According to Euromonitor International, the global alternative protein market has reached nearly $40 billion in 2021, which is up from under $35 billion in 2016, according to London-based Euromonitor International, which projects the value to be about $45 billion in 2025. In the USA, the category is almost $5 billion for this year, compared to $3 billion in 2016. Experts estimate that it should go over $6 billion by the end of 2021.
Younger consumers tend to buy more alternative protein products, said Tom Rees, food and nutrition industry manager for Euromonitor International. He pointed out that among consumers of the ages 25 to 44, under 30% said they had never eaten meat alternatives. The percentage for those over 60 was more than 50%.
This year New Hope Network conducted an online consumer survey that included more than 1,300 consumers of the ages 16 to 70. Plant-based category skewed toward college degree holder consumers with higher incomes. Whites, Blacks, Asians, multiracial consumers, Native Americans and Native Alaskans all bought plant-based items.
Plant-based consumers are more likely to shop in natural stores, however from time to time in conventional stores.
The lack of a legal definition of the category could cause legal challenges, including class-action lawsuits, for food and beverage companies, said Shahin O. Rothermel, counsel for Venable LLP, Washington.
“Whenever there is any type of ambiguity in an industry, we see that as a source of litigation,” she said. “There’s not really a meaning, and therefore it can be interpreted in all these different ways.”
The Vegetarian Resources Group, Baltimore, conducted a survey and found 20% of respondents said they thought a plant-based diet meant vegetarian. Other answers were vegan at 17%, vegetarian or vegan diets composed of whole foods at 18%, a whole foods diet that could include animal products at 13% and did not know what a plant-based diet was at 24%.
Unlike meat proteins, plant proteins are not “complete proteins” in that they do not have the same nutritional qualities, including all the different kinds of amino acids. A product may have a certain amount of protein, say 15 grams per serving, but that means little if the protein falls short in digestibility and bioavailability, Dr. Shelke said. In the future, the plant-protein category may face requirements of a PDCAAS (protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score) or a DIAAS (digestible indispensable amino acid score).
Source: food business news
