Are hybrid meats a solution to meat reduction?

Hybrid meats combine meat and plants

Hybrid meats are processed meat products in which a part of the meat is replaced with plant-based ingredients. The plant-based ingredients can be vegetables or plant proteins such as soy or pea protein. Hybrid meats are typically available as mince, sausages, or burger patties.

Why have hybrid meats?

Hybrid meat products are promoted to help consumers with their transition to a more plant-based diet. As hybrid meats still contain meat, they can appeal to consumers wanting the familiar taste and texture of meat. Furthermore, hybrid meats could be healthier than regular meat products. The addition of vegetables can decrease calories and saturated fat and increase fiber, vitamin, and mineral content.

Burger patties cooking in oil — Photo by Fiona Calisti on Unsplashed

What do consumers think?

It is currently unknown what New Zealand consumers think about hybrid meat and only a small number of studies have been run overseas.

A study which did not involve tasting samples, found only 27% of respondents would choose a hybrid product over a meat product as they thought it would not taste as good. This indicates consumer beliefs about hybrid meats could be a barrier to their success.

Another study where participants tasted samples showed more positive results for hybrid meats. Among meat eating consumers, hybrid meat burgers were found to be similarly liked to a full meat burger and preferred over a plant-based burger due to possessing a meaty flavour that the plant-based burger lacked.

Availability of hybrid meats

Meatballs and salad — Photo by Karolina Kołodziejczak on Unsplashed

Only a limited selection of hybrid meat products are available to purchase in New Zealand. Green Meadows offer a range of Beef and Beetroot and Beef and Kumara products and Beehive offer Flexitarian Beef and Beetroot Sausages.

There is greater availability of hybrid meat products overseas, especially in UK, Europe, and the USA. However, these products are struggling to find their place in the market, and many are failing to sell.

Many hybrid products are discontinued

In the UK, 38 hybrid meat products were launched between 2016 and 2020. However, most of these products were discontinued with only 12 still available. In the US, Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest processors of meat, launched The Blend, a burger combining angus beef with pea protein. However, The Blend was soon discontinued as there was greater consumer demand for fully plant-based products.

Target groups for hybrid meat are unclear

Experts believe the biggest issue with hybrid meats is brand positioning. Hybrid meats overlap the plant-based and meat markets so are often marketed towards flexitarians. However, replacing part of the meat in a meal does not fit into the conventional idea of a flexitarian diet which typically includes meat free days or meals. On the other hand, targeting meat eaters is also a challenge as meat eaters likely have little interest to reduce their meat intake.

Other issues with hybrid meats include:

More expensive than conventional meat

Easy to replicate at home

Not all hope is lost for hybrid products

Supermarket retailer Tesco’s has been successful with their Meat and Vege range which includes mince, sausages, patties, and meatballs containing 30% vegetables. UK based Heck Sausages has also been successful with their 60:40 range of sausages containing 60% meat and 40% vegetables.

Promoting convenience as a marketing strategy

The success of Tesco’s Meat and Vege range could be due to avoiding branding as a flexitarian product and not highlighting the lower meat content. Instead, the convenience of having vegetables already included and containing “1 of your 5 a day” per portion is promoted.

Sausages on grill — Photo by Jonathan Taylor on Unsplashed

Hybrid meats have potential to be a solution to meat reduction. However, further research is required to better understand consumer perception and how to best market them to attract consumers.

Rebekah’s research will help better understand New Zealand consumer opinions of hybrid meat products by investigating consumer sensory experiences and emotional response to a hybrid meat burger along with a full meat burger and a range of plant-based burgers.

Rebekah Orr, 5 Apr 2022

Using emoji to measure consumer liking for food

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Have you ever been asked to take part in a survey about a new food product? You were probably asked to rate how much you liked the product along a word-based scale? With today’s widespread use of emoji we wondered if selecting emoji might work just as well.

