Where’s the Beef (Analogue)?

Walking the show floor of IFT FIRST in July, it was clear that plant-based foods are the future and a $90 billion opportunity. That’s what the event signage said, and, indeed, almost every major exhibitor had their own riffs, examples, or samples of plant-based alternatives to meat, poultry, cheese, or seafood.

But the aisles of the expo hall were a jarring contrast to what’s actually happening in grocery store aisles, where the current generation of plant-based meat analogues is expe…