(Editor’s note: This is the 21st installment in a monthly series highlighting some of the region’s unsung manufacturers that make products essential to the economy and, in many cases, our way of life. See previous installments here.)
To many, a transition from beef to plant-based food may seem like a leap from one end of the dietary spectrum to the other.
But to Scott Lively, CEO of Lincoln-based Plants to Food LLC and a veteran in the world of grass-fed beef manufacturing, it didn’t feel like much of a jump.
“I don’t think anyone was surprised because the whole reason I got into grass-fed beef was because of health and wellness,” Lively, a longtime food manufacturing entrepreneur, said of his latest venture.
Lively’s work in the grass-fed beef industry reaches back decades and spans throughout the United States.
In the early 2000s, Lively founded Dakota Beef, and later served as an executive at meat- and beef-based operations throughout the country, including Rastelli Foods Group Inc., Pureland America, and Raise American. He continues to oversee Denver-based River Bear American Meats, a charcuterie company, while helming Plants to Food, a manufacturing service partner for plant-based food brands that assists with product formulation, testing, labeling, packaging, distribution and more.
Lively, who lives on Martha’s Vineyard and stays in Lincoln three days per week, launched Plants to Food last fall with a focus on “low-ingredient, nutrient-dense plant-based foods,” he said – qualities that aren’t inherent to vegetarian and vegan options.
“I really saw that a lot of the alternative meats and alternative proteins, like cheese, butter and mayonnaise, were highly processed,” Lively said. “They might classify as plant-based or vegan, but they had a ridiculous amount of ingredients, fillers and preservatives.
“In my opinion, they were overprocessed,” he said. “And I don’t want to sacrifice not eating meat just to eat overpriced food that has a long shelf life.”
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DAIRY ALTERNATIVE: This Barrett’s Garden vegan Fauxcotta seasoned tofu ricotta-style cheese product is one of many produced at Plants to Food LLC in Lincoln.
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Lively hasn’t completely shunned meat, he says, but he eats a mostly plant-based diet. When he does eat meat, it’s typically chicken or fish, and he’s “incredibly selective” about red meat, eating only grass-fed beef.
In addition to working as a food manufacturer, Lively is part of a growing class of consumers choosing plant-based food options. According to a report released this month by the Plant Based Foods Association, a California-based national trade organization, plant-based brands have experienced a 79% increase in retail revenue from 2018 to 2023.
According to the organization’s “2023 Plant-Based Foods State of the Marketplace Report,” 69% of respondents surveyed in November say they buy plant-based foods at the grocery store, while another survey by food service research company Technomic reported that 91% of participants plan to maintain or increase plant-based food intake in the upcoming year.
Like Lively, not all these consumers follow vegan or vegetarian diets. Some follow a “flexitarian” diet, primarily eating plant-based foods but allowing occasional meat consumption. Others may have dietary restrictions such as lactose intolerance and seek plant-based milks and cheese instead of traditional dairy products.
“We don’t really use the term ‘vegan’ anymore” at Plants to Food, Lively said, “because so many of our customers with the cheese and other items we make turn to them because they have dairy issues.”
One of those cheese alternatives is made from ground-up cashews.
“Actual cashews … olive oil, salt, coconut oil, and that’s it,” said Plants to Food Chief Operating Officer Joe McKenna.
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ASSEMBLY LINE: José Nunez Pichardo ensures jars of salsa are capped and collected at the Plants to Food LLC manufacturing facility in Lincoln.
PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS[/caption]
The kitchen facilities resemble commercial kitchens that one might find at a place such as Warren-based food business incubator Hope & Main – one of Plants to Foods’ business partners – but much larger and open only to established food producers.
In another room, workers package one of the company’s most popular products – salsa. Accordingly, there’s lots of it, with several 250-gallon vats of the product lined up in the room alongside packing facilities. A scent-savvy visitor may pick up on the product through aroma alone, with notes of salsa spices in the air even outside of the production room.
Company clients, totaling 40, are clamoring to use these facilities, McKenna says, with rooms booked eight weeks out through word-of-mouth advertising.
Another popular product, barbecue sauce, can also be found in abundance at the Lincoln manufacturing and warehouse facilities, which typically house around 200 products at a time. Among other offerings, the manufacturer produces vegan chocolate, flavored oils, jams and mushroom-infused products – a range that seems to have a notable absence in its exclusion of imitation meats, which McKenna and Lively say was an intentional decision.
McKenna knew the Plants to Food facility, and Lively, prior to its current iteration. Previously, he worked as manufacturing and facilities manager at Wildtree Herbs Inc., the plant-based food company that previously occupied the building.
Wildtree still has a presence at the 15 Wellington Road facility, but as one of Plants to Foods’ brands.
The company struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic and folded under financial issues last year, and Lively, who had previously worked with Wildtree to source plant-based cheese products for another venture, decided to purchase the company instead of finding a new manufacturing partner.
Plants to Food is now fostering a global clientele, Lively says, and is currently fielding calls from clients in Europe. But around 20%-25% of the company’s customers are based in Rhode Island, and Lively says he hopes to expand this local client base.
Plants to Food has doubled its team in a little over a year, McKenna says, growing to 40 employees, with four new hires on the way.
Lively also plans to expand the company within its 144,000-square-foot space.
“We’re operating at a very low capacity,” Lively said. “We’re probably not even [at] 20% of our capacity, so I’d like to max out the manufacturing.”
