People say plant-based burgers and nuggets taste just as good as the real thing. So why aren’t they buying them?

Brian Kateman | 23 April 2025

Last month, a food research organization called Nectar released an expansive set of findings from taste tests that rated plant-based meat alternatives alongside actual meat. One bit of information stood out: In terms of taste, 54% of people on average found 20 vegan products (such as burgers, nuggets, and sausages) from 13 brands (including Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, and Gardein) to taste as good as or better than analogous conventional meat products. This should probably be good news for those of us who are concerned about the environment, public health, and animal welfare. 

But the flipside of this discovery is that even though plant-based meat is starting to taste just as good as (and in some cases better than) animal meat, most people aren’t changing their purchasing habits accordingly. If “taste is king,” it doesn’t deserve the crown—and ignoring this reality will doom alt protein to irrelevance.

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