Resources for manufacturers

Along with price, taste is a top driver of consumer food choice, but many plant-based meat products still have significant progress to make in achieving the taste consumers expect. Lapsed consumers are most likely to say they stopped eating plant-based meat because they didn’t like the taste or texture, or it’s too expensive. Sensory studies confirm that taste dissatisfaction is a major barrier to repeat purchase.

However, certain plant-based meat products are already achieving a sensory experience on par with consumer expectations. Consumers rate leading products in categories like plant-based chicken nuggets roughly on par with their animal-based counterparts in terms of overall liking, similarity, taste, texture, and appearance. 

Within categories, leading products capture greater market share than their competitors, demonstrating that progress in taste and texture can have a real impact on consumer behavior.

As of 2025, plant-based meat is 76 percent more expensive per pound than conventional meat in U.S. retail. About three in four consumers say they’re only willing to pay the same or less for plant-based meat. Narrowing the price gap between plant-based and conventional meat stands to remove a major purchase barrier for most consumers.

Delivering on consumers’ taste and price expectations is foundational to growing the plant-based meat category. Consumers also need to understand its differentiated benefits to switch.

Health is a top driver of food choices for many consumers and a key reason they consider plant-based meat—and our research suggests it’s also an underleveraged driver of purchase interest. We found that consumers who associate plant-based meat with positive health attributes—such as protein, fiber, and gut health; low saturated fat and cholesterol; and being free of hormones and antibiotics—spend more on it, suggesting that clearer nutrition narratives can translate directly into purchasing behavior.

Consumer awareness-building and education about plant-based meat is critical to grow the category, especially to attract new consumers and reengage lapsed consumers.

After taste/texture and cost, lapsed consumers are most likely to say they stopped eating plant-based meat because they “never think about it.” Over half of plant-based meat holdouts say they’ve never tried it simply because they don’t see a reason to. In 2025, only about one in ten consumers claimed to have seen, read, or heard “a lot” about plant-based meat in the past year.

It’s clear that plant-based proteins have a foothold in the market and most consumers are open—but ultimately, they need to see and hear about these products and understand their value proposition much more than they do today to drive increased adoption.