The coffee chain said last week it aims to add more plant-based food and drinks to its menu as part of the company’s latest plan to become more environmentally friendly.

A company spokeswoman previously declined comment on potential suppliers.

Over the past year, with the rise of companies including Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, “plant-based” has become a food industry buzzword and several major brands and restaurants have raced to offer such products.

— Reporting for Reuters by Uday Sampath in Bangalore.

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Over the past year, with the rise of companies including Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, “plant-based” has become a food industry buzzword and several major brands and restaurants have raced to offer such products. The plant-based meat substitute category is expected to be worth $140 billion in the next decade, according to Barclays (all figures US$).

Starbucks — which sells sausage breakfast-sandwiches, chicken wraps and smoked salmon bagels with cream cheese — did not say by when it would start offering plant-based items. A spokeswoman told Reuters the company is exploring meat alternatives for its breakfast menu, but declined comment on potential suppliers.

Shares in Beyond Meat, which makes pea-based sausages, chicken and burgers, rose as much 17.1 per cent to $127.80.

Starbucks also said it aims to eventually shift to reusable packaging from single-use cups and plastic, and invest in better waste management.

For now, the world’s largest coffee chain has laid out targets for 2030 including halving landfill waste from stores, and carbon emissions from its direct operations and supply chain. The targets were informed by research from the World Wildlife Fund and sustainability consultant Quantis, Starbucks said.

Starbucks, which uses about six billion cups a year at its more than 30,000 outlets, has failed in the past to meet some of its own environmental goals including making 25 per cent of its cups reusable by 2015. The target was revised to serving five per cent of its beverages in personal tumblers by 2015, which Starbucks also missed.

The Seattle-based company’s abundant use of containers, lids and straws has been criticized by consumers as well as activist groups for decades. To be sure, some of its goals have been met, such as a 2008 plan to buy enough renewable energy certificates to power all of its company-operated stores by 2015.

— Reporting for Reuters by Richa Naidu and Hilary Russ.

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The announcement came amid mounting pressure on Taco Bell to remove artificial ingredients, to source products from more humanely raised animals and to match Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, Subway and other rivals’ commitments to sourcing meat raised with fewer antibiotics.

McDonald’s said in September its 16,000 U.S. and Canadian restaurants would switch to cage-free eggs within 10 years.

McDonald’s uses about two billion eggs each year in the U.S., where it dominates breakfast. Analysts estimate that breakfast accounts for about 25 per cent of McDonald’s domestic sales and roughly 40 per cent of profit.

Taco Bell, which recently said that breakfast accounted for six per cent of the chain’s sales mix, uses the equivalent of 13 million eggs each year.

McDonald’s cage-free commitment demands far greater change in the North American egg industry that is rebuilding flocks after the worst bird flu outbreak in U.S. history. For example, its recently launched all-day breakfast program sent egg prices higher.

Burger King, also a small player in the breakfast category, has committed to going 100 per cent cage-free for its eggs by 2017.

Dunkin’ Donuts in March said that 10 per cent of all eggs sourced for its breakfast sandwiches in the U.S. would be from cage-free hens by the end of 2016.

Elsewhere, Starbucks and Panera Bread each have said they would make the move to cage-free eggs by 2020.

Taco Bell, a division of Yum Brands, said its whole eggs would be certified according to cage-free egg production standards set by the American Humane Association.

The chain also reiterated that it would remove artificial flavours and colours, added trans fat, high-fructose corn syrup and unsustainable palm oil from its core menu items by the beginning of 2016.

— Lisa Baertlein is a Reuters correspondent covering the grocery and restaurant sectors from Los Angeles.

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The company said it has been steadily working on making the switch since it began buying cage-free eggs in 2008.

The pledge follows similar moves by McDonald’s, Burger King and food services company Sodexo. It is happening as North American egg suppliers are slowly starting to rebuild flocks after the worst bird flu outbreak in U.S. history.

“While there is still work to be done across the industry to increase supply to address market conditions, we are committed to working with our suppliers toward our goal to be 100 per cent cage-free by 2020,” Starbucks said in a statement.

Cage-free eggs are produced by hens free to moved around inside a barn, as opposed to conventional eggs produced by hens that are packed in cages with other bird.

The overall shift to phase out eggs laid by caged hens is expected to increase competition for limited supplies of cage-free eggs. It carries higher costs that may, at least initially, sting farmers.

Starbucks set the 2020 deadline last Friday, when it updated its “Animal Welfare-Friendly Practices” on its company web site, a company official said.

— P.J. Huffstutter reports on agriculture and ag markets for Reuters from Chicago.

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Starbucks began offering soy milk in 1997. Consumer tastes have since evolved, driving strong demand for other non-dairy alternatives made from products such as coconuts, hemp, rice, almonds and other nuts.

The move from the world’s biggest coffee chain also comes as smaller rivals such as Peet’s Coffee and Coffee Bean + Tea Leaf also offer non-soy dairy milk alternatives.

Starbucks declined to name its coconut milk supplier.

As it does with soy milk, Starbucks will add a 60-cent charge to drinks made with coconut milk (all figures US$).

U.S. retail sales of non-dairy, non-soy milk alternatives are expected to nearly double to almost $2.4 billion by 2019, according to research firm Euromonitor International. Those gains appear to be coming at the expense of cow and soy milk.

Euromonitor expects U.S. dairy milk sales, which were $14.7 billion in 2014, to fall about 11 per cent to around $13.2 billion by 2019.

Soy milk sales, which hit $577 million last year, are expected to drop 30 per cent from that level in 2019, according to Euromonitor.

— Lisa Baertlein is a Reuters correspondent covering the U.S. food industry from Los Angeles.

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