Liking for food is traditionally measured using a 9-point liking scale

The nine-point liking scale is a widely used tool in consumer research. For use with children or clinical populations the words are replaced with drawings of faces. An illustrated version of the scale works in all languages and for people who are unable to read.

Emojis are used widely in everyday communication

Recently, researchers have studied the use of emoji as an alternative to word-based responses in consumer research.

Screenshot of EmojiTracker tool — *EmojiTracker; this tool captures real time emoji usage on Twitter*

Emoji are widely used by people in everyday communication, especially in social media. This familiarity with emoji for expressing feelings may mean they can provide more or equally accurate measures as word-based responses to product experiences. To date, the use of emoji to measure consumer responses to foods is limited.

Our study

We conducted a study to determine whether we can use emoji to measure how consumers react to foods. The study included:

1400+ consumers from New Zealand and Singapore
Aged 25 – 55 years
Who were daily users of a smart phone and emoji in texts/email messages
Were asked to select emoji that best represented each level of liking on the traditional nine-point liking scale
When thinking about food experience.

Our findings

Our recent study identified a set of emoji that could be used in New Zealand and Singapore to represent nine levels of liking:

Traditional and newly developed emoji liking scales — Traditional nine-point liking scale (above) and newly developed emoji scale (below) (Emoji 13.1 in Apple iOS 14.5, *https://emojipedia.org*)

The same nine emoji could be used in New Zealand and Singapore to represent the words used on the traditional scale.

Next steps

Trial the emoji scale with consumers.

Watch this space to find out more details about this research.

Maheeka Weerawarna, 14 Feb 2022

Seaweed, dumplings, and spring rolls: all part of the menu for a Pūhoro summer internship

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Kia ora, my name is Savannah Dais. During the ’21-’22 summer break I completed an internship with the Consumer Dimensions of Future Foods (CDFF) programme, as part of the Feast team. This internship opportunity arose through the Pūhoro STEM Academy, of which I have been a member since 2016.

Seaweed: what is it?

The research aim of my internship was to develop prototypes for ‘future foods’, using edible red seaweed as an ingredient. Populations around the world have been harvesting red seaweed for food and medicinal uses for many thousands of years.

In Japan, it is known as ‘nori’, while the red seaweeds that are indigenous to Aotearoa New Zealand are collectively called ‘karengo’ (or ‘parengo’ in Eastern dialects). In Aotearoa, Māori traditionally harvested karengo from tidal rocks in spring and winter and used it as a winter food source. The karengo was dried with the salt on it and often kept for months for use as a ‘kinaki’ (relish).

Nori seaweed — Dried nori, known as ‘karengo’ in Aotearoa. Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash.

Seaweed has health benefits

Seaweed provides nutrients, such as:

Protein
Fiber
Polyunsaturated fats
Phytochemicals

Seaweed is reported to help:

Thyroid function
Prevention of diabetes
Gut health
Weight loss

Wakatū Incorporation, one of the industry partners on the CDFF programme, is interested in the health benefits and consumer acceptance of eating karengo in different forms.

Product development: balancing foreign and familiar

In my project, I developed three different prototype foods using nori provided by the Cawthron Institute as a substitute for karengo:

Dumplings
Spring rolls
Vegeballs

Seaweed is not a familiar product in the modern New Zealand diet, so the quantity of seaweed to include in these products required experimentation. I began with small amounts and increased quantities until the seaweed was visible and noticeable by taste and texture. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, consumer testing in the Feast laboratory was not possible. The consumers who tasted my products were 20 whānau members and acquaintances.

Seaweed dumplings are promising!

The dumplings were a great success, receiving feedback such as:

“nice and appetising,”
“would buy from the supermarket”
“wanted more.”

This feedback is extremely promising for a future product.

Fried, steamed, and frozen dumplings — Fried (left), steamed (bottom/right) and frozen (top/right) dumplings

Spring rolls are a whānau favourite

The spring rolls were the latest product developed within the experiment, but quickly proved to be promising. The spring rolls used the same filling as the dumplings. While I did not have time to collect consumer feedback for the spring rolls, they were a whānau favourite.

