Innovative plant-based meat alternatives target the deli counter

Not every meat-free product has to involve lab-derived super-ingredients and mind-bending technology. Some can just be simple, delicious preparations of known foods, presented to the right customer at the right time to make a lifelong impact. 

Three companies are pushing meat-free and fish-free technology in new and fascinating directions, taking aim at categories and markets that have been traditional strongholds for animal products.

Prime Roots

Target: The meat and deli case
Prime Roots isn’t new to the plant-based meat scene. Kimberlie Le and Joshua Nixon co-founded the Bay Area-based company in 2017 with a single vision. “From the beginning, we’ve always said that we want to take over the deli case,” Le said.

Why the deli of all places? A big reason is that Le grew up as a fan of deli culture, in a food-obsessed household with a mother who was a chef. But more than that, she said, “It’s addressing the biggest food category that Americans eat, which is sandwiches.”

Prime Roots’ tool of choice is koji, a fungal mycelia (it’s technically not a mushroom) that has been a staple of the Japanese diet for thousands of years. Koji is best known as the secret behind the umami flavor in miso paste, but its root systems also have a meat-like texture that Le said can solve the functional challenges of making convincing lunch meat.

“You can't just use the traditional plant-based techniques to make a deli meat that's supposed to slice,” she explained. “You can shave ours without it chipping or shredding, and we use it one-to-one on traditional deli equipment.”

Prime Roots provides more than 200 supermarkets nationwide with koji-based lunch meat in the form of turkey, ham, salami and pepperoni, in deli-style loaves that can be sliced thick or thin and served hot or cold. It also produces bacon and several pate options — including (gasp!) foie gras. And all of its products share an ingredient list that’s surprisingly simple. 

“A lot of people say, ‘Wait… this is actually a lot less processed than deli meats,’” Le said. “We're not making this kind of chemical soup that a lot of deli meat companies use. It’s koji, seasonings and flavors. And that’s pretty much it.”

Aqua Foods

Target: Raw fish in fine dining restaurants

Many meat or fish alternative brands were inspired by a momentary realization from the founder, and Chicago-based Aqua Cultured Foods is no exception. After learning that global markets could run out of seafood for consumption by 2048, Brittany Chibe and Anne Palermo started looking to fermentation for a sustainable alternative that could truly stand up against fresh fish in every setting — including posh raw bars and restaurants.

“We created a product that looked incredibly similar to raw scallops and had a natural texture that truly replicated the ‘bite’ of fresh, raw fish,” Chibe said. But nearly as impressive as their creation was the simple, ancient technology they used to make it. The “main ingredient and star of the show” in Aqua’s products is cellulose, the fermentation-derived fiber that makes up the ‘scoby’ in kombucha.

“Cellulose is a true texture hero that allows us to closely replicate traditional seafood,” Chibe explained. “Similar to kombucha, beer and sourdough — all made by fermentation — we feed a proprietary mix of bacteria strains to a fermentation broth to grow whole-cut fillets. After reaching a preferred level of thickness, we harvest and pasteurize those fillets. Once we cut and marinade the products, they’re ready for a chef to prepare and plate.”

Chibe says Aqua initially took aim at staple seafoods like fried shrimp and calamari, but ultimately decided “to showcase our technology in its truest form.” And the dishes that allowed them to do that were cold-served delicacies like fresh tuna and scallops.

“With our go-to-market focus on fine-dining restaurants, it made sense to introduce two hero products that are the pinnacle of indulgence and celebration in raw applications,” Chibe said. “Both products are clean-label with very minimal ingredients. Our scallops are simply water, cellulose and plant-derived flavors to mimic the oceanic notes of scallops, while our tuna includes a natural, beet-derived color to match that deep ruby red.”

Chibe said Aqua Culture Foods products are currently “finalizing our regulatory approval” and the brand plans to have them on the menu in Chicago restaurants this year.

Fungitarian

Target: Food service and schools

Chicago-based Windy City Mushroom launched in 2020 to provide a wide range of gourmet mushrooms to Chicago’s vibrant restaurant community. But as the company increased its production capabilities — and moved into a 50,000-square-foot grow-house — a new problem arose: They had a lot of excess mushrooms.

Co-owners Guy Furman and John Staniszewski considered branching into mushroom supplements and medicinals, but were turned off by a vast market clogged with cheap imported mushrooms. So as an experiment, they began working with chefs to create prepared, bagged dinners and sell them at local farmer’s markets and groceries.

To their surprise, “It outsold every product we had,” Furman said. In 2023, the pair doubled down on food, constructing a commercial kitchen and launching the prepared foods line Fungitarian.

And while the response in stores has been robust, the brand also got a huge boost from a 2022 Illinois law requiring public schools to provide plant-based options. Fungitarian’s classic flavors of marinara, taco, barbecue and a more neutral “original” were a perfect fit.

“The flavors are familiar because we wanted to get into schools, and we wanted to reach kids,” Furman says. “Every kid eats a barbecue sandwich. Every kid eats a taco. Every kid eats pasta. And that’s where this is going to take off: the younger generation who's focused on health and focused on sustainability.”

Fungitarian currently utilizes just around 10% of Windy City’s supply of lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms, with restaurants and packaged mushrooms taking up the majority. But that could change because the brand is finalizing an arrangement to provide Fungitarian to Midwest food service providers and several prominent universities. It is also now providing mushroom dishes to Chicago Public Schools and 30 area private schools.

“Restaurants are always going to be part of what we do, but I think reaching the general population is the biggest opportunity,” Furman says. “All we need to do is keep getting it in front of people because we’ve seen that once they try it, they buy it.”