Taste of the Industry 2026
Sensory analysis of 98 dairy-free products across 10 categories with 2,183 omnivores
Part of NECTAR’s annual Taste of the Industry series, Taste of the Industry 2026 is the world’s largest public sensory analysis of dairy-alternative products. This report provides objective sensory data on 98 dairy-free products collected through blind taste tests conducted in American restaurant settings.
By having omnivores directly compare dairy-free products against dairy-based benchmarks, we reveal competitive positioning and specific R&D opportunities in this increasingly important category.
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Barista Milk
Butter
Cheddar
Cream Cheese
Creamer
Ice Cream (Hard Serve)
Milk
Mozzarella
Sour Cream
Yogurt
Categories tested:
Access the full sensory dataset on our
public data dashboard below:
Data Snapshots
Taste of the Industry 2026: Data Dashboard
Access the data behind the world’s most comprehensive public sensory analysis of dairy-free products
in a free, easy-to-use dashboard.
Executive Summary
Quickly understand overall results with AI generated summaries on category performance and R&D opportunities.
Review a comprehensive overview of key metrics by category to surface results and hypotheses for further investigation.
Category R&D Roadmap
Navigate detailed sensory heat maps for each category to identify top R&D priorities across flavor, texture, appearance, and nutrition.
Use Qualitative responses to see what consumers are saying about dairy alternatives, by category, and to validate R&D roadmaps, gather sales proof points, and discover innovation white spaces.
Performance Snapshots
For each category, explore performance across a variety of sensory modalities (flavor, texture, appearance, similarity, etc).
Use Preference Testing to compare performance of the average dairy-free product to the leading dairy-free product and the animal benchmark, with statistical significance testing.
Marketing Strategy
Investigate category performance by key demographic attributes (e.g., age, purchase drivers, category consumption frequency) to guide marketing decisions and audience targeting.
Webinar
In this webinar, hosted by The Good Food Institute (GFI), NECTAR unveils groundbreaking insights from the Taste of the Industry 2026 report, which benchmarks consumer taste preferences across the full dairy-free spectrum. Based on blind sensory analyses of 98 dairy-free products with more than 2100+ consumers, NECTAR’s report explores which dairy-free categories are winning with everyday eaters, where the biggest gaps remain, and what the sensory data tells us about the road ahead!
“We don't exist to create alternatives, we are here to create the successors with the mission to build a net-positive food system & delicious foods that fit effortlessly into everyday life.”
— Marc Coloma, Co-Founder, Heura Foods
