Made in The USA: TiNDLE Launches Vegan Breakfast Sausage For Restaurants, Eyes 2024 Retail Expansion

Singapore-headquartered TiNDLE Foods has launched a breakfast sausage in the US, its first domestically-made product. The rollout comes a day after it expanded its presence in the UK, appearing on menus at two restaurant chains and debuting at Whole Foods.

Just under two months after it first announced plans to launch its first American-made product, TiNDLE has unveiled its savoury Breakfast Sausage in the US. It will be available at Mr. Charlie’s in Los Angeles, and Neat Burger and Vegan On the Fly in New York City. The launch marks the three-year-old alt-meat brand’s first collaboration with plant-based egg giant Just Egg – TiNDLE’s soy protein sausage will be paired with Just Egg’s folded mung bean egg for various menu items at these restaurants.

All three restaurants will incorporate these products as part of breakfast sandwiches, with Neat Burger – which opened its Manhattan restaurant earlier this year and collaborated with whole-cut plant-based steak maker Chunk Foods last week – featuring them in a breakfast burrito too. The new vegan sausage combines soy protein with canola and coconut oils, potato starch, methylcellulose, and oat fibre, alongside flavour and seasoning elements.

Made in the USA

The launch marks TiNDLE’s first product conceptualised and manufactured in the US. Its products have been available at hundreds of distribution points and restaurants across the country since 2022, and so far, all of them have been produced in a co-manufacturing facility in the Netherlands.

The new plant-based breakfast sausage was developed and tested at TiNDLE’s US headquarters in Chicago, where it established a new R&D facility in September 2022. The ingredients for the product are sourced and grown in the US too, and the product is made at a co-manufacturing plant in the Pacific Northwest.

“We are thrilled to introduce TiNDLE Breakfast Sausage as our first American-designed innovation,” said JJ Kass, TiNDLE’s VP of business development and strategy. “This launch not only showcases our dedication to developing delicious and sustainable foods, but also signifies a major achievement for our company as we serve the American market and consumers with a truly authentic and enjoyable breakfast experience.”

The news comes a month after the company launched its vegan chicken pieces in Singapore, which was its first locally manufactured product in its home market – part of a wider effort to boost food security in the country. The product was launched in the Netherlands as well.

The company now has seven products for foodservice in the US, and plans to enter widespread retail channels next year. “We plan to increase the availability of our product offerings in the US next year and specifically, bring our flagship product TiNDLE Chicken to US grocery stores,” a TiNDLE spokesperson told Green Queen.

When asked about upcoming product development, they added: “At the Chicago R&D center, we’re continually working on improving our existing TiNDLE Chicken products and testing out new formats and applications for potential future products. Other products in our existing lineup include nuggets, sandwich patties, tenders, popcorn patties, and boneless wings.”

Expanding across the UK

The news comes on the heels of TiNDLE’s further expansion in the UK, where it debuted in April 2022 following a record-breaking $100M Series A round two months before. Earlier this year, it expanded its flagship chicken alternative to 350 Morrisons stores across the UK – and yesterday, it added 150 more locations to the list. Yesterday, TiNDLE made its debut at all seven Whole Foods stores in London, with plant-based wings, nuggets and tenders.

Meanwhile, it strengthened its foodservice footprint through partnerships with burger chain Byron, as well as Neat Burger’s UK locations. TiNDLE’s products have already been available at Amigo’s, BrewDog and Clean Kitchen Club locations.

Additionally, TiNDLE has made it onto university cafeteria menus, through a collaboration with London’s University of Westminster. It will be part of a katsu curry dish and K-pop-inspired nuggets at all of the institution’s eateries. Earlier this month, hundreds of British academics and campaigners wrote an open letter urging UK universities to transition to 100% plant-based menus.

“In addition to traditional foodservice, we have focused on bringing in partners from the non-commercial space – schools, universities, offices, tourism, etc. – across the globe,” TiNDLE’s spokesperson told Green Queen. “A priority for us has always been to work with schools and universities, as younger generations are adopting a plant-based lifestyle and embracing options at a larger scale than older generations.

“What’s so great about universities is that there are active and vocal student bodies demanding plant-based be on permanent menus in their canteens. In fact, we’ve seen this excitement directly in the UK.” The Universities of Stirling, Birmingham, Queen Mary, London Metropolitan, Kent, University College London and Cambridge have already voted to introduce fully vegan menus at their cafeterias.

Plant-based will ‘continue to grow’

In early August, TiNDLE and its parent company Next Gen Foods rebranded to become TiNDLE Foods globally, after acquiring London-based alt-dairy startup Mwah! in March of this year. TiNDLE told Green Queen at the time that it planned on expanding its collection of multi-ingredient vegan milks and gelatos, and now says it expects to launch the plant-based milk in Europe next year.

It has been a tough few years for the plant-based industry – and even with some forecasts looking positive, there are many challenges the sector needs to overcome. “We don’t believe the overall category is a passing ‘fad’ or that consumer interest has waned. We believe, however, that the market is reflecting larger macroeconomic factors that are affecting almost every sector of industry currently,” the spokesperson said.

TiNDLE calls it a “temporary stress” on the category and emphasises its focus on growth and expansion across Europe, the US and Asia. “As a young industry, there is ample room for growth and development in the US as consumers and diners become more aware of plant-based foods and, through adoption, their impact on climate change,” the spokesperson explained.

“Additionally, as companies such as ours continue to innovate and create delicious plant-based options that are more appealing than animal-based offerings, we believe that consumer demand for plant-based foods will only continue to grow.”