Episode 23: Food for the Future – The Growing German Vegan, Vegetarian and Meatless Sector

The German vegan and vegetarian movement goes back to the nineteenth century, but this lifestyle and nutrition choice has never been so popular. More than a third of Germans opt for a plant-based diet. The German plant-based retail market has been valued at around €1.9 billion, making it the biggest in Europe. We talk to two up-and-coming companies and the head of a leading pro-meatless advocacy group about what the future holds in store.

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Our Guests

Tom-Johansson_RZ

Tom Johansson is founder and CEO of Hooked Foods, a Swedish start-up producing vegan “seafood” based on plant protein.
 

Elin-Roberts_RZ

Elin Roberts is co-founder and co-CEO of Better Nature, a UK-based producer of tempeh.

Jens_Tuider_RZ

Jens Tuider is Chief Strategy Officer at ProVeg International, which originated in Germany and aims to “transform the global food system.“

Transcript of this episode

[animal voices: grunting pigs, cows, chickens…]

Presenter: 

Those are the sounds of our animal friends and… for many human beings… food. But more and more people in Germany and elsewhere are cutting down on meat and dairy – or cutting them out entirely. It's been a growing trend for years – and now entrepreneurs, activists and major companies want to take it the next level.

The global plant-based food market more than doubled over the last four years – from around 30 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 to roughly 65 in 2024 and it’s expected to reach more than 160 billion U.S. dollars in 2030. The range of plant-based food products has expanded dramatically in recent years. Discounter supermarkets now stock meatless burger patties, vegan pâté and milk-like drinks made from oat, peas or soy beans. Even Germans – famous for their love of Bratwurst – are increasingly forgoing meat.

Let’s take a closer look at this trend! Welcome to INTO Germany, the German business podcast, brought to you by the international business promotion agency Germany Trade and Invest. I’m your host Kelly O’Brien.
 

The German vegan and vegetarian movement goes all the way back to the nineteenth century. But never has this lifestyle and nutrition choice been so popular in Europe’s largest economy – it is constantly growing.

Jens Tuider, ProVeg

Germany is a bit of a trailblazer here. So according to a market report from, I think 2023, the plant based retail market in Germany is valued at around €1.9 billion.It is the biggest plant based market in Europe. And of course, we can also see, which is quite interesting, that between 2020 and 2022, during the Covid crisis, the German market recorded a growth of almost 42% in that segment, which is very, very unusual. So we see lots of signals both from the demand side and the supply side, that there is a huge interest and the strongest interest we can see all over Europe.

That was Jens Tuider, Chief Strategy Officer at ProVeg International. We’ll talk to him in detail later on, but let’s dig in to the stories of not one, but two companies active in the sector. 

[sound of ship leaving port]

No need to leave port for Hooked Foods. The start-up, which originated in Sweden has developed “seafood” based on plant protein. The company was founded 2019 by Tom Johansson and Emil Wasteson to “offer relief for our ocean ecosystem”, as they say. Tom now joins us. Tom, thanks for being here. Tell us, why did you decide to create plant-based seafood?

Tom Johansson, Hooked Foods 

We were narrowing down on seafood for a reason that it was so underdeveloped. And we also saw that the category was growing so quickly. So we thought, okay, this is an area that needs more work and still has a big problem to solve. As most people, we thought, you know, seafood is healthy, right? And it's more sustainable than a meat and chicken. But then the deeper we dug into it, it was very clear that the oceans are under a lot of pressure because we're fishing certain species very isolated. So for tuna and salmon is mostly for fish farms, but there's a few species that we really like as humans to eat for cultural and traditional reasons. And that puts a lot of pressure and disrupts the marine ecosystem quite a lot. 

Once we realized this challenge, we really went into finding a solution. We gathered as much money as we could, a little bit of our own money, some grants, some loans and started essentially developing a first prototype together with a research institute that had some equipment, because, when you're developing food products like this, you need some expensive equipment. So we were able to make a deal with them, develop a first prototype, present it to investors, raise some money, scale it up with a production site that we made a deal with that is not our own. And got a few first customers and then bigger retail listings.

