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- 1. The Beef with “Fake” Meat Duyen Pham SSC. 356
- 2. To label, or not to label, that is the question
- 3. The rise of scientific food innovations • Plant-based meat product companies: • Impossible Foods • Uses the soybean plant protein, “heme” • Beyond Meat • Peas and mung bean • Tofurky • Tofu and soybeans
- 4. The rise of scientific food innovations (cont’d) • Lab-grown meat product companies: • Finless Foods • Uses cellular-agriculture technologies to grow marine- animal cells, creating fish and seafood products • Memphis Meats • Sourcing high-quality cells from animals and cultivating them into meat
- 5. Clean meat vs. Plant- based meat • Good Food Institute • Clean meat: “meat” grown in a lab from a small amount of animal stem cells. • Plant-based meat: anything that mimics traditional meat but is made mainly using plant ingredients
- 6. Labeling law lawsuits • August 2018: Tofurky sues Missouri • Sued to defend right to use words like "sausage" and "hot dogs" to describe company’s plant-based products • July 2018: Tofurky sues Arkansas • July 2018: Upton’s Naturals sues Mississippi • Restricted them from using words like "meatless meatballs," "hot dogs," and "veggie burgers" to describe company’s products
- 7. Why is labeling fake meat, “meat”, a problem anyways? Growing demand of plant-based products overpowering animal products Allied Market Research: plant-based industry could bring in $5.2 billion in sales by 2020, and that means a lot more “fake meat” products will be hitting the shelves. Misconception about the legitimacy of meat National Cattlemen's Beef Association filed a 15-page petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on mislabeling speculation
- 8. Labeling importance Consumer confusion • Product familiarity influences likelihood of purchasing product • HealthFocus International data: 60% of U.S. consumers claimed reducing meat-based products • Of those reducing, 55% say diet change is permanent. (CNBC) Free speech Costs • Redo labeling for different states • Mislabeling can lead to fines depending on state laws (MI)
- 9. What should we do? Spread awareness! • Virginia bill for meat labeling voted down due to consumer confusion
- 10. References Beyond Meat. (n.d.) Ingredients. Beyond Meat. Retrieved from https://www.beyondmeat.com/about/our-ingredients/ Golan, E., Kuchler, F., Mitchell, L., Greene, C., & Jessup, A. (2001). Economics of Food Labeling. Journal of Consumer Policy, 24(2) 117-184. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012272504846 Graça, J., Oliveira, A., & Manuela-Calheirosa, M. (2015). Meat, beyond the plate. Data-driven hypotheses for understanding consumer willingness to adopt a more plant-based diet. Appetite. 90, 80-90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2015.02.037 Hoek, A. C., van Boekel, M. A. J. S., Voordouw, J., & Luning, P. A. (2011). Identification of new food alternatives: How do consumers categorize meat and meat substitutes? Food Quality and Preference, 22(4), 371-383. https://doi- org.ezproxymcp.flo.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2011.01.008 Impossible Foods. (n.d.) Science. Impossible Foods. Retrieved from https://impossiblefoods.com/heme/ Memphis Meats. (n.d.) About us. Memphis Meats. Retrieved from https://www.memphismeats.com/home/#aboutus Pimentel, D. & Pimentel, M. (2003) Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 78(3), 660–663. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/78.3.660S Popper, N. (2019, February). You Call That Meat? Not So Fast, Cattle Ranchers Say. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/09/technology/meat-veggie-burgers-lab-produced.html. Reinicke, C. (2019, August 11). These 3 lawsuits are protecting the rights of companies like Beyond Meat to call their products 'burgers', 'hot dogs,' and other words associated with meat. Markets Insider. Retrieved from https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/what-states- have-laws-what-to-call-plant-based-meat-2019-7-1028436300#1-tofurky-sues-missouri1. Selyukh, A. (2019, July 23). What Gets To Be A 'Burger'? States Restrict Labels On Plant- Based Meat. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/07/23/744083270/what-gets-to-be-a-burger-states-restrict-labels-on-plant-based-meat. Tofurky. (n.d.) Our foods. Tofurky. Retrieved from https://tofurky.com/our-story/yum-for-all/ Finless Foods Inc. (n.d.) Inside Finless Foods. Finless Foods. Retrieved from https://finlessfoods.com/about/ Urbi, J. (2018, July 13). The fight against 'fake meat' has officially begun. CNBC. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/23/the-fight-against-fake-meat-has-officially-begun.html.
Editor's Notes
- As people are starting to become more health conscious about their diets, the introduction of plant-based and imitation meats have been growing in popularity where fast food chains such as Burger King has incorporated the Impossible Whopper, a plant-based burger made in collaboration with Impossible Food, into its menu. However, the controversy behind deeming the legitimacy of imitation and lab-grown meat as “meat” has become a source of debate, and competitors try to use that to their advantage to influence consumers from buying food products not originating from animal products.
