Nestlé plans to extend its reach in the plant-based food category this year with the launch of the Incredible Burger.
The Swiss food giant is rolling out the burger made from soy and wheat protein in the spring through its Garden Gourmet brand, according to a report from Bloomberg, citing an interview with chief technology officer Stefan Palzer.
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Last year, Nestlé acquired a majority stake in the Ecuador-based firm Terrafertil, which makes organic and plant-based foods under the Nature’s Heart brand. And in 2017, the company bought the US plant-based food business Sweet Earth.
Palzer identified consumers who focus on plant-based eating as one of several fast-growing “food tribes,” along with those following gluten-free or lactose-free diets, the news agency quoted him as saying.
“While digging deeper into consumer trends, we found they changed a bit in the last couple of years depending on how consumers define a healthy diet,” he said.
Nestlé’s plant-based business may reach more than CHF1bn (US$1bn) in sales within a decade, Bloomberg also cited Laurent Freixe, the chief executive of the company’s Americas region, as saying, compared to around a few hundred million francs currently.
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By GlobalDataThe company is also said to be experimenting with dairy-free milk in diversification away from the predominately soy-based products currently available with a liquid derived from walnuts and blueberries, with a purple hue, according to Bloomberg, adding that there is also a blue latte featuring spirulina algae in the pipeline.
“Vegetarianism has never been this popular before and it’s here to stay, I’m convinced about that,” Palzer said.
