Creating the Best Cheese Experience with David Israel

Good afternoon, and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reichman. Today with me is David Israel from GOOD PLANeT Foods. He is a CEO and Founder, and I'm so pleased to have you here.

I'm super excited to be here. It's great to meet you.

Likewise. I got your box, and I was overwhelmed. It was enormous. So much different than cheese. It's just so many different ideas that come to my head about how to eat them, how to include them in different recipes. For those that are not familiar with Good Planet Foods, I'd love for you to just share a little bit about who you are, and what inspired you to create Good Planet Foods.

Yeah, I'd love to try to make it really quick and easy.

Let's just start with David. Tell me, what inspired you to come up with Good Planet Foods.

I sold my snack company that I started in 2011. And when I started that company, it really started with indulgent snacks. But by the time I got to 2016, I was really trending towards it better for you products. So I was launching popcorns that were very clean, that were healthy, that were organic. So I was really leaning into the better for you products. So when I sold it, I really wanted to continue in the better for you space. I didn't just want to be anywhere with food, I really wanted to be better for you.

Just to digress for a second, you had a snack company when you launched the snack company. I know you said you sold it in the early 2000s, right?

No, 2016. Late 2016.

But when you originally kicked off the company, was it better for you snack company?

No. We launched in 2011 with a very indulgent product, chocolate salted caramel popcorn, white truffle, which really wasn't bad. But white truffle, we did some mix-ins with candies and stuff like that. And then it grew into potato chips and condiments. We got into very high quality. I mean, always our mantra was to have the highest quality. But again, as I got towards 2015 and 2016, I was really pushing into launching products that were better for you that were cleaner, organic.

And why better for you? Why organic? Why was this important to you?

I just felt that I wanted to put something out there that I felt good about for the consumer. I mean, we all want a treat here and there. But I wanted high quality products that attracted people because, one, yes, they were quality. But two, they were better for you like cruddy snacks. I really wanted a quality that has few products so people could feel good about it. When they ate. calories were lower, the ingredient deck was short. We sourced the greatest products that were hopefully as organic as we could. It was hard to be 100% organic without giving up a lot of the flavors and stuff. That's where I was trending. So when I finally--

What do you say? You were trending there? Did you find that that's what your audience and your--

I was just driven internally. I just really wanted to put out a better quality, better for you product, something they would feel good about and I could feel good about. So again, like I said, we still had offerings with the indulgent products. But as I was launching new products, almost all the new products were better for you.

And how did your consumer respond to this?

We started growing even faster with those products. There was a bigger base for that, there was a bigger need, there was a bigger want, especially high quality, great tasting products. So again, I saw the traction it was getting. And like I said, I felt really good about it. I knew that the consumer felt good about what they were putting into their mouth and going into their bodies. And it was where my mind was going which led me in the pathway into where we are today.

So you had this snack company and you sold it. I believe you said?

Sold the majority to a group out of New York in late 2016. In early 2017, I stepped aside and wanted to go find something. Like I said, strictly better for you. I was looking at all these different categories, not vegan. I doubt driving, but someone suggested that I look at the vegan cheese category. And then 2017, there weren't a lot of choices when you looked at threads and slices for quality good ingredient products that really performed well. So the biggest complaint I heard was melt stability. And when I bought the two leading brands, yeah, this was the melt that I got. It didn't do much. I mean, it bubbled, it tasted terrible, and it didn't melt. And as I did my research, I found that there was a dairy process where they use powders, dairy powders and oils to make cheese. It's called analogue. Why can't we use plant based materials to go through the same process and create a good product? I researched a lot and found, I can't tell you how many companies make it in the US. There's a lot. The nucleus is all in Wisconsin, and I probably call or email 10 to 15 companies. Majority said no because they didn't want to be involved with a plant based company. And others said no because they didn't want to work with a startup. I was not big enough for their scale to the size that they did. So I ended up finding a company on the Island of Crete, Greece that did this process that was open to working with me. They actually said no first, but I convinced them to meet with me. I flew back, we became instant friends. I mean, it's like a family now. But I launched with them, and we created the products. I learned about the category, I learned that the NextGen consumer in vegan was the people that were wanting to do better for themselves and for the planet. So that is how I came up with a GOOD PLANeT. They really were focused on plant based. So went back, had the brand, created the base products. The first four flavors that we were to launch in the US, and we were off to the races by May of 2018, and it just really took off from there pretty quickly. 2019 was a monster for us. I mean, we had a hard time managing and keeping up, and producing was fine. But logistically from Greece, I can order tomorrow and they can make it in two days, but it's not gonna be here for 6 to 8 weeks. So figuring all those things out really took a little bit of effort. But the bottom line was when we launched, our melt ability was heads and shoulders above everybody else. The ingredient deck was much shorter and much cleaner, and that was the first iteration of what we did.

