Open-Source Benchmarking of Plant-Based and Animal Meats.

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Consumer Behavior
• Sustainable Agriculture

Background:

• Global food production faces pressure to reduce environmental impact while meeting protein demand.
• Plant-based meats offer a sustainable alternative to animal products, aiming to reduce emissions and land use.
• Consumer acceptance of plant-based meats is crucial for market growth, yet taste and texture remain key barriers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the sensory performance of plant-based meat products compared to animal benchmarks.
• To identify key product attributes influencing consumer liking and preference.
• To establish an open benchmark for alternative protein performance.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a large-scale, blinded, in-person sensory evaluation with 2684 consumers across 14 product categories.
• Collected over 11,000 product evaluations and 800,000 data points.
• Utilized penalty analysis to determine the impact of specific attributes on overall liking.

Main Results:

• Plant-based products generally trail animal benchmarks but achieve near parity in select categories like unbreaded chicken filets, nuggets, and burgers.
• These high-parity products received overall liking scores close to their animal counterparts, with many consumers rating them equally or higher.
• Categories with higher sensory parity demonstrated significantly greater market share (5-14%) compared to low-parity categories (<1%).

Conclusions:

• Sensory parity between plant-based and animal meats is technically achievable but not yet consistent across all product types.
• Savoriness, aftertaste, juiciness, and tenderness are critical attributes for consumer acceptance.
• Publicly sharing data can accelerate innovation and guide the development of successful alternative protein products.