STUDY: Americans, especially millennials, are embracing plant-based meat products
The survey found that during the previous 12 months, 35% of respondents had consumed plant-based meat alternatives. Of that group, 90% said they would do so again.
S. KIRSHENBAUM & D. BUHLER: ‘Sheril Kirshenbaum, an associate research scientist at Michigan State University, and Douglas Buhler, the Director of AgBioResearch and Assistant Vice President of Research and Innovation at Michigan State University, surveyed respondents on their meat alternative perspectives. The results of their biannual, nationally representative survey of over 2,100 people suggest perspectives on meat alternatives are shifting rapidly.
In February 2018, 48% of respondents said they were unlikely to “purchase foods that look and taste identical to meat, but are based on ingredients that are produced artificially.” By September 2019 that number had fallen to 40%… The survey found that during the previous 12 months, 35% of respondents had consumed plant-based meat alternatives. Of that group, 90% said they would do so again.
Among those who had not yet eaten plant-based meat alternatives, 42% were willing to try them, while 30% of that group remained unwilling. It also identified very significant generational differences in attitudes. Nearly half (48%) of respondents under 40 were already eating plant-based meats, while just 27% of those aged 40 and over had tried these products.
These results closely parallel a 2019 survey commissioned by Impossible Foods, which found that over half of millennial and Generation Z respondents consumed plant-based meat at least once a month, compared to just one-fifth of U.S. adults ages 55 and up…
With millennials are expected to become America’s largest living adult generation, their willingness to embrace plant-based meats suggests continued success for this emerging biotechnology. It also has implications for agriculture, the food industry, food security, and environmental sustainability around the world’. SOURCE…
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