For all the recent woes that have seen a number of brands and manufacturers go under, plant-based meat has arguably been the big category story in food in recent years – but research and development staff are being put to work to bolster flagging sales.
Fighting against a powerful meat industry, plant-based meat alternatives have carved out a place for themselves in supermarket chiller and freezer cabinets and in the shopping trolleys of consumers.
Go deeper with GlobalData
However, the slowing sales we’ve seen in the last 12 to 24 months in markets in North America and Europe raises the question of how often the products continue to appear in those trolleys. Beyond vegans and vegetarians, are so-called flexitarians or those who want to reduce their meat consumption returning to the plant-based meat category?
Criticism about price and taste, issues around product labelling and too many me-too products has had an impact and now the category is facing what could be its toughest challenge yet – that of been seen as ultra-processed food (UPFs).
Plant-based meat’s health claims questioned
The meat industry argues that, far from being a healthier option, often plant-based meat alternatives have long lists of ingredients, many of which are unpronounceable additives, as well as high levels of salt and/or saturated fats.
As the scrutiny of UPFs has gained momentum and clean-label has become a mantra, many plant-based meat products have found themselves in the firing line.
How well do you really know your competitors?
Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.
Thank you!
Your download email will arrive shortly
Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample
We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form
By GlobalDataConsumer attitudes – which feed through to retailer attitudes – seem to have changed from an approach that saw alternatives to eating meat, or too much meat, as being automatically healthier to one in which products are judged on their own attributes.
As research and analysis organisation GlobalData – Just Food’s parent company – said in a recent report on the broader plant-based protein sector: “The most popular reason that consumers stated they were motivated to try plant-based foods was the belief that they were healthier. However, from 2023 to 2024 the number of consumers across key markets who believed this had declined, indicating that the plant-based category’s image has become somewhat tarnished.”
It added: “Plant-based meat and seafood alternative brands have faced scrutiny in the last few years for being high in saturated fat and salt, and generally low in nutritional value.
“It can be concluded that a major contribution to plant-based meat’s decline is a growing consumer awareness that these alternatives were not the healthier swap for real meat and seafood that they initially thought.”
Its advice? “Brands will need to reformulate to accommodate a
preference for natural, clean label, healthier products if the market is to recover.”
Reformulation work begins
Last year, Beyond Meat, the US company that became something of a poster child for the plant-based-meat industry, launched the fourth version of its vegan burger and mince.
The company said the so-called Beyond IV recipes contain 60% less saturated fat and 20% less sodium than previous iterations. The biggest change was the replacement of canola and coconut oil with avocado oil which is higher in mono-unsaturated fats.
Such reformulation is costly, both in terms of research and development hours and re-branding. And success is not guaranteed. Once the product is re-designed, the question of whether the taste versus health equation is balanced comes to the fore.
As GlobalData said: “The difficulty for plant-based brands considering ‘cleaner’ formulations is that much of their products are highly processed to achieve satisfactory sensory enjoyment on a par with meat and seafood … given plant-based is meant to indicate a healthier alternative, brands must nevertheless find some way to reformulate.”
A blurred picture
But the difference between processed and ultra-processed has become somewhat blurred.
Hannah Cleland, a food and foodservice analyst at GlobalData, says: “Balancing naturalness and replication in protein alternatives moving forward will require brands to focus firstly on removing controversial additives as we are seeing a regulatory pattern of more additives being banned in recent times.
Brands need to educate consumers on the ‘good’ types of processing that are key to better food health and safety
Hannah Cleland, GlobalData
“Processing itself is coming under scrutiny in the UPF debate but ultimately brands need to educate consumers on the ‘good’ types of processing that are key to better food health and safety.
“Certain types of processing allow brands to achieve animal protein-like textures without the long ingredient list.”
Good types of processing might include the development of products based on tempeh, a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans, for example.
UK-based alt-meat business Tiba Tempeh reports rapid growth, with UK retail sales growing by more than 500% over the last year.
The brand, available in flavoured pieces or block form, is now listed by large grocers in the UK including Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Aldi.
Co-founder Ross Longton says: “Tempeh is a scratch ingredient like tofu. It is nutritionally dense.
“What’s happened now is that there’s a huge backlash against processed foods.
“Supermarkets all wanted to go clean label and that’s a category dynamic. That’s the message we are hearing from retailers and we are seeing it in our own sales uplift. They want more clean protein on the shelves not processed, especially in plant-based.”
Longton says he has seen a general desire to reformulate in the category but believes it will be hard for manufacturers with heavily processed products to get it right.
“Everyone in the category is trying to make their products more natural at the moment,” he says.
“But to make something taste like a sausage you need to pump it full of unnatural ingredients.”
Investor attitudes
New entrants offering such products, though, may struggle to attract investors.
Nick Cooney, managing partner of Lever VC, a New York- and Hong Kong-based investment firm that has backed many alt-protein businesses (including Tiba Tempeh) says: “Generally speaking, yes, I think investors would feel more positively about a company whose products were more clean-label, short-label and healthful. That said, it still has to taste excellent.
