Akankshya Mukherjee (intern@imaws.org)
Elysabeth Alfano, Founder of Plant Powered Consulting and Co-Founder of VegTech Invest, is working to drive innovation in the plant-based food market.According to Elysabeth Alfano, she was drawn to the plant-based industry because of its promise to help people choose healthier foods with a lesser carbon footprint. She tells “In life, there are no silver bullets”. However, she desired “something as near to a silver bullet as feasible, [that] can solve as many concerns as possible in the amount of time that I have”.
Elysabeth Alfano co-founded VegTech Invest to promote investments in “plant-based innovation”. And Plant Powered Consulting, a marketing, branding, communications, and public relations business, assists companies in navigating the changing landscape of the plant-based market.
Elysabeth Alfano sees this sector as comprising more than just items from well-known brands such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. However, she claims that the market also includes “exciting technology” that converts plant-derived substances into new goods such as fermented proteins and cultured meat.
Elysabeth Alfano believes that younger people would appreciate these new products. However, she points out that innovation is meaningless if people aren’t engaged. “It’s about flavour first and foremost” Alfano was quoted by Food Tank and further adds “Then comes price, and price comes with scale”.
“You need new production facilities, new production equipment” she explains, in order to make items more accessible and affordable. “You need to obtain enough innovative ingredients—we can’t do everything with corn, soy, wheat, fava beans, and chickpeas.All of these supply chain constraints require investment resources in order to sustain the end product”.
According to a survey from the Good Food Institute and the Plant-Based Foods Association, plant-based food retail sales in the United States will increase by 27% in 2020. Since then, some reports, such as those from IRI, have suggested that sales may be leveling off. Beyond Meat is also firing off 200 employees. However, research reveals that demand for meat alternatives may not be expanding as quickly as some experts predicted. Elysabeth Alfano believes that these figures can be misleading. She contends that it is critical to recognize a baseline and measure progress against it. “Nothing grows at 40% year over year,” she says, sure that the demand for these products will continue.
