East Bay vegan egg company Eat Just sees massive spike in demand for product
With the bird flu impacting egg production nationwide, a Bay Area-based vegan egg company said the demand for their product is rising as consumers are looking for egg alternatives.
" Just Egg is growing five times faster today -- relative today -- to the same period a year ago. It's also growing five times faster than chicken eggs," Eat Just co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick told CBS News Bay Area.
Tetrick's journey all started when he was trying to find the perfect protein sequences to create a texture similar to scrambled eggs.
"The experiments we ran were in my buddy's studio apartment in Los Angeles; tiny little studio apartment. And I would bring on all these beans and grains and mill them in a blender," he said.
Three years later, he launched the vegan alternative to eggs -- which he called "Just Egg" -- while continuing to test more recipes out of Emeryville.
"In this machine over here, spins it really fast, fiber, fat, starch comes out and we're left with whole mung bean protein. It's non-GMO," Tetrick said. "Mung beans are cultivated over 4,000 years. It turns out there's a little protein inside these beans that scrambles like an egg. So we take it, mill it into a flour, and we spin it and protein comes off. This is the protein that makes the egg."
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national average price for a dozen of eggs was $5.90 in February. It was a nearly dollar jump from the average price of $4.95 in January.
According to the USDA, in California, the average price of a dozen of eggs in March was $10.35.
"For the consumer who is worried about egg prices and egg demand and the flu, they have a product entirely made from plants they can make in their own kitchen. And most importantly, it just taste like eggs," Tetrick said.
The bird flu and the cost of eggs has also not impacted one restaurant in San Francisco. Carlos Suarez, the sous chef with Rad Radish, a vegan restaurant, said they serve Just Egg in their chilaquiles and sandwiches.
"It's been very popular, like these three weeks, because the problem with the eggs. We don't have any eggs in San Francisco," Suarez told CBS News Bay Area.
They said the egg shortage has actually made them busier than ever.
"It's not increasing the price. It's not being affected by the recently increasing prices with the regular eggs," Suarez said. "So this is a good option to come and try it."
Tetrick also adds that the bird flu has opened up a greater conversation about environmental sustainability, as they sold more than half a billion eggs since they launched in 2012.
"94% of Americans are eating chicken eggs. But when you double click into that, the system is a bit off. The way we treat animals, the damage it does to the environment," he said. "The overall mission is to make it so that the food that we eat is much better for our own bodies, much better for animals and much better for the planet."
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