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www.kitchenwarenews.com • JANUARY 2020 • KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW 17 Big Meat Muscles into Plant-Based Proteins Cont. on page 18 Cont. on page 18 Cont. on page 18 Makers of Plant-Based Meat Alternatives Headed to Court Private equity investors are staking their claims in plant-based proteins. Private investors Gregg and Jeff Hamann, who own Jensen Meat Company, a ground-beef company, acquired Before the Butcher in June of this year. The nearly two-year-old company producing soy-based meat alternatives launched its UNCUT line of soy-based burgers, rolling into more than 3,000 stores. Quorn, in the meat-alternatives business since 1985 with its products made f rom mycoprotein, is launching a bleeding burger as well as fishless fillets into retail in Britain this year. In the U.S., Impossible Foods plans to roll out its retail line this year, and Tyson Foods, which sold its stake in Beyond Meat in April of this year, has announced plans to launch its own line of meat-alternative products called Raised & Rooted into retail this year. The new Tyson brand will initially offer an imitation chicken nugget made f rom pea protein and egg white and a burger blend of beef and pea protein. Tyson is also planning to sell blends of chicken with plant protein under its existing Aidell's brand. "It's an opportunity to expand their line of protein options for the customer base on the marketplace. They realize that as we continue to grow as a countr y, and internationally -- by 2050, the anticipation is that we'll have over 9 billion people on this planet -- we can't feed everybody with just animal-based protein," said Danny O'Malley, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Before the Butcher. "The protein that's provided with plant-based foods, and what we've been able to do to mimic meat the way we do, people find it not only an acceptable alternative to meat but a preferred alternative in many different ways. Investors see this option to continue to grow their companies." With the acquisition, Beyond the Butcher now has access to Jensen's packing, a $25 million credit line and 20,000 square feet to expand production. "It's a win-win on both sides," said O'Malley. "On our side, because we're able to grow very quickly, as we hope and need to to keep up with our competitors, but on their end they get to expand and grow their portfolio. It's a real positive thing. We're sharing a lot of synergies." According to Dayton Miller, Managing Partner at Boulder Food Group, the new driving force is flavor that's good enough to appeal to a wider audience, not just BY LORRIE BAUMANN Crazy Monkey Baking's Granola Cookie Crunch comes f rom a mom who had a degree in dietetics and an urgent desire to give her own kids a snack that she could feel conscientious about giving them and that they'd enjoy too. She started with an oatmeal cookie that her kids enjoyed and went to work on the recipe to come up with a product that was a bit more oat and a little less cookie but still delicious. Her kids loved it. Their f riends loved it. "My kids really liked it, and that's the beauty of children – that they'll be honest," said Teresa Humrichouser, that Ashland, Ohio, mom. "We are a chocolate family, so I knew that if I put chocolate in it, there was a pretty good chance they would eat it." It was a bonus that she could take it along in her mom-van, and the kids could nibble on it during their rides without leaving behind a mess of crumbs in the car. "Our lives are so busy, so, as a mom, I can have this in my minivan as I pick the kids up f rom practice," she said. Humrichouser's f riends encouraged her to take her Granola Cookie Crunch to the local farmers market, where, every weekend for two years straight, she sold out. Local grocery retailers saw what was happening, and a few of them approached her and asked her if they could carry her product in their stores after the farmers market season had ended. Humrichouser started looking for a commercial kitchen. She found a 350 square-foot facility that had been vacated by a pizza kitchen. "It was a few minutes f rom our house, and it was a small kitchen that we could move into and get it licensed because it had been used for food service in the past," she said. Three years later, she moved out of the former pizza shop and into a 1,000 square- foot facility. Then in January, 2017, she moved into a 7,500 square-foot bakery, where eight employees make small batch after small batch of her Granola Cookie Crunch in four year-round flavors as well as occasional seasonal flavors. "With this move, it has allowed us to be in a location that suited us for bringing on larger customers," she said. The move has also facilitated supplier audits and food safety planning and documentation to qualify for national distribution to grocers who sell the products in either the granola, healthy snack or cookie sections of their shelves. Crazy Monkey Baking is also certified as a woman-owned business, and Humrichouser offers contract