Why is this significant?
In order to be competitive plantbased products need to benefit from supplier NPD as they simply can’t continue to do everything themselves. As the ingredients opportunities get larger and larger more ingredients companies are bringing their NPD and marketing muscle to bear.
Plantbased ingredients market adds new fat range to improve taste performance. As the plantbased market expands it’s benefiting from product development by ingredients companies. An example is the new range of fat ingredients made from shea and palm oil made “to recreate the sensory experience derived from beef in plant-based alternatives.”
In the past plantbased meat companies have had to do all or most of their own development work using existing ingredients which were unlikely to be ideal. Now the manufacturing chain is starting to mature and break out into it’s component parts as profit opportunities become apparent. This will help improve product quality by offering ingredients specifically targeted to manufacturing high quality plantbased products. No longer will plantbased manufacturers have to force a square peg into a round hole!
Hopefully this will enable new entrants to develop good products from the start and reduce the number of truly awful plantbased meat products on the market.
The bad news for incumbents like Impossible Foods and especially Beyond Meat is that the barrier to entry is now dropping. Companies will be able to develop great tasting products and become competitive much quicker.
