
State of the Industry Report: Plant-based meat, seafood, eggs, and dairy
This report highlights commercial landscape updates, retail and foodservice sales data, consumer insights, technical advancements, investments, and public funding in the evolving plant-based foods industry.

Explore new data and industry insights
Executive summary
The plant-based meat, seafood, egg, and dairy sectors weathered both headwinds and tailwinds in 2023. Estimated global plant-based meat and dairy sales reached $29 billion, according to our analysis of Euromonitor data, while sales of both plant-based foods and plant-based meat declined in U.S. retail. Governments such as Canada, Denmark, and Germany committed significant public funding to plant-based research, while private investment into the sector fell—albeit at a slower rate than global venture funding across all sectors.
As consumer engagement with–and interest in–plant-based proteins increases around the world, retailers and manufacturers are leaning in, introducing new products, developing strategic partnerships, and building new production facilities. The sector needs more progress on price parity, taste parity, manufacturing capacity, and consumer understanding if it is to deliver on its promise of serving as a commonplace center-of-plate protein for mainstream consumers.
Report highlights
- New products and categories
- Retail and foodservice trends
- Industry partnerships
- Sales data
- Private investment insights
- Technical advancements
- Public funding and regulation
- Industry outlook
Key developments
The State of the Industry Report: Plant-based meat, seafood, eggs, and dairy provides a comprehensive global analysis of the evolving plant-based foods industry including the commercial landscape, sales, consumer insights, trends in scientific innovation, regulatory developments, and public and private investments. Highlights featured in the report include:
Commercial landscape
Continued collaboration and innovation
- Hundreds of new plant-based meat, seafood, egg, and dairy products hit retail shelves in the U.S. market in 2023, including plant-based steak, sushi, boiled eggs, Wagyu-style beef, ribs, and more.
- Large companies continued to engage in the sector, including the release of plant-based versions of popular branded products like Tyson nuggets, Nestlé mince meat, Häagen-Dazs products, Kraft Heinz cheese slices, and Kraft Mac & Cheese products.
- Plant-based meat continued to launch on menus at major chains globally including Burger King in Scandinavia, Subway in Europe, Taco Bell in the United Kingdom, and Starbucks in Malaysia.
- New facilities opened in 2023, including SunOpta’s 285,000-square-foot facility in Texas, which will manufacture plant-based milk and creamer. Many more facilities broke ground, such as one for German plant-based food company Planteneers in Illinois, or were announced, such as agricultural company Bunge committing $550 million to build a new facility in Indiana.
Sales
Sales trends
- Total U.S. retail plant-based food dollar sales were $8.1 billion in 2023.
- 81% of households that purchased plant-based foods in 2023 purchased more than once throughout the year.
- Plant-based milk held nearly 15% market share of total milk dollar sales in 2023.
- Across the majority of plant-based categories, repeat purchase rates held relatively steady year over year.
Investments
All-time investment reaches $8.5 billion
- According to our analysis of data from the Net Zero Insights platform, plant-based meat, seafood, egg, and dairy companies raised $907.7 million in 2023 (representing 11% of all-time investment), bringing total private investments in the sector to $8.5 billion.
- The number of unique investors in plant-based companies grew by 10% to more than 1,293 unique investors.
Science and technology
Continued ingredient and process innovation
- Key technological themes that scientific innovation centered around included new sources of plant-based ingredients, new ways to cultivate these plants, and novel processes to optimize taste, texture, and nutrition.
- Advances were made in ingredient development, from new animal-free fats and emulsifiers to novel aquatic, leguminous, and upcycled protein sources.
- Improved scalability of traditional texturization methods like extrusion was achieved, and promising newer bottom-up methods like fiber spinning and a patent-pending “process-controlled microstructure design” expanded available technologies for scalable plant-protein texturization.
Government and regulation
Increased public funding and support
- Canada continued its investment leadership with C$150 million ($110 million) in public funding that will support plant-based protein market growth.
- The United Kingdom and Germany both announced large commitments to alternative protein R&D and commercialization. Government support of alternative protein startups and product development was announced in Brazil, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and more.
- Denmark and South Korea released national action plans for building their industries.
- The United Nations Environment Programme released a report at COP28 that confirmed plant-based foods’ potential to benefit the climate, environment, and global health, and provided a comprehensive list of supportive policies governments might adopt to speed their development and deployment.
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This webinar covers commercial landscape updates, retail and foodservice sales data, consumer insights, investments, technical advancements, and public funding in the evolving plant-based foods industry.
Find companies focused on plant-based meat, seafood, eggs, and dairy
These companies focus primarily on plant-based meat, seafood, eggs, and dairy. This database is dynamically updated; the total number of companies may differ slightly from what has been reported in the State of the Industry Report as we continuously improve our dataset. This list is intended to be as comprehensive as possible, but should not be considered exhaustive. You can learn more about these companies in our company database.
Are we missing something? Let us know about an update to a company’s record by filling out our company database edits form or submit a new company using this form.
Find plant-based meat, seafood, egg, and dairy production facilities
These production facilities have plant-based meat, seafood, egg, or dairy production capacity. This database is dynamically updated; the total number of facilities may differ slightly from what has been reported in the State of the Industry Report as we continuously improve our dataset. This list is intended to be as comprehensive as possible, but should not be considered exhaustive.
Are we missing something? Let us know by filling out this form to add a plant-based meat, seafood, egg, or dairy production facility to the database.

Download our at-a-glance summary
Don’t have time to read the full report? Check out our summary for a quick view of the highlights and key data points from our 2023 State of the Industry report for plant-based meat, seafood, eggs, and dairy.
Meet the authors

Priera Panescu Scott, Ph.D.
LEAD SCIENTIST, PLANT-BASED
Priera Panescu Scott is focused on analyzing plant-based meat and proteins and how to best expedite their progress.
Areas of Expertise: food and agriculture systems, materials science, polymer chemistry, plant-based ingredients

Nikhita Mansukhani Kogar, Ph.D.
SENIOR LEAD SCIENTIST, PLANT-BASED
Nikhita is focused on the technical landscape of plant-based proteins and how to expand their impact and adoption.
Areas of expertise: plant-based product development, materials science, physicochemical characterization, food chemistry

Ben Pierce
GFI ALUM

Emma Ignaszewski
DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE ENGAGEMENT
Emma Ignaszewski oversees the corporate engagement team’s industry intelligence and initiatives team. We work to catalyze market-side innovation to transform the food system and deliver alternative protein products that compete on the key drivers of consumer choice: taste, price, and convenience.
Areas of expertise: alternative protein market landscape, research & analysis, strategy, marketing & communications, alt protein sustainability & climate impacts.