b'the WHERESMEAT?WITH PLANT-BASED PROTEIN PRODUCTS BECOMING A BIGGER COMMODITY EVERY DAY, WE WANTED TO GET THE SKINNY ON HOW PLANT-BASED FOODS LOOK SO MUCH LIKE THEIR ANIMAL-BASED COUNTERPARTS.BY: ALEX MARTINP lant-based proteins. Just mention- and how its run. niessawdifferent ing the idea can stir up a room Bothcompaimmediately, people take sides.answers to this problem and created two Pro-meat, neutral or pro plant-based.different, unique products. Its hard not to have an opinion on them,Impossible Foods saw a huge prob-even though many people havent had thelem in the fact that animal agriculture chance to taste these proteins.occupies almost half the land on Earth However, according to the websiteand consumes a quarter of our freshwa-Plant Based Foods, theres been a 14.7 perter. Their solution? Lets not use animals cent growth of plant-based proteins sinceagain, and instead, create a copycat beef 2014, and by 2020, the global plant-basedproduct made of these plant proteins. And protein market is projected to reach $5thus, the Impossible Burger was formed.billion. While there might be strong opin- JUST saw that the food systems ions about plant-based proteins, therestools were limited, and there were a lot also an increasing curiosity amongst theof underused foods that could provide global market. tremendous benefit to them instead of In the past years, theres been athe core ingredients that big food compa-growing global awareness in the U.S. andnies use: soy, corn, processed sugar and over the world. People are starting toanimal protein. After a lot of exploring, understand that we live in a finite worldJUST created JUST Egg, a plant-based, and resources matter, says Udi Lazimy,protein-packed product that cooks up senior sustainability and sourcing man- and tastes like real eggs. ager at JUST, a company based in SanAnimal protein isnt necessary to Francisco, Calif., that has been research- Udi Lazimy is senior sustainability and sourcingcreate really good food, Lazimy says. ing and working with plant-based foodsmanager at JUST. Were looking to use plant protein and cultured meat.to replace things like eggs and dairy, We wanted to look at how to makebecause they arent necessary if plants the food system better, and we think thatcan function the same way. We think itll plant-based solutions offer a path to solvemake everything a lot more sustainable.a lot of the problems within our currentThe plant-basedIn order to produce these products, food system, he says. both companies had to think outside of Nick Halla, senior vice president forfood sector grewthe box when it came to ingredients.International of Impossible Foods, the20% in retail sales,The Impossible Burger mixes a few company that created the Impossibledifferent proteins together: soy protein to Burger, agrees. After growing up on aas compared to 2%get the chew right, potato protein for dairy farm and working at General Mills,growth for all foods,the form and texture, and heme, which is Halla sees that our current food systemfound in all meat products, to give it the isnt working. according to flavour. To make the Impossible Burgers From the economic challenges inPBFA-commissionedsizzle like meat, theyve included sun-agriculture and the resource pressure,flower oil to create the fat.theres plenty of problems popping up indata from Nielsen. You have to look at protein produc-our land resources, Halla says. The lifetion in different leaves and seeds to see we grew up with doesnt exist anymorewhat would help mimic the meat lookinstead, we need to change the systemand taste, Halla says. Weve learned 30IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'