An explosion of meat-replacement products has followed the path set by almond milk in the past few years, not just tempeh- or seitan- or soy-based products that taste nothing like meat, but meat simulacra. Beyond’s chicken strips taste and shred a lot like chicken; its burgers and its sausages are, if not quite indistinguishable from real meat, awfully close. The same goes for the mayo produced by Just, formerly Hampton Creek, and the Impossible Burger. Reviewers at Food & Wine, for instance, described the Impossible Burger as “really succulent and umami-y. Almost identical to beef.” A number of vegans I know hate them because they taste too gamy.
But many other consumers adore them, and sales have exploded, with investors pouring more and more money into plant-based start-ups. At Beyond’s initial public offering this year, the company raised $240 million, and its market value sits in the billions. Food giants such as Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland have made major investments in plant-based meat. All in all, more than half a billion dollars in investment poured into American plant-based dairy, egg, and meat companies in 2018. Retail sales are growing more than 20 percent year over year, versus just 2 percent for all retail food sales.
Cell-based meat, or “clean” meat—real meat produced in labs—has not become a commercial product yet. But analysts expect it to hit the shelves in 2021 or soon thereafter, and start-ups in this space, such as Memphis Meats, have raised tens of millions of dollars. One 2018 survey found that a third of American consumers, along with half of Indian and two-thirds of Chinese consumers, would be “very or extremely likely” to purchase cell-based meat.
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