
Can protein startups and their investors take on Big Cow? - janober
https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/12/can-protein-startups-and-their-investors-take-on-big-cow
======
xs
Hampton Creek is the makers of "Just Mayo" which is talked about in this
article. What isn't said is that they've been on the shelves at Target up
until 2 months ago when Target pulled all their products for an unknown
reason. Speculation has it that Hellmans was very upset that Just Mayo was
disrupting the mayo business and delivered falsified claims to Target trying
to get them to pull the products. It's a real slugfest right now.

On another note, Beyond Meat's founder was featured on "How I Built This", a
favorite podcast for many HN'ers.

~~~
pkaye
Hampton Creek had their own controversies. They early on would send out people
to buy their own mayo and create fake demand.

~~~
DiabloD3
How is that any different than handing out free product coupons like most
companies do to fake demand?

~~~
pkaye
They didn't give free product coupons to customers. They paid contractors to
secretly buy. With coupons, atleast customers can try it out and retailers are
aware that free products were given out.

edit: a link to a news article from a year ago. [http://www.foxnews.com/food-
drink/2016/09/23/report-alleges-...](http://www.foxnews.com/food-
drink/2016/09/23/report-alleges-hampton-creek-faked-hundreds-thousands-in-
sales-and-environmental-impact-claims.html)

------
nawitus
I recommend eating tofu as tofu, not as a fake meat. It's delicious if you
know how to prepare it.

~~~
borne0
Very true, Pad Thai without any protein aside from tofu is still delicious.

~~~
contingencies
Yep. Sugar, oil and salt with a bit of crunchy veg, chilli, soft rice noodles,
often egg, a touch of fish sauce and lime. Classic. Will definitely be on
offer at [http://8-food.com/](http://8-food.com/) launch :)

------
Animats
Several startups are trying to grow real meat in vitro. Memphis Meats (which
is in San Francisco, not Tennessee) has succeeded in growing chicken in vitro
from stem cells. Mark Post at the University of Maastricht has been able to
grow beef in vitro. This stuff tastes like meat from animals. It's the
production cost that's the problem.

That's going to be the good stuff. Further downscale are the processed soy
products. These are Soy Extender 2.0; textured vegetable protein processed to
make it taste more like meat. You can buy soy hamburger patties now, under the
Beyond Meat brand. Whole Foods carries them. Anyone tried one?

~~~
maxerickson
Beyond Meat isn't using soy:

[http://beyondmeat.com/products/view/beyond-
burger](http://beyondmeat.com/products/view/beyond-burger)

Apparently the protein is mostly peas.

------
nibstwo
I had a startup that made software for meat processing companies. It is pretty
horrifying being in meat plants but most people are not yet at the point where
they can accept not eating it. In my experience I feel better eating
occasional offal and grass-fed meat than I do regularly eating meat of any
other variety or eliminating it entirely. It is one thing to claim moral high
ground and simply avoid eating meat, and we can absolutely do away with it on
a taste basis based on what is coming out of vegan restaurants these days, but
the cultural shift will take a long time and "good enough" is clearly a higher
bar than tofu. I suspect it is somewhat like electric cars. A more political
issue than we like to admit and something where assuming the products were
comparable in price/taste/texture/experience people might opt for the socially
concious choice, that threshold simple isn't there for the majority of people
yet. A worthy pursuit but one that is not necessarily limited to startups. Big
Food and one off restaurants are pursuing these ideas more fundamentally than
anyone else is right now and I suspect that they will be the eventual winners
of the race to good enough. The meat industry is fundamentally antiquated the
way it is setup now and will simply shrink down to as demand wanes, or more
likely just switch to exporting.

------
jpao79
I really do think there is a pretty sise-able market at least in California
for people looking to reduce their intake of meat but not wanting to go full
vegan. People who like the taste of a good burger but want to be healthier
(more fiber, less fat and less antibiotics) and reduce the environmental
impacts. I am one of them.

I think one of the simplest solutions would be to have a different line of
products under a different brand name which had a mixture of plant based meat
alternative (i.e. Boca or Impossible Burger) to actual meat in the burger.
That way you get the taste of meat but the substrate is fiber based.

The level of actual meat could be adjusted like they do fat content for ground
beef (i.e. I'm feeling sorta vegan today so I'm gonna go 75% plant based
today).

The one thing I never understood is American vegetarian restaurants who serve
tofu steaks as the entire dish. This looks awful:

[http://www.pbs.org/food/fresh-tastes/asian-baked-
tofu/](http://www.pbs.org/food/fresh-tastes/asian-baked-tofu/)

Asian people always eat tofu blended in with a bunch of meat and vegetables
for the actual flavor. Here are some examples:

[http://thewoksoflife.com/category/recipes/tofu/](http://thewoksoflife.com/category/recipes/tofu/)

[http://thewoksoflife.com/2014/03/ma-po-tofu-real-
deal/](http://thewoksoflife.com/2014/03/ma-po-tofu-real-deal/)

~~~
pampa
> People who like the taste of a good burger but want to be healthier (more
> fiber, less fat and less antibiotics)

If the goal is to be healthier, why not just go with the highest quality beef
you can find, but eat it less often? A quality steak once a week sure must be
healthier than a heavily processed veggie burger every day (tho i have no data
to prove it).

------
tunesmith
I don't really understand why this stuff is in the news so much these days.
Boca burgers have been around forever and they taste fine - I tried Impossible
Foods and it's at best a marginal improvement. And as for mayo, Vegennaise has
been around for a while too and it's totally fine, other than getting a bit
soupy when the jar is almost empty.

------
cyanexttuesday
I hope so. If we can make meat or something really similar without killing
animals, I would consider this a huge win for lessening the misery of the
universe.

~~~
ovao
Is the universe at large legitimately impacted by our meat consumption? Off-
hand, I can't think of a single thing mankind has done that has more than
neglibly impacted anything beyond our own atmosphere.

~~~
dpc59
Most of the misery we know about isn't beyond our own atmosphere either.

~~~
ovao
The misery observable and relevant to us, yes, which I'm not discounting with
my comment.

------
CM30
Okay, am I the only one finding these 'Big Industry' names kind of ridiculous
now? Big Pharma, yeah that works. Big Tech? Sure I guess.

But calling these companies Big Cow just sounds utterly ridiculous. It just
doesn't work at all.

~~~
the8472
Plus we already have "Big Ag".

~~~
microcolonel
Big Farma'

~~~
justhw
Add Big Oil there too.

