Food Entrepreneur - March 3, 2020 - 10

The ethical egg advocate

But along the way, the Silicon Valley darling became
ollowing its first full year on supermarket shelves, the
embroiled in scandal and legal
San Francisco-based maker of
battles. The company was accused
Just Egg has sold the plantof buying its own product to boost
based equivalent of more than 20
sales, and Target removed the brand
million eggs, requiring 98% less
from its shelves on allegations of
water and 86% less land to produce
food safety concerns.
than conventional animal sources,
Hampton Creek since repoaccording to the company.
sitioned itself as Eat Just, Inc. and
Made from mung beans, Just
pared its portfolio to a fraction of the
Egg tastes and scrambles similar
ambitious lineup previously offered.
to a conventional egg. More than
This year, the company plans to
three-fourths of consumers who
introduce a reformulated version of
purchase the product eat meat,
Just Egg. A frozen, folded plant-based
said Josh Tetrick, founder and chief
egg alternative also is set to debut.
executive officer of Eat Just, Inc.
This past December, the com"And that was the whole point
pany acquired a 30,000-square-foot
in starting the company," he added.
facility and 40 acres of land in Ap"We're not going to do the things
that are necessary for the planet ...
- Josh Tetrick, Eat Just pleton, Minn., to process mung bean
protein. Eat Just already has invested
if we're just selling to people who
millions of dollars in processing
are already eating in a relatively susequipment for the site with plans for
tainable way. We're going to really
future expansion.
have the impact when we have an
"To make our mission happen, we need to scale," Mr.
approach that touches more people."
Tetrick said. "We want to be as ubiquitous as Coca-Cola is." ▪
Just Egg is available in 10,000 retail outlets, including
Whole Foods Market, Kroger and Walmart, and in approximately 1,000 food service outlets. In a leading U.S. supermarket chain, Just Egg is outselling all branded plant-based
cheese, yogurt and margarine, almond milk and soymilk,
and tofu, seitan and tempeh, according to Nielsen data.
"Eggs are the cheapest, most ubiquitous source of
animal protein on the planet today," Mr. Tetrick said. "It felt
like a more-than-obvious place to start if we were going to
embark on this mission.
"The next question after that was, 'Can we find a plant
that scrambles?' And answering that question took a lot
longer than we thought. It was a lot harder than I thought.
It cost a lot more money than I thought. It ended up taking
well over four years to find something that scrambled and
then another two years to figure out a way to scale it up to
put it in the supermarket."
But to broaden its impact, the product needs to be
cheaper, tastier and healthier than conventional eggs,
Mr. Tetrick said.
"We really think that embedding this idea of eating a lot
better for the planet in a way that's aligned with our values
can't just be about climate change and animal welfare; it has
to be about human health and eating in a way that is more
restorative and healing to our bodies," he said. "We need
to make it healthier. We need to continue to clean the label
up. We need to bring in antioxidants. We need to develop
processes that bring more bioavailability of nutrients into
the end product."
Mr. Tetrick founded the company, then called Hampton Creek, in 2011. Early products included plant-based
Just Mayo and Just Cookie Dough, featuring ingredients
such as Canadian yellow pea and sorghum as sustainable,
functional, cheaper alternatives to eggs. Billionaire investors jumped in early, he said.

Food Business News

EAT JUST, INC.

'We're not going to
do the things that
are necessary for
the planet ... if we're
just selling to people who are already
eating in a relatively
sustainable way.'

March 3, 2020

Food Entrepreneur - March 3, 2020

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