California-based grocery delivery startup ELM Foods will sell only plant-based products, using an approach that focuses on offering recipe ingredients to ultimately help the company better personalize the shopping experience, according to co-founder Melissa Williams. In this Q&A, Williams discusses the origins, goals and future of ELM, which stands for Eat Less Meat.
Related Summaries
Sales data from Instacart shows one-third of its customers have purchased a plant-based meat or dairy item, marking the transition of the fast-growing category from a specialty product into a "staple," said Instacart's Laurentia Romaniuk. A Harris Poll conducted for the delivery company in late February showed that the trend is likely to continue, with 30% of customers who responded saying they would keep buying plant-based foods as a way to eat healthier.
The Latin American company NotCo -- which counts Amazon's Jeff Bezos among its investors -- has earned a US patent for machine learning and artificial intelligence technology that helps develop tasty plant-based alternatives for traditional products. The technology, called Giuseppe, breaks food down to its molecular level and selects vegetables that best imitate its structure, and it has already been used in the NotMilk product being sold at Whole Foods Markets nationwide.
Consumers' preferences for plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy products vary between restaurant meals and grocery purchases, according to research from the NPD Group. Consumption of plant-based dairy alternatives is largely centered around the home, while demand for plant-based burgers and other meat alternatives is growing at restaurants, and many including White Castle and Burger King now offer plant-based burgers on the menu.
The pandemic brought a home-cooking revival that's likely to continue and flavor the food trends of 2021, SmartBrief's Tricia Contreras writes. Her roundup of next year's food trend forecasts also calls for a rise in private dining experiences as restaurants reopen, and a focus on health and wellness that will further popularize plant-based options and immunity-boosting superfoods.
Chefs have connected with consumers over Instagram and Zoom classes during the pandemic and they're likely to continue embracing tech tools as their roles evolve in the coming year, Datassential's Mike Kostyo writes. Other trends in the forecast for 2021 include the further evolution of plant-based foods, new flavors and ingredients such as fermented honey, chicory root and carne guisada.