CL: You said something interesting there when you use the term fad because when plant-based protein first kind of hit the market, I think a lot of people sort of thought of it as, "OK, this is another one of those miracle diet type of things that, you know, it's going to die out in six months or whatever." But it hasn't because you have a lot of different things that you can offer in terms of being an actual replacement for chicken or beef or something like that, as opposed to being an add-on or something. So, it seems like the market definitely has a lot more legs because it's not trying to be a miracle cure type of thing; rather it's more of a lifestyle change, isn't it?
JA: Yes. And in some cases, it's been around a while now. If you look at the dairy category, alternative dairy, soy milks have been around for a long time and they've just stuck it out. And I remember reading an article in 2010 about how long can this last and here we are 10 years later and they're growing, many are growing.
And I believe it truly is because of the headway that CPGs have made in making better food. The analogs now are as good or better than they've ever been from a taste perspective and no matter how you look at it, taste is king. If it doesn't taste great, I might buy it once and you might get a fragment of consumers that will stick with it because they're passionate about it. But general population, you buy it once and it's not good, you won't really buy it again.
CL: Jonathan, what have you seen over the last couple of years in terms of the market and business and things like that? And where do you see the next big jump coming for alternative protein?
Jonathan Jachimiec, MycoTechnology (JJ): When it comes down to it, and I think Jim will agree on this, is that there is a push for sustainability. There's definitely that sustainability push and two-thirds of customers are aware and want to have a positive impact on the environment; about one-third of consumers, in general, tend to buy a more environmentally friendly product. However, that's where we are currently, for instance, in the burger wars, right? The meat analog burgers are sustainable, there's no doubt about that, right? You're not using beef.
But the next trend that adds to that is the health-conscious aspect to it. So, really looking at the ingredients, are those ingredients truly more healthy for you than a beef patty? And the biggest aspect of that is how many ingredients are on the label to create that burger? We know beef is one ingredient, add salt and pepper, you might have three. But when it comes to a vegan burger, you're looking at 20-odd ingredients to produce that. We see the trend as reducing the ingredients and ultimately ingredients that consumers are knowledgeable on in the product. The formulation is going to change over the years, so Myco has a big part in being able to help drive that change. //
