Plant-based analogue meat is building momentum through fast-food restaurants, putting it in position to take a bigger share from traditional meat as its price drops.
According to new research from Piplsay, 54% of Americans who are aware of analogue meat menu items at quick service restaurants have tried them at least once, and of those, 60% said they would try it again.
Piplsay says that in its poll of 30,700 people nationwide, 71% said they were aware that big fast food chains were offering alternative-meat items, and of those, 54% said they had tried them. Of those, 70% rated the experience “good”; 18%, “not so good,” and 12%, “not good at all.”
Of those consumers, 60% said they would continue eating plant-based meat, for these reasons: health, 42%; flavor, 34%; environmental concerns, 24%.
When it comes to locations for alt-meat fast food, Burger King is the overwhelming favorite; 41% of those who had tried it ate there. This undoubtedly reflects Burger King’s decision to get into the game early, rolling out the Impossible Whopper two years ago and supporting it with a marketing blitz. The nearest competitors are Wendy’s, Starbucks and Subway, all with only 10% each in the Piplsay poll.
The major problem for alt-meat products in fast food restaurants is price. The Impossible Whopper is still about a dollar more than a regular Whopper. Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat and other alt-meat processors are working to bring down prices, but they’ll probably be higher than regular meat for the immediate future, CNBC reports.
The problem is that companies that specialize in analogue meats are still niche players, without the volume necessary to achieve the economies of scale that the mainstream meat industry enjoys. But that situation is gradually changing. Impossible Foods president Dennis Woodside told CNBC that is company dropped its prices twice in the last 12 to 18 months, each time by 15% to 20%.
In addition, as big meat companies like JBS, Cargill and Tyson develop analogue meat products, they will be able to bring their existing scale for production, distribution and other aspects to bear.