Presenter:
You were mentioning salmon and tuna, two of the most popular table fish, and also the ones you focused on first. What are your salmon and tuna substitutes made of? 

Tom Johansson, Hooked Foods

So our products are made of pea protein, soy protein, wheat protein. We use algae oil, typically for omega three. And then we also use, other vitamins like B12, vitamin D, iron, selenium, iodine, just to make it like a really complete, healthy product. But the main part is just like, we extract proteins from these plants. So it's kind of a protein rich product. We are extending our portfolio. So we started with the tuna and the salmon substitutes. And now we're moving into also actually creating like chicken substitutes. So we created chicken recently like chicken bites and then also like a chicken fillet, of course all plant based. Our position now is essentially that we see that with our technology and our patent and what we understand about creating these alternative proteins is that we can create very healthy and versatile products for quite a low price that can be used in a wide range of dishes.

Presenter:

So far, your products are only available on the Swedish market. What are your plans for the future?

Tom Johansson, Hooked Foods

Germany is our next market and we have very good contacts there with the buyers. We have a sales agent that we worked well with and they liked the products. They think the price is good. And we had some challenges with the packaging, which was like this ridiculous detail. But retail is detail. You need to make sure everything works. And the packaging was a little bit too large. It works in Sweden, but in Germany the shelves are slightly smaller I guess. So then it was too tall. So we need to figure out a new, smaller packaging. 

There's another thing we're still trying to solve: In Sweden we're selling our products frozen, because the frozen category is very big in plant based in Sweden for some reason, which is quite nice because then you can, you know, control your logistics much more easily. You can have bigger packs. So the packaging doesn’t kill your margins. But then for Germany, it's the opposite. So it's mostly smaller packaging and chilled. So then you need to produce much smaller volumes, you need to send much smaller shipments. And, you know, it just eats up your margins and becomes much more expensive, especially if you're a small company. So I think that is a challenge for us as well. How can we set that up in a nice way? And we're looking at some good solutions. But still it's not fully solved yet.

Presenter:

As you probably know, veganism and vegetarianism have a long history in Germany.

Tom Johansson, Hooked Foods

We see a lot of potential of Germany. It's a market that's growing, more than many other markets when it comes to plant based. Very progressive, a lot of great products, great brands, building the whole category. I think German is very interesting.

It's big in terms of the share of the total market, but also the market is so big that it becomes the biggest market to enter. It means a lot of competition goes there, which I think makes more people, more companies and brands trying to build that category. And I think that's a snowball effect that, you know, the more awareness that comes out, the more companies that invest in building the category, the category will grow. And, because I think the undeniable truths about the food industry and the protein shift that needs to happen – not saying everyone has to turn vegan, but that it needs to be more balanced with more sustainable proteins – so I think Germany has gone over that sort of hurdle where it becomes a little bit more mainstream. Even though, Sweden is also quite progressive, it hasn't grown as good as well as the German plant based market over the past few years. 

Presenter:

That was Tom Johansson from Swedish start up Hooked Foods which is planning to launch in Germany in 2026. 

Our next guest comes from a company that is already on the German market: Elin Roberts is co-founder and co-CEO of Better Nature, a UK-based producer of tempeh, a product originating from Indonesia.

Elin Roberts, Better Nature

So tempeh is an ancient Indonesian food. It's been around for hundreds of years. It's made using fermented soybeans and water. It's really high in protein. It's got all nine essential amino acids, but it's also high in fiber and rich in gut friendly prebiotics, which makes it great for the gut as well. And we're trying to get it to become the protein staple for a lot more people around the world, not just people based in Indonesia. 

Presenter:
You started your company in 2019. Looking back, how has the market developed over the past years?

Elin Roberts, Better Nature

I think it's been a really interesting and I think challenging time to be a meat free sort of plant based brand over the last… I guess we've been around for about four and a half years now. It's been quite tricky because I think when we first started that was really when the plant based hype was on its way up, you know, so much excitement around it, which is great. Then Covid struck, so that made it a bit more challenging. And then now over the last few years, we've sort of seen it come crashing down a bit, where I think what's become evident is that too many very similar brands were sort of taken on by supermarkets at the same time. There wasn't much differentiation. Product quality I think varied quite a lot. So there were some products that unfortunately were very poor quality. And then more recently, there's also been all the stuff around ultra processed foods and gut health and people thinking more about what they're eating and trying to eat more natural whole food products. And there's been a pushback against some plant based products for not being the most natural.

