In Europe, the plant-based alternative market is predicted to reach €7.5 billion by 2025, from €4.4 billion in 2019, and in the US, sales of plant-based foods have grown 29% in the past two years to reach $5 billion. With this level of popularity of plant-based foods, the opportunities for F&B manufacturers are endless.

Opportunities and hurdles in plant-based
Plant-based products have exploded in popularity in recent years. In the US, sales of plant-based food and drink are outpacing overall food growth fivefold and SPINS retail data from March 2020 shows that grocery sales of plant-based foods that directly replace animal products have grown 29% in the past two years to reach $5 billion.

In Europe, the plant-based alternative market is predicted to be worth €7.5 billion by 2025, compared to €4.4 billion in 2019. Despite its current ‘on-trend’ status, the plant-based sector must overcome some significant hurdles before it becomes truly mainstream. Mintel warns that many brands are at risk of failing to transform one-off, novelty-driven purchases into repeat purchases. While 73% of French consumers enjoy experimenting with new meat substitutes, few of them buy meat substitutes regularly.  To change this, brands should look to develop a wider range of products that target different eating occasions and use ingredients or processes that deliver new sensory experiences. The emergence of plant-based private label ranges, even from hard discounters such as Lidl, highlights the democratisation of the plant-based category. However, affordability remains a major issue for many grocery shoppers; meat alternatives can cost twice as much as meat while plant-based milk is between two and four times the price of dairy milk.

For flexitarian eaters who are not staunchly opposed to eating meat or dairy, this price difference is significant. Despite the hurdles, opportunities within the plant-based sector are bright. Sales are being driven by concerns for environmental sustainability and climate change – both long-term global challenges – and younger consumers put greater importance on making purchasing decisions informed by environmental concerns than older generations.

A number of sub-category white spaces, such as cheese and seafood, mean product developers have ample space to innovate, and improvements in taste, texture and appearance in all sub-categories will likely win over greater numbers of flexitarian eaters in the future.

FULL REPORT PDF: Plant-based ingredients report 2021