Whether it’s for health reasons or environmental considerations hybrid meats i.e. meat combined with plant based protein products are gaining popularity with flexitarians. The Better Meat Co. offers a range of plant based enhancers specifically designed for adding to beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish and crab products. But why should food processors be anxious to get in on the action? In this NewProtein exclusive interview with Paul Shapiro, CEO of The Better Meat Co. we discover the benefits to food processors of taking this hybrid approach.

Paul: Great to be chatting with you! The Better Meat Co. is a B2B ingredients company offering innovative plant protein formulas that food companies blend into their ground meats to improve taste, nutrition, and sustainability. Our ingredient formulations (based on pea and algae proteins along with plant fibers, fats, and flavors) blend seamlessly into ground beef, pork, chicken, turkey, fish, and crab products, offering the end consumer a better dining experience with a lighter footprint on the planet. They’re all allergen-free and clean label, too.

Paul: Ground meats blended with Better Meat Co. protein formulas regularly outperform solely-meat products in blind taste tests. Our enhancers just make the final product taste better. At the same time, using them improves nutritionals, reducing saturated fat, cholesterol, and calories, while adding fiber. And often they can help the manufacturer cut the cost of their meat block, too.

Paul: We use functional fibers that give a better texture than a solely-meat product, and our all-natural flavors really make the product pop, too. Additionally, we can help reduce cook times while enhancing yield.

Paul: Normally when meat companies blend with non-meat ingredients, they’re using whole vegetable inclusions like mushrooms and peppers. This is fine if the end consumer wants a different look and feel to the product. But our formulas enable a seamless blend such that the consumer can’t tell a difference between a solely-meat product and a product that’s been blended, even with an inclusion rate from 30-50 percent. Additionally, our formulas maintain protein levels while preventing shrinkage, too.

Paul: It’s been a pleasure working with Perdue Farms on its Perdue Chicken Plus line of nuggets and tenders. It was a challenge for a small company like ours to partner with a massive legacy brand like Perdue in terms of scaling, but we’re proud to say we’ve fulfilled all orders in-full and on-time.

Paul: Surveys show that many meat consumers view the addition of plant protein to their meats as a welcome enhancement. In some ways it’s not dissimilar to asking for a boost of some functional ingredient in your smoothie. You’re not getting less smoothie; you’re getting a better smoothie. In this case, the consumer is getting a better meat product when there’s a functional plant protein enhancer.

Paul: Some of our customers use our formulas as ingredients in their fully-plant-based meats right now. But most of our business involves blending our formulas into ground meat products. As an ingredients company, we’ll keep serving our customers in both the plant-based meat and animal-based meat worlds, but our sweet spot is really in the blending space.

If you would like to find out how The Better Meat Co. enhancers can benefit your product range please use the green "Request Information" button below.

In addition to being CEO of The Better Meat Co. Paul is the author of the national bestseller, Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World, and the host of the Business For Good Podcast. A four-time TEDx speaker, he has twenty years of experience as a nonprofit executive and has published more than a hundred articles on food sustainability, from daily newspapers to academic journals. In addition of course to his wife Toni and their very friendly pit bull Eddie, he’s an avid lover of three As: animals, astronomy, and athletics.