Plant based Meat : Decoded

Thanks to all the friends who participated in the 5 polls conducted over Linkedin regarding some fundamental aspects of Plant based Meat.

The poll reached 23k people and 591 votes were cast.

I have also attempted to share my experience and understanding of the space. We are so close to this important diversification of our dietary habits that its difficult to appreciate the immense scale of its impact on so many fronts. The pace and scale of the plant based meat sector will be dependent on the right mix of good products and the right marketing strategy. But one thing is for sure. A historic change is happening in front of our very eyes.

Lets dive in on the results of the poll!

Poll 1 : Why do you eat meat?

Not surprisingly, taste came out on top. Almost half of the respondents voted for it (46%). It was followed jointly by nutrition & habit/culture (both at 26%)?

The element of price was included as in some parts of India fish and beef are very affordable source of protein. However it was a non issue in the minds of the respondents (2%)?

My take :?

Taste is the most important factor in mainstreaming of plant based meat. This also presents the biggest challenge in the hands of the companies in the space.?

An encouraging aspect of this is that with continuous R&D, the taste profile of plant based meats are improving every year. An interesting thing here is that the equation of meat has been divided into texture, taste, mouthfeel and aroma. Lot of companies have come up recently across the globe which are tackling just one of the variable of the above equation. Be it novel proteins, flavours, fats etc. , entire companies have been set up to ace only one specific areas above. This helps in faster innovation and industry wide adoption. With the advent or cell based and fermentation based technologies an entirely new area of research and ingredients has emerged in the space.?

Taste is the most important area to master for the eat alternative companies.?

Habit & Nutrition came at joint second with 26% of the respondents felt that habit and nutrition are the main reason for consuming meat respectively.

Habit and socialisation contribute strongly to our taste palate and eating habits. There is a strong association of good memories, nostalgia regarding food habits. It could be a memorable meal with friends & family or it could be the familiar taste of comfort food cooked at home. These habits are so intrinsic that an individual is not even aware of its presence but the influence of the same is really strong. Thus it's vital for plant based meat companies to be aware of this aspect and this becomes even more clear in the results of "Poll 5 : which format of plant based meat do you prefer?"

Nutrition : 26 % respondents chose nutrition as the main reason for eating meat. There is a good chance its related to high protein content of meat. To a lesser extent Vitamin B12 could also be one of the reasons. The aspect of nutrition is covered in detail in the results of "Poll 3 : What is your major concern regarding Plant based Meat?"

Poll 2 : What is your major concern regarding Animal Meat?

This is a revelation!

An extremely pleasant one for me personally :)

A large majority of the respondents (80%) cited Animal Cruelty as the single biggest concern they have vis a vis meat.

Concerns like environment, cholesterol, antibiotics and hormones figured extremely low in people’s concerns.?

My take -?

All of us are caring individuals.?

Intentionally people do not want to hurt animals. Eating habits, socialisation and culture contribute to us ignoring the cruelty inflicted on animals on account of meat consumption.?

While we still go ahead with consuming meat, a part of us is both aware and also not really happy about the killing of animals.?

Then should the companies in the space focus mainly on highlighting the ethical aspect of plant based meat??

I would differ from this line it thought. While people are concerned about cruelty on animals, the moment that aspect is brought out strongly, people become defensive about their personal choices.?

It’s important to understand a long term sustainable shift will not take place unless it’s voluntary.?

As we saw in the previous poll, people eat meat because of taste and habit/ culture. These aspects are not easy to modify. The sensory experience of meat is a strong pull factor for consumers. And habits/ culture makes them feel anchored. Any change in those has to voluntary and personal.?

Here the element of taste and price becomes very crucial.?

An extremely good taste and affordable proving will result in lowering the barriers for trial and eventual incorporation of plant based meats in people’s diets. For many it may still be not a case of either/or (meat or plant based meat). Rather initially it would be the case of “And” ( meat and plant based meat) in their diet.?

Once the consumers experience personally that reducing/ giving up animal meat is not that hard when a good tasting and affordable alternative is there, then it becomes easier for them to open their eyes to the cruelty involved in animal meat.?

This further strengthens their adoption of plant based meat.?

Everyone wants to do good, but if it’s easy to do good then it reinforces the particular habit.

Poll 3 : What is your major concern regarding Plant based Meat?

As expected, taste came up on top. 38 % respondents felt that the taste of plant based is their biggest concern. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for the companies in the space. The challenge to match the taste and eventually better the taste of animal meat products is a difficult R&D challenge. However if companies are able to achieve that, then the market size of plant based meat would explode and it would be more a challenge if supply than demand. I can say from our own personal experience in R&D and also interacting and tasting products from other companies in the space, there is no doubt that it’s going to happen. I would hazard a guess that it would be sooner than many people think.?

