Gourmet News

Saffron Road Challenges Plant-Based Exuberance

Published April 13, 2020

By Lorrie Baumann

Saffron Road is launching frozen and shelf-stable meal entrees designed to appeal to consumers who read the backs of packages before the items go into their baskets. The new frozen products include Shawarma Chicken with Lentil Rice; Thai Red Curry Chicken with Jasmine Rice; and Thai Basil Noodles with Grass-fed Beef. The two shelf-stable vegetarian options are Chickpea Masala and Delhi Potatoes, known in India as Aloo Mattar.

In addition, Saffron Road has three new varieties of its Crunchy Organic Chickpeas: Toasted Coconut, Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper and Buffalo. They’ll all be reaching grocers’ shelves and freezer cases in May or June of this year.

The introductions come as more consumers are looking for plant-based meal options, driving growth of the category by 31 percent over the past two years, so that the retail market for plant-based foods is now worth almost $4.5 billion, according to research by the Good Food Institute and the Plant-Based Foods Association. Some of that growth reflects enthusiasm for the plant-based meat alternatives that have come onto the market over the past year or two, and according to Deloitte, a large number of companies are now investing heavily in acquiring and creating new products and brands that will appeal to the surging consumer demand for plant-based products.

Saffron Road Chief Executive Officer Adnan Durrani says that you can count him and Saffron Road out of the rush to create plant-based products designed to mimic meat and dairy. He points out that although the market for vegan and plant-based products is growing at a fast clip, those products still represent less than 1 percent of the frozen meals segment in the American market overall. Although the plant-based meals category grew by 6 percent last year – “a good number,” Durrani admits, that still represents only $387 million in sales, compared to the $40 billion frozen meat entree market. “So it still is a drop in the bucket, and even if it grows 500 percent, it’s still a drop in the bucket,” he said.

He suspects that the current market enthusiasm for the plant-based meat alternatives that he calls “fake” may run into a ditch once consumers start asking more questions about them. Durrani points out that the vegetable-based meat substitutes are actually made from protein components isolated from the vegetables in which they originated, and he suspects that human beings will find that their nutrition is better served by eating whole vegetables rather than protein isolates that have been processed with preservatives, additives and fillers into something that suggests meat-like texture and flavor.

“Consumers should not be told that fake foods are any better for you than real whole plant-based foods or the meat products they’re replacing,” he said. “Our feeling at Saffron Road is that clean foods, plant-based or not – and certainly plant-based – should not contain highly-processed ingredients with complex, alien names.”
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While those ingredients are certified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as safe to consume, “safe” doesn’t mean “healthy,” Durrani insists. “The promotion of them being healthy or natural is not yet factually proven…. Everybody’s spidey-sense around transparency should be on alert.”

Instead, Saffron Road is reaching into the culinary traditions of vegetarian cuisine and into frozen entrees that include meat but are made with transparently sourced, clean ingredients and traditional recipes. “Our vegetarian products at Saffron Road have found a sweet spot for discerning consumers that are looking for a healthier vegetarian diet,” Durrani said. “Our brand promise at Saffron Road is always to go that extra mile in terms of culinary excellence and clean-label foods.”

The new Chickpea Masala is packed in a pouch and sold from the grocer’s shelf. The meal serves two and is prepared by heating it for 60 seconds. “We use very high quality, premium-quality, authentically sourced ingredients like non-GMO chickpeas,” Durrani said. “Everything we do is made in small batches, not highly processed.” The Chickpea Masala is so delicious that it has become the Saffron Road staff’s top choice for their own consumption, he said.

The Delhi Potatoes are a traditional Indian vegetarian dish known as Aloo Mattar in India. Like the Chickpea Masala, it’s ready in just 60 seconds and non-GMO verified. “It’s like a comfort food. It’s wonderful either for lunch or for dinner,” Durrani said. “These are clean-label plant-based protein foods that have been sourced from clean whole plant-based protein – and are made using the most traditional, authentic recipes.”

Saffron Road’s new frozen entrees include its recently launched Madras Curry with Meatballs in addition to the Thai Red Curry Chicken with Jasmine Rice; and Thai Basil Noodles with Grass-fed Beef. The company will also soon be introducing a Coconut Curry. “I think that’s is going to do extremely well,” Durrani said. Those new products will begin shipping to retailers in May.

With the new Shawarma Chicken with Lentil Rice, Saffron Road is venturing into Middle Eastern cuisine, a decision that Durrani said was based on consumer interest in that cuisine. “It’s a shawarma-style chicken with lentil rice. It’s really amazing,” he said. “That’s going to be our debut into the Middle Eastern sector in terms of frozen entrees, so we’re pretty excited about that.”

