Perspectives: Meat alternatives in foodservice

This column is part of our "Perspectives on the Food Business" series. It comes from a former foodservice director for a meat alternative manufacturer. This person chose to remain anonymous in an effort to express the common stumbling blocks of many alternative manufacturers trying to enter the foodservice sector. (Some of the capitalized words are used this way in the food industry, so we have kept them as written.)

Meat Alternatives have come a long way from their humble beginnings. Remember eating Meat Alternative products that tasted, “spongy, cardboard-like” and knowing that the only reason you were consuming these products was because you knew of their great nutritional value? We have come a long way indeed. Now, Meat Alternative products can be found almost anywhere; in the thousands of Natural stores that have popped up across the country. Even traditional grocery stores have realized the potential of these products and know that a high percentage of their consumers “demand” these items to be stocked on the shelves. Not to even speak of the many varieties and brands of Meat Alternatives.

You would think with the demand for these products being at an all time high, every venue would get on board the bandwagon and recognize the need to have these products available to their patrons. Then why don’t we see more Meat Alternative products at Ballparks, Restaurants or Convenience stores??? The answer can be summed up in two words; volume and profit. Yes, even foods that are good for you and would make for a happier and healthier world, are scrutinized by how many Veggie Dogs, Wings or Sausages can be sold.

Let’s take a look at only one of these venues I mentioned previously: Ballparks. In order for a Ballpark to purchase a Meat Alternative product, they have to first source it from one of their Food Service providers. Now, as with any industry whether it be food, automotive or housing, products are available based on their demand and Food Service companies operate under these same guidelines. We have all witnessed firsthand at our favorite grocery store not being able to find an item and being told that the item had been discontinued because it just didn’t move quickly enough. Now imagine how many Natural and Grocery stores there are, compared to Ballparks.

Generally speaking, Food Service companies have far less outlets in which to sell the products they carry so it becomes a necessary evil to use the space in their warehouses to have only products that meet defined volume hurdle rates. When you are at a Ballpark, look around, what are the items most being consumed; meat hamburgers, hot dogs, nacho’s. These items are the cash cows for Ballparks. They sell thousands of these items at every game and therefore are the items of choice stocked by Food Service companies. Now, take another look and find the one or two people you see or think you see eating a Veggie Dog or Burger. Businesses are in business to stay in business and that is just fundamental economics.

As the Food Service providers are subject to the rules of basic economics of supply and demand, so are the Meat Alternative manufacturers that provide these companies. Selling to a Whole Foods or even to a Traditional Grocery store like a Safeway or Kroger offers the Meat Alternative Manufacturer an immediate placement of an item at over 1,500 stores (depending on retailer). Assuming the store already has a Meat Alternative section “carved out” and the item you offer is well accepted by the Meat Alternative consumer, you now have instantaneous volume coming in for that item. Since most grocery stores today already offer the other items produced by the Meat Alternative company, inventory and production of this product can be “blended” into their costs. However, on the Food Service side of business, this is a completely different scenario. There is not a section or a shelf for consumers to see the product. Ballparks are not “open” 7 days a week.

The only similar piece that we can compare between a Natural, Traditional store and a Ballpark is they want the product packaged their way. All grocery stores sell “retail pack” products. What this means is the product is packaged to a certain criteria that is “familiar” to all the consumers that shop at their stores. Like the Grocery Stores, Ballparks also want to have the products they sell packaged to their specifications. As you would guess this variance from the norm is a costly piece for a manufacturer. Changing the set up of the production line, storage of different size cases to ship products all add up to higher costs. The “instantaneous volume” we spoke of for Grocery Stores is not there with Ballparks. Each concession manager at each Ballpark has to be presented the idea and concept of selling Meat Alternative products. On a best case scenario, they may order 2 or 3 cases just to “try” the product and test its profit and volume potential. The tedious labor intensive work of presenting to each Ballpark coupled with the slow volume build of 2 or 3 cases at a time makes the Food Service side of business a very scary endeavor for any Meat Alternative Manufacturer and one that comes with a very high price tag.

Are Veggie Dogs, Burgers and other great tasting Meat Alternative foods found at all these venues? They are, but not in the numbers one might like. As I said at the beginning, we have come a long way from the early days of Meat Alternative when the products didn’t taste so great and finding these nutritious products was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Although getting Meat Alternatives into these venues is and will continue to be a challenge, with your letters, websites like this one and word of mouth momentum, I see all of us being able to sit back, relax and enjoy watching our favorite Team play while consuming a great tasting Veggie Dog. For now, give thanks to the few Ballparks that have weathered the storm and have held tight to their beliefs of offering these products.

* For a general outline of the retail vs. food service sides of the food business and for tips on how you can make a difference, read Soy Happy's article "Encouraging Vegetarian Foods at Concession Stands" printed in the Vegetarian Journal.

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