Sustainability Doesn’t Sell—Taste & Health Are Key

We surveyed Americans on why they buy alternative meat, and what they think about cultivated meat—here's what we found.

The last decade has seen massive growth and change in the food space. Consumers have become more interested in the stories behind the products they buy, more knowledgeable of ingredients, and more conscious of the impact their purchases have—not only on their health, but the planet, too. But how much do they truly care? The last few years have seen a major rise in the popularity of plant-based products, but frankly we have also seen an increase in meat sales as well. One of the fastest-growing categories in the meat space is actually none other than ground beef. And unfortunately beef, of all animal products, is far and away the most detrimental in terms of the destructive toll it takes on the environment.?

To get a deeper understanding of consumers' purchasing habits when it comes to beef and meat alternatives, and to help understand current perceptions around cultivated meat, we conducted a random survey across the United States. A poll was sent out to fifteen hundred Americans across the country, split across age groups and dietary preferences.?

A major goal was to deepen our understanding of what people care about the most when they make purchasing decisions for alternative meats, and to better understand the demographics of likely early adopters for cultivated meat.??

First up—who’s buying alternative meats today? As might be expected, vegans, vegetarians, and pescatarians were all more likely than omnivores to have ever tried an alternative meat product (although a majority of omnivores have tried alternative meat of some kind!). But while a lot of people have tried alternative meats, a much smaller percentage are eating it regularly (with vegans, unsurprisingly, more than twice as likely than omnivores to eat alternative meat products more than once a week).?

Next we delved into what drives consumers' purchasing habits. While many products market themselves based on their environmental impact, does this actually work for consumers? In fact, our results revealed that when it comes to alternative meats, health and taste are the top priorities for people from every dietary group—but especially for omnivores. For better or worse, sustainability was near the bottom for all four groups.

It was then time to test people's knowledge of cultivated meat. As a company working to bring this to market relatively soon, it's critical for us to learn not only what people think of the space, but if they even know about it! The results revealed that 53% of the total group polled had heard of "cultivated meat". It’s fantastic that a majority of Americans are now familiar with cultivated meat—this number has gone up a lot in recent years—but this still means that we have a tremendous amount of education to do for the rest of the market. This broke down to 50% of omnivores, 66% of pescatarians, 73% of vegetarians, and 48% of vegans.???

When we asked people what would be the most important purchasing criteria for cultivated meat, the results were similar to alternative meat in general (although with taste being even more important for omnivores). Interestingly, however, while all consumers were clear that their purchasing decisions for cultivated meat would primarily be driven by taste and health, people who said that they were most likely to eat cultivated meat were the same people who said they were most concerned about climate change, as well as animal welfare. So while sustainability and animal welfare may not be good marketing messages, they do point towards the kind of consumers who will be the first early adopters for cultivated meat.?

We asked people what kind of recommendations would be most important in influencing their decision to buy cultivated meat. Interestingly, recommendations from doctors and scientists, as well as friends & family, will be the most important. Chefs and athletes were in the middle, with celebrities and influencers being the least important. In comments on the survey, opinions about cultivated meat were split, with some people in every dietary group expressing excitement about the potential of cultivated meat (and being excited to eat it), while some others expressed concern about it being “weird and unnatural”. It makes sense that seeing doctors, scientists, and friends all eating and recommending cultivated meat will make it feel safer and more normal. As cultivated meat continues to become more established I expect people will look more towards celebrities and influencers they admire to help guide them towards their favorite brands of cultivated meat.???

We then delved even deeper—from where people purchase burgers, to media habits (TV vs social media), and even what forms of ground beef are preferred (vegan and vegetarian groups prefer pre-formed patties, while everyone else likes packs of ground meat). But the biggest takeaways for the cultivated meat industry are that we need to focus on making great tasting, healthy products; that we need to work with doctors and scientists to show that our products are completely safe; and that while we may target early adopters who care about the environment and animals, it won’t work to tell consumers to buy our products for these reasons.?

Over the next few years we will see more and more cultivated meat products hit the shelves (and menus) internationally. These have the potential to transform how the world produces and consumes meat in the decades to come—but only if the industry educates consumers and markets their products in the best way possible.?

- Joshua March?

Cofounder & CEO, SCiFi Foods?