<\/p>\n
Alternative protein startup SIMULATE, known for its NUGGS and TENDERS, is introducing two new versions of its plant-based, simulated chicken product aimed at restaurants.<\/p>\n
STRIPS are similar to grilled chicken, while CUTLETS mimic the kind of product you\u2019ll find on fried chicken sandwiches that have become so popular on restaurant menus.<\/p>\n
The new products are made using a technology method called high moisture extrusion, which \u201cuses heat and pressure to denature plant proteins and realign them in a linear fibrous structure, which is the key distinctive trait of animal protein,\u201d SIMULATE founder and CEO Ben Pasternak told via email.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important for fibrous products, like STRIPS, and enables a really accurate, muscle-like simulation,\u201d he added. \u201cHigh moisture extrusion is the first of a few technologies that we\u2019ve been building and we\u2019re excited to share more later this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
We last profiled SIMULATE back in 2021 when it raised $50 million in Series B funding, which valued the company at $260 million. At the time, the company\u2019s products were in more than 5,000 stores. Today that number is over 12,000, an increase of more than 140% year over year, Pasternak said. The company now has 40 employees, a 2x year over year increase, and is currently hiring for its research team.<\/p>\n
The interest in plant-based food has been growing in the last five years. In fact, \u201ctotal U.S. retail plant-based food sales grew three times faster than total food sales in 2021 to $7.4 billion,\u201d according to the Good Food Institute\u2019s 2021 Plant-based State of the Industry Report. Among that figure, $1.4 billion was plant-based meat sales.<\/p>\n
Though plant-based versions of chicken are the most popular, alternative protein sales still represent low single-digits among all meat sales; SIMULATE is among a group of companies trying to increase that with their appeal to changes in consumer behavior, while also working to provide a product that tastes good and can scale accordingly.<\/p>\n
In fact, the past few months have been quite busy in this category. For example, Daring Foods recently launched its first fresh \u2014 versus frozen \u2014 offering called Plant Chicken Tenders, and partnered with Cuisine Solutions to offer their unbreaded pieces in a \u201csous vide\u201d format for foodservice partners. Nowadays\u2019 pea-based nuggets debuted in Whole Foods stores in California, and Chile-based NotCo launched its plant-based chicken sandwiches and nuggets in Burger King Chile.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the new strip and cutlet products represent a departure from SIMULATE\u2019s previous direct-to-consumer and retail business models, Pasternak said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we first launched NUGGS, they were only available on DTC via our website,\u201d he added. \u201cAfter we had much success with DTC, we transitioned to retail where the vast majority of our revenue comes from today. Now, we\u2019re entering the next evolution of SIMULATE, where we\u2019re primarily focused on building a heavy presence in restaurants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with that came some growing pains. Pasternak explained that it was challenging to enter the foodservice industry, which requires different distribution networks, sales processes and product development processes. \u201cFast-food chains work on an extremely large scale, so it\u2019s taken us a moment to build the manufacturing capacity to support that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alternative protein startup SIMULATE, known for its NUGGS and TENDERS, is introducing two new versions of its plant-based, simulated chicken product aimed at restaurants. STRIPS are similar to grilled chicken, while CUTLETS mimic the kind of product you\u2019ll find on fried chicken sandwiches that have become so popular on restaurant menus. The new products are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1196427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1196426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrity-gossip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1196426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1196426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1196426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1196426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}