For years, plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy have tried — and failed — to beat the real thing on price and taste. No longer. Plant-based foods are nearing or achieving taste parity with meat and dairy products for the first time. In blind taste tests conducted by Nectar, a project of the climate nonprofit Food System Innovations, Califia Farms Oat Barista Blend was ranked as highly as conventional whole milk in head-to-head trials. Impossible and MorningStar Morningstar Farms nuggets tied with real chicken. Those remain exceptions, not the rule. After the sizzling success of companies like Beyond and Impossible Foods around 2020, the alt-protein market entered a deep freeze. U.S. retail sales of plant‑based meat have shrunk every year since, and several high‑profile start-ups have closed. Plant-based meat is just “not in vogue right now,” admitted Peter McGuinness, the former CEO of Impossible, admitted last year.
To revive demand, Nectar says, brands need to invest in taste and texture. “Taste is definitely the biggest reason that consumers do not repeat purchase plant-based products,” said Caroline Cotto at Food System Innovations, who oversees Nectar’s work to evaluate and promote plant-based foods. Most aren’t close to rivaling the animal-based originals. Just 33 percent of participants in Nectar’s study rated dairy-free products with “like” or “like very much,” roughly half the rate of the animal benchmarks. Products that compete on taste are being rewarded. Plant milk, the best-tasting category in Nectar, has 15 times higher market share than plant-based cheese, the worst rated on taste and texture. A similar relationship was found for meat alternatives. Yet taste alone will not win over most Americans. Even when plant-based options are perceived as equal on price and taste, most people keep choosing meat: Only about 1 in 4 one in four consumers pick the plant-based option in choice experiments, according to Rethink Priorities, a research nonprofit focused on animal welfare.
The crucial missing ingredient? A cultural story powerful enough to dethrone meat from the center of the plate. Read the column to find out how work is under way to give plant-based food a story that can compete with meat and dairy. What’s your experience with plant-based protein? Write me at climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails.
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