How Sprouts Market Became a Launch Pad for the Most Innovative Vegan Products

Milk and meat are grocery staples and at Sprouts Farmers Market, these items are getting innovative vegan makeovers. Last month, dairy-identical brand Bored Cow made its national retail debut at the grocery chain’s nearly 400 locations across 23 states. 

What’s different about this brand? Instead of exploiting cows to make dairy, Bored Cow—the flagship brand of Tomorrow Foods—uses animal-free whey made by Perfect Day, a California food tech company working to make conventional dairy production methods obsolete with its precision fermentation technology. This base creates a functional vegan milk that steams, froths, and tastes identical to dairy milk. 

Tomorrow Farms

Making functional dairy milk without animals in this way is a win for the environment as well. When compared to conventional and organic dairy milk, Bored Cow’s original flavor uses 96 percent less land, up to 67 percent less water, and emits up to 44 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

Sprouts is now stocking Bored Cow—which is loaded with calcium, B12, and Vitamin D—in Original, Chocolate, Vanilla, and Strawberry flavors.  “We couldn’t think of a better partner to bring Bored Cow to brick-and-mortar than Sprouts,” Tomorrow Farms CEO Ben Berman said in a statement. We feel Sprouts shoppers are strongly aligned with our mission, and share in our passion for sustainable, plant-powered products.”

“Whether you’re a longtime dairy drinker or a plant-based milk enthusiast, you’ll be thrilled with the taste, nutrition, and functionality of Bored Cow,” Berman said. 

Sprouts’ (vegan) meat department 

Founded in 2002, the first Sprouts Farmers Market store opened in Chandler, Arizona, and the company expanded rapidly in the following years, opening stores in California, Colorado, Texas, and other states.  Sprout’s mission is to make healthy living affordable and accessible for everyone and its approach to elevating emerging companies is turning it into a hotspot for vegan innovators. 

Meati

In addition to adding Bored Cow to its dairy case, Sprouts recently became the debut national retailer for Meati, a Colorado-based innovator in the vegan meat space.  In March, Sprouts began stocking Meati’s vegan chicken and carne asada steaks—which it makes from mycelium, the fast-growing root systems of mushrooms. 

The benefits here are also vast. Instead of raising animals for meat, the company is able to grow the equivalent of hundreds of cows with just a teaspoon of mycelium spores into hundreds in a matter of days at its new Mega Ranch facility—where it aims to produce 45 million pounds of mushroom meat annually. 

Meati worked with Sprouts to test its vegan meats in select Colorado stores, which proved quite popular, before rolling out nationally. 

“At Sprouts, our focus has always been on bringing the latest and best in fresh, natural and organic food to our customers,” Kristen Zoldan, Category Manager of Meat of Sprouts, said in a statement. “Meati products exemplify this mission, and we’re delighted to play a role in introducing the brand to the world.”

And Meati is not the only new vegan meat brand at Sprouts. California-based, premium plant-based meat company Abbot’s Butcher just touched down at Sprouts, bringing its plant-based chorizo and chopped vegan chicken into the retailer’s refrigerated case. 

“Launching with Sprouts is an incredibly exciting step for us,” Founder & CEO Kerry Song said in a statement. “There is an undeniable shift taking place in how consumers are thinking about their food, and they are actively seeking out food made with ingredients that truly nourish their bodies.” 

Sprouts is a grocer they trust to feed themselves and their families, and we are honored to be a part of that,” Song said. 

Vegan food innovators touch down at Sprouts

Outside of the milk and meat sections, Sprouts is also supporting vegan food brands in other ways through its Innovation Centers, a display format it includes in its newer stores to showcase a rotation of smaller brands. 

Rolling Greens

This is where customers can now find Colorado-based brand RollinGreens’ line of vegan meats (called “Me’Eat”)  includes taco grounds, chorizo, salt & pepper beef, and a newly launched fajita chicken. 

“Inside Sprouts, we are thrilled to be located in their Innovation Centers, which feature products that are new and cutting-edge for the food industry,” Lindsey Cunningham, CEO and Co-Founder of RollinGreens, tells VegNews. “We knew this would be an exciting destination and important for customers to find RollinGreens products, since they are so unique and game changing.” 

The Innovation Center is also how GrownAs* Foods got its elevated vegan mac and cheese in front of consumers last month. 

“We are thrilled to join forces with Sprouts and bring our delicious, plant-based mac and cheese to families across the nation within the chain’s new Innovation Centers,” GrownAs* Foods’ Chief of Flavor, David Delcourt said in a statement.

“This new format is helping to even the playing field within the grocery industry, not only making it possible for smaller brands like GrownAs* to expand their footprint, but also easier for consumers to try new products that align with their core values,” Delcourt said. 

Tomorrow Farms

And Sprouts’ support for food innovators comes at a time when retail sales of vegan food surpassed an $8 billion milestone last year, according to a recent report, with dairy-free milks leading the way. And plant-based food is a growth engine for the food sector at large, the report found. While total food and beverage unit sales remained mostly flat last year at just 1 percent, unit growth of plant-based foods is up by 23 percent. 

Anna Starostinetskaya is the Senior News Editor at VegNews and is always keeping an eye on all things vegan in her home city of San Francisco, CA and everywhere else.