Nestlé Launches Meatier Vegan Burger and Ground Meat 

This month, food company Nestlé SA announced that it reformulated its vegan Incredible Burger to feature a stronger umami flavor and to be “meatier” than its original version. In April, the food giant launched the burger under its Garden Gourmet brand across Europe and as part of the Big Vegan TS at McDonald’s in Germany. “In continuous improvement, we are not sitting still after the launch of version one of our Garden Gourmet Incredible Burger, and are therefore launching the next generation of this burger, “ Wayne England, global head of Nestlé’s food business, said. “This brings more meatiness, more crumbliness, and some better consumer attributes which we are sure consumers will be excited about.” Next month, Nestlé will launch vegan Incredible Mince (ground beef) at retailers in Germany, Austria, Norway, and Sweden. In the United States, Nestlé will launch similar products—the Awesome Burger and Awesome Grounds—under its Sweet Earth brand across retail outlets in September. Earlier this year, both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat—companies that Nestlé is now directly competing with in the plant-based meat industry—reformulated their Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger to more closely mimic their animal-based counterparts. Impossible Foods’ aims to launch its burgers in stores as early as next month while Beyond Beef (Beyond Meat’s vegan ground beef) hit shelves nationwide in June.