Nestlé – the World’s Largest Food Processing Company, has come forward with a bold claim to challenge American Veggie-Protein leaders Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods for supremacy in the booming Meat Substitute sector. They call it a ‘PB Triple Play’…
The Triple Play Bacon Cheeseburger: Food processing giant Nestlé pushes its way
to the head of the line with a major product promise. The ‘no compromise’
Veggie Bacon Cheeseburger is slated for release next year.
It was inevitable that Nestlé – the world’s biggest player in the processed and packaged foods business – would enter the emerging Plant-Based Proteins game sooner or later. In spite of a curious public silence and apparent lack of action on the issue until now, the mega-glomerate has surprised the world with the announcement that it will market a complete three-pronged solution to the ultimate Meat replacement challenge: A totally ‘no compromise’ non-Meat Bacon Cheeseburger.
Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider said, in a release: “More and more consumers are looking for delicious, nutritious and sustainable plant-based options when they dine out. We have now raised the bar by developing a ‘PBtriple Play’ of ingredients for an all-time classic: the Bacon Cheeseburger. We’re continuing to make good on our promise to offer consumers food that is right for them and right for the planet.”
First, the Patty
You can’t have a burger of any kind without a Patty. So, Nestlé has started there, acquiring European Vegetarian Foods makers Sweet Earth and Garden Gourmet. Sweet Earth, acquired by Nestlé in 2017, is described in a company news release as, ‘a leader in the modern food movement with over 60 plant-based products. It was founded in 2012 and has produced 8 million pounds of plant-based protein and counting.’ Garden Gourmet has long been a major player in the Veggie Protein market with, ‘a history of more than 30 years in vegetarian and vegan food in Europe, and offer[ing] a wide range of Meat substitutes and Veggie-centric meals and ingredients.’
Nestlé’s Vegan Patty is touted as, ‘providing the perfectly juicy, Meat-like base,’ for the planned PB Triple Play experience.
Nestlé’s Sweet Earth Awesome Burger has already been released in the United States and its Garden Gourmet ‘Incredible Burger’ is in distribution in Europe both for retail sales and to the foodservice sector.
What about the Cheese and Bacon?
You’d think that a Vegetable-oil-based Cheddar Cheese Substitute would be a no-brainer for food engineers, considering how close common-and-garden variety American (Processed) Cheese comes to being animal-product free. But Nestlé says it’s gone one better producing a product that boasts, ‘the texture, meltability and delicious, rich taste of a dairy Cheese.’
The Bacon is the one component of the Triple Play that I want to examine and taste-test in minute detail. Nestlé will only say: ‘The Vegan Bacon alternative becomes crispy and chewy when cooked, similar to animal-based bacon, and has the same satisfying flavor.’
We’ll see…
My take
Nestlé has recently been making great PR hay from its pledge last year to reduce its carbon footprint and convert its food products offering to something more in line with a sustainable future human diet without Animal Protein will demand.
I – and others in the food-of-the-future prognostication business – have been saying for some time that we’ll have to drop Animal proteins altogether by 2050 at the latest to save the world’s climate from destruction by our own unhealthy farming and transportation practices. I’ll be interested in seeing how successful Nestlé is in converting itself from making conventional, Salt- Sugar- and Fat-based foods to sustainable, healthy, plant-based foods. One way or the other, the company will be making massive changes in its product lines and process infrastructure, not to mention its traditional research, development and corporate culture mindsets.
It’s easy to look at an outfit like Nestlé and pooh-pooh its new commitment to sustainable, Veggie-based foods as lip service to the current hype about the need to phase out animal-based foods. “We’ll believe it when wee see it,” folks will be saying. But I predict that Nestlé’s monumental change of course is the real deal, and its promises will be fulfilled. Otherwise, how will it retain its leadership role in the food production sector in the face of the inevitable environmental and agricultural changes? Staying first and biggest is the motivation at the root of all business decisions a company like Nestlé makes. It all comes back to the company mission statement promise: to maximize profits for the shareholders.
~ Maggie J.