Deep fried spring roll — A deep fried spring roll

Vegeballs require further development

The vegeballs need some work but tasters enjoyed the idea of a vegeball. Consumers responded with contradicting feedback regarding the texture. Some consumers enjoyed the softness while others did not. Overall, consumers reported the vegeballs as bland. With a bit more experimenting, the desired texture and taste of the vegeballs can be achieved.

Optimistic future for seaweed foods

The use of seaweed as a food ingredients received feedback from consumers such as:

“Adds extra colour and flavour”

“A great healthy alternative for protein”

Overall, this feedback highlights opportunities for new product development with seaweed. The seaweed products I developed will be included in future consumer studies within the CDFF programme, to further collect of consumer responses on seaweed products.

Team work makes a difference in work quality

As a summer intern with CDFF project, I learned about working in a team. Clear communication and giving/receiving valuable feedback improved the quality of my work. This internship helped me to acquire team-work skills and the confidence to speak within groups.

I also presented my findings to Māori businesses (Wakatū Incorporation and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu) who are developing sustainable seaweed products for New Zealand and overseas markets. The experiences I shared during my internship will be beneficial for my future in the workforce. I also got a taste for seaweed!

Thank you to my supervisors Prof Joanne Hort and Dr Meika Foster and Massey University, High Value Nutrition and Pūhoro STEM Academy for making this research possible. Thank you to Cawthron Institute for providing the seaweed.

Are you interested in completing an internship with the Consumer Dimensions of Future Foods team? Please get in touch with one of our researchers!

Savannah Dais, 11 Feb 2022

Māori are at the frontier of future foods

Land is vital to Māori prosperity

Of the 1.2m hectares under Māori ownership, 9% is suitable for growing plant crops.

Many land titles are in small blocks. These can be highly productive and have a lot of potential. However, it can be difficult to grow crops at scale across many small blocks.

Graph shows Māori own 5.5% of NZ land and 9% is suitable for growing plant crops. 57% of Māori land blocks are smaller than 1 hectare.

Māori land is the foundation of Māori assets:

Māori have a total of $23.4B in assets in natural resources. Of that, $2.6B is in horticulture.

Māori have less assets in horticulture compared to other natural resource industries. There may be opportunities for Māori to diversify their assets into plant crops. However, new horticulture ventures can require significant investment over lengthy periods. Ventures for plant-based food products may also look risky because it is unclear whether consumers would accept these new products.

The future foods frontier is an exciting, if uncertain, space for Māori businesses

So, there are various challenges in making a successful plant-based food. If Māori can overcome these, they may be able to offer unique products. Creating foods in a way that aligns with Māori values could add distinct value to products. If consumers knew that a product had been made in a way that aligns to tikanga Māori, they may be more likely to purchase it.

This is crucial in an increasingly crowded market. Collaboration among Māori and with non-Māori will be key to success at the future foods frontier. Sharing knowledge about the opportunities and challenges in this space will unlock pathways forward.

Research by the Future Foods Catalyst team will scope further opportunities and challenges to enable Māori businesses to lead plant-based food developments in Aotearoa New Zealand. Interviews with Māori industry players in 2021 and 2022 will highlight these.

Summer Wright, 14 December 2021

Are Meat Alternatives Healthier than Meat? A Look at the Evidence

Producers of meat alternatives and the media have been promoting plant-based products quite extensively. They say these products are healthier, better for the environment, and more appealing in taste and texture than animal meat.

Let’s look at some of the research around these nutrition and health claims.

LikeMeat Burger (Photo by LikeMeat on Unsplash)

Nutritionally, meat and meat alternatives are NOT the same

Strong evidence shows that plant proteins like legumes, soy and nuts are good for our health.

However, messages on the packaging of plant-based burgers like

“100% plant-based”

“Made from plants”

“Better for you”

may lead consumers to think that such processed products are just as healthy as fresh vegetables.

