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B.C. companies thrive as meatless eating goes mainstream Growing market for plant-based proteins November 28, 2015 Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun B.C.-based makers of plant-based alternatives to dairy and meat are riding a wave of enthusiasm for their products by a health- and environment-conscious consumer that has — by nearly every measure — graduated from fringe to mainstream. The biggest problem that Vancouver’s Daiya Foods faces is meeting the demand on its manufacturing facilities, which are all in the Lower Mainland. “From day one, we have formulated every single product without any animal-based ingredients,” said co-founder Andre Kroecher. “That has not made it easy, but it is aligned with our values.” Kroecher and co-founder Greg Blake see themselves as part of a vanguard for the way the world must ultimately feed itself as meat production becomes increasingly unsustainable. “Animals get their protein from plants, we eat animals for protein. We are really just cutting out the middle man,” said Kroecher. “Eventually we will all have to get our protein from plants.” It’s an idea he borrowed from a competitor in the plant-based food market, but it’s an approach that seems to be working. New lines of macaroni and cheese meals and pizzas free of animal products are taking off, vaulting the eight-year-old firm into one of the top manufacturers of dairy alternatives in North America. Even though dairy and meat alternatives are by their nature processed foods — quite at odds with the natural and unprocessed food movement zeitgeist — both enjoy an aura of healthfulness. The market for dairy alternatives is projected to grow by more than 13 per cent a year in the United States for several years, according to recent projections by Marketsand Markets, and recently topped $2 billion in sales. The meat alternative market is projected to exceed $5 billion by 2020. The western version of meatless eating has come a long way from the days of bland tofu wieners and veggie burgers made from brown rice and yeast. Richmond-based meat alternative pioneer Gardein has developed a stunning array of plant-based proteins that have the look and texture of familiar meat-based dishes, including satays and holiday roasts. In fact, grocery store aisles are increasingly populated by faux fish sticks and meatless chicken fingers, not-beef sliders and meatballs constructed without any ingredients derived from animals. And maybe that makes perfect sense considering beef consumption is down a whopping 28 per cent since the early 2000s. Pork consumption in Canada has dropped by 17.5 per cent in the same period, according to Statistics Canada. A recent decision by the World Health Organization to label red meat and processed meats a “probable carcinogen” — despite limited and mixed evidence — will likely accelerate the trend. Soy and nut milks command a growing share of shelf space as per capita dairy consumption enters a third decade of decline in Canada. Almost 12 million Canadians report reducing or eliminating meat from their diet, with British Columbia boasting the highest proportion of diners who regularly shun meat, according to a poll released this summer, commissioned by the Vancouver Humane Society. Only a fraction of those people identified themselves as vegan or vegetarian. Clearly, a new consumer is walking the grocery store aisles, looking for something else to eat. Daiya co-founders Blake and Kroecher reckon that personal health, animal welfare and environmental concerns are factors reshaping a food marketplace that was formerly driven almost exclusively by convenience and price. Daiya — conscious that convenience remains key to consumers — is entering the frozen pizza market with six pie varieties, including one with crumbled meatless sausage developed by California’s Beyond Meat. The dairy-free shredded mozzarella — made with pea protein, tapioca and pressed oils — has enjoyed solid sales since the company’s inception. “What we try to do is run our enterprise without anything coming at the expense of the environment or animals,” said Kroecher. “In Sanskrit, the name Daiya means loving kindness and compassion.” That message resonates with consumers who are more aware than ever about how food gets to their plates and everything that goes into it and that includes awareness about precious resources such as water, farm practices, highly processed ingredients and chemical additives. Processed food conglomerates — such as Kraft, General Mills and Hershey’s — are just waking up to a rapidly evolving marketplace and are shedding artificial colours, antibiotics and hard-to-pronounce ingredients from their production processes in an effort to shore up flat and falling sales. They are being encouraged in their efforts by relentless pressure from activists using social media. “That has been a paradigm shift for consumers in the past 10 years,” said Blake. Endorsements of Meatless Mondays by celebrities Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres have helped pushed the idea into the mainstream and, in the process, created a generation of “flexitarian eaters,” people who eat some meat but look for plant-based alternatives, he said. Daiya is capitalizing on that fast-growing market with new products, growing from two kinds of shredded “cheese” in 2008 to 31 products today. A Greek yogurt alternative, flavoured with peach, strawberry, blueberry or black cherry, is enjoying strong sales in the United States and should soon be available in Canada. “We are having a heck of a time keeping that in stock in the U.S.,” Kroecher said. Blake and Kroecher avoid using terms such as vegetarian or vegan — though their foods are entirely free of animal products — in part to avoid the confusion and political agendas those words trigger, but also to avoid limiting their products’ appeal. “We knew that the vegetarian market could become saturated quite quickly,” said Kroecher. “We wanted to be able to evolve with the transitional consumer.” Product development is a continuous work in progress. “We never expected that we would come up with a cheese and then be satisfied,” he said. “With something that has been around as long as cheese, it will never be finished.” Even their range of acceptable ingredients has to be updated constantly to maintain what the co-founders refer to as “clean labels,” free of preservatives and avoiding unrecognizable ingredients wherever possible. Daiya has just reformulated many of its products to eliminate palm oil. Even though they had sourced their palm oil ethically, it was controversial for its association with deforestation and destruction of orangutan habitat. Local success story Gardein, which has products in 22,000 grocery stores and hundreds of restaurants, has sales reportedly in excess of $100 million. The company is enjoying strong growth in its core product line, which includes Beefless Ground, burgers, hotdogs and innovative new appetizers, according to company spokesperson Tebbie Chuchla. The market for meat alternatives will continue to be driven by people’s “desire to eat in ways that are beneficial to human health, the environment, food security and animals,” she said. And that doesn’t mean just vegetarians and vegans. Gardein products also appeal to people who want to avoid artificial preservatives or cholesterol. “Over 36 per cent of mass market consumers are buying dairy and meat alternatives, while (only) six per cent of consumers are vegans,” she said. Read more: Cultivating Destruction: The global impact of industrial cruelty; tax meat October 9, 2019 LiveKindly: Beef & Dairy Industries headed toward 'Total Collapse' by 2030 https://www.livekindly.co/beef-dairy-industries-total-collapse/?fbclid=IwAR3R_nwN3RzTzI3L91B1IxARvmDlD82vDBOAp7JfTTpE_5l4Yfizrn4hg-A The death of the dairy and meat industries can’t come soon enough! Visit our Articles & Websites page for much more news & commentary. |