Hormel Foods, the producer of Spam and several meat brands such as Applegate, is releasing a new line in plant-based ingredients. Over a year ago, CEO Jim Snee, remarked that plant-based foods were to him a “shiny new toy” during a conference; it appears this is his second shiny new toy after launching Happy Little Plants this March.
Created with pea protein, the new offerings include fully cooked meat crumbles and an uncooked ground plant meat product. The new line is being launched under the brand name Hormel Ingredient Solutions. The crumbles are available in Breakfast, Italian, Traditional and Chorizo flavours.
In May this year, we reported that PETA had bought shares in several of the largest meat processing companies, Hormel being one, to use its shareholder position to push each company to move in a plant-based direction, is this beginning to happen? The growth trajectory for plant-based foods has been strong for some years, and this year the pandemic has majorly impacted in a surge of growth in plant-based food sales, giving rise to elevated interest from corporate food companies.
Paul Sheehan, director of sales for Hormel Ingredient Solutions stated in a media release: “These new products are designed to help food manufacturers incorporate more plant-based foods into their offerings for the growing number of consumers interested in adding these items to their diets. The bottom line is that people want to add more plants to their diet, but they also want them to taste great. These new items allow food manufacturers to explore how easy it is to add the power of plant-based ingredients to a variety of applications.”