I think there are a lot of people that say that all meat free options should be really natural and healthy, that’s what it's meant to be. And I'm actually, though our product is very healthy in that sort of where we sit, I'm actually not really for that. I think that it's really important that people have options. Like in any category there are options, right? There's the stuff that you have maybe once a week on a Friday when you just fancy something really easy, really delicious, you know, and it does the job. We’re not necessarily the right product for that, and that's fine. Whereas if you want a protein staple throughout the week, that’s really simple, that's going to make you feel good, then where the right option much more so than a beyond burger. So I think now the category is just going through a bit of a development to understand that actually we need a range.

Presenter:

This range is constantly growing, despite the challenges of recent years. Not only start-ups are active in this sector: Large, established food companies are taking part as well. In Germany, one of the biggest and best-known brands is Rügenwalder Mühle – which originally specialized in sausage products. What’s your opinion, Elin: Is there still room for new companies and products on the supermarket shelves?

Elin Roberts, Better Nature

I think so. I think as long as there's genuine innovation – it doesn’t have to be something completely new and completely different – which is adding value to customers. I think a lot of the companies that came onto the market were so, sort of, product focus, but they didn't actually think about building a really strong brand at the same time.

Presenter:

Apart from your home market, the UK, your products are also available in Germany in several Rewe and Globus supermarkets.

Elin Roberts, Better Nature
We're very much focused on the UK and Germany at the moment. Just because we're still a very small, quite lean team. I think things have changed a lot in terms of the startup world as well. I think it used to be quite normal to have big teams and invest loads and loads and loads that actually now, people are trying to be more lean, more focused, which I think is really good actually. And so, we just try to be really focused and make sure that we grow the UK and Germany first and then take that model and take it to other countries over the next few years. 

Presenter: 

Why did you choose Germany as the first country for your international expansion?

Elin Roberts, Better Nature

I think the German market has always seemed very open to plant based foods, at least from what we've experienced. And we had a quite a few events in Germany. I think a lot of the stuff around sustainability and plant based, there's a lot going on in Germany. We were part of the ProVeg incubator as well in Berlin, so we had contacts in Germany. And then through that, just had some really interesting conversations. Then that opened some doors and then, you know, things progressed and then we have found some really good partners to work with in Germany as well. So it just felt like the right fit, the market was really open to a product like ours. And then we had the infrastructure to feel like we could do it properly rather than go somewhere entirely new where we had no network.

Presenter:

When it comes to promoting your product, tempeh, you’re very much focusing on the health aspect – tempeh being nutritious and gut-friendly. Is that something that appeals to the German consumer?

 

Elin Roberts, Better Nature

I think in Germany we still talk about health because that really is our point of difference in the market. But sustainability comes at quite a close second and you know, we as a brand, we are very big on sustainability. So we have carbon tracking for all our products. We're working currently on building a net zero strategy, we are a B corp. So it's all things that we do internally, but it’s not something that we shout about that much in the UK, but in Germany it seems to resonate a lot more.

I think they've held on to being more sustainably minded, I think for a bit longer than other places. I know there was like a real boom in people being much more thinking about sustainability. And then sadly with kind of recent economic conditions, I think people have been tighter in terms of their, you know, how much they can spend. And so there's data in the UK that shows that people are kind of becoming less sustainability focus. But from the research I've seen – and I could be wrong,  but from what I've seen in Germany and also anecdotally what we've seen from customers and partners have told us – is that people are still very sustainability minded and that's not really wavered that much, which I think is is really cool.

Presenter:
Are there any other important aspects one needs to keep in mind regarding the German consumer?

Elin Roberts, Better Nature

Maybe around price sensitivity, I think the German market is quite… I wouldn't say… I think they're happy to pay for the things that matter to them, but I think they are maybe slightly more price sensitive than maybe some other countries.

Presenter:

You were mentioning the ProVeg incubator earlier that helped you with your market entry in Germany. Apart from that, did you receive any other support?

