E273: Feeding innovation by taste testing alternative proteins

As someone who's been mostly vegetarian for a number of years, I have tried a lot of plant-based foods and there's a variety of them. And so how do they really taste, not just from my perspective? Well, it's really important to do really careful analysis, and this is going to be the subject of our conversation today. Plant-based foods are becoming increasingly healthier and cheaper. But one large question really remains for consumers. How do they taste. NECTAR, a nonprofit initiative on a mission to accelerate the alternative protein transition sets out to answer this question. Through large scale blind taste tests with thousands of consumers. NECTAR is amassing the largest publicly available sensory database on alternative protein products. In its latest report, Taste of the Industry 2025, NECTAR conducted blind sensory panels of 122 products across 14 categories and uncovered which products have achieved the taste that's on par with their animal-based counterparts. Today we talk with NECTAR's Director, Caroline Cotto, about which products are meeting and exceeding consumer taste expectations and what the alternative protein industry needs to do to get more products to this level. And how NECTAR's novel dataset can be used to get there faster.

Interview Summary

I understand you've conducted the world's largest clinical sensory test for plant-based and alternative meats compared to real animal meat. Tell me about how you conducted this study and why NECTAR is focused on this research.

Absolutely. So, for us, we're really focused on this research because we know that taste is a major purchase driver for consumers and it's often the key reason people cite for not repurchasing plant-based meats once they've purchased them. We really want people to come back to the category and so in order for that to happen, we need taste to be where consumers expect it to be.

As you mentioned, we set out to conduct a large study and sort of understand where the products on the market taste today. So, we tested 122 products across 14 categories. And we chose those categories by looking at the highest volume selling categories of animal meat, and then mapping the plant-based products to those categories. And then 43 of those products were from Europe as well. So, we were trying to get a real landscape analysis.

Different than traditional sensory testing, we conducted all of our studies in restaurant settings to give a more natural experience for the participants. And all of our testing is done with omnivore consumers. So, we love vegans and vegetarians, but we're really trying to go after that hardcore meat eater and see if we can get them to switch because they love the taste of these products. And then the other difference is that we serve everything in what we call a full build. We serve burger patties and buns, hot dogs and buns. We really allow consumers to apply condiments as long as they do it equally across all of the products that they're testing, um, to give that authentic experience as they would experience the product in their own kitchen. And we ended up having 2,684 participants in this city. Each product was tried by a minimum of 100 consumers.

Wow, that's pretty extensive. What were some of the surprising results of this?

Yeah, I think we found that the average plant-based product was not quite ready for mainstream adoption. The average plant-based product was generally disliked more frequently than the animal product was, with 35% of tasters rating the product. Some form of dislike. And only 9% of tasters rating animal products as some form of dislike. That said, we did find 20 products out of the 122 that were worth celebrating. We created the Tasty Awards based on this data. And we set a threshold for top performance. And that threshold was that of the people that tried the product, if at least 50% of them said that it, that plant-based meat was the same or better than the animal meat that it was considered a winner product in this study. I'm super exciting to see that we saw 20 products meet that threshold. However, these products were not distributed equally across categories. Some categories had up to five products that met the winner threshold and other categories had none. And we also found that no products in this year's study actually achieved parody with animal meat. So, four products came very close, and we're expecting that in next year's study, that there will be some products that achieve that milestone. But we're not there quite yet. And then lastly, we found that there really is a correlation between great taste and financial return. So, we found that the plant-based products that perform best in our sensory tests are actually capturing 50% more market share than the average products in that category. And the categories that taste better are capturing more market share than the lower performing categories.

Wow. That's really fascinating and there are lots of ways of sort of thinking through the data. I'd like to hear a little bit more about how those consumer preferences vary across different categories of plant-based products such as burgers, nuggets, and hot dogs. Are there specific sensory attributes that consistently influence consumer satisfaction?

