Dive Brief:
- Quorn Foods, one of the original meat-free protein producers, will blend its mycoprotein ingredient with meat to make products such as burgers and sausage.
- The project, which will launch later this year, is part of the brand’s evolution from helping a “few people eat no meat” to helping “everyone eat less meat,” the company said. The Quorn name will not be used on menus or packaging of the offered products as the company’s involvement ends with supplying its mycoprotein ingredient to customers, it said.
- This effort is an extension to Quorn’s B2B division Marlow Ingredients, which it created last year, as the supplier of its mycoprotein. The products will be comprised half of the fungi-based ingredient and half conventional meat.
Dive Insight:
The plant-based food industry has faced criticism for being “exclusive” when it comes to its messaging, and some brands are looking to move away from the rhetoric as a result.
Some experts have said that blended meat, and dairy, products are the future for the plant-based category, in that they don’t pigeon hole consumers into identifying as animal-free or not.
Quorn has secured customers for its blended product, such as the U.K.’s National Health Service. It is one of the oldest companies in the plant-based category and has been selling products since 1985. Quorn’s move to blended meat may point to a shift in the strategy of other companies within the space.
Brands, such as Smug, have milk, cheese and butter products that contain different combinations of plant-based ingredients as well as conventional animal products where these foods traditionally come from.
50/50 Foods also carries a burger product that is half beef and half veggies. The company is looking to target “flexitarians,” or people who consume meat and dairy but also want to cut down on the consumption of animal products.
Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuiness said in a previous interview that he feels the category has become “over intellectualized,” and at the end of the day it’s just burgers and hot dogs.
