Ag Tech Sunday - My two cents: The burgers of V2 Food, Beyond Meat & Impossible Foods

By Julia Waite - Head of Operations at  SproutX

I’ve been busy doing some potentially tax deductible research of plant-based burgers— the top-end, meat mimicking kind... Please join me on this riotous ride of the 3 big (veggie) dogs in the startup game right now: v2food, Beyond Meat, and Impossible Foods.

Determining what counts as a successful burger depends on what plant protein startups are trying to achieve. If it’s to create more delicious vegetarian options for all eaters, they're doing that. If it's to mimic meat as a means of luring non-vegetarians to the game, some are scoring better than others.

In any case, most have been able to attract positively irresponsible amounts of investor funding with a collective valuation in excess of $3 billion.

I've included a side-by-side photo of what's advertised and what actually shows up on the plate, in case you cared. Indeed, expectation versus reality as it relates to the meat-free movement is a theme I will return to later.

Rebel Burger, v2 Foods ($7.50)

Australia’s claim to plant burger fame, v2food’s Rebel Burger, was developed in partnership with the CSIRO, Main Sequence Ventures, and Jack Cowin’s Competitive Foods Australia, which owns Hungry Jack’s.

And a Hungry Jacks outlet in the domestic terminal of Melbourne’s Airport is exactly where I found myself, ready to sample some of the franchises finest cuisine

The Rebel Burger presents an exceptional alternative to the bubble-and-squeak style patties of my 90s childhood. Gone are the anemically-pale battered rounds, studded with a few sad kernels of corn and wrinkled green peas. If you’ve been vegetarian for a while, and have put away your share of soy-based stodge over the years, you’re going to be impressed.

Even if you’re an omnivore, this isn’t a bad burger! But it ain’t meat. Anyone that claims to be fooled clearly hasn’t eaten any in some time and shouldn’t be trusted.

It has a smoky umami flavour that reminds one of a nice seitan. The other major giveaway is the suspiciously smooth edges that announces, yes dear reader, you're eating another highly processed vegetarian substitute.

Really though, if you’re having a Hungry Jacks burger, the overwhelming flavour is of pickles, the mayonnaise-ketchup combo (fancy sauce), and in the case of the Rebel Burger, Australian engineered BioCheese. Simply appreciate the immensity of food technology sitting between your vegan buns at $7.50 a pop. I would eat again— not under much duress.

Beyond Burger, Beyond Meat  ($16.50)

Launching out of the US, Beyond Meat is the major competitor to Company #3 (to follow). When they went public in May 2019, landing a $1.5 billion val overnight, they became the largest IPO in 20 years. Their products are sold under a variety of obvious yet amusing names (Beyond Sausage, Beyond Burger, Beyond Beef Crumbs). Righto.

It’s at this point that I feel my experiment drifted from fair scientific method; on the day I sampled the Beyond Burger, I felt possessed by some malign evil to take my burger with the Grill'd "Low Carb Bun" option. Frankly, what arrived was a thin bread frisbee perched on top of a lettuce scaffolding. In all honesty, I was too distracted by the bun to jot down a proper critique; you probably need to cross check all this for yourself.

For the price point, this is the best value product on the market and reasonably convincing as a beef pattie. The use of beetroot gives the burger colour and juice, mimicking the organic oozing of medium rare red meat.

If I were to make a negative comment—which I love to do—I'd say the pinky color was too pink.

The Impossible Burger, Impossible Foods ($38.00)

You’ve probably heard of them and their outrageous cap raises: USD $1.2 billion over 12 rounds. They are the classics of the genre; what Hugh Grant is to romantic comedy, they are to plant protein. I'm talking about California giants Impossible Foods.

In my opinion, Impossible Foods have absolutely nailed the challenge of creating an honest-to-goodness, convincing replica of a traditional burger.

The mouthfeel (gross word, bear with me) is rich, the appearance is accurate, and the taste is spot on. In fact, without having a prior awareness of its non-meat status (priming your suspicions of whatever minor, minor inconsistencies you may detect) you wouldn’t question this burger as anything other than the real deal if it appeared at your local pub.

You would, however, question the price tag after the meal and ask whether it had been sprinkled with shavings of white truffle singularly foraged by labradoodles in the Basque high mountains, because this burger will set you back $34 Singaporean (about $38 AUD in the summer of 2020).

You’ll also have the added expense of airfare as Impossible Burgers are currently not available in Australia.

This product is definitely not at an acceptable price point for the category yet. For some it may always be a gimmick, but credit where credit’s due, Impossible Foods are proving out the concept and it is a knockout when compared with the product it seeks to substitute.

Final Thoughts

Whilst I was eating 3 times more burgers than usual, the question came to me: do we really need products that perfectly replicate meat before people will consider meat-free meals?

Is the entire spectrum of wholefoods - vegetables, eggs, cheese - so inferior that we need to engineer multi billion dollar, processed food stuffs?

While more and more people identify as conscious omnivores, an entirely meat-free future isn't here yet and isn't being demanded by the majority of consumers. My personal opinion is that future will never arrive in the way alt-protein advocates predict.

To believe so ignores the environmental role livestock and animal husbandry can play in regenerative agriculture, and to the economy. It also disregards the deep cultural values expressed through raising animals, preparing food and sharing recipes with people we love.

Plant proteins like our burgers here will take their share of the market next to the lesser niches of cell-cultured meat and insect protein. But I suspect they will find themselves next to the even larger market segment of premium animal products, grown in response to consumer preference for high welfare, provenance branded and sustainably raised produce.

At the very least, the alt-protein sector feels over-valued by the venture market.

How often do you eat burgers, anyway..?

https://www.sproutx.com.au/