The rise of the flexitarian means people are eating more plant-based foods and less meat. Doris Prodanovic speaks to v2food founder and CEO Nick Hazell about the trend.
Visit your nearest burger joint and you are likely to find a plant-based alternative on the menu. The meat substitute market, which includes vegan and plant-based foods, is set to reach $7.5 billion worldwide by 2025. According to IBISWorld analysts, Australia is also one of the largest growing vegan markets in the world.
Plant-based meats aim to replicate the experience of cooking and eating conventional meat, with food technologists developing combinations of plant proteins, fats, gums, spices and seasonings to to achieve similar appearance, texture and flavour.
Popular food chains such as Hungry Jack’s, Schnitz and Grill’d have all recently added plant-based options to their menus, taking advantage of the increasing demand.
“As the market continues to grow, we can expect more Australian manufacturers to jump aboard and embrace this trend to cater to the growing market,” IBISWorld senior industry analyst Bao Vuong told Food & Drink Business.
“If anything, Australian consumers would probably prefer to buy from an Australian manufacturer so there is definitely room for Australian plant-based food manufacturers to develop and grow.”
Plant-based play
A new player Australians can expect to see in the plant-based game is the joint venture v2food. The partners are Competitive Foods Australia (CFAL) and Main Sequence Ventures, which managers the CSIRO Innovation Fund. Former research director for Mars and PepsiCo, Nick Hazell, is leading v2food as the founder and CEO.
The collaboration involves CFAL CEO and founder of Hungry Jack’s, Jack Cowin. His group of businesses – meat processing company Comgroup, Domino’s Pizza Enterprises and PMFresh – are working with CSIRO’s food science and manufacturing expertise to achieve “sustainability of our food supply”.
