Swiss foodtech startup Planted announces the launch of its first plant-based cold cut in Swiss retail through a distribution deal with Coop. The cold cut is an alternative to the Lyoner Wurst style of meat, often referred to as German bologna, and marks Planted’s entrance into the charcuterie category.
According to Planted, the cold cut is produced with all-natural ingredients and as such is “the cleanest Lyoner cold cut on the market”. Additionally, compared to its animal counterpart, the plant-based Lyoner creates 34% less CO2 and uses 51% less water, making it an environmentally friendlier option to standard cuts of meat that are sliced from the flesh of an animal.
The vegan Lyoner meat is created with pea protein, rapeseed oil, water, spices, yeast, salt, and vitamin B12. An additional fermentation step in the production process developed specifically by Planted provides its taste profile; according to Planted, the vegan Lyoner tastes like the animal original and offers the same eating experience.
“Our goal is to support people in enabling them to easily have a meat-free diet, without compromise and with purely natural ingredients – and this doesn’t stop with tackling Switzerland’s most popular cold cut, the Lyoner,” says Pascal Bieri, co-founder of Planted.
Other producers of vegan deli meats
- Tofurky (US): Produces a range of plant-based deli slices including smoked ham, oven-roasted, peppered, hickory smoked, bologna, Italian, and roast beef flavors.
- Renegade Foods (US): producer of plant-based charcuterie products like salami, chorizo, and sobrasada.
- Prime Roots (US): A certified B Corp creating a wide range of animal-free deli meats based on koji mycelium as well as newer pâtés and foie gras products.
- Mrs. Goldfarb’s Unreal Deli: Offering deli meat made from real plant ingredients, Unreal Deli meat is available in corn’d beef and roasted turk’y flavors, both in sliced and unsliced forms.
- Plant Provisions: Specializing in gluten-free and soy-free options, Plant Provisions offers vegan deli slices in chipotle chili carrot, smokehouse beet, and Tuscan red pepper flavors.
- Heura (Spain): Recently developed a vegan product that it describes as the world’s first additive-free York-style plant-based ham slices.
- La Vie (France): Specialising in pork and famous for its vegan bacon, the French brand last year launched a ham in regular and smoked varieties which this week rolls out at Tesco across the UK.
The planted.slices Lyoner is now available throughout Switzerland exclusively at Coop, for a price of CHF 3.95 (80g).
