New Nutrition Business Podcast

Plant-based dairy is settling down as a niche business – contrary to what consultants and the media have been telling you. There's nothing wrong with being niche! But exaggerated claims that 'plant-based will replace dairy' always ignored food culture and food science, and the simple fact that most plant-based dairy just doesn't taste good enough. This week I focus on plant-based yoghurt and ice-cream, where sales growth is slowing sharply, and look at how plant-based under-performance has already cost one CEO his job. Time: 10 minutes.

Billionaire investors thought they could 'disrupt' livestock farming. They thought that meat substitutes would be an easy way to make their next billion. But they are having a shock encounter with reality. Consumers see meat substitutes as expensive novelties and are sticking with beef and lamb. As a result, losses are up - by 240% - at Beyond, the best-known brand in the substitute sector. Beyond's US retail sales fell by 20% at the end of 2021. Will Beyond become one of the biggest failures in food industry history?

If you want your business to succeed in health and nutrition it’s important to understand economics as much as nutrition science and consumer sentiment. Over the next 18 months we will see the chickens come home to roost for businesses that have neglected to focus on creating a successful economic model.

Oatly, probably the world’s best-known plant milk brand, has announced sales in the first nine months of 2021 up 55% compared to the same period in 2020. But every $1 of product it sells costs it $1.26 to produce and as a result its losses are also up – by 700%.

Beyond Meat, the California-based plant substitute maker which raised a billion dollars to fund its ambition to get consumers to switch away from meat, has reported falling retail sales in the key US market, a collapse in its gross margin and mounting losses. And this isn’t just a story of one brand failing – the much- hyped US plant-based meat alternative category started to decline in 2021, even as sales of meat increased.

Low-carb diets are gaining momentum among the mainstream, and they're even being recognised as a treatment for type 2 diabetes. In this episode we talk to a UK general practitioner that has successfully been using a low carb diet to help his patients put type 2 diabetes into remission and improve the health of those with prediabetes.

For most people today, the term “cholesterol-lowering food" doesn’t ring any bells, but its history provides food businesses valuable lessons. As we find ourselves in another cycle of big investors and food companies pouring millions of dollars into the belief that they can “disrupt the food system” and “change people’s food choices”, it's worth revisiting the story of cholesterol-lowering to remind ourselves that, in food, technology isn't everything.

From soy and pea, to duckweed and moringa, plant-based proteins are having a moment. Julian Mellentin and plant protein expert Paul Hart do a deep dive into this area, and discuss why yellow split pea is the ‘new soy’, how plant proteins measure up against animal-sourced proteins, why ‘chemical’ ingredient inventories run counter to consumers’ beliefs, and more.

Sales have grown, year-on-year, for Beyond Meat, maker of plant-based meat substitutes. But comparing one quarter to another, sales have stalled. Gross margin has slumped, and not only has Beyond not made a profit in any of its four years of trading, but its losses have worsened. Currently it is incurring $9 of costs for every $8 of sales. It’s little surprise that it is highlighting to the stock market its high hopes for new deals with McDonalds, PepsiCo and others.

A major cheese snacking brand has taken a bold and innovative step which will either confound all sceptics and create a new category – or repeat a mistake that tens of companies have made before.