The next two critical concerns of the respondents is price.?

26 % of the respondents felt that high prices are the main concern regarding plant based meat. The major components of plant based meats like protein concentrates, isolates and flavours are expensive. The first focus of the companies in the space has to be the taste and texture. Once that is mastered, then R&D needs to focus on how to reduce the cost of the product. It could be finding more affordable but similar functional ingredients. Localisation of ingredient sourcing can also pull the prices down. Eventually as the economies of scale picks up, the prices would go further down.?

That’s not to say that there are already companies which have broken the price benchmarks of animal meat. In our own case at GoodDot, there are quite a few products in our portfolio which are more affordable than their corresponding animal meat. Recently in Netherlands there has been a breakthrough in plant based meats becoming more affordable than animal meat. This trend is only going to increase as more R&D is carried out globally.?

The next place is jointly tied by nutrition and availability (18% each)?

18 % of the respondents citing lack of availability as the main concern regarding plant based meats is both a challenge as well as an opportunity for the companies in the plant based meat space. This means that the companies have to scale up their sales & distribution network for increasing the product availability. This would require significant financial and HR resources. On the other side it represents a growing opportunity for the companies as consumers are looking for meat alternatives near them. The increasing interest and demand for plant based meats from the retail chains, QSRs , premium hotel chains, cafés and restaurants is a really positive sign for the plant based meat industry.

18 % of respondents felt that nutrition was the main concern about plant based meat products.?

It’s important to note that whole food plant based is the best diet one can have. Be it vegetables, fruits, cereals all of them when consumed in their natural formats are the best component of a healthy diet.?

However we have to be conversant of the fact that food processing is an age old way to add value, shelf life and easier consumption of natural food products. Be it basic ingredient like sugar, salt, oil or finished formats like confectionary, breads, drinks, snacks etc everything is processed.?

Processing is not the all evil it’s projected to be. We regularly consume processed food products in our daily lives. We just need to read the labels of our daily grocery items like instant noodles, snacks, biscuits, breakfast cereals, health drinks etc to know that almost all of them have a long list of alien sounding ingredients. If we take into account sugar, salt and oil and dive deeper into their production process we will realise that the raw materials go through significant processing to bring them to usable form.?

When we look at meat, we simply read one ingredient in the label. But in reality is a pure and clean meat the only ingredient which the consumer consumes??

In actuality there are growth hormones and antibiotics in most of the industrially product meat which reaches the consumer. If that ingredient is added to the list, then a host of alien sounding chemicals and molecules would need to be added to the list of overall ingredients which is in the meat.

Most of the plant based meats are made up of proteins like Soy, Pea, Wheat proteins etc. These proteins have been used since many decades in different food items and are widely accepted. The process of extrusion widely used in the plant based meat is purely a physical process where the denaturise the plant proteins high temperature and pressure is applied to plant proteins.?

Proteins are defined by their structure. The structure is define by the amino acid linkages. Eg if we boil an egg, it solidifies irreversibly into a sold mass. This happens because on application of heat the protein of egg denatures ie the amino acid linkage breaks and realigns to a new structure. In plant based meat in an extruder, a dough of plant protein is subjected to high heat and pressure. This results in denaturation of plant proteins and the new linkages take the form of layers which is closer to a meat like texture.?

The chunkier cuts of plant based meat do not have binding agents and thickeners like methyl cellulose. In formed products like nuggets/ patties methyl cellulose is used to bind the product. Though it sounds a complicated ingredient, it is essentially a derivative of cellulose obtained from the bark, wood or leaves of plants.?

Plant based meat should be judged as a meat alternative and not with whole food plant based products.?

Plant based meats do not have vitamin B12 which is present in animal products like meat, egg and dairy. Its important to have Vitamin B12 supplements if one is having exclusive Vegan diet. That may not be a big issue with people having non vegan diets. But either ways Vitamin B12 is an important micro nutrient for the body and due care should be taken to have it in adequate quantities. In fact there are plant based meat products which are being fortified with Vitamin B12 externally to makeup for the absence of Vitamin B12 in the base ingredients.

On the other hand, by the very nature of the products, plant based meats have protein, high dietary fiber and zero cholesterol. While lot of people are aware that meat has cholesterol, many people may not be aware that meat has zero dietary fiber, a very important nutrient for gut health and digestion. Many of the plant based meat solutions are in the form of ready to eat or ready to cook formats. Thus many products may have high fat and high sodium levels. Consumers need not add additional salt before consuming. Sometimes a mistaken comparison is made of a ready to eat plant based dish with a raw meat product for sodium and fat levels. However the fats level are mostly lower in plant based meat than animal meat with added benefits of zero cholesterol levels.?

