The environment seems to be on most people’s minds as climate change sweeps through nations with extreme weather events and even deadlier outcomes. To play a part in reducing emissions and protecting the planet, many people have switched up their carnivorous diets and adopted plant-based eating.
With more people turning vegan and vegetarian globally, the demand for plant-based dairy and meat products is higher than ever before. In 2020, plant-based product sales reached $29.4 billion, while the industry is supposed to expand fivefold by 2030.
Essentially, consumers want sustainable, healthier food products made from plants. Here are five innovations making plant-based foods more like animal products.
1. McDonald’s McPlant
The fast-food industry has made strides in delivering better-quality service while offering plant-based menu options to consumers.
As the chief fast-food establishment worldwide, McDonald’s has caught up to the plant-based hype by debuting its McPlant burger patty by Beyond Meat. During a test run of the McPlant burger roll-out in December 2021, participating U.S. McDonald’s locations sold 70 Beyond Meat patties every day – far more than industry experts expected.
Beyond Meat creates its products through a high-tech process that involves heating, cooling, and pressuring plant-based ingredients.
While the U.S. version of the McPlant burger may not yet be vegan-ready – it’s served up with dairy cheese and mayo – the vegetarian-friendly option signifies an enormous transition for fast-food chains into the booming plant-based market.
2. Perfect Day Ice Cream
It’s a known fact that veganism and vegetarianism help the environment in several ways. Animal welfare is of the utmost importance as well. In 2020, over 9.4 million dairy cows were used for milk production in the U.S. However, dairy cows are typically subjected to taxing and highly stressful lactation cycles.
The company Perfect Day aims to change our reliance on dairy cows by developing a product that’s a cellular replica of the dairy that cows produce. Perfect Day uses natural milk proteins to match dairy’s creamy flavor to create its product. The difference is they grow the proteins through fermentation instead of turning to cows.
With actor Leonardo DiCaprio sitting on its board of advisors, there’s a greater awareness of Perfect Day – which is now included in Brave Robot and Modern Kitchen ice creams, providing a delicious dairy-alternative choice for plant-based consumers.
3. GOOD Meat’s Cultivated Meat
A newer food innovation in the plant-based industry is “cultivated meat,” which is made in a lab by growing cells that replicate chicken.
The GOOD Meat brand is sold in grocery stores and has further developed cell-based chicken products to replace meat. They pride themselves on growing cell-based products in a highly sterile food production facility while maintaining a smaller environmental footprint and eradicating the need for slaughter, antibiotics, and hormones.
According to a 2020 report by the Good Food Institute (GFI), cultivated meat companies like GOOD Meat earned more than $360 million in investments – six times the amount received the year before.
4. Impossible Foods
Like Beyond Meat, plant-based company Impossible Foods has made waves in the industry since launching in 2016. It’s paved the way for other plant-based companies and recently garnered an additional $500 million in funding, bringing its total investments up to $2 billion for new product lines.
Impossible Foods is perhaps most famously known for its Impossible Burger, which looks like meat and tastes like meat but is made entirely from plants.
Other current Impossible Foods products include sausage, chicken nuggets, meatballs, and pork patties – all plant-based without a single ingredient derived from animals.
5. PlantX Vegan Delivery
Amazon has jumped headfirst into the grocery industry since acquiring Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017. To meet consumer demands for grocery delivery, they’ve begun partnering with other chains to deliver optimal freshness to your front door.
In 2021, digital plant-based community brand PlantX announced it would launch as an Amazon Marketplace seller, leveraging Amazon’s e-commerce platform to fulfill orders more efficiently and offer greater resources and customer service.
Currently, PlantX has 10,000 plant-based products available with the intent of expanding its product line to include clothing and makeup.
Plant-Based Food Innovations for Everyone
Whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, or simply opt for Meatless Monday every week, technology is changing the plant-based landscape. Of course, eating a plant-based diet helps create a healthier, more sustainable planet – and these innovations are making it easier than ever for consumers to get on board.
