Why Alternative Meat Sales Have Soared During the Pandemic

People were already focused on health before the pandemic. Now they are obsessed with it.

Alternative meat sales this year were rising, but now they are skyrocketing. The lower cost and concerns about the growing numbers of meat packing workers getting sick are contributing to the trend. JL

Alexandra Sternlicht reports in Forbes:

Grocery store popularity of alternative meat—like veggie burgers and plant-based proteins—has skyrocketed amid the pandemic in the U.S. with sales doubling for top brands. Meat alternative sales increased 255% in the last week of March (compared to 2019), outpacing "meat sales. Experts attribute this to consumers’ desire for sustainable and healthy food—compounded by meat facility closures and supply chain disruption.“There's greater concern for food safety; a lot more attention to how meat is produced."
Grocery store popularity of alternative meat—like veggie burgers and plant-based proteins—has skyrocketed amid the pandemic in the U.S. with sales about doubling for top brands since President Trump declared a state of emergency on March 13; experts attribute this to consumers’ desire for sustainable and healthy food—compounded by meat facility closures and supply chain disruption.

KEY FACTS

Nielsen reported that fresh meat alternative sales increased 255% in the last week of March (compared to the same week in 2019), fully outpacing the growth of meat sales, which increased 53% over the same period. 

“The crisis has encouraged a sense of new-product discovery in this category,” Jaime Athos, Tofurky CEO told Forbes. “Consumer awareness of the positive social and environmental impacts of plant-based proteins are continuing to grow . . . compounded more recently by the closure of meat production facilities and supply chain disruptions.”

Conagra’s Gardein—which makes fish, chicken, beef and fish alternatives—told Forbes that sales increased by 65% from March 13, 2020, to April 19, 2020, compared the same period in 2019.

Tofurky, which sells 35 different plant-based alternative meat products said to Forbes that sales have increased 40% in the last twelve weeks, with the sale of its plant-based ham growing 631% compared to the same period last year.

Kellogg’s plant-based meat brand MorningStar Farms reported to Forbes a 66% increase in March sales, driven by frozen vegetable proteins.

38% of Gardein buyers were first-time customers, which Conagra’s senior vice president of demand sciences Bob Nolan told Forbes reflects the growing interest in plant-based proteins.

CRITICAL QUOTE

“There's a greater concern for food safety; there’s been a lot more attention to how meat is produced in the media. People are trying to figure out safer ways to find what they’re looking for, and plant-based meat provides not only a great increase in food safety, but also in environmental sustainability,” Matt Ball, a senior communications specialist at the Good Food Institute, told Forbes.Alternative meats have become increasingly popular: before the U.S. entered into a state of emergency, plant meat sales were up 158% year-over-year in the last week of February, according to Nielsen. The pandemic has intensified this trend, as coronavirus has left the food industry supply chain out of whack. Major meat processing companies like Tyson Foods TSN and Smithfield Foods have been wracked by COVID-19 outbreaks within plants and forced to close. Farmers are throwing out their crops due to lack of demand from corporate clients, while grocery shelves are bare of flour and yeast.