While suitable for vegetarians and vegans, a large proportion of the market for plant-based meat and dairy products is made up of ‘flexitarians’ – meat and dairy consumers who aim to cut down on their consumption of animal products.
One answer to this category of consumers comes in the form of ‘blended’, or ‘hybrid’, meat and dairy products – products that combine animal-derived meat and dairy with their vegan or vegetarian alternatives. Brands such as Smug (for dairy) and 50/50 burger (for meat) have used this strategy.
Now Quorn, one of the oldest and most ubiquitous brands of meat-free meat alternatives (it was launched in 1985), has announced that it is supplying its mycoprotein to be mixed with real meat for the development of hybrid and blended meat products. Clients include the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
With such a big producer of meat alternatives moving into blended products, is this a retreat from meat-free?
How do people view the hybrid meat category?
Many in the world of food believe that hybrid products have a future. In fact, 85% of delegates at FoodNavigator’s Positive Nutrition summit last year saw potential in the category.
Yet there was some scepticism around the concept from plant-based manufacturers, who said that we have to question who the market for these products really is. Indeed, many blended products don’t survive long. Hybrid meat from players such as BrewDog and Tyson Foods have been discontinued.
Some organisations are sceptical, such as ProVeg International. While it takes an ‘open-minded’ approach to blended meat, it suggested the evidence that such a category reduces meat consumption has still not been seen.
Are consumers really turning back to meat?
As the plant-based category sees a significant downturn, the question on everyone’s lips is are consumers turning away from meat-free and back to meat? Not according to market research company Kantar.
Kantar has found that consumers are avoiding real meat for the same reason as plant-based meat - cost. As cost-of-living pressures bite into consumers' budgets, they are scrapping such expensive products.
While price parity between plant-based meat and meat has still not been reached, it seems both are too high for some consumers.
“It is not clear whether eating blended meat is enough to help mitigate the climate crisis. We support more research into blended meat until evidence has been shown that it actually leads to a reduction in conventional meat consumption among consumers,” said ProVeg in reaction to Quorn's entry into the category.
Why are Quorn selling mycoprotein for blended meat products?
Since 1985, Quorn has been selling meat alternative products for vegetarians and flexitarians. However, meat-free alternatives have seen a downturn in recent years, with brands such as Beyond Meat declining in revenue, indicating that many consumers are not willing to give up meat just yet. According to Marco Bertacca, CEO of Quorn Foods, the reduction in meat consumption simply is not happening fast enough or at large enough scale.
Indeed, according to the marketing agency Circana, vegetarianism and veganism in the big five European economies (Germany, Italy, the UK, France and Spain) is not growing. Conversely, however, the number of flexitarians is.
Or is it . . . ?
While Circana’s research suggested that the number of flexitarians is growing, recent research from the HealthFerm project revealed the opposite, showing that a mere 16% of consumers identify as flexitarian. This is in stark contrast to the 2021 research from the organisation ProVeg International, which found that 30% of consumers are flexitarian. Do consumers want to cut down on meat or not?
While Quorn's role was once to help a few people eat no meat, Bertacca told FoodNavigator, “we have now evolved into a company that helps everyone eat less meat – because that’s what the world needs – and we will continue to find new ways to do that.”
While the business once focused mainly on getting consumers to shift from meat to its own products, the market has evolved, Bertacca told us. The flexitarian market is much larger than the vegetarian and vegan market, and therefore presents the biggest opportunity.
Selling mycoprotein to be used in meat products allows Quorn’s clients to reduce their environmental impact, Bertacca told us, by using less meat per product.
