至于人造的肉类替代品，仍有大量的监管工作需要付诸实行，同时还要设法在口味上赢得消费者的青睐，这都是Impossible Foods和Beyond Burger花了好几年才做到的。

The Good Food Institute的巴雷拉说：“可能要找一个产品得到认可的实例，好让我们全面地了解监管机构的要求。”

与此同时，他表示，像Air Protein、Memphis Meat和Sustainable Bioproduct这样的企业，以及Beyond Meat和Impossible Foods这样生产植物性食品的企业仍然“完全不在美国农业部或美国食品药品监督管理局的框架内”。

不断的创新、多种核心成分、采购、分销和包装可能会让消费者感到困惑，因为其它国家并没有这种积极主动的公共监管机构。

实际成本是什么?

对于生产动物产品替代物的公司来说，是时候拿出证据证明对环境和健康的益处了。在财报电话会议中，Beyond Meat方几乎没有提供关于这两点的任何细节。

FoodFutureCo旨在为食品科技初创企业提供推动力，其创始人沈唐（Shen Tong）表示，从历史角度出发，在低成本和低利润率的推动下，就长期营养价值而言，加工食品的前景并没有那么美好。植物性食品市场或许也有同样的风险。

沈唐说：“当你开始扮演上帝时，你就已经陷入危险的境地了。”（财富中文网）

译者：殷圆圆

The growth of the plant-based meat sector started to take hold a decade back. Thanks to rapidly increasing sales, even traditional meat companies—those of the animal protein world—want in on the game. But as the sector matures, many people are beginning to ask tougher questions about the long-term potential of the trend, the nutritional value of the products, and whether faux meat production can really help reduce the harm traditional meat production causes the environment.

While companies that produce plant-based meat substitutes are pushing money into telling the public about the benefits of their products, the data behind the environmental and long-term health impacts of the products are just beginning to trickle in.

The Good Food Institute reports that the current retail market for plant-based foods is valued at $5 billion. In 2019, plant-based meats accounted for $939 million of those billions, a 38% jump from 2017.

And according to IRI, 14% of U.S. households are buying plant-based meat, driven primarily by growth in the refrigerated segment.

Still, plant-based meats make up only 1% of all dollar sales of total retail meat, according to the Good Food Institute.

Recent moves by animal-based meat producers make it clear that they see room for themselves in the plant-based market. “It’s still very early, which is exciting because there is so much growth still,” Jennifer Lamy, a sustainable seafood initiative manager with the Good Food Institute, told Fortune. “The big meat companies that are jumping into the space are indicating, either through their investments or their own product lines, that this is being perceived in the industry as a whole as an enormous shift, not just a fad.”

And it’s not just vegetarian millennials buying up the products.

During an earnings call with analysts, Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown said the company’s core customers are “people who are over 40” and are driven by health concerns, as well as environmental factors and animal welfare.

Other reports suggest that the majority of consumers of plant-based meats still like to chow down on beef burgers on other nights. According to the NPD Group, 90% of the consumers buying plant-based meat are neither vegans nor vegetarians.

“Building on the incredible success of the latest generation of plant-based burgers, we're seeing rapid product innovation across a wide variety of plant-based meat products from startups, leading [consumer packaged goods] companies, and even the world's largest meat companies,” said Good Food’s Bushnell. “This is a tipping point, with so much product innovation yet to hit the market.”

Big (faux) meat

What Beyond Burger, Impossible Foods, and other plant-based companies have accomplished in the past decade is no small feat.

Wall Street investors are paying attention; the big meat companies are watching their every move (Tyson Foods invested in Beyond Meat back in 2016); and new competitors continue to come on the scene.

A public company, Beyond Meat is the most heavily scrutinized player in the plant-based space. “One of the most interesting aspects of Beyond is the amount of money they spend on R&D, compared to an average food company. In some ways they are more like a tech company,” said Nigel Barrella, regulatory counsel at the Good Food Institute.