Giving Up Meat = Healthy Living = Healthy Planet. Are We at a Dietary Inflection Point?
In fact, a majority of consumers in seven of 27 nations surveyed, including Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam, say they would prefer plant-based alternatives to real meat.
TOM IDLE: According to the research, consumers’ changes to become healthier center on diet and exercise — to have a better quality of life, both physically and mentally, while preventing illness… According to the GlobeScan research, as many as 40 percent of consumers across the world say they would choose a plant-based meat substitute if price and taste remain the same. This is backed by the steadily growing market for plant-based alternatives — which is set to grow by almost nine percent a year and be worth $38.4 billion by 2025.
Since Swedish burger chain MAX Burgers launched its Delifresh plant-based burger four years ago, sales have grown 1,100 percent. Last April, shares of US plant-based meat brand Beyond Meat jumped 49 percent, thanks to rising widespread consumer interest in plant-based foods and a high-profile partnership with Starbucks. A joint venture deal with PepsiCo saw shares rise sharply again earlier this year. Meanwhile, Beyond rival Impossible Foods raised $500 million of new funding last year to add plant-based alternatives for lamb, goat and fish to its repertoire.
While most meat eaters globally still prefer real meat to alternatives made from plants, as many as four in ten say they’d choose a plant-based substitute if price and taste remain the same. In fact, a majority of consumers in seven of 27 nations surveyed — including Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam — say they would prefer plant-based alternatives to real meat. Interestingly, most of these countries are heavy meat-eating nations that devote plenty of resources to its production every year.
Taste is everything, according to Joe Lam, Impossible’s Director of Consumer Insights and Analytics. Most consumers want to eat better, and they have a lot of solutions to do that — whether just increasing fruit or veg in their diet or reducing their meat consumption, he says. But when it comes to cutting out meat, trying meat alternatives is tough, “because you’re trading off on taste.”
“Consumers describe the existing solutions as ‘cardboard hockey pucks’,” Lam told Sustainable Brands™. “The bar is so low; that for a company like Impossible to come along and say, ‘We taste exactly like meat’ — people are super skeptical, but curious. Once they do try it, their mind is blown because it’s broken that low bar assumption of taste. “There are also consumers that actually think giving up meat isn’t healthy. We hear it a lot: ‘A meal without meat is not a meal’”…
As the GlobeScan research shows, the wider public might still need convincing of the health, nutrition and environmental benefits of changing well-established habits. As with most things, money talks, Lam says: “Taste is super important; but if you’re trying to get a global population to shift, price is everything.”
Impossible recently announced two price cuts — first, in the food service sector; and then, in retail. “As we lower our price, it’ll open the market up to consumers of non-organic grass-fed beef. Initially, there’s enough curiosity in the product for people to try it, even if it’s really high price. But price really becomes a factor during the repeat process and building that habit-forming behavior.”
The most important thing brands can do is create products that do not require huge behavior change, Lam asserts: “We do what we do, and we like what we like. Changing that is really hard. The beauty of the Impossible burger is that we just give them what they like, but without the environmental impact.” Clearly, the appetite is there for a shift away from meat-based diets — which is good news for addressing a range of healthcare issues, as well as the climate crisis. But business has a critical role to play. SOURCE…
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