As the pandemic forced restaurants to shut down, meal options became limited and food hoarding behaviors in grocery stores took effect. Consumers turned to frozen meals as a source of security. Plant-based frozen meals also served as a simple solution for new plant-based adopters, those seeking variety in taste, and consumers tired of cooking.

How do we know this? Because we’ve seen it before.

Refrigeration found its strongest supporters in its early days among those who wanted to ship and preserve meat, rather than live animals. This helped lead to the industrialization of food and, by the 1970s, a surge in premade microwavable frozen meals. By the turn of the century consumers started demanding more nutritious offerings, leading to new frozen selections with higher quality, taste and better nutrition. This is now coinciding with the growth of the plant-based category and, as a result, frozen meals experienced one of the highest growth rates of food categories during 2020, regaining a foothold in the CPG industry.

This month Juliana Green, our Senior Associate for North America & Israel, dug deep on the current state of the frozen foods market and what increasing alternative protein adoption will mean for this stalwart category.

Read Her Full Analysis

Gathered Foods

• Featured in new Netflix documentary “Seaspiracy”

Heura

• Heura Foods wins investment to grow plant-based meat business

• Barcelona places ten start-ups among the 100 most promising in Europe

Meati

• Welcome To The Brave New World Of Colorado-Grown Mushroom Meat

Miyoko’s Creamery

• Miyoko Schinner Is Redefining Wine Country With a Vegan Twist

• Miyoko’s Creamery mostly victorious in plant-based butter labeling lawsuit 

NUMU

• NUMU Food Group Announces Series A Funding

• Brooklyn’s NUMU Secures Series A Funding For “Revolutionary” Vegan Mozzarella

Oatly

• Oatly to expand Utah facility as Americas demand rises

• Oatly posts quarterly sales surge amid ‘transformational’ year

• Oatly Establishes Fort Worth, Texas, Production Complex

• Oatly Continues Its Fight to Trademark the Word ‘Barista’

Upside Foods

• Chef Dominique Crenn To Reintroduce Meat To Her Menus With Cultured Meat Brand Upside Foods

Wicked Foods

• Wicked Kitchen Becomes Title Sponsor of International Vegan Film Festival

• Wicked Foods on cusp of US entry with new funding in hand

• Wicked Kitchen Launches In The U.S. With Global Mission To Expand Animal-Free, Plant-Based Foods

BBC: Berlin university canteens cut meat from menus to curb climate change

Fitt Insider: The Next Frontier of Plant-Based Meat: Fake Nuggets, Alt-Fish, and More

The Guardian: UK urged to back sale of artificial meat to tackle climate crisis

Just Food: Food eco-labels are imperfect – but consumers want them

New Food: Plant-based protein market to top $150 billion by 2030 says new report

Planet Tracker: Will alternative proteins disrupt textiles?

Supermarket News: Plant-based foods are here to stay—and grow 

TotallyVeganBuzz: 51% of Brits willing to swap meat with plant-based alternatives, new survey finds

Wall Street Journal: How Much Carbon Comes From a Liter of Coke? Companies Grapple With Climate Change Math

Wired: Forget Impossible, the fungi renaissance is here

Unovis becomes first investment firm to join the Green Protein Alliance, boosting sustainable food ambitions in The Netherlands. Read More