So I'm curious, if you're still doing this in Greece, do you have any plans to--

By third quarter 2019, all those guys that didn't want to talk to me started calling me up. Oh, sorry if we were rude to you, if we made a mistake. By that time, plant based was getting an enormous amount of buzz. They realized, I think dairy was starting to slip a bit, and there's a lot of trending towards plant based period so they wanted to get on board. I mean, they saw what they needed to do, and they started reaching out. And you know what? Initially, when I got the first email, I didn't want to. It wasn't a kind response that first popped into my head. But I was like, okay, you know what I mean? I get it, things happen, they're reaching out, let's see what we can do. So now, we manufacture with specialty companies in Wisconsin, four or five different ones that are masters in what they do. Whether it be cream cheese, or sour cream, or like the wedges, or the smoked wheels, or the block that we need to do for our spreads and slices. That's what we do for the US and North America. From Greece, we're doing almost everything in Europe and internationally.

Well, I was gonna say, with your name, Good Planet Foods, the ability to be able to source locally and to have plants locally really does support your mission also.

Yeah, for sure. We're really about sustainability, good for the planet, good for people. But at the end of day, we want to give the best experience we possibly can to our consumer, and we want to live behind what we're saying, we're doing and we do. I mean, again, part of our role isn't to convert people to be vegan. Of course, we want to provide great products for whatever your choice is, but we want people, if there's balance, they're the less barrier, right? The lower the bar that I make. I'm up here trying to convert everybody to being vegan. I'm not going to get a lot of people to try our product, and I learned that. You can tell me if I get off track for you here. Our first trade show, people would walk by and I'd say, do you want to try some vegan cheese? No, I'm not vegan. Nevermind, I'm like, wow, okay. Hey, we'd like to try some dairy free cheese. Oh, dairy free. Yeah, I'll try that. Okay. I'm not sure. I don't care if it's dairy free. When I said plant based, oh, I'll give that a try. Just more and more people were willing to come in, and that's great for everybody. Whatever drives you whether you're vegan, or you're dairy free, or you have allergens, I'm opening the doors. I want it to be open to everybody to be a comfortable place. And we want to give you the best cheese experience we possibly can.

In any event, I was just commenting really on the better than cheese tagline you have because I really appreciate that. Because I always find it frustrating when people call it something. I'm like, why can't we just create something new?

It's what it's all about. Again, I think it's about balance and inclusion. So if I'm trying to yank you all the way over and get you to stop eating cheese, that's gonna be quite a task. But if I can get people to find balance in whatever, they can make choices, and they can do things that are better for them, they can do things that are better for the planet, and we all win. We can create products that make that easy to do because you get the same cheese experience to the best of our ability with the tools we have to work with today. I'll tell you, our pizzas are Parmesan on a salad. Our smoked wheels, we have shows and people are like, is that really plant based? And they're thinking we're messing with them, but it really is. And I think we're getting better, which is an evolution.

Is it the consistency you're finding people that it resonates with? Or is it the taste? Is it both? What are people most connecting with that is what people are missing or wanting?

Yeah. Well, originally, like I said, it was the melt and the flavor. But now, because it's really grown, I mean, like I said, our smoke wheels, I think they melt okay. But as a crew reborn, you cut them up like you would a horse that had smoked gouda, it's almost the same experience. And that's our goal is to really create that parody where we've really got as close to it as we can to a real cheese because we know that people find joy in cheese. I mean, I know I enjoy it even though it doesn't enjoy me all the time. And I want to eat better for the planet. So yeah, on the other hand, like our cream cheese, again, people, they don't know the difference when they eat it. And I have to tell you, it's a lot easier to do with blocks, cream cheese and spreads than it is with spreads and slices that have to melt on par with real cheese because it's just a different game.