Elin Roberts, Better Nature

We've got an ongoing relationship with ProVeg, that are very supportive and help us wherever they can. So we have kind of done it in two different ways. When we launched into Rewe Nord, we basically did that ourselves. We worked with partners. We found a field sales agency to work with, some marketing partners, which on the whole was good. But it definitely took quite a bit of time. And I think we kind of struggled with that because we were just worried that we weren't being focused enough on the UK market and that we just stretching ourselves too thin. And then a contact has put us in touch with Uplegger, who’s a distributor. So that's been really helpful because that has meant that we don't need to do the face to face of sale stuff as much. 

It means that we're not the ones actually going and speaking to the retailers, which does make a big difference. Because the German market's quite different in the sense that, it's not as centralized as the U.K. So in the UK a lot of decisions for retailers are very centralized. There's just one Tesco buyer and they make a decision for the whole country, basically. Whereas that's not the case with Germany, because there are different regions. Then even with the regions, you know, store managers get to make a lot of their own decisions, and it just makes it much harder, I think, when launching a new brand to kind of especially a brand like ours, which requires a bit more explanation. So it's definitely still a journey and we're still got a way to go. But yeah, on our way now, which is nice. 

Presenter:

And we are excited to see how this journey continues. Elin, many thanks for joining us on the podcast. And, by the way: If you need further support, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us here at GTAI. Whether you’ve already launched your plant-based product or are planning to enter the German market – we’re happy to assist!

We are next joined by Jens Tuider from ProVeg. But first, let’s have a look at some recent German business headlines:

Great Timing

The 20^th of August, 2024 was a big day for the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in Germany. Not only did it begin work on a new 10-billion-euro plant in the eastern city of Dresden. The European Union Commission also approved a state-assistance package to cover roughly half of the chipmaker’s costs. The Commission hailed the project as a “first-of-its-kind in Europe”.

Good Karma in German Pharma

Germany has attracted another billion-euro pharmaceutical company expansion. French giant Sanofi is investing 1.3 billion euros to expand insulin production in the western German city of Frankfurt am Main. Sanofi says the expansion will encompass around 36,000 square meters – the equivalent of five football fields – on the company’s existing BioCampus site.  It will go operational in 2029. Sanofi is one of the world’s leading producers of insulin.

Home Smart Home

A representative survey of almost 1200 Germans found by Germany’s digital industry association Bitkom has identified rapidly growing interest in domestic apps in Europe’s largest economy. Almost half of those asked already use at least one smart-home app. A further eleven percent of those asked said they planned to start using smart-home apps this year. Since 2018, usage of the digital tools has risen from a mere 26 percent.

Staying with buildings, Propers to Proptech

Internet platform Blackprint says that, for the first time ever, there are more than one thousand property tech start-ups in Germany. According to platform figures, 106 fledgling firms were founded in the sector in the first half of 2024. That represented a 22 percent rise and more than in all of 2023. “The prop-tech sector is heating up,” said Blackprint Head of Scouting and Market Malte Westphal. 23 percent of the newly founded firms specialized in energy efficiency while 21 percent worked in the areas of new construction materials and renovations.

And finally:

Meatless in Memmingen

Swiss food-tech start-up Planted, which makes plant-based meat substitutes, is opening a production facility in the southern German town of Memmingen. The new site is located in a former brewery and will go operational next year. In the medium term, it will produce more than 20 tons of food per day. Planted has been making its meatless products since 2020 in its primary location in Kemptthal, Switzerland. 75 percent of its exports go to Germany.

The market for plant-based products is expected to reach a worldwide market volume of 160 billion US dollars – two and a half times as much as now. This boom includes Germany, as the three companies we’ve cited shows. So let’s talk now to Jens Tuider, Chief Strategy Officer at ProVeg International. Jens – before we talk numbers – could you tell us more about the organization, whose history goes back quite a long way…

Jens Tuider, ProVeg:

ProVeg was founded in 2017. Its predecessor organization was the German vegetarian union called VEBU and that had a history of almost 150 years, but it was focused a lot on vegetarians. And today the organization is transformed into an international, a food awareness organization called ProVeg. So it has an international focus and it is focusing on a very different target audience rather than the vegans and vegetarians only we focus on the 90% of consumers.

