Fleischersatz ist noch nicht tot, im Gegenteil: Er wird immer besser

One silver lining of the plant-based bloodbath is that stores are culling poor products — US supermarkets now average about 10 plant-based meat offerings, down from 15 a few years ago.

Only the most popular products have survived. And they’re getting better: 73% of US plant-based meat consumers believe its taste has improved dramatically in recent years.

New taste tests from NECTAR confirm this. Omnivores fed a range of meats from animals and plants still generally preferred the animal variety.

But five brands of plant-based nuggets — Impossible, Morningstar, Quorn, Rebellyous, and Simulate  — were liked roughly as much as the chicken nuggets, and at least one was liked better.

This is exciting. Over 80% of Americans consume chicken nuggets every month, spending $2.3B on the frozen variety annually.

All nuggets are processed, so the ultra-processed attacks on plant-based nuggets are weaker. The main remaining problem is that plant-based nuggets are much pricier than the animal kind. Which brings us to the role of retailers.

It’s not surprising that consumers have been slow to change their lifelong habit of buying factory-farmed meat. It’s especially unsurprising when the alternative costs about twice as much. (US plant-based meat eaters say they’re only willing to pay 37% more, while retailers suspect they’ll pay just 10% extra.)

So it’s exciting to see European retailers cutting prices. Four giant German retailers — Lidl, Kaufland, Aldi, and Penny — recently cutthe price of their own-brand plant-based meats to match the price of meat. Lidl said vegan sales spiked 30% after the move, which coincided with moving plant-based products next to their animal analogs.

Within our lifetimes, plant-based meat has gone from fringe to mainstream. It used to only be sold at health food stores; now you can get it at Burger King. It used to taste like cardboard; now it tastes like meat. It used to only be for vegetarians and health nuts; now it’s for everyone.

There’s still a long way to go. But it’s far too soon to give up on alternative proteins. Factory-farmed meat won’t get any better. Alternative proteins can only get better. I’m excited for their future.

Von Lewis Bollard. Hier sein ganzer Beitrag auf Substack.