The title picture is from IC photo, this article is from the WeChat official account: ,Author: lamb, edit: Cici

The trend of domestic artificial meat is finally here.

KFC and Cargill launched artificial chicken nuggets. Starbucks joined hands with Beyond Meat and OmniPork to launch five new types of artificial meat dishes. Foreign artificial meat giants began to land on the domestic market. At the same time, domestic artificial meat start-ups are also gaining momentum, such as Starfield, Weida, and Zhenrou, etc., to seize opportunities and wait for opportunities as entrepreneurs.

Foreign giants are on the upswing, and domestic innovative brands are budding, all trying to seize the consumer mindset of the category.

But the carnival of people in the industry seems to be “shaved and picky and hot,” and mass consumers do not buy it. In the eyes of many consumers, artificial meat is the same as soy products such as tofu and vegetarian meat. It belongs to old wine in new bottles, and is even considered to be “fooling” the people and charging “Intelligence Tax”.

Based on the complexity of the Chinese food culture, is domestic artificial meat a real demand or a fake demand? How can artificial meat gain a foothold in China, which has thousands of years of vegetarian history?

I. Is artificial meat a real demand or IQ tax?

In addition to the Starbucks and KFC mentioned above, the domestic brand ’s artificial meat market is also frequently new:

Weekly has launched “Future Meat Burger” with Nai Xue’s tea and Xicha successively, and “Future Meat Pizza” with Stick John;

The instant noodle brand Ramen said it will cooperate with Vesta Weisida to launch a “artificial meat ramen”;

Also, Biffai launched artificial meat dumplings and spring rolls, Baicao flavored artificial meat dumplings, Zhenzhen launched artificial meat mooncakes …

Some products were hot after going online: Ramen said that 20,000 copies of artificial meat ramen were sold out within 1 minute and 20 seconds after going online, and KFC artificial meat and chicken nuggets were sold out on the APP. The artificial meat market seems to be booming.

Is this really the case?

Let ’s take a look at the market data on artificial meat provided by the research agency Digital 100. Although 77% of consumers said that they had heard of it, less than 40% of the people could correctly understand the concept of artificial meat, and only 6% of consumers were able to truly distinguish the actual artificial meat from soy products.

That is to say, Although most people say they have heard of artificial meat, there are still a few who really understand the concept of artificial meat. Most people still confuse it with traditional meat [1] .

This has also caused a result: domestic consumers are inevitably affected by traditional vegetarian meat in their attitudes towards artificial meatThe impact of food. Artificial meat looks like plain meat under the guise of technology, changing soup without changing medicine. Consumers have been psychologically opposed to the concept of “artificial meat” from the beginning, and the negative taste evaluation of artificial meat on the Internet has added a fire to this negative voice [2].

The price of artificial meat in the current market is more expensive than animal meat. From the perspective of the product itself, it has not satisfied consumers. For example, a beef-flavored artificial patty of Jinzi Ham, the monthly sales of the Tmall flagship store are only 22, and the user evaluation indicates that the chemical taste and over-seasoning are still far from the real meat.

For the above reasons, many consumers consider artificial meat to be “intelligent IQ tax”.

But the artificial meat said it was wrong!

Accurately, artificial meat is very different from vegetarian food. Vegetarian meat is just a kind of “simulated meat”, and artificial meat is the “image version” of animal meat. Artificial meat is passed through for meat structure, flavor,Simulation of taste, etc., infinitely close to real meat. That is to say, when the technology is mature, artificial meat can be “reliable” instead of “drawing pictures of cats and tigers”.

Back to the question raised at the beginning of the article, is artificial meat a real demand or a fake demand?

First of all, from an environmental perspective, artificial meat may be a major solution to the problem of human survival. As the population grows, the total nutritional requirements also increase, but based on the plantable area of ​​the earth, it may not be able to provide so much animal nutrition.

The artificial meat eliminates the waste part of animal food conversion, and is not affected by the plagues of swine fever and chicken fever, which can ensure a continuous and stable “meat output” in the future and meet the nutritional needs of human survival.

Secondly, for health reasons, artificial meat may be the better choice. In order to reduce the health risks caused by high fat and cholesterol, we should reduce the intake of meat, but humans have only reached the top of the food chain for tens of thousands of years, and eating meat is rooted in genes. Out of the requirements for taste and taste, how difficult is it to quit meat and improve!

Then if there is a meat taste and plant nutrition product, which can satisfy consumers to enjoy “eating meat” without taking health risks, is it not the best of both worlds?

So, if we take environmental and health factors into consideration, artificial meat is indeed a real demand. The reason why it is now questioned is because there are still flaws in price, taste and taste, and when the technology is further developed to solve these problems, then artificial meat is likely to become a just-needed product.

Confirming this, we can more objectively look at the development of domestic artificial meat.

Second, artificial meat that is popular abroad, can conquer the Chinese stomach?

According to a Nielsen report, March 2016As of March 2019, the annual sales of plant-based meat in the United States increased by 42%, while the increase in traditional meat was only 1% [3]. In addition to start-ups such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, traditional food companies such as Cargill, Tyson and Nestlé have also begun to deploy artificial meat markets.

Sweet Earth Awesome plant burger, plant base (Nestle announced in 2017 that it will acquire the plant food manufacturer Sweet Earth)

Foreigners are more mature in the artificial meat market and have rich experience. The world’s meat transformation has also affected China, but can the experience of foreign markets be used directly?

I’m afraid not necessarily. In addition to the far-reaching historical impact of the Chinese soy-based vegetarian food mentioned above, China’s food culture, meat consumption habits, and daily life habits are all “barriers” to the development of artificial meat.

1. The Chinese say: the meat has not “eaten enough”

In recent years, China has gradually taken off the hat of poverty, and the supply of meat has been guaranteed. But compared to vegetables, meat is still an indispensable part of the diet, and people’s love for meat is far from being “great”. According to data from the Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce, China ’s meat consumption has grown rapidly in the past 40 years. In 1978, per capita meat consumption was 9 kg, and in 2018 it has increased to 63 kg [4].

According to the USDA data, US consumers will eat 100.8 kg of red meat and poultry per capita in 2018 [5], which is much higher than the per capita meat consumption in China. The Chinese still need meat.

It is more difficult for people who want to persuade people who are not satisfied with meat to eat artificial meat.