After being targeted by the meat industry, swept up in the culture wars and pummeled in sales, two plant based meat companies are reinventing themselves.
It’s not exactly the best moment to pitch ultraprocessed foods as healthy and delicious, but that’s exactly what two major producers of plant-based meat are trying to do.
Beyond Meat wants to convince people that its vegan versions of meat products are good for you. So does its competitor, Impossible Foods, which recently changed its packaging colors from green to blood red, all the better to woo carnivores.
In the last year, Beyond Meat has reformulated some products to cut saturated fat and sodium and simplify its ingredient list. Impossible Foods launched a “health hub” and rebranded to emphasize tasty meatiness. Products from both companies have been deemed healthy by the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association.
It’s all part of an effort to reverse sagging sales of plant-based meat at a time when foods made through industrial processes, with lengthy ingredient lists, have come under increasing scrutiny. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, ordered a crackdown on ultraprocessed foods, new research has shown a link between ultraprocessed foods and adverse health effects and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for health secretary, has criticized processed foods.
Plant based meat is ultraprocessed, but not necessarily unhealthy, according to several experts. The products generally have less saturated fat, no cholesterol and more fiber than animal meat, and zero hormones or antibiotics.
An analysis of dozens of studies that was published last year in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology found that compared with meat, plant-based alternatives “generally lie on the range from roughly neutral to beneficial,” said Matthew Nagra, a naturopathic doctor in British Columbia who led the review.