“It feels very different from the Impossible and Beyond heyday,” said Lisa Curtis, founder and CEO of Kuli Kuli Foods, a fast-growing superfood brand. “The cow is back, though often regeneratively grown and with call-outs to animal welfare.”
While not a new topic, regenerative agriculture was on the front burner via prominent on-site sessions and exhibitors’ packaging and positioning.
“Yes, the cow is back, but it’s back in a more mindful way,” said Olga Osminkina-Jones, global president and chief growth officer at Violife. “It’s setting the stage for better-for-you products and compositions that blend plant-based with dairy.”
Food should taste good
Meat substitutes were still on display—via brands like Meati, Actual Veggies, and the mycelium-based MyForest, among others—while Impossible announced its first steak product, zero-cholesterol steak bites.
In keeping with another spiking trend, nearly all the plant-based players were touting the results of their ongoing R&D and product tinkering, intending to bring back buyers who dipped into the category but didn’t return. Lapsed shoppers have said they were suspicious of the long, unintelligible ingredient lists and unhappy with the flavor profiles.
“All the innovation is around cleaner, simpler ingredients—and better taste,” said Dayton Miller, managing partner at investor BFG Partners.
Along with product reformulations, there’s been a marked change in advertising in plant-based products, according to Osminkina-Jones, who noted Violife’s emphasis on “simple indulgence” and taste so buyers don’t feel like they’re compromising.
“The way to connect with consumers has shifted away from a very dogmatic stance to a much more inclusive place of inviting everyone to the table,” she said.
The Ozempic effect
The predictions are head-turning: J.P. Morgan research shows that 30 million people in the U.S. will use GLP-1 drugs by 2030. That translates to about 9% of the population, with sales expected to top $100 billion.