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A highly-anticipated plant-based meat alternative will hit the shelves in 600 Danish Supermarket stores in January next year.
The product – Naturli’Hakket – is made from soya and wheat protein, beetroot, tomato, and coconut oil.
Company Naturli’ has been working in the plant-based sector for 30 years and has mainly specialized creating dairy alternatives.
Beyond Meat
The product was created by Henrik Lund – Director of Naturli’ – who admits he was inspired by Beyond Meat.
Lund wanted to collaborate with the US brand, but when it was too busy, he decided to work on his meat alternative alone.
The development process took around a year. Lund says the combination of soya and wheat protein and coconut oil gives the product ‘structure and fat marbling’.
He adds: “In addition to that…we added beetroot to give it a red color, which also makes it ‘bleed’ a bit of red juice.
“It does not taste like minced beef – but it tastes crazy good.”
Alternative
According to Lund: “I was at [a branch of] Danish Supermarket when an old acquaintance in meat purchases asked ‘when are you going to make a vegetable-based alternative to minced beef?’
“I told him we were making two steaks, but he was not interested.
“If, on the other hand, we could make a product that tastes good and can do the same as minced beef, they would fit in the fridge.”
Climate
While he hasn’t yet calculated the exact climate impact of the product, Lund says it is more environmentally-friendly than meat.
He adds: “We are very aware of where our raw materials come from and what climate impact we have.
“We will share how many liters of water you save by using our product instead of beef, but we do not have the exact calculation yet.
“However, I can say that the climate load is significantly less by choosing plant-based versus animal.”
Edge
Retail specialist Bruno Christensen, who has more than 50 years of experience in the field, believes the product will give the stores an edge.
He says: “This is an innovative initiative, and it gives the Danish Supermarket a clear competitive advantage, as long as the brand can be alone offering such a product to customers.
“You want those consumers who are basically ‘cheating’ by eating it. The biggest group is those who are first skeptical.
“But once they feel that the taste is ok and it is a healthier product , the number of users will increase.”
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