Plant-based meat industry on mission to rebrand itself as healthy option

In 2020, the Center for Consumer Freedom, a non-profit group that has advocated for the meat, alcohol and tobacco industries, took aim at a new target: the plant-based meat industry.

Its Super Bowl television advert showed children at a spelling competition trying to spell “methylcellulose”, an additive used in some packaged foods including fake meat burgers. “If you can’t spell it or pronounce it, maybe you shouldn’t be eating it,” opined the voiceover.

The US ad hit a nerve. Among the common criticisms of plant-based meat — that it is pricey, still has an impact on the environment and does not taste as good as the animal meat it mimics — the one that the industry fears has stuck is the perception that the products contain too many additives and are highly processed.

To read the full story in the Financial Times, please click here.