Dryland Farmers Prosper with Organic Specialty Pulses BY LORRIE BAUMANN Timeless Natural Food offers a gourmet line of heirloom certified-organic lentils, peas, chickpeas and specialty grains. Grown in Montana and its neighboring states, the pulses that Timeless offers in both retail packaging for specialty grocers and in 10- pound and 25-pound packages for foodser vice use come f rom a group of organic farming pioneers on a mission to preser ve Montana's family farms by rebuilding soils subjected to a century of industrial monoculture wheat production. "We are not alone on this planet, and we have an obligation for stewardship, not only to our fellow human beings, but also for the environment," says company co- Founder and President David Oien. " Through the business that my three f riends and I have created, called Timeless Seeds and the brand name Timeless Natural Food, we really have been instrumental in supporting many other farmers around Montana to convert some or all of their acreage to certified organic production to allow their family farms to survive." Oien grew up on his family's wheat farm in north central Montana's Golden Triangle before heading off to college for a degree in philosophy and religious studies that still informs his farming mission today. After several years of working and traveling in Europe following his college graduation, he came back to the family farm in 1976 determined both to repay his parents for the upbringing and education they'd given him and to practice a system of agriculture that's kinder to family farmers and to the land than conventional wheat farming. Today, Montana farmers like Oien inherit the state's histor y of dr yland agriculture, which began with the 1877 Desert Land Act that drew settlers to homestead in arid lands across the American West. These new homesteaders relied on assurances f rom agriculturists like Charles Dana Wilbur that "Rain follows the plow," and when the climate refused to obey those prognostications, the development of modern irrigation assisted by the Newlands Reclamation Act of 1902. With the newly opened land, irrigation projects across the American West, improvements in farming technology, and the introduction of hard red winter wheat in the 1870s, American wheat production took off. The countr y's annual wheat production more than tripled in the 50 years between 1871 and 1921; increasing The American Civil Liberties Union, The Good Food Institute, Animal Legal Defense Fund, and ACLU of Arkansas filed a lawsuit in late July challenging an Arkansas law that would impose fines of up to $1,000 for every plant-based and cell- based meat product, such as "veggie burgers" and "tofu dogs," marketed or packaged with a "meat" label. The labels would be subject to fines within state borders even if followed by modifiers such as "vegan," "veggie," or "plant-based." Under the law, products labeled as "cauliflower rice" (but not "riced cauliflower") and "almond milk" would also be considered mislabeled and subject to fines for not containing any actual rice or dairy. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Tofurky in federal court. It argues the Arkansas law violates the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment 's due process clause by improperly censoring truthful speech and creating consumer confusion in order to shore up the state's meat and rice industries. The lawsuit adds that there is no evidence that the current labels mislead consumers, pointing out that Tofurky's products all clearly indicate the products are plant-based, meatless, vegetarian or vegan. The law's proponents have admitted that the law's purpose is to protect the agricultural producers in the state. "The only confusion here seems to be on the part of the Arkansas legislature, which seems to have forgotten its responsibility to its constituents in its rush to pass an unconstitutional law at the behest of its special interest donors," said Jaime Athos, Chief Executive Officer of Tofurky. "When consumers choose plant-based foods, it is not because they are confused or misled, it is because they are savvy and educated about the health and environmental consequences of eating animal products. What's really going on here is that the state of Arkansas is seeking to limit access to healthier, more sustainable food choices for its constituents, and it is doing so to benefit the animal agriculture industry." The Arkansas law is substantially similar to meat-labeling censorship laws recently passed in Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Dakota, and other states. A number of those laws face similar legal challenges, including by the ACLU, Good Food Institute, and the Animal Legal Defense Fund. The Missouri law, for instance, was initially proposed by the Missouri Cattlemen's Association. When discussing the perceived need for the Missouri law, state representative Jeff Knight publicly admitted that: " We're just trying to protect our product." KN Crunchy Granola Goodness in a Portable Snack

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