Unwanted scramble for plant-based eggs

While I always turn my nose up at scrambled eggs and omelettes made with powdered or dehydrated eggs, typically those served at the breakfast smorgasbord in conference hosting hotels, I was gobsmacked to learn recently of 100 percent plant-based liquid eggs. I’m a fresh egg man, whether they be fried, scrambled, poached or hard boiled. No compromise there.
When Inside FMCG, an excellent Australian published magazine covering fast moving consumer goods, cooked up an interesting article headlined ‘Beyond the meat: what’s driving the next plant-based foods boom’, I quickly cracked onto the egg bit. The author Allen Zelden is founder of Intrinity Global, which assists plant-based companies to scale up and grow through increased sales, raised funds and access to global networks and manufacturing. Zelden admitted up-front that of all the animal proteins, none are more versatile, functional and universal than eggs.
Unsurprisingly, he also felt that the plant-based egg category was a massive global opportunity, with so few egg alternatives on the market. India is considered to have the world’s largest vegetarian population and as eggs are contentiously accepted by many vegetarian communities, a company known as EVO Foods is apparently on a mission to bring the plant-based revolution to India, with the country’s first 100 percent plant-based liquid egg. EVO Foods co-founder Shraddha Bhansali had this to say, “We at EVO see plant-based eggs starting the whole plant-based foods market for India.”
“Food in India is deeply rooted in tradition, culture and community, and a plant-based meat product might actually turn off a lot of flexitarians and vegetarians.
“We believe eggs are the best gateway products to introduce Indian consumers to plant-based foods because eggs represent a grey area in the vegetarian and non-vegetarian debate in India.” As Indian consumers become increasingly aware of global trends, food is the most socially complex category.
Though India has the lowest global meat consumption, conversely it will shortly overtake the US as the second largest egg-producing market. With an intimate understanding of the challenges and opportunities in their region, Bhansali and co-founder Kartik Dixit created a ‘clean’ protein alternative for India’s traditional egg market. EVO’s liquid egg uses advanced plant biochemistry and food science to extract proteins from legumes and other plant sources to create a sustainable yet delicious evolved egg replica without cholesterol, antibiotics or any animal cruelty, according to its founders.
Ultimately, plant-based eggs are still a very new market. According to SPINS data, US retail sales for plant-based eggs grew from $A3.91 million to $A13.04 million last year. However, from all the plant-based food categories, eggs have easily seen the highest dollar value sales growth over the past three years, with a massive 228.2 percent.
Impressive compared to the plant-based meat category, which only saw 37.8 percent growth for the same period. With pricing considered a foundational acceptance factor in guiding consumer food choices, international expansion is very much on EVO’s roadmap. “In the US currently the average price of plant-based eggs is 184 percent higher than the price of animal-based eggs.”
“This is where EVO can capitalise on the demand by providing high quality and affordable plant-based eggs,” Bhansali said. As for me, fresh eggs will always be on my plate and I’ll never be scrambling for alternatives. With fresh eggs containing more than 10 vitamins and minerals and the highest quality protein on the planet, what more could a man want!