A meat alternative or meat substitute, is a food product made from vegetarian or vegan ingredients, eaten as a replacement for meat. Meat alternatives typically approximate qualities of specific types of meat, such as mouthfeel, flavor, appearance, or chemical characteristics. Plant- and fungus-based substitutes are frequently made with soy, but may also be made from wheat gluten as in seitan, pea protein as in the Beyond Burger, or mycoprotein as in Quorn. Alternative protein foods can also be made by precision fermentation, where single cell organisms such as yeast produce specific proteins using a carbon source; as well as cultivated or laboratory grown, based on tissue engineering techniques. The ingredients of meat alternative include 50–80% water, 10–25% textured vegetable proteins, 4–20% non-textured proteins, 0–15% fat and oil, 3-10% flavors/spices, 1-5% binding agents and 0-0.5% coloring agents.
Bloomreach is a cloud-based e-commerce experience platform and B2B service specializing in marketing automation, product discovery, and content management systems. The company, founded in 2009 by Raj De Datta and Ashutosh Garg, is headquartered in Mountain View, California.
Flipkart Private Limited is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bangalore, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company. The company initially focused on online book sales before expanding into other product categories such as consumer electronics, fashion, home essentials, groceries, and lifestyle products.
VBites is a plant-based food manufacturer and brand that develops 140 products and retails in 24 countries worldwide. All its foods are manufactured in the UK at VBites' factory in Corby.
Eat Just, Inc. is a private company headquartered in San Francisco, California, US. It develops and markets plant-based alternatives to conventionally produced egg products, as well as cultivated meat products. Eat Just was founded in 2011 by Josh Tetrick and Josh Balk. It raised about $120 million in early venture capital and became a unicorn in 2016 by surpassing a $1 billion valuation. It has been involved in several highly publicized disputes with traditional egg industry interests. In December 2020, its cultivated chicken meat became the first cultured meat to receive regulatory approval in Singapore. Shortly thereafter, Eat Just's cultured meat was sold to diners at the Singapore restaurant 1880, making it the "world's first commercial sale of cell-cultured meat".
Wickr is an American software company based in New York City. It is known for its instant messaging application of the same name. The Wickr instant messaging apps allow users to exchange end-to-end encrypted and content-expiring messages, and are designed for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. Wickr was acquired by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in mid-2021. The free version of the app was discontinued in December 2023.
Beyond Meat, Inc. is a producer of plant-based meat substitutes founded in 2009 by Ethan Brown. The company's initial products were launched in the United States in 2012. The company went public in 2019, becoming the first plant-based meat analogue company to go public.
Impossible Foods Inc. is a company that develops plant-based substitutes for meat products. The company's signature product, the Impossible Burger, was launched in July 2016 as a vegan alternative to beef hamburger.
Careem is a Dubai-based super app with operations in over 70 cities, covering 10 countries across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia regions. The company, which was valued at over US$2 billion in 2018, became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber after being acquired for $3.1 billion in January 2020. Careem expanded into the food delivery business with Careem Now in November 2018, which evolved into Careem Food as well as the rapid grocery delivery service Careem Quik in 2020, and launched a digital payment platform, Careem Pay in April 2022. In April 2023, Careem's Super App business was spun out into a new legal entity, which e& acquired a 50.03% stake in, while Uber maintains full ownership of Careem's ride-hailing business. The Super App currently offers 20 digital services in the UAE including ride-hailing, food, grocery, micromobility, DineOut, and a subscription-based service - Careem Plus, amongst others.
The Good Food Institute (GFI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes plant- and cell-based alternatives to animal products, particularly meat, dairy, and eggs. It was created in 2016 by the nonprofit organization Mercy For Animals with Bruce Friedrich as the chief executive officer. GFI has more than 150 staff across six affiliates in the United States, India, Israel, Brazil, Asia Pacific, and Europe. GFI was one of Animal Charity Evaluators' four "top charities" of 2022.
HappyCow is a mobile app and website that lists vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants and also a passionate community of over one million vegan-focused members. Aside from listing restaurants it also lists farmers markets, health food stores and all types of businesses with a vegan focus.
Mosa Meat is a Dutch food technology company, headquartered in Maastricht, Netherlands, creating production methods for cultured meat. It was founded in May 2016.
Aspiration is a sustainability-as-a-service company with global operations based in Los Angeles, California.
Fry Group Foods is a manufacturer of vegan meat substitutes founded by South Africans Wally and Debbie Fry in 1991. In March 2020 it joined LIVEKINDLY Collective, the global plant-based food company.
ProVeg Nederland, known as Viva Las Vega's (VLV) from 2011 to 2017, is a Dutch foundation that aims to accelerate the transition towards a plant-based food system. The foundation's stated goal is to make it easier for consumers to eat plant-based more often and also to help companies address the growing demand in plant-based products. ProVeg Nederland is a member of the international ProVeg International.
Squeaky Bean is a British vegan food company and began trading in 2019. It is owned by the British food manufacture company Winterbotham Darby and is based in Redhill, Surrey, United Kingdom. The company experienced rapid expansion from just three products into a multiproduct brand stocked in British supermarkets. The brand significantly expanded its distribution capabilities following the growth and receiving millions of pounds worth of investment. In 2021, it was reported that the brand had amassed a turnover of £7.5 million.
Mirai Foods is a food technology company which produces cultivated meat from beef cells. It is headquartered in Wädenswil in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland, and was founded in 2019.
Vegetarianism and veganism are growing trends in China. Public Radio International estimated in 2013 that 4–5% of China's population was vegetarian, representing over 50 million people.
Hopper, Inc. is a travel booking app and online travel marketplace that sells flights, hotels, rental cars, and short-term rentals. The company is headquartered in Montreal, Canada and Boston, Massachusetts.
Prime Roots is an American koji-based meat-producing company focusing on deli and charcuterie products.