That means that we try not only to focus on vegans and vegetarians who together make up roughly 10% of the German population. But we try to include as many people as possible into moving towards a more plant-based eating and a more sustainable food system. And that means that we have a strong focus on the group called Flexitarians. And in Germany, we see up to 50% of people identifying as flexitarians. That means people are willing and open to trying out new things to replacing traditional animal products with alternative proteins and other plant based and other options. And that is the kind of route we believe we need to take in order to transform the global food system so that we have a large base of supporters and people driving it rather than a very small group that is very strict about some specific choice. 

Presenter:

That's a pretty big task! How is ProVeg driving this transformation of the global food system?

Jens Tuider, ProVeg:

We are now present in 13 countries across five continents. We have some 250 staff in our team and in Germany the team has around 150 people with some 10,000 members that still date back to the Vegetarian Union Times, but also are part of the new organization, obviously. And maybe as a kind of an idea of what ProVeg is about. So we have this 50 by 40 goal, which means we work towards replacing 50% of animal products by the year 2040. And to do that, we work together with all stakeholders along the value creation chain. That means from farmers to investors to startups, producers, retailers, food services and of course also consumers. And last but not least, also policymakers, political decision makers in order to create an attractive ecosystem for alternative proteins and plant based eating and also to make sure that all the stakeholders can benefit from the multiple benefits this transformation offers.

Presenter:

You were already mentioning that one tenth of Germans currently follow a vegan or vegetarian diet and that the proportion of flexitarians in particular has risen sharply. How do you think the situation will develop?

Jens Tuider, ProVeg

We see a very stable number when it comes to, say, vegans and vegetarians. Together, they always range between 9,10, 11 percent, especially in Germany. But what has been a major, let’s say change, in the overall set-up is the development of flexitarianism. That is a rather recent development. They are the driving force behind all the things we now see in the market and the fact that we see alternative proteins, plant based milk and meat offerings in retailers across the country.

We also need to be aware that the whole alternative proteins and plant based industry is in very early stages still. The products are improving massively and we already see now a lot of interest from consumers. And that gives us a clear indicator where we're headed. So we are very sure that the number of flexitarians will increase massively. We also believe that the number of vegans and vegetarians will increase, probably less dramatically than with Flexitarians for very obvious reasons, because of course, veganism or vegetarianism are more conscious decisions that are more linked to identity and many other things. But for us, it is important to see that a huge proportion of the German population and also internationally is becoming more and more open to alternative ways of eating that are more sustainable, more just and also a little more humane in many regards. 

Presenter:

How big is the market for vegan and vegetarian food products at the moment in Germany?

Jens Tuider, ProVeg

In Germany, we're quite proud of this, obviously Germany's a bit of a trailblazer here. So according to a market report from, I think 2023, the plant based retail market in Germany is valued at around €1.9 billion. And it is the biggest plant based market in Europe ahead of, I believe, the United Kingdom in second place and Italy on third. We can also see, which is quite interesting, that between 2020 and 2022, during the Covid crisis, the German market recorded a growth of almost 42% in that segment, which is very, very unusual. So we see massive growth rates and that has contributed to the fact that Germany is now the biggest market for alternative proteins and plant based eating in Europe. And that is not only for meat alternatives. We can also see it with dairy alternatives. And of course that has led to the fact that production in Germany has almost doubled since 2019. So we see lots of signals both from the demand side and the supply side, that there is a huge interest and the strongest interest we can see all over Europe. So Germany is a bit of a lighthouse or trailblazing country here.

Presenter:
What do you think are the reasons for this? 

Jens Tuider, ProVeg

I think it's a mix of things. There's growing awareness among consumers about the impacts that the current food system and especially animal agriculture has. I think also the Covid pandemic brought home that message a bit more clearly that many of the pandemics we've seen in recent years had their origin in zoonoses. That is a kind of transmission from animals to humans. We also see that people are more aware around food security and food justice. We know that animal agriculture is very inefficient in terms of the input and the outcome of proteins and resources.