There is joke which goes something like this,?

“If ever a lion chases me and my friend, I don’t need to outrun the lion. I need to simply outrun my friend”

While the plant based meats need to constantly improve their absolute macros, initially they need to be simply better than meat in the overall macros.

Poll 4 : How do you mainstream Plant based Meat?

This was a very interesting result. The voting was almost balanced for 3 choices.?

35% voted for large scale sampling whereas 27% each voted for awareness campaign and through global QSRs/ Horeca.?

Personally I feel the singlemost important factor is large scale sampling. Eating is believing. Especially for a brand new category which has no previous reference point for most of the consumers. Even for a multibillion dollar instant noodles market, a pan India tasting campaign was conducted by Nestle ( Maggi)?

It’s unimaginable to think today that for such an ubiquitous and pull product like Maggi, Nestle had to carry out national level tasting campaign.?

Personally I feel awareness without tasting would not really move the needle. While it’s really important to create awareness, it has to be closely preceded or followed by tasting and sampling sessions.?

QSRs/ Horeca/ Food service have a definite important role to play in the space of plant based meat. When people eat out they try out dishes and cuisines which are not ordinary prepared at home. Whether it was McDonalds with Burgers or Dominos’s with pizzas they not only acted as a an introductory platforms for the novel food formats of Burgers and Pizzas in India, they in fact were instrumental for mainstreaming these new dishes across hotels, restaurants and kiosks of India. The QSRs/ hotels / cafés can be a great way to introduce people to the concept of plant based meat.?

It’s important though that the offerings in the QSRs/Horeca are really tasty and affordable. Any failure to have the right product and pricing strategy can result in customer dissatisfaction with the space. This will make the task of the companies is the space harder as they would need to do the heavy lifting in terms of getting consumers to unlearn the poor experience and give the newer and better products a try.?

Only 11 % voted for government intervention. This makes some sense as food is a very personal choice and govt cannot directly influence that. What it can do is to create an enabling environment for the space of plant based meat to grow. This could be funding more research in the field, piloting it in their flagship schemes, lowering the GST rates, launching export promotion schemes etc.

Poll 5 : What format of Plant based Meat would you prefer?

Interestingly 41 % of respondents preferred raw meat. In India people like to cook their food at home. Every household has a unique recipe for meat dishes. Also there are significant regional variations in cuisines. So it’s not surprising that many people prefer to have raw formats of plant based meats for them to cook as per their own recipe.?

It’s an interesting technological challenge for players in the space of plant based meat as they won’t have the luxury of spices etc to enhance to taste of the raw product. But companies which are able to do that will not only garner a disproportionate share of the retail consumers but will also be well placed to cater to a very large B2B requirement.?

Indian snacks (Tikkas, Kebabs etc) came in a strong 2nd with 31% of the respondents voting for it. Again it is important to note that local eating habits and dish formats are very important factors to be taken into account by the companies in the space. Consumers are not expected to change their consumption habits. It’s upto companies to cater solutions which meet the consumer expectations.

RTC curries, Biryanis etc scored 3rd with 16% respondents voting for them. While people like to cook at home, because it paucity of time, they prefer solutions which are easier to prepare. Normally it takes more than an hour to cook a good meat curry or a biryani. The ready to cook and ready to eat formats reduce the time of cooking for the consumers. An important aspect to note is that these still form a part of the local eating habits. If we add both the choices of Tikkas/Kebabs and Curries/ Biryanis, the local format ( in this case Indian) of meat dishes dominate. And when we add the 41% of raw formats which people are expected to cook as per their own local recipes, the Indian formats all together comes to a whopping 89% .

So 89% consumers prefer plant based meat in formats which are locally familiar and consumed.

Only 11 % of the respondents voted for western format of plant based meats like nuggets/ burger patty etc.?

This trend of voting can be safely extrapolated for all across the world. For plant based meat companies to excel in a particular country, they have to study and be conversant of local eating habits. Based upon that knowledge, the initial offerings should be customised as per the local palette.

In case a company decides to still go for niche and novel segments, then the marketing and targeting needs to be very focused towards experimental consumers who are regularly consuming non-local meat dishes.

Conclusion :

While it’s too early to state, the space of plant based meat is really revolutionary in more ways than one. Personally for me it’s all about animals. They do not deserve to be tortured and killed for our culinary pleasure. An an ex-meat eater who loved meat, I do not for one moment doubt that it’s going to be a big challenge to mainstream plant based meat. However my conviction in the space comes from the belief in human beings ingenuity as well as inherent goodness.?

The future is bright and compassionate!