Over the last decade, plant-based meat has gotten a lot more meaty.Dozens of startups have launched in recent years to develop more realistic-tasting burgers, nuggets, and sausages as an alternative to factory farmed meat, which causes billions of animals to suffer terribly, pollutes our air and water, and accelerates climate change. For a time, the plant-based meat sector was on a major upswing: Retail sales doubled from 2017 to 2020. But since then, sales have continually declined. Recently published data found a seven percent drop in plant-based meat retail dollar sales from 2023 to 2024 and an 11 percent drop in the number of products sold.To better understand what consumers really think about plant-based meat, a few months ago one organization conducted a huge blind taste test, which I recently covered:In December and January, Nectar — a nonprofit that conducts research on “alternative protein,” such as plant-based meat — brought together nearly 2,700 people in a first- and largest-of-its-kind blind taste test. Without knowing which version they were tasting, the participants tried 122 plant-based meat products across 14 categories, like burgers, hot dogs, and bacon, alongside one animal meat “benchmark” product per category. Each product was tested by at least 100 participants, who then rated them on texture, flavor, appearance, and overall enjoyment on a 7-point scale from “dislike very much” to “like very much.”Twenty of the plant-based products won Nectar’s “Tasty award” — meaning that half or more of the participants rated them better than or equal to the animal-based counterpart (six of the 20 came from just one company: Impossible Foods). This suggests that some of consumers’ preference for animal meat — or dislike of plant-based meat — is just in their head, an idea I explored in depth in April. A chef prepares Impossible Pork at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in 2020. David McNew/AFP via Getty ImagesThe products were all served as part of a dish, like they’d be eaten in regular life — vegan meatballs were served with spaghetti, for example, and deli slices in a sandwich with fixings. While some of these products don’t taste identical to meat when eaten on their own, when prepared in a meal, differences in taste become much less important.If you want to give the top-performing products a try, continue on to learn where to find the 14 that are available in the US, what I think of them (at least, the ones I’ve tried), and a bit about the companies behind these standout plant-based meats. (The six award-winning plant-based meat products that are only available in Europe can be found at the end of the article.)BurgersUS plant-based meat companies have reliably churned out meat-free burgers for decades, in part because they’re a beloved American staple, but also because ground beef is easier for food scientists to replicate than, say, a steak’s complex fibrous structure. You can now find plant-based burgers at the vast majority of US grocery stores, and even at a lot of restaurants. Here are the companies that made the best burgers in Nectar’s blind taste test:Impossible Foods: The company was founded in 2011 by Stanford biochemistry professor Pat Brown and spent five years developing the Impossible burger before launching it in 2016. Of all the plant-based burgers on the market, I think Impossible’s — made with soybeans — is the best, and it’s widely available in US grocery stores and restaurants, including every US Burger King location. MorningStar Farms: Founded in the 1970s and acquired by food giant Kellogg in 1999, MorningStar Farms is a legacy plant-based meat company that appears to still be investing a lot in R&D, given that it won two Tasty awards and keeps launching new products. I haven’t tried the winning “Steakhouse Style” burger, but it’s now at the top of my list to seek out. Beyond Meat: The company has played an instrumental role in upping the quality of plant-based meats over the last decade, thanks in large part to its award-winning Beyond Burger, made with peas, a protein-rich legume. Last year, the company reformulated the burger by reducing saturated fat and sodium, switching to avocado oil, and increasing protein. Chicken nuggetsI’ll be honest: I’ve tried a lot of plant-based chicken nuggets, and I can’t tell much of a difference between them (they all taste like, well, chicken). They’re among the easiest foods to make plant-based because chicken nuggets are already highly processed and bear little resemblance to whole chicken meat. You can’t go wrong with meat-free nuggs from the two Tasty award winners — Impossible Foods and MorningStar Farms — but I also recommend chicken nuggets from Beyond Meat and chicken tenders from Gardein.Chicken filletsImpossible Foods: This product is available at some restaurants but isn’t yet available in retail. Of all 122 plant-based meat products tested by Nectar, it performed best against its animal-based benchmark in the blind taste test. Meati: A couple years ago, I visited Meati’s headquarters in Colorado, where I got to see how their mycelium-based meat gets made. I was impressed by the production facility, the science behind their fungi-based products, and their small environmental footprint, but I’ve got to admit that I don’t like their products. The chicken fillet has a chicken-y flavor and tastes okay to me, but it holds a lot of water, which gives it a squishy texture. