"Dragging the bag" is my fond phrase for filling a thermo-insulated sample bag with frozen gel packs and portioned meat samples and spending the day seeing prospects and customers. I drag my heavy sample bag in and out of restaurants, universities, hospitals, grills and catering kitchens all the day long. I’ve been "dragging the bag" now for nearly 30 years.

It’s my favorite part about the job really, as I get to see people, grill up delicious meats, and sample them throughout the day. What a dream job! Plus, it works well with my high protein, low carb diet …

I added alt-meat samples to my bag earlier this year. I’ve been cooking up plant-based patties and grinds up alongside the big-named market leaders in this category. I’ve won some taste tests and lost many, too. I’d say my win percentage is about 50%.

It seems that everyone’s pallet is wired in a completely unique way in their brains. What I think tastes better is not the same for you. When using panels of four-to-12 people, which I often do for taste-tests, half the participants like one sample while the other half prefers the second or third sample. I’ve observed this phenomenon while sampling beef patties, bacon, sausages, hot dogs and now alt-meat products.

What I’ve experienced so far sampling alt-meat patties is that the demand for these products seems to be shrinking, or remaining relatively flat. I know this likely contradicts what you’ve read about the "incredible demand" and growth of the alt-meat sector. It’s true enough that there are more companies entering this new sector, and fundraising for research is growing, even being fueled by USDA grants.

But here in the trenches, growth appears flat. Restaurants are selling a just a few cases a week of plant-based products. Retailers are cutting back on their offerings, and most are reporting "less than spectacular" sales of plant-based products. One major retail chain buyer told me that the only brands doing well at all are the two big name brands, Beyond and Impossible, because they are pouring millions into marketing.

In my neighborhood retail store, many of the plant-based brands that were in the case a year ago — or even six months ago — are now gone. Six feet of space for this category is now only two feet wide.

I’ve sampled the plant-based products in the universities and hospitals I sell meat to. Overall, I’ve found a healthy skepticism on the part of nutritionists and dieticians about the ingredients in the plant-based products. One registered dietician at a hospital told me she’d currently not allow these products on the menu. The primary reason for this is the amino-acid make-up. For more information about this issue, see the August issue of Alt-Meat magazine.

But inferior protein quality isn’t the only issue that’s arisen so far. Many prospects are also leery of the imported ingredients used. For example, many plant-based products contain methylcellulose, which is most commonly sourced from China. Others contain carrageenan, which is normally sourced from East Asia. These imported ingredients are a concern not just because it’s more difficult to verify the production integrity measures (i.e. food safety), but also because of the global logistics and interruptions in supply chains that COVID has caused. Does a national chain want to be told, “Sorry, we can’t ship your plant-based product this week because of supply disruptions due to the fact that the ports and shipping containers are all backed up across the Pacific.”?

So to summarize my six-month progress report with selling alt-meat products, it’s been less than spectacular, and the demand isn’t really there. Did you see a major chicken-wing chain recently start a national ad campaign on TV featuring plant-based chicken? No. They started pushing real beef burgers instead! That’s because they can keep the lights on selling burgers, whereas they can’t if they sell chicken wings or plant-based chicken.

This has been my experience. What has yours been? Do you think the alt-meat sector just needs more time to grow and improve, like the automobile of a hundred years ago? Or do you think consumer demand will reaffirm what’s tried and true?

Selling alt-meats, a six-month progress report

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