So let's just talk about the other. There's a lot of competition in this space too. As an entrepreneur in this space, I don't look at competition as bad. I don't know how you view the competition. I think it's probably a good thing. It challenges people to be more innovative, really be more transparent, and really create the best product out there.

It brings more awareness to the category too.

How did that influence you? How have you really worked? How does that influence your new products as you build them out and the line that you have now?

Well, I'll tell you what. Number one, we've probably upped our game. I can't tell you how many times over the past four years, probably 10 to 15 where we found better ingredients or we dialed in better on the process so we can really find that match ability for a better malt melt or a browning and a stretch. But the competition is good. A lot of them are not soy based. Some have come into our allergen free category with longer ingredient decks. We have a very short ingredient deck, We are allergen free, we're non GMO, we check a lot of the boxes. I get along with a lot of our competitors. I mean, we all share stories about how we can do better and what we want to do for the category. But there are some that come along that are from larger companies that just want to be in space and they haven't helped us. They've just rushed to the market to have a plant based cheese because they know they have to be there. And they get on shelf because they have a relationship or they already have distribution. And the consumer buys it and they try plant based and they go, that's not so good. It doesn't melt, or it tastes not so great, or it sticks to the roof of your mouth,or whatever it may be right. And I think that that's the disappointing side. If everybody was really coming in and trying to do their best, which most of the younger companies are, I think the bigger companies, just like I said, just wanted something on the shelf and figured, hey, this works. It has created a hurdle for us because it taints the consumer and it takes the buyers. We're out here doing a great job, but they say, oh, well, we'll put this one on. It's $1 less. We already have their products and distribution, it's really easy. And it is bad for everybody at the end of the day. So I think now, we're going back to where the buyers are saying, we got to offer the consumers a great product. They're willing to pay a little more for a great product, and we have to get back in those consumers' mouths that had a bad experience and let them know there are great products out there.

What do you do with that? How do you get it? How do you get into those consumers' mouths to change their conception?

To get them to try it again? Trying again, it's tougher than trying it the first time.

If you screw it up, it's really hard.

The first time and they're willing to give it a shot. But again, if you bite into something and you just can't stand it, it's game over. And unfortunately, with a new fast growing category, a lot of consumers, they're teetering on why they should make this choice to say forget about it, it doesn't work for me. So yeah, I think now it's a marketing promotional thing getting people sampling, getting people to try it, and it kind of cooking them a little bit so we have to get them to come back to the table. I think we're growing.

Has COVID made it more challenging to do that sampling now? Can you give me like three examples of what you're doing to try to connect with that market or that consumer after they've had a bad experience and try to bring them back in.

Yeah. What we're doing in social media, showing them the responses we have. It's getting pictures so they can see it melt and stretch it, and understand that, hey, these people really are trying, and then it's promotions. Today, we can do sampling again. COVID was really weird. Well, for everybody, forget that. I mean, if COVID didn't hit, we would be probably three times where we are in sales. But we still grew rapidly. But a lot of stores didn't bring any new products in because they couldn't keep the products they had on the shelves that they needed so they were allocating new shelf space to new products. We grew like wildfire, and things were fantastic. But I think now, we're all rebounding. We're getting back into the consumers mouths, and we can go sample and taste. And I think that's really what the people that have been, I guess, tainted, that's what they need. They need to taste it, hear you talk, see it, and you got an offer a deal. They gotta say, okay, I'll take a risk here.

So what's new and what's next for Good Planet Foods in the coming days, in the coming years?

Well, we've launched our laughing cow wedges, we revamped our entire line earlier this year. So the melt stability and the taste is really remarkable. We polished up our mozzarella to really focus on pizza melt, and it's fabulous. We launched now the smoked wheels. They go through the same smoke process that (inaudible) had done. It's real as you can get being plant based, and it's amazing. And we're gonna be launching some extremely new innovative products next quarter and in the first quarter of next year that I think are really going to take this to another level. I mean, we are always focused on creating something higher quality, better performing. And like I said, creating a parody to real cheese is as close as we could get. I mean, it's not real cheese, we don't have dairy. But we want to make this experience. It is better cheese, it's healthy. Look, it's a third of the calories, it's a third the fat, it's healthier for you.

