Meat reduction and avoidance via substitution: Understanding consumption adoption of plant-based meats

Abstract

‘Meat substitutes’ (also known as meat analogues, mock meat, faux meat, alternative proteins, and imitation meat) are products produced commercially to replace traditionally sourced slaughtered meat in consumers’ diets. These products include those that are plant-, insect-, fungi- and algae-based as well as cell-based or clean meats and are produced to purposefully approximate the aesthetic, functional and chemical qualities (e.g. taste, texture, appearance, and use) of certain meat products (Joshi & Kumar, 2015; Ritchie, Reay, & Higgins, 2018). While these products have historically only been consumed by those adhering to meat-free diets, a growing number of consumers are electing to substitute meat for alternative, non-animal proteins or ‘meat substitutes’ (Oberst, 2018; Smithers, 2018). Meat substitutes have been identified as playing an increasingly critical role in stimulating consumption changes towards a sustainable diet that is better for the Earth and its inhabitants (Ritchie et al., 2018; Weinrich, 2018). However, academia and industry alike remain sceptical of the effectiveness of campaigns to bring about behavioural change with regards to shifting consumption behaviour away from meat to meat substitutes (Vainio, Irz, & Hartikainen, 2018). Yet, the number of consumers switching to low-meat or meat-free diets continues to increase. In 2017, the meat substitute market was valued at USD $4.33 billion and is projected to reach USD $6.43 billion by the year 2023 (Markets and Markets, 2018). Plant-based meat substitutes alone have been identified as one of the leading trends to disrupt the food industry in 2018 (Domanska, 2018). Thus, as the adoption of plant-based and meat-free consumption practices continues to rise (Oberst, 2018), marketing practitioners need to understand this growing segment of consumers.