Food companies are investing in research and development (R&D) of plant based alternatives to stay competitive and drive innovation in the industry. By investing a large amount in R&D, companies are looking to offer the best alternative protein products.
Beyond Meat has been a disruptor in plant based meat segment with product innovations in flavor, texture, and overall full sensory elements. R&D and innovation has been the company’s core strategy giving it a competitive advantage over its peers. This has enabled the company improve its market share in plant based meat category from 2.3% in 2016 to 22% in 2020, indicating an average of 4.3% market share gain each year.
Beyond Meat is further innovating with its plans to establish a state-of-the-art global headquarters and plant-based research center in California, the US. The campus is expected to open later in 2021 and will see 3-4x increase in research personnels from the current number. The center will support innovation, advanced research labs and the incubation of ideas that further disrupt plant-based market and will aim to develop plant based meat that is equivalent to animal protein. Beyond Meat’s R&D spend totaled US$29 million, US$21 million, and US$10 million, in FY2020, FY2019, and FY2018, respectively, an increase of 74% on an average over 2018-20 period.
In October 2020, Impossible Foods announced plans to double its R&D team over the next 12 months. The company has raised $700 million in two rounds in 2020 and intends to leverage the funding for expansion of technology platform and R&D team. The company is also launching Impossible Investigator project and looking for best scientists to help eliminate animal agriculture.
Else Nutrition, a plant-based baby, toddler and children nutrition company, established a new R&D division in December 2020 to develop plant based alternatives for parents seeking sustainable and clean products for their children. The new team will leverage the company's intellectual property (IP) portfolio and will utilize the innovation lab to offer clean and plant based products for infant, toddler and adults as well as other food category segments.
Nestle launched R&D Accelerator at its R&D center in Konolfingen, Switzerland, to support innovation and increase speed-to-market of sustainable dairy products, September 2020. The accelerator allows start-ups, students and scientists to leverage Nestle's expertise in dairy and plant protein to ideate and commercialize products.
Unilever and Kellogg’s collaborated with Future Food-Tech Summit to introduce the Innovation Challenge in March 2021. The companies are inviting start-ups to the Summit to discuss critical issues faced by food industry and look for plant based ideas to support digestive wellness.
Unilever aims to offer affordable and sustainable plant based dairy and meat alternatives and to do this it is seeking for processing technologies which could enable it achieve this. Unilever is also focusing on finding ingredients which can improve the texture and flavor of plant based alternatives, February 2021. This initiative is in line with the company’s goal to achieve plant based meat and dairy alternatives sales of EUR1 billion annually in the coming five to seven years.
The company plans to increase its R&D investments over the next three years. Under its Future Foods ambition, the company intends to reduce environmental impact and support consumers’ in their shift to a healthy diet. To this end, the company aims to double positive nutrition products by 2025.
DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences is investing on open innovation strategy as part of which it partnered with Plug and Play, a global innovation platform. In 2021, DuPont established Plug and Play at Illinois, the US, which would give it access to emerging technologies.
As an investor in Plug and Play, DuPont will quicken the development of plant-based proteins and bring in innovation faster to the market. Via this partnership, the company has been able to gain access to innovative technology in plant-based proteins, promising start-ups, functional ingredients and perform consumer testing before launching the product into the market.
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