And secondly, on the industry side, there's also an increased awareness now around the sustainability aspects. So lots of CSR departments are looking to meet their own sustainability goals or the goals of their industry. And of course they have identified, also thanks to the consulting and support we've offered over the past few years, that food system transformation offers a huge lever towards that goal. And I believe another huge factor has been the fact that the offerings and the supply of attractive alternatives to animal products has increased. So our theory of change is that people need attractive alternatives. And we need to make the good choice, the easy choice. So rather than asking people to try harder or to sacrifice stuff, we need to make an offering to them that is so attractive that they naturally gravitate towards it. And attractive means in our terms: It needs to be on price parity and taste parity. If these two things are met and in addition, if these products are widely and easily available, we can see that many, many people are more willing to try them out. 

Presenter:

Talking about price parity. How do the current price increases in the food sector affect the plant based market?

Jens Tuider, ProVeg

We see a lot of interesting developments there at the moment. We know that the plant based market in Germany from producers to retailers, is currently characterized by scaling activities. Those really help reduce the production costs because everyone in the sector is aware that if those products cost 2 to 3 times as much as the original, it's not going to be very successful. Only for the very, very small, very committed group. And obviously we want to reach the 90%. So to reach them, we need to reach price parity. That is something we have been advocating for years and I think very successfully so, because we now see – and that is a bit of a kind of a contrary development to the overall market when it comes to food – the prices for plant based alternatives are decreasing. There's a couple of retailers like Lidl and Aldi, who have already introduced price parity campaigns where they ensure that their own brand products are meeting the price of the animal product equivalents. And that has also been applauded by the consumers. And we can see that those retailers who do that have now increased their sales in these segments massively.

Presenter:

What role do sustainability aspects such as local production and low CO2 emissions play for consumers? 

Jens Tuider, ProVeg

The majority of consumers in Germany and in other countries as well, they are increasingly taking a more of a holistic view of the products they buy. So they are interested, of course, in sustainability aspects, in justice and fairness aspects, in health aspects, in animal welfare aspects. So for us, plant based eating is by all means the best multi problem solution. It has the biggest positive impact on all of these things. Consumers are increasingly aware and demand more awareness also from producers. For example, food waste is a big topic. Organic is a big topic. Seasonal production is a huge topic. And of course also local production.

Presenter:

Is Germany well positioned to produce these plant-based alternatives?

Jens Tuider, ProVeg

That's one of the things that we are most interested in: We want to make Germany into one of the powerhouses of alternative protein production. And Germany has the potential to do that. At the moment we still see a quite different picture. A majority of the product is being imported. So it’s around, I believe, 280,000 tons of plant based milk alternatives, for example, are imported from outside of the country. Mostly from Belgium and Sweden, because two of the biggest brands, Alpro and Oatly, come from those countries. So that explains why we still have lots of imports from those countries. And around 87,000 tons are being exported, so that's still a bit skewed.

In order to utilize the full potential that Germany offers as a potential powerhouse for alternative proteins, we need definitely more investment. We also need more interest in the whole sector. But we also need more public support. That means we need policies that are supportive of alternative proteins. We need a full blown alternative protein strategy from the government. And we also need more public funding in order to support the growth and development of an whole ecosystem in Germany that is beneficial for Germany to turn it into a major production hub and also a powerhouse for alternative proteins.

Presenter:

This governmental “alternative protein strategy” you were talking about – what should it include, in your opinion?

Jens Tuider, ProVeg

So we would like to see kind of a level playing field. So that means that we have like the same taxes for alternative proteins and plant based foods that apply to animal based foods. We would also like to see from policy, apart from this level playing field, a stronger prioritization as a national interest, basically. Many other countries already do that. The United States, for example, Singapore or Israel, have declared this area as a key area for the next coming years. So that is something we also hope for Germany to happen and also for policymakers to get behind. We would like to see much more public investment that benefits all the startups, all the companies into the German ecosystem to flourish and thrive and thus also become market leaders and secure a couple of very important things for Germany, for example, innovation leadership, market shares, sustainable growth, but also future proof jobs.

Presenter:
Are you confident that Germany will implement all these required aspects?