In fact, plant-based burgers rarely use fresh ingredients. What is more, they have less protein and more salt than beef burgers. And because they are often made with coconut or palm oil, they can be high in saturated fat.

Algae and insects are sustainable alternatives to meat. Nutritionally, however, they are not the same. Yes, they tend to be lower in fat. But they are also lower in protein. Algae and insects are also not usually eaten as the main part of a meal. They tend to be a snack, like roasted seaweed or insect protein bars. Or they can be a food ingredient (cricket flour), especially in Western contexts.

Cultured meat (i.e., meat grown from animal cells) may be very similar to animal meat nutritionally. However, it is not currently widely available.

There is a health halo around new alternative proteins

Newer meat alternatives might have a ‘health halo’. Consumers may think that these products have the same health benefits as fresh vegetables or other plant-based foods.

In addition, because of the positive environmental and sustainability messages around plant-based foods, consumers may think all meat alternatives are therefore also healthy.

A health halo is the perception that a food is good for you even with little/no evidence. (See Rachel and Florence’s previous post on Flexitarianism)

New products have much potential to benefit health

As science and technology advance, there is growing potential for new foods to be healthier than existing foods. For instance, future protein products can be formulated to be lower in fat and higher in protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals than meat.

Scientist in a laboratory — Photo by Ani Kolleshi on Unsplash

We need better evidence

There is a lot of marketing around the health benefits of new meat alternatives. However, the effects of plant-based meats, insects, algae and cultured meat on our long-term health have not been well studied.

The best way to know how these products impact our health is to have more nutrition studies which

follow large groups of people,
are longer in duration, and
are conducted under controlled conditions.

Only then can we start to decipher the health halo and know for sure if new meat alternatives live up to all the hype.

This post is Part 1 of a series on why consumers choose meat alternatives. Watch our blog space for more.

Read why consumers choose alternative proteins: Tso/Forde. (2020). A Critical Appraisal of the Evidence Supporting Consumer Motivations for Alternative Proteins https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/10/1/24

Rachel Tso, 3 Dec 2021

Dairy- and meat-alternatives explained

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Supermarkets now have a wide range of ‘alternative products’ for consumers who want to reduce or avoid animal-based foods. These alternative products usually do not contain meat, egg, or dairy.
But what kinds of products exactly do we mean when we talk about alternative products?

Dairy alternatives

Dairy alternatives include plant-based ingredients for milk, yoghurt, cheese, sour cream, etc.

Consumers often use terms like ‘nut milk’ or ‘coconut yoghurt’. We also find them on product packages. However, these terms are not technically correct. In fact, to avoid confusion, it is currently debated in many countries whether plant-based drinks are allowed to use terms like ‘milk’ on their packaging.

Dairy alternatives have a very different nutritional composition: e.g., plant-based dairy alternatives often have a much lower protein content than conventional dairy products.

Oat Milk — Photo by **Polina Tankilevitch** from **Pexels**

Novel alternatives

Novel alternatives like

seaweed,
algae (spirulina and chlorella),
and insects

are mostly used as a meal ingredient. An exception could be roasted seaweed as a snack.

These alternative products may not be novel at all for some non-Western cultures. However, they are not similar to any other product typically used as part of a Western diet. They would therefore suit consumers who are not afraid to try something new.

Spirulina — Photo by Vita Marija Murenaite on Unsplash

Within the FFC programme, we are working on developing products with Karengo, a native seaweed. We will include these products in future consumer testing studies. Further research around Karengo’s nutritional value is the focus of another Catalyst Programme (through the Cawthron Institute).

Meat alternatives

This is the most diverse category, and it is the one our programme focuses on.

