An increasingly plant based future is on the horizon, at least that is what PepsiCo’s senior director of research and development, Tim Ingmire, reckons.
According to VegNews, he made this reveal at London’s Future-Food tech conference, drawing on the French government’s recent $1.2 billion investment into the area to back up his views.
Tim Ingmire is not alone in his prediction, Roquette’s global product manager, Neelesh Varde, agrees. He has stated ‘at the end of the day, it’s survival of the fittest. Those companies that are willing to explore new materials that resonate with the consumer will survive…there’s a big push for non-GM and whether plant based breeding can be achieved to create selective characteristics without going down the GM route.’
Liz Specht who is the senior scientist at The Good Food Institute, an organisation that focuses on creating environmentally friendly plant based alternatives to meat, also stands with Ingmire. Specht has noticed a significant shift in the meat industry, large companies are increasingly reaching out to vegan brands for investment.
Even the world’s biggest meat producer has jumped on the plant-based wagon. Tyson Foods recently purchased five percent of Beyond Meat, the masterminds behind the first vegan, non-GM bleeding burger. Monica McGurk, the senior vice president of Tyson, labelled the company as a game-changer.
Another meat giant, Maple Leaf Foods, who’s usual focus is bacon have recently bought vegan Lightlife, an organisation who prefer to fake it with Tempeh when bacon is concerned. With more and more meat focused companies investing in the vegan way of life, the next decade could see plant-based protein becoming one the front runners of the food industry.
Image credit: FutureTech London | Beyond Meat
This post was last modified on December 15, 2020 5:52 am