“A super-healthy product that tastes okay but not great has super-limited market potential. A super-great-tasting product whose health profile is okay but not great has huge limited market potential. For companies in this space or other food sectors, it’s certainly a bit of a balancing act navigating the things that retail category buyers are prioritising and the things that ultimately get consumers to buy a product again and again.
Cooney suggests manufacturers that don’t make some product adaptations to meet the increasing concerns around healthfulness, clean-label, etc, will be at “some modest disadvantage” relative to those that do.
“On the other hand, there are a lot of other things that can make up for that, like great marketing, great taste, and so on. Consumption rates of junky snack food, fast food, sugary drinks, cancer-causing processed meats and similar are not declining and some of them are continuing to increase,” he says.
What to avoid
So what changes are the research and development teams at plant-based meat manufacturers making?
Cooney says: “Methylcellulose is certainly an ingredient that a number of companies have removed or are working to remove. While it isn’t, to my understanding, linked to any negative health effects, and is derived from plants, it has a name that unfortunately sounds like something from a chemistry book.
“Shifting from more general plant-based oils to oils that have or are perceived to have certain health benefits is another trend. For example, we’ve seen Good Planet Foods shift from coconut oil to olive oil for its plant-based cheese.
Simply shortening the number of ingredients has been a focus for a significant number of companies
Nick Cooney. Lever VC
“There’s been work to move away from titanium dioxide as a whitener in certain products where a white colour is important and also to remove preservatives when possible.
“Simply shortening the number of ingredients has been a focus for a significant number of companies.”
Many of the hard yards in this area are being trodden by the ingredients providers, who are very aware of the shift in demand from their clients, passed down the line from their customers and the end consumer.
Research takes in more plant-based ingredients
Ireland’s Kerry Group has teamed up with Dutch plant-based food-tech business Ojah, to develop Plenti, described as a range of whole-muscle, textured, plant proteins from soy sources.
“Using minimal ingredients, the product comes ready-marinated with no need for further processing, enabling fast innovation,” the ingredients supplier suggests.
Kerry says the product creates “a clean canvas for manufactures to layer in desired flavours”.
Meanwhile, another global ingredients major, Griffith Foods, is working in similar territory.
It recently partnered with US-based ingredients development company Shiru, which has created the plant protein-based fat ingredient OleoPro, which, it is claimed, reduces saturated fat by up to 90% compared to commonly used structured fats.
Mike Snodgrass, managing director for global alternative proteins at Griffith, tells Just Food he has seen the category evolve as UPF and health concerns heighten.
“Plant-based proteins like faba bean, mung bean and chickpea are gaining significant traction, alongside myco-ingredients and innovations from technologies like precision fermentation. On the other hand, proteins such as gluten, as well as hydrocolloids like methylcellulose and carrageenan, are falling out of favour due to consumer unfamiliarity and negative perceptions,” he says.
“There is a focus on the process of obtaining those plant-based proteins and how the digestibility of plant proteins can be improved with less intensive processing techniques.
“Anything ultra-processed as it pertains to the labelling concerns is gaining traction for removal. While the understanding of these ingredients is minimal, just the ability to shorten an ingredient statement is becoming a critical concern.”
“We see a growing desire to leverage the broader state of fermentation. The use of pre-, pro-, and post-biotic type items on labels is rising
Mike Snodgrass, Griffith Foods
Snodgrass says natural food products which impart a connotation of positive health outcomes – such as turmeric, green banana, ginger and cumin – are continuing to be included in the research and product development work for new plant-based foods.
“We also see a growing desire to leverage the broader state of fermentation. The use of pre-, pro-, and post-biotic type items on labels is rising,” he says.
Snodgrass says Griffith’s customers are seeking “high-quality products made with sustainably sourced, clean-label ingredients”.
“There is a clear desire to shift away from ingredients associated with the perception of ultra-processed foods, replacement of hydrocolloids such as methylcellulose and carrageenan continues to be a hot topic,” he says.
Griffith also points to additives and flavours being reduced in products. Countries continue to mandate removal of certain ingredients, such as the US Food and Drug Administration announcing this month it plans to ban the use of the Red 3 food colouring additive in food, supplements and ingestible drugs.
Taste and price
Ultimately, though, the reformulation work being carried out by research and development teams at plant-based meat companies, is more to do with consumer behaviour than regulation. The success or otherwise of changing the make-up of the products will come down to whether consumers are willing to pay more for ‘cleaner-label’ plant-based meat and whether the taste profile is there.
On the former, Snodgrass at Griffith says: “Ingredients that align with clean and natural labels do tend to be more premium, largely due to their early-stage scale-up, which drives higher costs. However, there is a strong push to balance innovation with affordability, as addressing cost concerns remains a key priority for both producers and consumers.”
As for taste, Cooney at Lever VC says: “Sometimes these shifts take a lot of formulation R&D work but don’t compromise the flavour or texture of the final product.
“At other times, though, you do get a product that does not taste as good, or with a texture that is not as good; there are certainly trade-offs that exist and companies are trying to strike the right balance between taste and healthfulness.”
