JBS is the world’s largest poultry company and a global leader in the pork and beef industries. Now it is also a player in the plant-based protein sector.
The company has launched its new product, called the Incredible Burger, in the country in which it is headquartered: Brazil. The product is made from soy, wheat, garlic, onions and beetroot, reported Beef Central.
The Incredible Burger will be produced and sold under JBS’ Seara value-added foods division. The product was launched earlier in May at a trade show in Sao Paulo, and the company expects to start marketing it soon.
Speaking at a quarterly conference call on May 14, the company’s global CEO, Guilherme Cavalcanti, when asked about the initiative, said JBS was “really deeply involved in understanding the market strengths about this segment.”
Other plant-based ventures
JBS is not the only business primarily known as a meat and poultry company to enter the plant-based protein industry.
Tyson Foods, the world’s second largest broiler company that is also active in beef, pork and turkey production, recently exited its investment in Beyond Meat, revealing that it would be producing its own plant-based protein products. Tyson Foods anticipates that the new products will be launched yet this summer. Tyson Foods CEO Noel White said during the BMO Capital Markets Farm to Market Conference that he believed it could be a “billion-dollar brand.”
Another top poultry company, Canada’s Maple Leaf Foods, has taken an even more aggressive approach to its involvement in the plant-based protein company, having acquired established alternative protein companies Lightlife Foods and Field Roast Grain Meat Company and forming the plant-based protein subsidiary, Greenleaf Foods. The company is planning to construct a plant for such protein products in Shelbyville, Indiana.
Jim Snee, the CEO of Hormel Foods, parent company of Jennie-O Turkey Store, hinted in 2018 that the company might be considering similar alternative protein products.
