Plant-based: industry flees ultra-processed label – 05/18/2023 – Market

Plant-based food maker Fazenda Futuro aims to deliver the cheapest and healthiest hamburger on the shelf, according to company founder Marcos Leta. In the presentation that closed the Web Summit in Rio, he acknowledged that his company may have gone overboard with additives to simulate meat flavor in its first products.

That, however, would have remained in the past, according to Leta. The assessment is shared by other representatives of the alternative protein industry.

Companies that sell plant-based protein foods say they are in a third stage of development. In the first, the objective was to achieve the closest possible sensory experience to products of animal origin. Serving healthier foods in terms of nutrition is the concern of the second step. The current phase three seeks to deliver affordable prices.

Foods that imitate meat are aimed at the public that wants to reduce the consumption of animal products. A survey by the entity that promotes alternatives to animal proteins, the Good Food Institute (GFI), indicates that 47% of Brazilians intend to reduce meat consumption next year.

Vegetarians and vegans represent only 4% of the Brazilian population. A percentage of 28% of people in the country define themselves as flexitarians, who intend to reduce meat consumption, without excluding it completely from the diet.

The Latin American market for alternative proteins, valued at US$191 million in 2021, is much smaller than the European one (US$2.6 billion in the same period) —a discrepancy far greater than the difference between the populations of the two regions.

In Brazil, people still consider vegetable proteins inaccessible in financial terms: 85% of those interviewed by the GFI for the latest sector balance sheet say that the main barrier to the consumption of this food is the price.

“Our country fails to guarantee three meals a day for the entire population. It is an expected situation”, says GFI’s technology coordinator, Cristiana Ambiel. Today, 230 grams of the smoked hamburger at Fazenda Futuro costs around R$20, or almost R$90 per kilo.

The owner of the plant-based food company R & S Blumos, Fernando Santana, says that today it is possible to deliver bean-based vegetable proteins for R$ 29 on the supermarket shelf. The product is made from bean strips, which would be rejected in the selection of the grain for commercial sale.

The price, however, is still a simulation, since Santana’s business supplies inputs and technology to other food brands. Sadia and the Green Kitchen restaurant are among the clients of Carnevale, a company of the R & S Blumos group.

The GFI also says it seeks industry regulation to compete on an equal footing with the meat industry. Beef cuts are fully exempt from PIS and Cofins and have a reduced ICMS rate, which does not apply to plant-based foods.

Another concern for Brazilians who reduced meat consumption was health. According to the GFI, respondents were looking to “improve digestion, lower cholesterol, or lose weight.”

Plant-based foods, however, can range from junk food to healthy food, says Santana, who is a food engineer.

Today, plant-based meats are found in sandwiches at McDonald’s and Burger King, but also in NotChicken for grilling, a product by Fazenda Futuro’s competitor NotCo, which highlights the 11 grams of soy protein and fava beans it contains on its packaging. The packaging of this grilled meat informs the presence of flavorings —which characterizes an ultra-processed product.

The Rebel Whopper vegetarian snack has 540 calories and 2,010 milligrams of sodium in a 300-gram sandwich, versus 677 calories and 2,000 milligrams of sodium in a 361-gram traditional Whopper.

An experimental nutrition researcher at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at USP, Professor Elizabeth Torres says that the client should pay attention to the labeling. “It is possible to replace meat with plant-based products in a healthy diet and maintain balance and a good lifestyle.”

She recommends that consumers of these foods pay attention to the iron, zinc and B vitamins, naturally present only in animals.

Today, there are plant-based foods similar to cheese, milk, eggs, mayonnaise, honey and other animal foods.

The general manager of NotCo in Brazil, Maurício Alonso, says that the company’s products seek nutrient balances and the use of simple ingredients. “For us, in addition to being a vegetable, the food has to be a nutritional source of calcium, vitamins, iron and protein.”

The founder of Fazenda Futuro Marcos Leta cited the example of using beetroot, instead of additives, in the company’s hamburger recipe, to add juiciness and color.

Another flag that companies in the sector claim to carry is sustainability. Growing plants, as a rule, requires less space and energy than raising plant-fed animals.

One of the sector’s bets is the reuse of food discarded in the production chain —a process called upcycling. Swiss startup Upgrain, for example, uses discarded malt in beer production to produce snacks, flour and textured protein. This input is traditionally directed to animal feed.

The creator of Upgrain Eduard Müller told the Web Summit report that he managed to contact food and brewing companies, including the giant Ambev. Müller expects to start operating in Brazil next year.

R&S Blumos Bean Protein is also a form of Upcycling. For the company’s founder, Fernando Santana, these foods are not at risk of stigma. “These are ingredients derived from a controlled and highly clean process. All very rich in nutrients. Today, people understand this value.”

The plant-based sector also prioritizes marketing.

NotCo brought in the former chief executive of video game giant Activision Blizzard, Fernando Machado, to be head of global marketing. Fazenda Futuro has Anitta as a partner and ambassador.

In a lecture on the central stage of the Web Summit Rio, Machado showed how NotCo will be able to use generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT to recreate flavors with only vegetable ingredients. It also surfed the most mentioned technology wave at the Rio event.