Vegan Food Market Outlook: What’s on the Menu?

The term vegan was coined only as recently as 1944, but since then we have increasingly ditched animal-based foods and turned towards plant-based alternatives. Today the American plant-based retail market is worth $5 billion, and the dairy alternative market is predicted to be worth $25.12 billion by 2026. So what’s led to the global rise of the vegan food market, and what trends can we expect to see in the future? 

Why Vegan? Why Now?

A vegan diet is defined as one that does not include meat, dairy and other kinds of animal based ingredients. Vegan food products are most often dairy free or meat free food products which are produced from plant-based sources. In the last three years there has been a 600% increase in people identifying as vegans in the US. Concerns regarding climate change, health and animal welfare have been the reasons behind this dramatic change and have driven the growth of the market.

Josh Tetrick, the founder of JUST Inc. (a plant-based food manufacturer), explains that when it comes to veganism, the pace of change is still accelerating. “Plant-based foods used to be for folks eating breakfast at vegan cafes in Northern California, but today plant-based foods are increasingly for folks I was raised with, eating breakfast in diners or at their kitchen tables in Birmingham, Alabama,” he said. “The change is happening in cities, suburbs and in rural areas. It’s happening in red states and in blue states. It’s not a niche food movement.”

The vegan diet has also been endorses by a number of high-profile celebrities in recent years, including Joaquin Phoenix, Bill Clinton, Natalie Portman, and most recently the pop star Lizzo. The latter treats her fans to plant-based recipes via her social media channels. Late in 2019, Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton endorsed Neat Burger, a sustainable fast food restaurant based in London. And the driver has openly discussed the benefits of being vegan since 2017.

There are of course many more vegan food options available today both in restaurants and in supermarkets, making the lifestyle easier to adopt. In the past, meat was difficult to ‘veganize’ well, but today the market is flooded with incredibly ‘realistic’ vegan plant-based steaks and burgers. In fact Spanish innovators, Novameat, have developed a ‘realistic’ plant-based steak made from pea, seaweed and beetroot juice, which seems to almost perfectly imitate meat. The secret to the new steak is their patented micro-extrusion technology, which produces fibers between 100 and 500 microns in diameter, providing the texture of real meat to all who eat it.

Looking to the Future 

Increasing consumer understanding related to the potential health benefits of vegan food such as lowering cholesterol, will continue to drive market growth. The market is also sure to experience the benefits of increasing customer inclination towards substituting dairy products with nuts, soymilk, almond milk and whole grains. The stats don’t lie. In 2018 the vegan food market was valued at $12.69 billion, and is projected to expand at a CAGR of 9.6% from 2019 to 2025. What’s more, according to The Vegan Society, from 2012 to 2017, the meat-free food demand grew by 987%. It’s evident that this powerful trend towards veganism can provide a great opportunity for food producers and retailers who are looking to innovate and to thrive.

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