Well, well, well it looks like the carnivores are coming for the plant-based aisle. In a move that’ll have purists clutching at their tofu pearls, meat-processing giant JBS, via its plant-based subsidiary Vivera, has snapped up The Vegetarian Butcher from Unilever.
The Vegetarian Butcher, once the poster child for meat-free innovation, has been sold off like yesterday’s soy mince. Unilever, which grabbed the brand in 2018, seems to have lost its appetite for the plant-based hustle, deciding the whole thing didn’t quite fit into its grand food empire. Enter JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, ready to add another notch to its ever-growing belt of alt-protein takeovers.
Source: © Rene Van Den Berg | Dreamstime.com -Vivera brand with The Vegetarian Butcher
Vivera, one of Europe’s biggest plant-based food brands and already under JBS’s wing, will now steer The Vegetarian Butcher into its next phase, one that, if we’re being honest, will make some plant-based diehards a little uneasy. Can a company built on slaughterhouses really be trusted to champion the future of meat-free eating? Or is this just another case of Big Meat playing both sides?
On the other hand, Vivera’s leadership insists this is about speeding up the transition to plant-based protein on a global scale. Their plan? Merge forces, leverage resources, and push plant-based products into more hands, more plates, and ultimately, more mouths.
But let’s not forget the irony here. JBS, a company that's built its empire on animal meat, now owns some of the most well-known plant-based brands in Europe.
Whether this is a strategic move to dominate both markets or a genuine step toward diversifying protein sources, one thing’s for sure, the lines between meat and plant-based are getting seriously blurry.
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