Martin Bosley: restaurateur on Sustainable Foods Ltd going into voluntary administration and the decline of 'fake meat'

A chef says meat replacements turned out to be a bit of a fad and they've declined in popularity.

Plant-based food manufacturer Sustainable Foods has recently gone into liquidation.

Pea protein meat alternative producer - Sunfed - also shut this year after losing investors.

Restaurateur Martin Bosely says the products were popular to start with, but diners have now stepped away.

"There was concerns about the tastes, there's definitely concerns about the texture - and I think it's sort of led to putting the plant back into plant-based."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Either dup c Ellen.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
We're going to have a chat to Chippy. Actually Health minister,
former health minister will be with us after five o'clock.
Nine two nine two is the text number, by the way.
Now on another subject altogether, but if a tough market
for fake meat manufacturers. By the looks of things, we've
got another plant based company in the country, Sustainable Foods Limited,
which has gone into voluntary administration. In April, the fake
meat company Sunfed also announced that it was closing. Ristroateur

(00:25):
Martin Bosley is with me and now had bossy you doing.
I'm very well, thank you. What's going on here? People
just not into the fake meat?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I think, oh god, sorry, I thought i'd got rid
of my phone multiple Oh yeah, I'm very I'm a
very important person. Only at four o'clock in the afternoon
it would be Yeah, I think it's I don't think
it's I think I think it was there. People were
into it to begin with, right, Yeah, they got they
gone into it, and I think they've just kind of
into the fake meat thing. They've kind of moved forward.

(00:54):
They've become a little bit more aware of, like I
all the additives that went into it to create that.
So I don't think it's a full scale back lets
against it, but I think what it shikes on what
Sean lied on was the need for sort of more
plant based foods rather than that highly processed, faked meat.
And that's sort of and I think that's the desire
for sort of more natural ingredients and health focused choices.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
So if I look, I tried it and its taste
was fine. It's actually surprisingly good, but it just never
really I just never really got into it because I thought,
if I want to eat meat or eat meat, and
if I don't want to eat meat, I'll eat a plant.
So is that basically when people got to.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
I think so. I think it was like, you know,
people who wanted to eat meat were always going to
eat meat. They were never going to go to a
chick pil tun, they were going to always have meat.
So it was kind of like, you know, so if
you're a vegetarian, here's an option. But if you're vegetarian,
why did you want some of that tasted like chicken?
We you already decided not to eat chicken.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Was it was a fair basically?

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, I think it might have been. You know, it
was kind of there was some popularity there, but Dinah
sort of stepped away from it. I think, you know,
there was concerns about the tapes. There was definitely concerns
over the teacher, and I think that kind of it
sort of led to, I guess a movement of sort
of putting the plant back into plant based rather than
putting the you know, putting the chemicals in the plant based.
And so what we're seeing now on men us is

(02:08):
dishes that kind of highlight vegtables and lays these light
for luffels, mushroom based meals, lintal based options instead of
just substituting meat with processed alternatives.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, okay, so do you think that this is going
to be If you are an investor in plant in
fake meat company, think about taking your money out because
this is the way it's going. This is the trend.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
God knowledge they ever look to me to financially advice,
either you know that or me frankly, Yeah, but you know,
but the plant based I mean also we kind of like,
you know, it's been adopted internationally way before you know,
you know, we're kind of late adopters to it. Yes,
later rolls out like like in the US, it's huge
and it's and as in plant based food, it's not

(02:48):
the fake meat food. You know, but forty seven percent
of people are actually I guess what you call FLIXI tearans.
They you know, they regally incorporate plant based foods in
their diet, but without fully committing sort of vegetarianism, so
you know, they demographic is the key driver for plant
based products. People still eat meat, but also want a
little bit more. So you know, I think, well, you
know it, sort of process plant based meat will they'll,

(03:09):
they'll be there. I don't think it's going to grow
that much more more that whole plant based food markets
is what's going to grow.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
I think, what are you eating at the moment? What's cool?

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Oh god, I've got I've gone back to like really
simple basic eating. I don't know why, it's my age.
I think, you know, we're just like like last night,
I just had a steak on some meshed potato with
some carrots on the side. You know, really, what did
you do with your carrots? I just I just I pointed,
did guild a lily a little bit there? They were
kind of roasted with a little bit of maple syrup and.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Some but oh that's pretty flesh. There's a flesh.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Carrot, but I called it carablized carrots were you know,
so I kind of put a bit of a but
it was just carrots. And but isn't this But.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
This is just the benefit of living in New Zealand, right,
We don't need to dress stuff up with fancy sauces
and all kinds of carry on, because actually it's fresh
and it's awesome.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Exactly when people are saying to me, like, how do
you define New Zealand cuisine? Like you know, like yeah,
it's how you'd go past it too, and the feet
you'd say body, butter and creaman whatever. You know, when
we said, you know, how do you define New Zealand cuisine,
it's the quality of our ingredients produce that makes the difference.
It is so good. You know, we're an agricultural nation
and so we have really access to to those proteins

(04:19):
and to great vegetables and uh and other you and
other products around you know, in that in that space seafood,
I mean, my god, I mean like incredible. So you know,
we are already fortunate. I think so long as we
kind of assume the rest of the world, it's like
we do. No, that doesn't and it's simply that's that
you don't.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, they don't have it as good. Hey boss, thanks man,
really appreciate it. Madam Bosley, ristrator and absolutely top guy.
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