Over on the ‘Eat for the planet’ podcast there was an interesting discussion with the founder of a startup called Lupii (which makes lupin bean-based snack bars). This episode was recorded last year during the panedemic. They were talking about a ‘second wave’ of vegan food products. Wave 1 vegan products, the host said, successfully replicated the taste and texture of animal meat. He wasn’t explicit about who this was but it was pretty obvious he was referring to companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. On the other hand, Wave 2 vegan food products aim to be healthier (if you look at the ingredients list of a Beyond burger there are some pretty scary sounding things on there!). Don’t get me wrong - I am a huge fan of companies like Beyond and Impossible and their missions but they are not necessarily healthier than animal meat. As part of the discussion, the host recognised Lupii as one of these ‘Wave 2’ products.
To take this ‘Wave’ idea further, there were products around before Beyond and Impossible that tried to replicate meat but failed miserably so I would argue that these were Wave 0. In my opinion, these Wave 2 vegan products should also use more sustainable farming practices and ingredients. For example, the farming processes of plant-based proteins like lupin beans and kelp tend to be regenerative and they avoid monoculture farming practices (unlike soy beans).
Now the reason I dug up this podcast episode was that I heard of Lupii recently from equity crowdfunding platform Republic. They are now raising and I’m probably going to invest. Their brand is awesome, right down to the packaging. Not financial advice. Do your own research ... but I may use these ‘waves’ as a framework for thinking about plant-based foods in future.
I’m wondering, do you know of other sustainable proteins that are used in popular vegan products?
