Meat the new alternative: v2food

What do you get when you pair up the nation’s best scientists and one of Australia’s most prolific food industry pioneers? You get v2food, Australia’s newest plant-based meat start-up. v2food is an innovative partnership between the CSIRO, venture capital firm Main Sequence Ventures and Jack Cowin’s Competitive Foods Australia. The result is a sustainable plant-based meat alternative that looks, cooks and tastes like meat.

With the backing of both government and industry, v2food had all the right ingredients for success from day one. The company’s rapid growth has also been a result of the team’s access to CSIRO’s expansive network of expertise.

“Making meat alternatives from plants is not a new idea,” says Nick Hazell, v2food Founder and CEO. “But at v2food, we’ve taken it a step further. We’re on a journey to make plant-based food both taste better and be more sustainable.

“We’ve drawn upon the best food, nutrition and sustainability science from CSIRO to develop a sustainable and nutritious product, with an unmatched texture and flavour. The goal is for our product to be a delicious alternative to meat, accessible to every Australian.”

v2food: a recipe for success

Recognising that there’s a need for a “version 2” of the food system, v2food’s range of plant-based meat products is suited for all consumers. Made from legumes, the company’s “mince” looks and tastes like quality meat and contains added fibre and nutrients.

“We seem to have the right resources for success,” says Jack Cowin, Chairman and CEO of Competitive Foods Australia, the company behind Hungry Jack’s. “With CSIRO’s outstanding research and technology capabilities, the passion of the v2food team led by Nick Hazell and Competitive Foods Australia’s ability to help build and commercialise businesses, we believe that we have the ingredients for a successful venture.

“We’ve seen a huge opportunity for plant-based proteins and the category is set to explode. I’ve eaten beef all my life but I’ve tasted the v2food and it tastes as good as beef. We can’t wait to take v2food to consumers with some fantastic new products.”

v2food has been collaborating with the grain and meat industries to add plant-based meat to the Australian agricultural story. CSIRO projects this new industry to be worth $6 billion+ by 2030 in Australia. This provides a big opportunity for existing meat and grain producers.

Room to grow

Australia doesn’t currently have the capability to process legumes for plant-based meat alternatives. However, v2food, with the help of CSIRO, is working on developing this capability to create an all-Australian value chain.

“This is an exciting opportunity for Australian grain farmers to be at the forefront of this growing market, which will help them grow and create new jobs,” says the Hon. Karen Andrews, Minister for Industry, Science and Technology. “This isn’t about taking a share of the existing meat market; this is an additional opportunity to create a new market that could add $6 billion to our economy by 2030.”

For more on v2food, head to the website. You can also have v2food’s plant-based meat delivered straight to your door via meal-kit delivery service Marley Spoon.