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try them — their classic cutlet performed great in a blind taste test. As of March, Meati products were available in over 7,000 retail stores. Swap Food: Headquartered in Paris, Swap Food’s chicken fillet is available at restaurants in North America, but only in three cities: Chicago, Vancouver, and Toronto. You can also order a pack of 20 fillets from this online Canadian grocery store.Breakfast sausage pattiesPlant-based breakfast sausage patties, like plant-based nuggets, all kind of taste the same to me. But blind taste testers have a preference for two companies’ products: Impossible Foods and Gardein, a Canadian company that’s launched a number of delicious plant-based meat products over the years, which are widely available in the US. I also like Impossible’s ground sausage, which comes in a roll, giving you flexibility in how to use it.Turkey deli slicesTofurky: Tofurky has been around since 1995, and it’s perhaps best known for its turkey slices, along with its Thanksgiving roast. The deli slices are perfect for sandwiches, rich in protein, and come in a variety of flavors. While their classic roasted turkey variety won the Tasty award, I prefer their smoked ham, roast beef, and bologna slices.Prime Roots: Most plant-based meat is made with soy, wheat, or peas as the protein source, but Prime Roots’ deli slices are made with koji, a fermentation agent used to make miso and soy sauce. I tried Prime Roots’ deli slices over three years ago and wasn’t a fan; to me, they had an off-putting aftertaste that Tofurky’s doesn’t. But blind taste participants were fans, and three years is an eternity in the startup world, so it’s very likely Prime Roots has improved its products. I’m excited to give them another try — you can too, since they’re available at nearly 300 stores and restaurants across the US.Meatballs and hot dogsThe only plant-based meatballs and hot dogs to win a Tasty award are made by — you guessed it — Impossible Foods. Its hot dogs are even good enough for Joey Chestnut, the world’s top-ranking competitive eater, who signed an endorsement deal with the company in 2024.Other plant-based meat products worth your moneyThe list above only includes products available in the US, but a number of Nectar’s winners appear to only be available in Europe:While a blind taste test is the best measurement of a plant-based meat’s quality, I also want to share some of my personal favorites — and those from friends and fellow Vox colleagues — that didn’t win a Tasty award but deserve the limelight just as much:If you can’t find a product near you, or want to try something not widely available in the US, there are a number of online food retailers, like Vegan Essentials and Thrive Market, that carry specialty plant-based products. Nectar’s blind taste test demonstrated that, overall, plant-based meat still has a long way to go to compete with animal meat on flavor, texture, price, and other attributes. But that so many of the plant-based products were rated just as good or better than their animal meat equivalents shows how far the industry has come in recent decades. In the years ahead, as the problems of our food system — animal cruelty, climate emissions, water pollution, and more — grow and worsen, its alternatives will improve. If we’re lucky, they’ll come to be seen less as substitutes and more as ethical, and tasty, options to satisfy humanity’s desire for meat.You’ve read 1 article in the last monthHere at Vox, we're unwavering in our commitment to covering the issues that matter most to you — threats to democracy, immigration, reproductive rights, the environment, and the rising polarization across this country.Our mission is to provide clear, accessible journalism that empowers you to stay informed and engaged in shaping our world. By becoming a Vox Member, you directly strengthen our ability to deliver in-depth, independent reporting that drives meaningful change.We rely on readers like you — join us.Swati SharmaVox Editor-in-ChiefSee More: المصدر: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/411819/best-plant-based-meat-impossible-beyond-gardein-tofurky #The #best #plantbased #meat #products #according #huge #blind #taste #test

AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Brand Management By John P. Mello Jr. May 13, 2025 5:00 AM PT ADVERTISEMENT Build HubSpot Apps, Faster New developer products preview the future of app building on HubSpot, including deeper extensibility, flexible UI, modern prototyping tools, and more. Learn More. Although building trust through a carefully crafted brand message is still important, artificial intelligence may be undermining its traditional influence. “AI isn’t just helping businesses create content or automate tasks; it’s empowering individuals to become instant digital detectives,” Mike Allton, chief storyteller at Agorapulse, a social media management platform for businesses, wrote Monday on LinkedIn. What that means, he explained, is a company’s entire digital history — reviews, articles, social media sentiment, even employee feedback — is now more transparent and instantly “queryable” than ever before. “The carefully crafted brand message? It’s still important, but AI can now cross-reference it with raw, aggregated public data in seconds,” he noted. Edwin Miller, CEO of Marchex, a conversation intelligence platform maker headquartered in Seattle, explained that the rise of large language models and real-time data analytics has effectively turned a company’s full digital footprint into a searchable, easy-to-interpret, and evaluative source of truth. “We’re entering a world where a company’s entire identity, how it treats customers, how it responds to criticism, what employees really think, and how well it delivers on its promises, can be surfaced instantly by AI,” he told TechNewsWorld. “And not just by researchers or journalists, but by consumers, investors, and competitors.” “This means companies no longer control the brand narrative the way they used to,” he said. “The narrative is now co-authored by customers, employees, and digital observers, with AI acting as a kind of omnipresent interpreter. That changes the playing field for brand management entirely.” AI Shrinks Trust-Building to Milliseconds Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst for SmartTech Research in Las Vegas, argued that brand management is a “huge deal” in the AI age. “Brand management is no longer just about campaigns — it’s about constantly monitoring and reacting to a living, breathing digital footprint,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Every customer interaction, review, or leaked internal memo can instantly shape public perception,” he said. “That means brand managers must be part storyteller, part crisis manager, and fully agile. The brand isn’t what you say it is — it’s what the internet says it is.” Allton noted that AI’s capability to “vet” or “audit” is a powerful reminder that, as AI is integrated into businesses, they must also consider how the external AI ecosystem perceives them. “It’s no longer enough to say you’re trustworthy; the data must reflect it because that data is now incredibly accessible and interpretable by AI,” he wrote. “Trust used to be built over years and could be lost in moments,” added Lizi Sprague, co-founder of Songue PR, a public relations agency in San Francisco. “Now, with AI, trust can be verified in milliseconds. Every interaction, review, and employee comment becomes part of your permanent trust score.” She told TechNewsWorld: “AI isn’t replacing reputation managers or comms people; it’s making them more crucial than ever. In an AI-driven world, reputation management evolves from damage control to proactive narrative architecture.” Proactive Transparency Brand managers will also need to be more proactive. They need to pay attention to how their brand is represented in the most popular AI tools. “Brands should be conducting searches that test the way their reputation is represented or conveyed in those tools, and they should be paying attention to the sources that are referenced by AI tools,” said Damian Rollison, director of market insights at SOCi, a marketing solutions company in San Diego. “If a company focuses a lot on local marketing, they should be paying attention to reviews of a business in Google, Yelp, or TripAdvisor — those kinds of sources — all of which are heavily cited by AI,” he told TechNewsWorld. “If they’re not paying attention to those reviews and taking action to respond when consumers offer feedback — apologizing if they had a bad experience, offering some kind of remedy, thanking customers when they give you positive feedback — then they have even more reason than ever to pay attention to those reviews and respond to them now.” Dev Nag, CEO and founder of QueryPal, a customer support chatbot based in San Francisco, explained that an AI-searchable landscape will create persistent accountability. “Every ethical lapse, broken promise, and controversial statement lives on in digital archives, ready to be surfaced by AI at any moment,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Companies can leverage this AI-scrutinized environment by embracing proactive transparency,” he said. “Organizations should use AI tools to continuously monitor customer sentiment across vast data streams, gaining early warning of reputation risks and identifying improvement areas before issues escalate into crises.” New Era of AI-Driven Accountability Nag recommends conducting regular AI reputation audits, doubling down on authenticity, pursuing strong media coverage in respected outlets, empowering employees as reputation ambassadors, implementing AI monitoring with rapid response protocols, and preparing for AI-driven crises, including misinformation attacks. Transparency without controls, though, can harm a brand. “Doing reputation management well requires a tight focus on the behavior of those who can affect the appearance of the related