NECTAR, a new initiative from Food System Innovations (FSI) aimed at accelerating the protein transition, has released its inaugural publication, Taste of the Industry 2024.
The report is based on the insights of 1,150 American omnivores, who evaluated 45 plant-based meat products across five categories:
- Burgers,
- Hot dogs,
- Bacon,
- Chicken tenders, and
- Chicken nuggets
The omnivores participated in sensory panels evaluating 15 sensory attributes, with all products tested against an animal-based benchmark.
In what NECTAR called the world’s largest blind taste test of plant-based meats, plant-based nuggets were found to have achieved parity with traditional chicken nuggets. Moreover, the report noted that there is an “immediate opportunity” to displace animal-based chicken nuggets.
In this category, Impossible Foods, MorningStar Farms, Quorn, Rebellyous Foods, and SIMULATE were top taste performers.
Alongside this, breaded products were generally found to outperform unbreaded products.
The Taste of the Industry report also found that the leading plant-based chicken tenders are the highest-performing meat analogue.
However, more broadly, the first-of-its-kind sensory analysis found that consumers do not yet “like” the average plant-based product.
It was also found that there is a wide variation in consumer liking of burgers, bacon, and tenders within each category. For example, the leader of each category was rated ‘like very much’ or ‘like’ 2-3x as often as its category average.
That said, there was found to be “little variation” in plant-based hot dogs.
Further, in the study, the blended leader achieved significantly higher liking than the leading plant-based product despite limited R&D for the category, it found.
Additional insights included:
- Eighty-four per cent of participants either ‘agree completely’ or ‘agree somewhat’ that eating more plant-based meals reduces animal farming,
- Eighty per cent of participants either ‘agree completely’ or ‘agree somewhat’ that plant-based products are better for their health,
- Seventy-seven per cent of participants either ‘agree completely’ or ‘agree somewhat’ that eating plant-based products is better for the environment,
- Fifty-seven per cent either ‘agree completely’ or ‘agree somewhat’ that plant-based foods are more nutritious.
Read the full report here.