This Spanish Startup Uses Just 10 Ingredients To Make Its Vegan ‘Hello Burger’

Hello Plant Foods, the latest plant-based brand launch in Spain, uses only 10 ingredients to make its vegan burger patties. According to the company, its burgers have the shortest ingredient list out of all plant-based patties on the market. After a successful foodservice launch, the brand is now planning to bring its 10-ingredient patties into the Spanish retail market. 

Hello Plant Foods makes its vegan burgers with only 10 ingredients. Dubbed the Hello Burger, the patty contains the “least ingredients in the world,” out of all of the vegan burger alternatives, said the company. The burger does not contain any coconut oil. Other ingredients iclude olive oil, soybeans, psyllium husk, beetroot extract, tomatoes, salt, and natural flavourings. 

“We only use Extra Virgin Olive Oil in its pure and 100% liquid state,” explained Hello Plant, in an English translation of its announcement in Spanish. “Its flavour is neutral, this makes it versatile for any type of recipe whether raw or cooked.” 

2+ years of R&D

Hello Plant says that it took around two and a half years to develop its Hello Burger. After rigorous R&D, the teammanaged to launch the “new level of plant meat” around three months ago. After receiving positive feedback for its foodservice launch, the Madrid-based startup is now gearing up to roll out the plant-based burger in retail channels. 

“Honestly, we did not expect the reception it has had,” said the brand. “We are in more than 200 points of sale throughout Spain…Soon we will be in retail.” It plans to expand to around 600 points of sale by the end of 2021. 

Hello Plant says that the successful launch is down to the nutritional quality and taste of its burger, which has now garnered support from “top chefs, influencers and investors”. 

“We offer a product of excellent gastronomic and nutritional quality that serves to reach all consumers based on respect for all food options,” CEO and co-founder Javier Fernández Álvarez de Carrizo is quoted as saying on Vegconomist. 

Spanish plant-based market heats up

Hello Plant is the latest to join Spain’s cohort of homegrown vegan food-tech players. Perhaps the most well-known is Heura, famed for its chicken analogue and recently raising €16 million to fuel its growth. 

Read: Meet these 7 Spanish food techs changing how meat is made

Like Hello Plant, Heura’s strategy also takes a clean label approach. It previously claimed to have created the world’s healthiest plant-based burger, which slashed the fat content by nearly two-thirds compared to traditional beef burgers. Since securing new funding, the startup has expanded its lineup with vegan chicken nuggets and has also named plant-based pork as its next target. 

Other alt-protein startups based in Spain include Libre Foods and Biotech Foods, both of which are using different technologies such as fermentation and cell-based to develop new sustainable meat alternatives. 

All images courtesy of Hello Plant Foods.