- Before I start talking about this topic, I want to provide some background information of popular plant-based and lab-grown meat product companies. Impossible Foods creates produces plant-based meat through the use of a soybean plant protein called “heme” to replicate the taste and texture of animal meat. Beyond Meat, on the other hand, creates plant-based food products from a variety of vegetables such as peas, mung beans, beet juice extract, and etc. instead. Similar to Beyond Meat, Tofurky uses vegetables for their plant-based products along with soy products such as tofu and whole soybeans.
- While plant-based food products offer a sustainable way of producing imitation meat products, companies that produce real meat from lab-grown animal cells as another way to sustainably produce meat. Finless Foods uses cellular technology to grown their seafood products and Memphis Meats uses animal cells to make their meat products. Although Pimentel (2003) claimed that both a lactovegetarian and plant-based diet wouldn’t be sustainable for the environment due to fossil fuel output from food production, meat-based diets require more energy, water, and land resources.
- The different ways meat is produced sustainably either as a plant-based product or a lab-grown product puts them into two categories: clean meat and plant-based meat. According to the Good Food Institute in Reinicke’s article (2019), clean meat is considered “meat” that is grown in a lab from animal stem cells while plant-based meat is just any food product that imitates traditional meat but uses plant ingredients. Categorization plays a big part in how likely consumers will buy a certain product in which according to Hoek, et al. (2011) did research on how non-vegetarian eaters would sort meat and substitute meat products where both products were categorized together due to their processed nature.
- As companies like the ones mentioned previously are starting to become more involved in public consumption, issues about labeling food products that aren’t directly sourced from animals start becoming controversial and are brought to court. Some examples of lawsuits regarding labeling laws restricting imitation meat from having labels associated with animal products are Tofurky and Upton’s Naturals. According to Reinicke, Tofurky sued Missouri to defend its right to use words like "sausage" and "hot dogs" to describe its products, as long as other packaging made it clear that they were derived from plants. The Missouri law prohibits misrepresenting any product as meat if it does not come from a slaughtered animal. Tofurky has also sued Arkansas on the basis that the state violated the First Amendment of free speech, and that the company should be allowed to use meat labels on their products. Similar to Tofurky, Upton’s Naturals sued Mississippi for preventing the company from using words like “meatball” and others to describe their products. As labeling laws try to restrict these companies from labeling their products as “meat”, these companies in turn challenge these enforced laws.
- So why is there a problem with companies being prevented from using labels to associate their plant-based and lab-grown products as meat? According to Allied Market Research in Urbi’s article (2018), the plant-based industry could bring in $5.2 billion in sales by 2020 which could mean that more “fake meat” products will be displayed more in stores. Due to the growing demand of imitation meat consumption, this can threaten and reduce animal product sales as people start to become more accustomed to consuming food products that don’t contain animal products. As companies that have held a long tradition of producing animal food products feel threatened by this change, they become concerned about the legitimacy of how the public interprets meat. According to Urbi (2018), “the National Cattleman’s Beef Association filed a 15-page petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture calling for an official definition for the term ‘beef’, and more broadly, ‘meat’.”. Lia Biondo, the association’s policy and outreach director, said, “While at this time alternative protein sources are not a direct threat to the beef industry, we do see improper labeling of these products as misleading.”.
- Why is allowing plant-based meat to be labeled as meat important? Labeling imitation and lab-grown meat products can make these products more familiar to consumers and decreases confusion. If a consumer can associate a food product with something they are familiar with, they would be more likely to purchase and try the product. This would in turn influence more consumers to become more likely to transition to healthier diets. According to data from HealthFocus International in Urbi’s article, 60% of U.S. consumers claimed to be reducing their consumption of meat-based products while those who have reduced said that the change is permanent. Graca, et al. (2015) has shown in their study that “a pattern of low affective connection towards meat and willingness to change habits” contributes to how individuals become more likely to adopt a more plant-based diet. Allowing companies that promote sustainable food products that aim to reduce meat consumption in those who want to eat more sustainably provides creative freedom and further development of healthier and sustainable food options. Redoing labels for different states with different laws can be expensive and prevents companies from being able to fully describe their products to their consumers on the packaging. There’s also the possibility of getting fined for breaking labeling laws in certain states where fines can be as much as $1,000 per mislabeled product according to the Plant-Based Foods Association in Reinicke’s article. Kuchler, et al. (2001) also mentioned how the use of labels plays an economical role in how products are sold and are integral to company profits and product marketability.
- What can you do to address this issue with meat labeling? Spread awareness! For example, a bill in Virginia was voted down after lawmakers received a letter from the National Grocers Association, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Plant Based Foods Association that defended increasingly popular products. It said requiring “new and unfamiliar packaging would only confuse shoppers and frustrate retailers at a time when demand for such options is at an all-time high,” growing at 23 percent a year. (NYT, 2019).