This story is part of our series on plant-based food alternatives. An infographic is available here.
Have you ever consumed plant-based alternatives to animal-based food products? What about lab-grown meat, would you eat it once available? That’s what our new report on plant-based alternatives aimed to find out from consumers across our 13 proprietary panels.
Highlights from the report include:
Trend, Animal Welfare & Healthiness are 3 key reasons across markets for choosing plant based alternatives. Of the above reasons, healthiness is most interesting as this suggests an acceptance of a relevant, long-lasting rational & an emotional benefit. Whilst trends may come and go and animal welfare may be seen as more niche, healthiness in food is a stable, core benefit.
Equally there are no strong, consistent deeper concerns to plant based alternatives. Some markets such as Japan (31%) & United States (33%) may have some taste concerns. Whilst some other markets may still need more awareness of the benefits or the need for alternatives. However, there does not appear to be a cross-market deeper common barrier outside of the cultural environments. This would indicate that there is not a clear barrier to the continued rise of plant-based alternatives.
United States fits Western image that lab grown meat is not appealing to the majority (23%), but the more eco aware younger age groups show some interest, 16-24 (36%) & 25-34 (31%). However, interestingly this trend is not the same across Asia – with most markets around 40% willing. The 55+ age group is mostly not the target, however this age group can be surprisingly included as a target in China (45%) & South Korea (44%).
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Methodology:
The survey was conducted in November 2021 among 130,000 respondents from Rakuten Insight proprietary panels in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, United States and Vietnam.
