The plant-based food market grew almost twice as fast as the total U.S. retail food market, which increased 15% in 2020 as COVID-19 shuttered restaurants and consumers stocked up on food amid lockdowns. 57 percent of households now purchase plant-based foods, up from 53% in 2019. GFI and PBFA commissioned the data from Spins and custom refined the data to reflect only plant-based products that directly replace animal-based products.
Plant-based milk—the largest plant-based category—reached $2.5 billion and accounts for 35% of the total plant-based food market. Even as the most developed category, plant-based milk grew 20% in dollar sales, up from 5% in 2019. Plant-based milk grew twice as fast as cow’s milk and is now purchased by 39% of U.S. households.
The second largest category, plant-based meat, hit $1.4 billion in 2020, with sales growing 45%, up from $962 million in 2019. It accounts for 2.7% of retail packaged meat sales. Eighteen percent of U.S. households now purchase plant-based meat, up from 14% in 2019, and consumers are coming back for more, with 63% of shoppers being high-repeat customers.