Supermarket Perimeter - June 2019 - 37

IMPOSSIBLE FOODS, BEFORE THE BUTCHER, PETER HERMES FURIAN - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

ON APRIL 1, fast food giant Burger King announced its latest burger - a
burger without meat.
Despite what many thought, it was no April Fool's joke. The BK
ImpossibleWhopper is for real, and if you can believe much of the
Internet chatter, it's pretty good.
The Impossible Whopper is perhaps the biggest splash to date made
by Redwood City, California-based Impossible Foods, which develops
plant-based substitutes for meat and dairy products.
For Burger King, the company developed a patty out of soy protein,
potato protein, coconut oil, sunflower oil, heme and other ingredients.
Impossible Burger touts its ability to deliver a great-tasting burger
that's also good for you. And it claims that the Impossible Burger
generates about 87% fewer greenhouse gases, uses 75% less water and
requires about 95% less land than conventional ground beef.
And Impossible Foods is hardly alone. Throughout the food industry,
the number of plant-based proteins is surging, as consumers look to not
only improve their health but to do so in a way they perceive as being
good for the Earth.
Even meat industry giants are riding the plant protein wave.
Companies like Cargill, Tyson, Hormel and ADM all are exploring the
development of plant-based alternatives to meat.

Bristol, Before the Butcher partner on industry first
Retailer Bristol Farms is the first grocer in the country selling unpackaged plant-based meats and entrees behind the glass in its butcher
section.
A new Bristol Farms store in Yorba Linda, California will feature the
plant-based items.
The selection at the Yorba Linda store includes plant-based chicken
burgers and breakfast sausage from Huntington Beach, Californiabased Before the Butcher as well as items like no-meat taco mix, vegetarian meatloaf, vegetarian stuffed cabbage, chorizo-stuffed potatoes
and a Mediterranean meatless patty made by Bristol Farms chefs using
Before the Butcher's ground products.
Bristol Farms is Before the Butcher's first retail partner, but the company is in discussion with every major retailer in the country and also many
smaller retailers, says Danny O'Malley, Before the Butcher's president.
(Until the Bristol Farms deal, the company was focused on foodservice.)

"I don't have to tell you how hot the market is for the products we
have, and we're really excited about it," O'Malley says. "What makes us
special is we have a broad product line for foodservice and retail."
For now, all of the Before the Butcher products sold at Bristol Farms
will be sold behind the meat counter, but the two companies are also is
talks to add Before the Butcher products to Bristol Farms prepared food
offerings, O'Malley says.
The alternative protein revolution, he says, has many grocery retailers
starting to think differently about how they label their meat department.
"We don't refer to it as the meat department - it's the protein department," O'Malley says. "There's seafood, poultry, many times wild game,
beef, lamb, sometimes goat - a lot of different proteins. We're another
protein source, and we believe we belong there with other protein
sources and believe the consumer is ready for that."

SOURCE

Analysts estimate
that nearly 12% of
U.S. households
now purchase
plant-based meat.

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6/5/2019 9:07:53 AM

Supermarket Perimeter - June 2019

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