Alternative protein is a broad (and critical) category in securing the future of our food. But no company can succeed without the fundamentals: texture, taste, and competitive prices. Rival Foods is there, on all fronts – along with a production capacity of several hundred tons a year. Co-Founder and CEO Birgit Dekkers joined us for 5 quick questions on what they do, why their tech stands out, and what keeps her going each day.
So…what do you do?
At Rival Foods we’re producing and selling the next generation of plant-based meat alternatives that give consumers the juiciness, taste and texture they expect from animal derived, whole cut products. In 2024 we scaled up with a dedicated production facility in the Netherlands, and we can soon reach price parity even to regular meat and poultry. That’s crucial.
Tell us a bit about the origin story of your technology.
I was doing my PhD at Wageningen University on a new technology to structure plant-based proteins. Eventually this technology enabled us to create textures that really mimic the whole muscle texture of meat, of whole cut products. At the time these alternatives were starting to gain popularity and draw more interest, but there wasn’t yet a viable way to scale up the tech and bring these products to market. That’s why we founded Rival Foods.
Today we can use a wide variety of protein sources to make our products. So, think about soybean, wheat, but also the next generation sunflower, rape seed, faba bean. We look at the functional properties of these proteins, ensure they can bind to a lot of water, that they can gel, and that they can create texture. And that allows us to create the juiciness, taste, and texture of meat derived products.
Our technology is also really unique in that we can texturize many different proteins, instead of being limited to just one. There’s a whole landscape that we can explore also of novel proteins that will come into the market in the coming years.
How is Rival different than the alternative protein options many people know (and some hate)?
There are many plant-based meat alternatives, but mostly in the unhealthy processed categories. Think burgers, nuggets, sausages. Right now, consumers often feel that choosing something plant based means they have to compromise on taste, texture, juiciness. People want a more nutritious, more sustainable product that can replace animal-derived meat, but without those compromises.
We focus on whole cuts, and for our customers that’s really significant. Our chicken breast, for example, can be prepared just like a regular chicken breast or even easier. So as our customers design their menus, they can use our product instead of an animal product – a clean swap. No complications.
What’s the big problem you’re trying to address?
15% of greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock farming, using 78% of our agricultural lands. That’s an incredible number. Food safety is also a major problem in the meat industry, including antibiotic resistance and transmissible diseases like bird flu. We’re already slaughtering 80 billion animals just for our animals’ food supply. And we’re challenged with feeding 10 billion people in 2050. Meat production is clearly not sustainable – for the planet and our health.
Scaling a startup in any space – and maybe particularly in alt proteins – is no easy feat. What keeps you going?
We know how crucial these solutions are; it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. The food industry needs them, consumers need them, and our planet needs them. On a personal level, it’s the moments when we’re interacting with consumers at events, who taste our products and don’t even realize they’re eating something plant based. They just pass by, try it and love it, and only later find out it’s not meat or poultry. And that’s the goal, because without great taste none of this works.