firm,” said Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore. “If more transparency is created without these controls and training in place, coupled with strong execution, monitoring, and a strong crisis team, the outcome is likely to be catastrophic,” he told TechNewsWorld. “AI is now part of the reputation equation,” added Matthew A. Gilbert, a marketing lecturer at Coastal Carolina University. “It monitors everything, from customer reviews to employee comments,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Brands should treat it as an early warning system and act before issues escalate.” AI in Branding Demands Action, Not Panic Allton argued that the rise of AI as a reputation manager isn’t a cause for alarm but a cause for action. However, it does make some demands on businesses. They include: Non-Negotiable Radical Authenticity If there are inconsistencies between what your brand promises and what the public data reflects, AI-powered searches will likely highlight them. Your operations must genuinely align with your messaging.“Authenticity is no longer a decision made by brands regarding which cards to reveal; instead, it has become an inevitable force driven by the public, as everything will eventually come to light,” said Reilly Newman, founder and brand strategist at Motif Brands, a brand transformation company, in Paso Robles, Calif. “Authenticity is not merely a new initiative for brands,” he told TechNewsWorld. “It is a necessity and an expected element of any company.” The “AI Response” Is Your New First Impression For many, the first true understanding of your business might come from an AI-generated summary, Allton noted. What story is the collective data telling about you?Kseniya Melnikova, a marketing strategist with Melk PR, a marketing agency in Sioux Falls, S.D., recalled a client who believed their low engagement was due to a lack of clear marketing materials. “Using AI to analyze their community feedback, we discovered the real issue was that customers misunderstood who they were,” she told TechNewsWorld. “They were perceived as a retailer when, in fact, they were an insurance fulfillment service. With this insight, we produced fewer — but clearer — materials that corrected the misunderstanding and improved customer outcomes.” Human Values Still Drive the Core Code While AIs process the data, the data itself reflects human experiences and actions, Allton explained. Building a trustworthy business rooted in solid ethical practices provides the best input for any AI assessment.Brand Basics Businesses that stick to fundamentals, though, shouldn’t have to worry about the new unofficial reputation manager. “Companies need to deliver great products and services and back them up with strong support,” asserted Greg Sterling, co-founder of Near Media, a market research firm in San Francisco. “Marketing is a separate thing, but their core business and the way they treat their customers need to be very solid and reliable,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Marketing and brand campaigns can then be built on top of that fundamental authenticity and ethical conduct, which will be reflected in AI results.” “I think people get very confused about what makes a successful business, and they’re focused on tips and tricks and marketing manipulation,” he said. “Great marketing is built on great products and services. Great brands are built by delivering great products and services, being consistent, and treating customers well. That’s the core proposition that everything else flows out of.” John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John. Leave a Comment Click here to cancel reply. Please sign in to post or reply to a comment. New users create a free account. More by John P. Mello Jr. view all More in Artificial Intelligence المصدر: https://www.technewsworld.com/story/ai-is-rewriting-the-rules-of-brand-management-179737.html?rss=1

There's more Fallout on the horizon--Amazon has just announced that the live-action TV adaptation has been renewed for a third season. Season 2 officially wrapped production just last week, and is still over six months out from its scheduled premiere in December.Actor Aaron Moten, who plays Maximus in the show, recently revealed the series could go for five or six seasons. Shortly after, Variety reported that a third season has been officially confirmed by Prime Video. "Together with our amazing partners at Bethesda Games and Bethesda Softworks, we are delighted to announce a third season of Fallout, well ahead of the much-anticipated debut of Season Two," said global head of television at Amazon MGM Studios, Vernon Sanders.The early renewal shows that Prime Video has a lot of faith in the video game adaptation, and for good reason. The first season of Fallout was critically well-received and beloved by audiences, and has since become one of Prime Video's top three most successful titles.Continue Reading at GameSpot Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fallout-renewed-for-a-third-season-but-heading-to-new-vegas-first/1100-6531478/?ftag=CAD-01-10abi2f #fallout #renewed #for #third #season #but #heading #new #vegas #first