SUSTAINABILITY: What is plant-based meat’s next act?
It’s expensive to buy an electric car, but by eating plant-based just once a week, consumers can save 1,000 square feet of land, 200 showers worth of water, and 184 miles of greenhouse car emissions.
SUZANNE BLAKE: The pandemic disrupted much of consumer behavior, but the tide was already turning when it came to meat alternatives. Even more so today than pre-COVID-19, health and sustainability are top of mind for diners, says Tim Smith, Beyond Meat’s VP of food service North America. As consumers become increasingly aware of the health and environmental implications of their food choices, they are looking closer at concerns associated with animal protein.
“We believe there is a better way to feed our future and that the small everyday choices made by individuals, such as shifting the protein at the center of the plate to plant-based meat, can have a great impact on our personal health and the health of our planet,” Smith says.
In 2019 and 2020, plant protein grew at an explosive pace, consistently in double digits, year-over-year. According to the Good Food Institute, the retail market for plant-based foods is worth $7 billion, and plant-based food dollar sales jumped 27 percent in the past year.
The reasons why don’t appear short-term: plant-based meat alternatives present a lower environmental footprint and an attempt to catch up with competitors. In quick service, this could mean capturing some of the market share of fast casuals…
Dara Schuster, senior director of marketing at the Frozen Portfolio of Kellogg Company who oversees Incogmeato, says non-meat options are no longer only for vegetarians and vegans, either. There’s been a huge influx of “flexitarian” consumers for a variety of reasons: affordability, nutrition, and especially of late, environmental impact.
Sustainability has become a higher focus of consumers when purchasing plant-based foods, she says. It wasn’t even in the top-five purchase drivers when the Impossible Burger came on the scene in 2016, but now it’s consistently included in the top three… In fact, by eating plant-based just once a week, consumers can save 1,000 square feet of land, 200 showers worth of water, and 184 miles of greenhouse car emissions…
“Younger consumers, like Gen Z, are increasingly aware of the environmental implications of their food choices and are voting with their dollars by supporting brands that align with their ideals,” Smith says. “It’s expensive to buy an electric car, but for roughly $6 a consumer can buy the Beyond Burger and make a powerful statement about what they believe in.”
Drawing in the support of younger generations requires incorporating interesting flavor profiles alongside plant-based meat options, Schuster adds. “Gen Z and Gen Alpha are foodies—they’ve been exposed to a wide array of food even at a young age,” Schuster says. “To meet their cravings, we have to incorporate trending flavor profiles and new ingredients while also balancing the cost of any menu item”…
While some chefs may display hesitation, Schuster says plant-based proteins are versatile across menus and can easily be swapped as a protein of choice in recipes. More than one in four customers said they wanted more plant-based protein menu options in a 2019 Plant-Based Protein Study from Datassential.
“We know that many chef operators are cautious to add plant-based alternatives, fearing the product won’t perform back-of-house or drive traffic and sales,” Schuster says. “However, the reality is the opposite. Plant-based options offer operators not only consistent quality and performance, but also versatility across dayparts.”
Impossible Foods’ president Dennis Woodside echoes this sentiment. Those who do order a plant-based meat are likely to do so again: 84 percent of customers who order the Impossible Burger say they are likely to order it again within the next three months, he says, based on research…
Looking ahead, the brands say there are only new heights to reach in plant-based meat’s growth trajectory… Impossible Foods aims to “be everywhere,” Woodside says, in every market globally, and with a full array of products for every culture and cuisine, ultimately scaling to produce over a trillion pounds of “meat” by 2035.
Perhaps most alluring, Woodside says, Impossible Foods is actually beating meat from animals on taste. In a blind consumer taste test, seven out of 10 consumers preferred Impossible Chicken Nuggets over animal chicken nuggets from a leading brand, with the Impossible product scoring higher in flavor, texture, and overall appearance.
“This is the first time we’re aware of where the plant-based product is being chosen by consumers as being decidedly better tasting than the real thing,” Woodside says. Impossible pork and sausage also received similar rankings in consumer tests. Already offering beef, pork and chicken substitutes as well, Beyond Meat is also dedicated to future innovation as there is room for increased market capture.
“We know that to win, we have to focus on three key levers: taste, nutrition, and price,” Smith says. “If we can get it to taste just as good as meat, be better for you and ultimately, be cheaper, we see a huge opportunity to transition consumers to plant-based meat”…
“Using our food system as a tool to address the world’s climate issues is an extraordinary and untapped opportunity for positive, consumer-driven change,” Woodside says. “While many consumers are not fully aware of the connection between their personal eating habits and their individual climate impact, transitioning away from animal agriculture should be viewed as humanity’s single most powerful way to put the brakes on climate change”. SOURCE…
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