Meatless Farm is a Leeds based company that produces vegan, plant-based meats which are made primarily from pea protein. The company likes to think outside the box with its products and collaborations. I spoke to Pippa Brown, the Marketing Manager and Ben Davy, the Culinary Development Chef at Meatless Farm, about the company, their collaborations and their plans for the future. I also tried out one of the latest Meatless Farm products to hit the market – ‘Chicken breasts’.
Where did the idea for Meatless Farm originate?
Pippa: ‘”It was founded by a Danish entrepreneur, Morten Toft Bech. He launched the company in 2016 because he wanted more high quality meat free alternatives for his family. Initially, the company launched with minced ‘meat’. At the time the team was small. But since then the company has gone from strength to strength. Now we have over 150 employees in the team all over the world. We also have a wide range of products which we sell to retail and food service. Our latest product to hit the market is chicken breast, which is exciting.“
What’s your favourite product?
As the crux of the conversation was about food, I wanted to hear from the team about their favourite Meatless Farm products.
‘Ben: “I love the meatballs. You can get them from Morrisons, in the frozen section. They are really versatile and you can do whatever you want with them. They are great for kids too. I also like the mince because it is also really versatile. It works great in a bolognaise.”
Pippa said that she loved the newest product to hit the market, the chicken breast: “The chicken is great. As I am a meat eater, but am trying to eat less meat based meals, I think the chicken really helps because it doesn’t feel like I am compromising. In the office, we have all been experimenting with how to cook the chicken. That has been great.“
Tell me about the product innovation process at Meatless Farm.
Meatless Farm is a really innovative company with new products seeming to come to market all the time. I was intrigued to hear about how these products are developed and how long it takes to go from the initial idea to the shop shelves.
Pippa helped to explain: “We have an insights team who gather lots of information. We also do a lot of market research and we look at trend forecasts. It takes time to do all this and then pass on the information to our development team. It can take up to 12 months for product development. We also do some customer led research, asking people what they would like to see. Bacon is huge in the plant based market at the moment. We always try to stay on top of trends because companies in the market quickly jump on the bandwagon for new items.“
Ben added: “We also have other partners who can also suggest new products. When we work with collaborators, sometimes people have a product in mind. Then me and the kitchen team work together to develop products.“
Can you tell me more about the partnerships and collaborations?
A core element of Meatless Farm, I learned during our conversation, is their ambition to work with other partners and to develop collaborations with businesses small and large. I was really interested to hear more about this part of the company and who they have been working with recently.
Pippa: “Collaborations are key to Meatless Farm. We have done lots of great work with other companies and we have lots of exciting partnerships launching soon in Leeds, Yorkshire and nationwide.“
Ben: “We want to work towards having our products as part of an integrated menu, rather than having a vegan menu alternative. We are working with lots of companies. We worked with Pret and Leon nationally, but we are also talking to Manjits, a well-known independent restaurant in Leeds. Excitingly, we are also looking at schools and how we can work with them.“
What about the Bundobust collaboration?
Meatless Farm collaborated with Bundobust, a small independent and hugely popular street food chain, to introduce Meatless Farm meats to their menu. I had heard about the collaboration on social media and I was intrigued to learn more about the collaboration and how it had been going.
Ben: “I used to work at Belgrave Music Hall in Leeds and Bundobust came and did a few pop ups there. So I know the Bundobust team well. I have known them for almost 8 years now so I have been friends with them for a while. We were talking about doing a collab with Meatless Farm for a while but when COVID hit, that took a back seat. We hooked up again in 2021 and we sent them samples to try. They weren’t used to using plant based meat products so we worked with them to develop some dishes to add to their menu.“
Pippa: “Bundo has received a lot of social attraction about the introduction of the Meatless Farm products. They take the ethos of Meatless Farm, which is great. When they announced the collab they were a bit tongue and cheek. Initially they said that Bundobust was doing meat. That was controversial as they are a vegetarian restaurant and they got some backlash. But when they launched the Meatless Farm range, and people realised that the products were actually vegan, it went down really well. The collaboration is planned just for Veganuary. But we are hoping that they will keep at least some of the products on the menu in the future.“
What are the plans for the future of Meatless Farm?
Pippa: “Just as with lots of other businesses, COVID affected us. That meant that we aren’t quite where we wanted to be with launching products. So, over the next few months, we have loads of products coming out. We also have lots of exciting brand collaborations. Some of them are worldwide too. Also, we are working with charity partners and some cool organisations. We recently linked with Real Madrid, which is exciting. We will be their lead food sustainability partner and are looking to drive change through sport. The plant-based market is a really busy industry. Although we want to make products that meat rejectors are happy to eat, we also really want to encourage meat eaters to become more flexitarian and make the switch to non-meat products more often. That is a big focus for us.“
What would you say to encourage people new to Meatless Farm products to try out your food?
Ben started by encouraging meat eaters to give non-meat items a go. “Be brave and don’t be scared. Making a change to something different may feel scary but it isn’t. We aim to make the change as simple as possible.“
Pippa: “Change in how we are eating is coming. Everyone can make a big difference just by making a small swap. We are seeing lots of people already making switches, and there are lots of brands on board helping us all to make more of those switches.“
My thoughts on Meatless Farm ‘chicken breasts’
The guys at Meatless kindly sent me a pack of chicken breasts to try. I was told to treat the meatless breasts just as I would treat traditional chicken, so I did. I knocked up a simple marinade, chopped up the breasts into chunks and let them soak up the sauce for an hour. I then roasted the ‘meat’ with veggies. I was apprehensive about what the chicken would be like as I am often dubious about ‘fake meat’. But when I ate the Meatless Farm chicken, I was pleasantly surprised. The chicken tasted remarkably similar to ‘normal’ chicken and even had a similar texture. I liked that the meatless chicken had a good amount of protein, something that can be lacking in other products.
I’ll be quite happy to try cooking with the Meatless Farm chicken again in the future and would encourage meat eaters and vegetarians alike to give it a go. I’m also keen to see what other restaurants and brands create with the Meatless farm range.
Editor note: Meatless Farm’s team is obviously working hard to create food to surprise meat eaters. Next stop Morrisons, to give those meatballs a go!
Feature photograph: Meatless Farm’s chicken breast skillet.