Jens Tuider, ProVeg

Yes. Germany brings everything to the table that you actually need to do that. We have excellent universities and research hubs. We have a huge tradition in technology and innovation. We have a very strong industry, almost a world leading industry when it comes to the whole manufacturing side of things and the technology involved in production and processing. So, German companies are very, very strong in that and have huge experience. Germany is centrally located in the heart of Europe. We have excellent export networks that we can of course utilize also for those kinds of products. We have very good trade relationships with many countries. And last but not least, we have a very good reputation, because compared to many of the superpowers like the US and others, they often face some political or cultural, let’s say, challenges when doing international trade. Germany still has a very, very good reputation internationally. We know this because we have regular exchange with partners in China, in Africa, in South America, across the world, basically. And they all like the way Germans do business and they like Germany, like German quality.

Presenter:

Before we let you go, tell me: What novel foods do you think we’ll be eating in a few years?

Jens Tuider

The big things at the moment I believe is fungi, algae and precision fermentation. Fungi – especially the mycelium part, that is the network of roots – is being explored because it is very promising as a product. So they have a very strong umami taste, which is the key ingredient in meat, for example, which creates the specific meat taste that people love and it also gives texture to product. So it's a natural product and it can increase the attractiveness of plant based offerings. That is why fungi are at the center of lots of research and also production R&D at the moment. Another thing, of course, is algae, because they have, or they promise to have like a very similar taste to fish. So they're very important to develop fish alternatives. They also contain some important minerals and vitamins and omega three assets, for example. 

And another big trend at the moment is called cellular agriculture. And one of the technologies there is precision fermentation and that is something where we can try and create animal products like milk and dairy, not on a plant based basis, but on a… real thing basically, but without animal husbandry. Fermentation is nothing new. We've been using it to create cheese and beer and lots of other things that we all like and are used to. And this precision fermentation is taking it to the next level. And that's another big thing at the moment where we see lots of investment, lots of interest and it's probably going to be a real game changer for the whole dairy segment.

Presenter:

Fungi, algae and lab-made dairy products – what might sound like a futuristic menu, may well soon be staples of our diet. Thanks to Jens Tuider from ProVeg International, Tom Johansson from Hooked Foods and Better Nature-co-founder Elin Roberts. As usual, before we say goodbye we’ll take a look at HOW GERMANY WORKS.

HOW GERMANY WORKS

We just heard from Jens Tuider about the sort of shifts he favors and expects in German food policy. The government body responsible for this area is the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and at the start of 2024, its head, Minister Cem Özdemir, and the governing cabinet passed an official state nutrition strategy. It bears the title “Good Food for Germany.” It aims to make healthy nutrition available to people throughout the country. That includes increasing the amounts of grains, fruit and vegetables in people’s diets and improving the quality of foods in schools, day-care centers and canteens. The ministry also aims to lower the amount of food waste and make agriculture more sustainable. And of course, future food should also taste good. And that’s HOW GERMANY WORKS.

Presenter:

We've come to an end of another episode of Into Germany. If you’re eager to serve up some plant-based products to German vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians, you should definitely contact Germany Trade and Invest. We will be happy to advise you about expanding your business to Europe’s largest market… all at no cost because we’re a government agency. Get in touch at gtai.com. We’re also keen on your opinions, suggestions and questions. Please leave a comment in your favorite podcast app or drop us a line. You’ll find all the details in our show notes. We hope the show has given you some good ideas about meat alternatives.

[sound of happy farm animals]

Presenter: 

On that note – till next month, “Auf Wiederhören,” “Guten Appetit” and remember: Germany means business.

Presenter: 

We've come to an end of another episode of Into Germany. If you’d like to road test your autonomous mobility business idea in Europe’s automotive heartland, we’d like to steer you to Germany Trade and Invest. As Christoph said, we’ll be happy to advise you… all at no cost because we’re a government agency. Get in touch at gtai.com. We’re also keen on your opinions, suggestions and questions about this podcast. Please leave a comment in your favorite app or drop us a line. You’ll find all the details in our show notes. 

AI voice: 

We have reached our destination. I hope you enjoyed your journey.

Presenter:  

And with that - till next month, drive safely, “Auf Wiederhören” and remember: Germany means business.