Kellogg discontinued its Incogmeato burger, which is part of its MorningStar Farms brand lineup, it said in an emailed statement.
“We are always looking for ways to innovate our product offerings at MorningStar Farms,” the CPG giant said. “While we have discontinued the Incogmeato Burger, we continue to add products to our lineup every year, providing new ways for people to enjoy easy, delicious, veggie-filled meals at every occasion.”
While Kellogg has owned plant-based brand MorningStar Farms since 1999, it debuted Incogmeato products, including its burger, in 2020.
In the ensuing years, the plant-based meat category has faced headwinds as growth has stalled. While the Incogmeato burgers made it onto shelves, they never reached the level of ubiquity with consumers that Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat’s burgers have.
Nonetheless, Kellogg’s strategy for how to handle its plant-based segment has taken several turns in recent years.
In an interview with Food Dive last month, CEO Steve Cahillane said as the “shakeout” of the plant-based meat segment continues, the company sees MorningStar Farms as a strong asset to hold onto.
Last summer, the company announced plans to split off its plant-based unit into its own company as part of its strategy to “create entities with ‘significant’ potential while unlocking value for the company that hasn’t yet been realized by Wall Street,” CEO Steve Cahillane said in an interview with Food Dive last June. But the company walked back the decision to split off the plant-based segment in February because of the volatility of the plant-based segment, Cahillane said.
Its brands in the segment saw a yearly sales decrease of 15% in the third quarter of 2022 according to a quarterly earnings report last November, which Kellogg attributed to a supply disruption with a co-manufacturer.
Last month, the company announced it decided not to spin off its plant-based meat brands, and MorningStar Farms will now be a part of Kellanova, its new snacking business.
Kellogg’s North America president Chris Hood said the category is “ripe for consolidation” at a Wall Street presentation last month.
Overall, plant-based food category sales reached $8 billion in 2022, a 6.6% increase from the year prior, according to SPINS statistics. However, plant-based meat saw declines last year in both dollar sales — which were down 1.2% — and unit sales — which dropped 8.2%.
