Test water restaurants, plant meat accelerates "flying into ordinary people's homes"

Plant meat, which has always been favored by the capital market, has undergone new changes this year

Entering the catering side in the form of regular dishes, facing the mass consumers, and letting the market be the touchstone, the popularization and promotion of plant-based meat products can be said to be moving faster and faster

Plant-based meat products, which are favored by capital, quickly descended to the catering side.

Yang Feng/Text

Plant meat test water restaurant, how is the feedback?

In the Fu Zhuangyuan chain store located on Suoling Road, Zhengzhou, new products of vegetable meat series appeared at the top of the menu, including roasted eggplant with vegetable meat sauce, fried dragon bean with vegetable meat sauce, shepherd's purse vegetable meat patty, and vegetable meat sauce noodles.

The staff in the store said that the order rate of the new vegetable meat series dishes is good, and the average monthly order volume remains at 40 or 50 orders

Wen Kai, head of the brand department of Henan Fuzhuangyuan Catering Management Co.

Wen Kai said that catering mainly depends on taste, especially for mass catering, diners pay more attention to taste and quality

When it comes to the popularity of plant meat in mass catering, he believes that there are still problems such as high raw material prices, low cost performance, too few peripheral products, and a slightly single product line, and there is still a long way to go

He Guitao, the key account manager of Knorr Henan Office, said that the promotion of plant meat in Zhengzhou is another test of water based on the successful experience of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou

Unilever's plant meat brand "Zhizhuo Meatmaker" originated from the Netherlands and officially joined the Unilever global brand family in 2018; in 2020, Unilever proposed the "Future Food" initiative, committed to creating a healthier, A more sustainable global food system, the listing of Ukusa Butcher is an important milestone in the implementation of this initiative

Plant meat continues to heat up, and market demand and scale are optimistic

According to the data, artificial meat can be divided into two categories: one is plant meat; the other is cultured meat

Plant meat usually uses soybeans and peas as raw materials to separate plant protein and fiber, and then add pigments, flavors, trace minerals, vitamins and other ingredients through heating, pressure change, freezing, etc.

At present, the relatively mature technology is plant meat, which is cheaper than cultured meat and is easily accepted by consumers

In terms of cultured meat, the representative company is Memphis Meat.

Research firm Marketsand Markets predicts that the global market size of plant-based artificial meat is about US$12.

Although the size of the market remains to be verified, plant-based meat is indeed needed by some groups

The market is still in the incubation period, and reducing production costs is the key

In just two years, vegetable meat has entered the mass catering industry from the "darling" in the eyes of capital, and the development speed is not unpleasant
.
Some industry insiders pointed out that consumer recognition and reducing production costs are still the key factors hindering the popularization of plant meat to the public
.
However, in recent years, the public's eating habits have begun to change to health, which makes plant meat have the potential and prospect of explosion
.

As an early domestic enterprise engaged in the research and development and promotion of plant meat, Shenzhen Qishan Food Co.
, Ltd.
(referred to as "Qishan Food") has been focusing on the industry for more than 30 years
.

　　Zhou Qiyu, senior manager of the marketing department of Qishan Foods, said that vegetable meat is still in the stage of market cultivation and development
.
As the popularity of plant meat continues to rise, there are indeed many companies entering this track
.

　　He believes that with large-scale production, the cost can be reduced
.
The core factor restricting the development of plant meat is technological development, because only technological development can truly solve market pain points
.

　　In particular, the mass catering consumers have to pay for the dishes, it must be because of the taste, which is simply delicious
.
For mass catering operators, the first consideration is sales
.
From this perspective, there is still a long way to go before plant meat is popularized in mass catering
.

　　On the supply side, many companies have made efforts
.
For example, in 2020, Shuanghui Vegetarian Industry, a subsidiary of Shuanghui, launched hand-shredded protein meat; as early as 2012, Shuangta Foods started the pea protein purification technology
.
In addition to pea protein, the company's technology also covers mung bean protein and broad bean protein
.
The variety of plant protein extends to pea protein peptide, mung bean protein peptide, tissue protein and silk protein; in 2019, Jinzi ham announced that the company's plant meat products are now ready for mass production, with a production capacity of 4 tons per day
.

　　Whether it is in the capital market or on the sales side, vegetable meat can be said to continue to heat up, and some people once exclaimed that the "wave is coming" for vegetable meat
.

　　In the face of the real market test, Zhou Qiyu remained calm
.
He said that none of these will change the status quo of plant meat development - the market is still in the cultivation stage
.
It is expected that it will take five to ten years before plant-based meat is truly popularized in mass catering
.

       "China Food News" (May 13, 2021 05 edition)

(Editor-in-charge: Zhao Yingying)