Traditional meat substitutes include classic vegetarian products, legumes, or nuts – such as veggie burgers, chickpeas, or tofu. These products do not aim to imitate meat. Their preparation is often different from the way that meat is prepared, which may be a barrier for consumers that do not usually consume such products.

tofu salad — Photo by Yoav Aziz on Unsplash

Plant-based meat analogues aim to imitate meat but are made from plants. These products may be of interest to those who choose to avoid or reduce meat consumption but still desire meat-like products. As these products are prepared/used just as conventional meat, plant-based meat analogues may help with a transition from a meat-based to a more plant-based diet.

Meat-eating consumers often do not like these products as much as ‘real’ meat, e.g., because the flavour or texture does not compare. This may be a barrier to repeated consumption.

In the FFC programme, we aim to determine which sensory attributes the consumer values in these products.

Cell-cultured meat is a potential future alternative to the meat products we consume today. It is made by growing meat from animal cells (e.g., salmon, cow or duck) in a laboratory by feeding them with nutrients. Because cell-cultured meat is made from animal cells, its composition is identical to meat – it is not a plant-based product.

Cell-cultured meat looks, cooks, and tastes very similar to animal meat. It may therefore be more appealing than plant-based meat analogues to consumers who desire an animal-based diet.

Cell-cultured meat is currently not available in Aotearoa New Zealand. If/when it is, its success will depend on consumer demand. The FFC programme is conducting studies to measure current consumer perception of cell-cultured meat. This will help to determine whether there is a future market for this alternative protein. For these studies on cell-cultured meat, we collaborate with researchers from the University of Auckland and the University of Canterbury, who are part of another Catalyst Programme within the MBIE Future Foods Platform.

Caroline Giezenaar, 23 November 2021

There is more to food choice than liking alone

Emotions drive food choices

We need to understand how food makes people feel. What is their emotional response? Different sensory characteristics of food such as

taste

smell

texture

appearance

make people feel different emotions. These emotions drive decision making when purchasing and consuming food.

Sensory characteristics - Emotional response - Food choice

For example, the meaty appearance or smell of a plant-based burger could make someone feel worried or nervous that it’s real meat, and so they chose not to eat it.

Plant-based burger patties vary in sensory characteristics

Industry uses emotional response to food products

The food industry also uses food-evoked emotions for:

Product differentiation

Differentiating between products that are similarly liked

Marketing

Aligning marketing and branding with food-evoked emotions or vice versa

Product development

Developing products with specific emotion-evoking properties
Assessing if changes in product formulation result in positive or negative emotions
Matching emotional profile of competitor product

Identifying consumer groups

Grouping consumers according to their emotional response

Methods to measure emotions

Methods to measure emotional repose to food products are either direct (explicit) or indirect (implicit).

Direct Methods	Indirect Methods
Require people to think about how they feel. We use:	Do not require people to think about how they feel. We measure (amongst others):
– verbal questionnaires (emotion words) – visual questionnaires (cartoons, emoji, or pictures)	– heart rate – facial expression – brain activity

Ideally, we combine these methods.

Where a combination is not possible, we recommend self-report questionnaires. After all, the best way to know if someone feels an emotion is to ask.

Verbal self-report questionnaires are the most popular. Consumers are given a list of emotions. From these, they select or rate the ones they associate with the product. These emotion lists can be generic to all food (e.g., EsSense ProfileTM) or specific to the food of interest (e.g., a consumer-defined list).

As part of our research, we are generating a consumer-defined emotions list specific to plant-based burgers.

Consumers assessing how a product makes them feel

Emotions are context dependent

Depending on location, people can have different feelings towards the same food. When measuring emotions, it is recommended to mimic real consumption situations. This better captures the emotions people feel in real life.

To generate our consumer-defined emotions list, we are recreating situations typical to eating a burger (e.g., in a living room or a pub). For that, we use digital immersive technology. This helps study participants imagine they were in these situations when they assess how the burger patty makes them feel.

Consumers in a recreated bar restaurant — Consumers in a recreated bar/restaurant

See also Rebekah’s previous blog post to learn more about the use of context and digital immersive technology in consumer research.

