Plant-based food, meat substitute market grows

Chicago – The number of plant-based ingredients and products, along with meat substitutes, on the market is growing due to worldwide interest in clean eating, says trend researcher Innova Market Insights.

The company reports plant-based product claims are up by 62 per cent internationally between 2013 and 2017 with growth occurring in plant proteins, active botanicals, sweeteners, herbs and seasonings, and colouring foodstuffs.

“The dairy alternatives market has been a particular beneficiary of this trend with the growing availability and promotion of plant-based options to traditional dairy lines, specifically milk beverages, and cultured products such as yogurt, frozen desserts and ice cream,” said Lu Ann Williams, director of innovation at Innova, in a news release.

Sales of dairy alternative drinks accounted for over eight per cent of international dairy launches in 2017, up from seven per cent over 2016, the company said.

Spoonable non-dairy yogurt has also seen strongly rising levels of interest, but from a smaller base.

“In the move to offer something new, we are starting to see an increasing variety of non-soy plant-based ingredients, including cereals such as rice, oats and barley,” Williams said. “We also noticed an increase in nuts, such as almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, walnuts and macadamias, as well as coconut and more unusual options such as lupin, hemp and flaxseed.”

Sales in the meat substitutes market are set to grow to US$4.2 billion by 2022. These include vegetables, grains, soy, and specialist manufactured brands such as Quorn and Valess.

More and more people are gravitating toward plant-based diets and interested in vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian lifestyles, Innova said. These trends, along with concerns over animal welfare, have led to interest in meat substitutes.