2026 Taste Index

As we try to make sense of the last five years in plant-based meat and dairy, I always like to come in with the (real-world!) data about why we’re seeing disappointing sales—unfortunately, most products don’t taste good enough.
We tested 122 plant-based meat products and 100 dairy-free products alongside their animal counterparts showed that plant-based products (generally) need more R&D:

⛔️ There are large liking gaps between plant and animal-based products. Animal products are rated as ‘like very much’ or ’like’ 1.4x more often than plant-based products

↕️ Plant-based dairy outperformed plant-based meat (4 out of the top 5 categories were dairy alternatives)

🛑 Milk (in coffee applications) is nearing parity with traditional dairy! It’s no coincidence that the best-tasting category is also the best-selling!

Improving taste is critical and achievable. Our research also shows that there are leading products which perform much closer to the animal so (yes!) it's possible to perform at a much higher level, we just need more R&D to get there.

See the top opportunities for improving taste in our public research here:

Meat:

📕 Report: https://www.nectar.org/sensory-research/2025-taste-of-the-industry

📊 Dashboard: https://dashboard.palateinsights.com/taste-of-the-industry

Dairy:

📕 Report: https://www.nectar.org/sensory-research/2026-taste-of-the-industry

📊 Dashboard: https://dashboard.palateinsights.com/taste-of-the-industry-26

Methodology: Data is sourced from based blind taste tests using a 7-point liking scale. For each category, Top-2 Box liking (% rating products "Like" or "Like Very Much") was calculated separately for plant-based and animal-based products. Category performance reflects both the percentage-point gap and the relative Top-2 Box ratio between plant-based and animal-based products. These measures were combined and indexed on a 0–100 scale, where 0 represents the lowest-performing category (Bacon) and 100 represents taste parity with animal-based products.