“Consumers continue to buy meat because they enjoy eating meat,” Like it or not, that’s the truth! Until plantbased products taste as good, or better, than their animal counterparts people will continue to prefer eating the animal products.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford University surveyed more than a million people in 50 countries and despite believing in a “climate emergency” this survey shows that people will choose many other options before “switching to a plant-based diet” Unfortunately the UNDP “did not define plant-based diets for respondents”. So, in my opinion, most people would see this as an animal product free diet. And let’s face it, most alternative protein products leave a lot to be desired in the taste and texture department as well as pricing.
The next 5 years will be make or break for alternative proteins in their quest for major market share. While plantbased eating is far more than a fad, it risks peaking early and tapering off well before reaching its maximum potential. And many surveys have shown that taste is a major barrier to plantbased product uptake. So the entry of synbio companies like Motif FoodWorks and flavour houses like Givaudan working to bring ingredients to market to improve taste can’t come fast enough!
If the industry succeeds and products are price competitive by 2023 and taste as good or better than conventional products by 2025 then they could see exponential growth.
