— Lucresia Quintero

You know, this veers a little bit, uh, away from the, the, um, sort of food and cooking in the kitchen sort of question, uh, gets more into market trends, but, uh, you know, based upon what I have seen over the last, uh, you know, years and, and even more recently, is that while some, uh, of these, um, meat alternative companies have experienced, uh, a dip, uh, during the pandemic anyway, the projection, uh, is for robust growth over the next several years. And, um, if I recall, uh, you know, sources like Bloomberg and, and others, uh, are projecting, um, significant growth, uh, in this space, uh, over the next, um, uh, several years, six or or eight years or so. And this would be true of, uh, these three categories of food that you mentioned, uh, meat, dairy, and eggs. And, you know, I, um, I'll also add, okay, that, um, you know, this particular market that we're talking about here really focuses on, uh, what I think of as highly processed plant-based, um, food products, you know, that, uh, will mimic or replace these animal-based products. Uh, so very different from the whole food plant-based cooking. That is really our preference, uh, here at Rouxbe, uh, for all of you. Okay? And, uh, you know, please, uh, you know, think about that, um, as you consider, uh, for whatever your context of cooking is. Um, you know, if you're thinking about nutrition, think about the Whole Foods first. Uh, before, you know, we reach toward the, the highly processed foods, okay? Uh, this is an, uh, you know, the meat, dairy, and eggs sort of sector. It is interesting, uh, as you start to read ingredient labels, you know, you'll see that, um, you're probably not gonna make any of these at home. These are really, uh, foods that have been designed, uh, by a food scientist in a, in a laboratory someplace. And, um, they're designed to not, so hang with me here. They're not designed, uh, to replace animal products, uh, in a sense, but rather to mimic them, if you understand what I'm saying. Okay? So, therefore, people that, that don't wanna give up animal products in a significant sensory way, um, but, uh, want the benefits of, um, avoiding some of these things like cholesterol and, and, um, other concerns that might be associated, uh, with an animal-based diet. Uh, so anyway, um, highly processed plant-based foods, uh, have their own problems. And so think about whole foods, uh, is the takeaway here.