Rebekah’s post on Context

Rebekah Orr, 28 October 2021

Video: It takes several bites to measure consumer acceptance

1 Reply

Watch our video to find out why consumers need to take multiple bites or sips when we ask them if they like your product.

Transcript:

It takes several bites to measure consumer acceptance of plant-based foods

How can we determine what consumers really want? Well, when we ask them, we should capture their product experiences as accurately as we can.

How? Traditionally we ask consumers to taste a single bite or sip of a product and indicate how much they like it. But, measuring liking alone is not enough to understand the full consumer product experience in detail. Researchers have reached beyond liking by measuring emotional responses to products, together with liking. Just think about how eating a piece of chocolate makes you feel.

Even better… Have you noticed how your sensory experiences of food often change from the first bite or sip, as you chew and even after swallowing? To capture these changes across the whole eating experience, researchers have created new tools called ‘temporal methods’.

Next question, if you are eating a burger, or drinking a coffee, do you stop eating or drinking after one bite or sip? The answer is no (unless it tastes really bad!). You are likely to take a number of bites/sips until you are satisfied, or until the burger or coffee is finished. We think it is important for researchers to capture the eating experience over multiple bites or sips, and use temporal methods to capture liking and emotional responses during the complete product experience.

We have adapted a temporal tool called temporal check-all-that-apply (TCATA) that captures product experience over time, to measure emotional and liking responses to food across multiple bites/sips.

Why is this approach useful for future foods? It allows us to link consumer sensory experience, with liking and emotional responses across multiple bites. This means we can better identify what drives them to accept or reject a food. This can tell us, for example if consumers enjoy the final bite of a product just as much as their first bite. This information will help us to identify what makes people reject or accept plant-based products.

Our next steps: Within the Consumer Dimension of Future Foods project we are continuously developing and/ or adapting methods to accurately understand consumer wants and needs. Watch this space for more updates on our advances in sensory and consumer testing methods.

Dr. Maheeka Weerawarna, 5 Oct 2021

Flexitarianism may have Psychological and Nutritional Impacts

1 Reply

Flexitarianism is said to be good for people and planet

Vegans and vegetarians enjoy a number of health benefits:

They live longer.

They have lower risks of diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

They have a healthier weight.

Our planet benefits too: Vegetarian and vegan diets emit much less greenhouse gases and use fewer natural resources. Meat production to feed the global population uses significant land, water and animal feed and contributes to pollution and global warming.

However, many people find cutting out all animal products too difficult – or they don’t want to. A more feasible approach might be to become flexitarian. Estimates say if a large number of people reduced their intake of animal products by two-thirds, the environmental benefits would surpass those of vegetarian diets.

Consumers need to consider the whole meal

Burgers, meatballs and sausages are currently the top-selling plant-based protein products. They are often, however, ultra-processed fast-food items that are usually eaten with chips and sugar-sweetened drinks. These nutrient-poor additions contribute substantial calories. This offsets any health benefits of swapping to plant-based burgers.

image: LikeMeat Pea-based sausages — LikeMeat Pea-based sausages

Yet, the “health halo” surrounding these new plant-based fast-food products could be attracting new flexitarians.

A health halo is the perception that a food is good for you even with little/no evidence.

Consumers need to choose nutritious alternatives

Novel plant-based meats are not as nutritious as traditional plant foods like beans, tofu and nuts. A recent study (see below) found that novel plant-based diets:

Contained higher fat, sodium and sugar levels
Lacked important micronutrients.

When comparing specific diets, it found that:

Flexitarian and vegetarian diets based on traditional plant foods were the most nutritious overall.

Vegan diets based on novel plant-based meats and dairy alternatives
- were the least nutritious.
- did not meet daily requirements for several micronutrients.

Plant-based meats had similar calories as animal meats, but were
- higher in carbohydrate, fat and sodium
- lower in protein and micronutrients.

image: Nutrition - meat burger vs PBMA burger

So, choose carefully when transitioning to a flexitarian, vegetarian or vegan diet.