So David, can you share with us what you're going to be launching in the next quarter?

Yeah. Well, next quarter, we're launching the snack packs. So they'll be our cheese cubes with almonds and cranberries, or smoked provolone with pistachios and cranberries, I believe. And those are launching in November. So this is going into several stores already sold in, we're just rushing to launch.

That's exciting. So a couple of things, is that your first product that's not allergen free?

It is our first product that is not allergen free. We wanted to stay allergen free for everything we did. But again, we want to offer things to everybody. We still have a great core and a ton of allergen free products and we'll continue to develop and launch those.

Quite frankly.

It's amazing that the demand we were having was requesting products like this from some major retailers. And again, it was weird. We had that conversation like, well, look, we can offer this to other people. We don't have to be strictly allergen free period. I mean, like I said, we have a ton of products we offer that are completely allergen free. Now, we can offer to bring it to appeal to other folks as well.

Great. So within this space, the space is growing. I'm curious, what do you see, for the entire space, if you're looking from a global perspective, where do you see this space going in the next three to five years? Not just for Good Planet Foods, but for the entire space itself.

For plant based cheese or for plant based foods?

Let's go with plant based cheese or plant based foods.

Look, I see a lot of innovation coming. I see a lot of investment into R&D to create better products. So right now, we have a lot of plant based meat products out there that aren't really better for you at the end of the day. I mean, yes, they're better for the planet. But the ingredient decks are, some of them are pretty challenging. And I see a lot of things coming where cheese meats, they're gonna get cleaned up. So they're going to be replicated where it isn't better for you products, not just for our planet. So look, we've been plant based. That was kind of our mantra for the past four years. My mantra is now planet friendly. Again, we can offer allergen free, we can offer products that have nuts, we can create products that are done without the cow. We're basically creating real cheese without the cow, and that's planet friendly. And I think we can have those types of offerings in the future. So again, people can make these choices for whatever drives them. But we're about sustainability, we're about the climate, we're about the planet. And I think this is very important.

There's always a driving factor for everyone. What is your driving factor? What is the impact you hope to see by creating this better for you food business? Yeah, you're doing this. Are you doing it for your kids? Are you hoping that will reverse climate change? What is the impact that you hope to see?

Yeah. Well, I want to slow climate change. I don't think we're going to reverse it. I want to make it better, and I want our world to be better. Yes, my kids, for everybody. I'm not about David. I really care about my community, and I care about our world, I care about our planet. And like I said, I don't know if I did say this when I was looking at vegan cheese. Sure, I saw that I could probably do a lot better job. It was so terrible. It seemed easy. But the driving force to me was when I heard about or I read about the impact of dairy on our ozone layer, and I didn't realize that it was worse than fossil fuels. You could have told me that, I would have said you're full of baloney. And when I learned that it really triggered something, it gave me something to be passionate about. And again, I don't think there's no light switch here. But we do have to make changes. I think if I can create products that give people the ability to make those changes, balanced to do better for the planet, to do better for themselves, then I've accomplished what I've wanted to accomplish.

So if everybody has a choice, and everybody can make a little bit of an impact together, we can make a much greater impact. You're giving people that choice, and you're inspiring other entrepreneurs to innovate, and you're sharing your story on why and how you've done it. I want to thank you so much for joining me.

Oh, you're great. I was so happy to be here, and it's nice to meet you.

And David, I'm just curious. For the listeners that joined us today, for the people that watch the videocast, if they wanted to buy Good Planet Foods, where would they go and find this?

Wow. Well, we're in all Sprout Stores. We're in a lot of Safeway Albertsons. We're Costco in Northern California. We're in Wegmans. We're in the central market. I could go on forever.

Awesome. I think they get the point. We're gonna add some links so that they can check out your website.

Yeah, that'll tell them where to go.

It will be in the show notes, I want to thank you, David, for joining me. I want to thank our guests for tuning in. We're here every Tuesday. And if you watch the video, don't forget to rate, review and let us know what you think. Check out the cheese and you just know. So again, thank you all for joining us today here on Essential Ingredients.