Fresh Meat to Save the Planet from Extinction

Published April 13, 2020

By Lorrie Baumann

Force of Nature is a start-up meat producer that’s attempting to show that ruminant livestock can be part of the solution to climate change rather than part of the problem. The key to that is in raising bison, beef, elk and venison in ways that contribute to the soil’s ability to sequester carbon – a livestock management process known as regenerative agriculture – and Force of Nature sources its raw meat products only from growers who are practicing that kind of agriculture, according to Robby Sansom, the company’s Chief Executive Officer and Land Steward.

Before becoming involved with the start-up last year, Sansom was the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Epic Provisions, which is known for its meat-based snacks made from animals raised with regenerative methods. The company was acquired by General Mills in 2016. Sansom left Epic Provisions in 2019 after deciding that he could use the knowledge of regenerative agriculture that he’d gained at Epic Provisions to greater effect by focusing on raw meat rather than on snack foods. “It was that journey [with Epic Provisions] that got us into the regenerative journey,” he said. “It’s the fresh meat market that provides a greater opportunity to drive changes in the way agriculture is practiced and the effects of those practices on the world’s food supply and its climate…. We really see the epiphany.”

Having gained experience with sourcing bison products while he was at Epic, Sansom started there. He’d already become aware that much of the American meat market’s supply of bison comes from animals that were finished on grain and may have lived their whole lives being confined and fed grain rather than roaming freely on open range. “The sad reality is that the vast majority of bison coming into the food supply is coming through the conventional food system,” he said.

American Grass-Fed Association Executive Director Carrie Balkcom backs him up on that. “A lot of the animals are being brought in from feed yards in Canada and then they’re brought into this country and labeled ‘grass-fed,’” she said. “It is incredible that people think bison are actually out there roaming on the range, but they’re spending time in feed lots – and that can be years.”

“I’m not the bison police,” she added. “We fight it every year on the label claims, but until the federal government comes in and says you can’t do that, it’ll continue to happen.”
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While conventional livestock-raising is frequently blamed for its effects on global warming – the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pointed out that livestock on managed pastures and rangelands were an important contributor to the agriculture industry’s greenhouse gas emissions – it’s also been recognized that “Sustainable land management can contribute to reducing the negative impacts of multiple stressors, including climate change, on ecosystems and societies,” according to the IPCC’s 2019 report.

There are livestock producers who’ve taken this to heart and are raising livestock in ways that protect soil health and allow the soil to act as a carbon sink that sequesters carbon from the atmosphere while building topsoil that also helps to manage water efficiently and prevent erosion. Sansom says that he’s found those sources for responsibly raised meat, and Force of Nature Meats is able to deliver it to the American market, although currently only on a very limited basis. He’s hopeful that once consumers find their way to the Force of Nature products and have tasted the difference between them and conventionally raised meats, they’ll create a demand for regeneratively raised livestock that will motivate producers to raise more of it. “We’re going to raise the bar every year,” he said. “Producers will produce whatever the heck consumers say they want…. Nobody’s going to make a product they can’t sell.”

Force of Nature Meats currently offers 14- and 16-ounce packages as well as bulk packs of Ground Bison sourced from Texas; Ground Wild Boar, also sourced from Texas, where feral boars have become a nuisance; Grass-fed Ground Venison and Grass Fed Ground Elk sourced from New Zealand, where Sansom says that he’s found livestock producers raising venison and elk through grass-fed and grass-finished methods that comport with Force of Nature’s standards of regenerative agriculture. The company also offers Ancestral Blend packages of Ground Bison and Ground Beef, which combine meat obtained from the animals’ organs as well as muscles into a product that offers the flavor profiles of conventional meat plus the nutritional benefits associated with organ meats.

The company also offers a very limited selection of bison cuts from the short ribs and tenderloin in a product range that will grow with the company, according to Sansom. The company has launched into the retail market through its website and in limited local distribution from its Austin, Texas, base, and is on the cusp of achieving national distribution, for which Sansom believes he’s going to be able to scale the enterprise.

For more information, visit www.forceofnaturemeats.com.

Summer Fancy Food Show Canceled

Published April 13, 2020

The Specialty Food Association’s Summer Fancy Food Show, scheduled for June 28-30 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, will not take place as planned due to events outside of the SFA’s control. These include the national and global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, associated travel restrictions, and the Javits Center’s critical service in fighting the pandemic that impacts the facility’s availability.

“As the leader in the future of food movement, our responsibility is to serve our members through good times and bad,” said SFA President Phil Kafarakis. “Our legacy is one of connecting the global specialty food industry – makers, buyers and distributors – and we’re assessing ways to create an engaging environment for that, outside of the Fancy Food Show.”

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The SFA is currently running webinars, including one recently on the CARES Act, in an “Ask-The-Experts” series. All webinar content is recorded and available on the SFA online Learning Center where an extensive library of tools for business continuity are available.