Flexitarianism has unexplored psychological impacts

Flexitarian diets may appeal to some individuals who want control over their diet.

Diets that involve cutting down meat carry the promise of better health and weight loss. Therefore, some may pursue flexitarian diets for the wrong reason, that is, to lose weight quickly instead of wanting to be healthier.

Also, when some flexitarians talk about their diet, they refer to meat as a ‘bad food’.

Flexitarianism is also a difficult diet to follow. Individuals must consistently resist temptation and decide when and when not to eat meat. This is in contrast to vegetarians or vegans who cut out a group of foods completely.

Our project has a clear focus

We are:

Working with the food industry to increase nutritious options for plant-based meals.

Studying the impact of different meat alternatives on health.

Trying to understand people’s motivations for becoming flexitarian.

Providing consumers with information to make the right choices.

The aim is to make nutritious and tasty plant-based alternatives easy to incorporate into our everyday diets.

Read the study on comparing different diets: Tso/Forde. (2021) Unintended Consequences: Nutritional Impact and Potential Pitfalls of Switching from Animal- to Plant-Based Foods https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/13/8/2527/htm

Read why consumers choose alternative proteins: Tso/Forde. (2020) A Critical Appraisal of the Evidence Supporting Consumer Motivations for Alternative Proteins https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/10/1/24

Florence Sheen & Rachel Tso, 3 Sep 2021

Plant-based meat alternatives might be the New Normal

Plant-based products need to be appealing, easy and normal

Vermeulen¹ suggested that for a plant-based product to be accepted (and therefore bought repeatedly) it will need to be:

Appealing

Taste and price matter!
Products need to be tasty and affordable, to name but a few.
Consumers think though that many plant-based meat alternatives don’t taste as good as the meat variant. Yet, they often have a similar price.
We plan to investigate what an ideal meat alternative may taste like. This will help the industry develop products that meet consumer demands.

Photo by Deryn Macey on Unsplash

Easy

Convenience is key!
A meat-eater might find it easier to use meat alternatives if these can be prepared in the same way as meat.
An example: Chickpeas and lentils are very nutritious and versatile. However, they are not commonly used to replace meat. People are simply unsure how to prepare them.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

Normal

Consumers want “normal” foods!
Most consumers don’t like to stand out from the crowd. They want to be mainstream.
An example: A study showed that meat-eaters were less likely to choose vegetarian dishes when these were presented in a separate box on a restaurant menu than when they were listed among the meat-dishes².

Photo by Benziad on Unsplash

Placing meat alternatives in the meat section helps uptake

In the USA, a supermarket chain found 23% higher sales of plant-based meat alternatives when these products are presented alongside their meat counterparts³. Beyond Meat has played an important role in this development: They refuse to stock their meat-free burgers to retailers unless they will be included in the supermarket’s meat section⁴.

Meat shopper photo by Cindy Amimer from Pexels; alternative products shelf in A-NZ supermarket photo by Caroline Giezenaar

In Aotearoa, plant-based meat alternatives are usually displayed on a vegetarian/vegan shelf. As such, meat-eating consumers may believe that these products are not relevant to them. In fact, they may not even see the range of meat alternatives available.

Maybe soon, more and more A-NZ supermarkets will stock meat-free products in the meat sections, which might result in an increased uptake.

Time will tell!

https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production (external website)

Caroline Giezenaar, 11 August 2021

References

1 Vermeulen, S.J., Park, T., Khoury, C.K. and Béné, C. (2020), Changing diets and the transformation of the global food system. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 1478: 3-17. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14446

2 https://www.wri.org/insights/dont-put-vegetables-corner-qa-behavioral-science-researcher-linda-bacon

3 https://www.plantbasedfoods.org/marketplace/pbfa-and-kroger-plant-based-meat-study/

4 https://www.forbes.com/sites/katrinafox/2018/05/07/should-vegan-products-be-sold-alongside-meat-and-dairy-items-in-retail-stores/?sh=56554c333204