Yes, so overall we found that flavor is the top opportunity for plant-based meats at large. Currently these products are described as savory 35% less often than the animal products. And they're described as having a weird aftertaste or off flavor five to six times more often than their animal counterparts. As we look at plant-based meat as a whole, flavor is definitely still needing some improvement. And then we also saw that texture is really the secondary opportunity. So, plant-based meats were described as juicy 62% less often than the animal products. And there's a big need to increase tenderness and reduce mushiness. So that's why I was mentioning there are some categories like burgers and nuggets where we had multiple winner products and those products have had a lot of R&D done on them. Their texture is a little bit easier to replicate than something like whole cut steak or bacon or pulled pork.

You talked about some of the difficulties when you look at different sensory aspects. And I'm interested to understand what some of the key challenges are facing the alternative protein industry in terms of improving taste of the plant-based meats. And how can NECTAR's database help address these challenges?

Yes, I think the key opportunity here is that NECTAR's data provides a roadmap for each product to improve. So, it might be the case that a certain product actually performed well on flavor but needs to improve its texture. Our research can really help you pinpoint exactly what it is about your texture that needs to change. So maybe it's, you know, reducing that mushiness or increasing firmness. And I think overall for the entire category of plant-based meat, it's what we were just talking about, flavor is sort of the biggest opportunity. And then closely followed by texture. But it does seem to vary quite a bit within each category for each product. And we saw on the whole, there was a wide range of ingredients and production methods used. So, we tested the category of unbreaded chicken filet. Within that category, we had extruded products, soy-based products, pea based products, mycelium products. And there were multiple products in that category that were all winners using each of those different techniques and ingredients. But they all have their own slight differences and tweaks that need to be made to meet mainstream consumer expectations.

Oh, this is fascinating. And I have to say, we haven't had many opportunities to talk about how alternative proteins or products are actually produced. Thank you for sharing that. You know what's really interesting, you've touched on this a little bit, but I think there's a little more that we can learn from you on this. So, your research highlights that some plant-based products like nuggets are approaching taste parody with their animal counterparts. Are there specific factors that contribute to the success and how can these insights be applied to other product categories?

So, the Taste of the Industry 2025 is a second annual report that NECTAR has released. In our 2024 research, we found that breaded products tended to outperform unbreaded ones. So, we actually saw similar success from the nugget category in this year's research. But on the whole, I think we see that texture is much easier to replicate for some categories and nuggets is one of those. The other would be burgers where all of the products are ground and so it's much easier to replicate that with existing technologies than to replicate things like muscle fibers for whole cut steak.

We did find four products that are within striking distance of achieving parody. And two of those products were nuggets. One of them was a burger, and the last was an unbreaded chicken filet. And as I mentioned, I think we'll see next year one of these products achieve parody or surpass the animal product in overall liking. But on the whole, we see that chicken is an easier flavor to replicate than beef and pork. And so, we saw more products from the chicken categories that were winners this year than from the other types of animal based meat.

Looking forward, how do you envision NECTAR's work impacting the broader food industry? Particularly in terms of driving innovation and adoption of plant-based products among consumers who are honestly hesitant due to taste concerns.

We really believe that tasting is believing. So, we are using this data to drive stakeholders across the supply chain towards the best tasting products so that they taste it and they immediately are sold on the product. So that means we're working with retailers and food service buyers to help direct them towards the best tasting products. And even consumers we have an Instagram page and a consumer facing lens where we're trying to show them which products taste great and help with the demand side for the industry. And then we really see chefs in food service as the beachhead market for alternative proteins. I think it's an easier sell to have someone try a delicious plant-based product on a menu or in a cafeteria. And then want to go home and replicate that experience after having a really positive experience out in the world.

Okay. So how do you see the broader industry, from meat producers to policymakers to retailers, using the dataset that you all are constructing?

We see that as sort of no matter your role in the industry, this data can support your efforts. So, for brand and manufacturers, we're hoping that they'll embrace an iterative taste centric product development approach. And the report offers pre-competitive sensory insights to provide a roadmap for focused innovation where we feel like it matters most. As I mentioned for retailers and food service operators, we want them to recognize their crucial role as venues for consumer discovery and to help them prioritize products on shelf and on menus that really deliver on these taste claims.

And then for investors and funders, we see alternative protein as a true climate solution. And so we want them to consider the outsized impact potential of plant-based products that are able to achieve mainstream adoption through superior taste and really double down on their efforts there.

And then lastly, we are working with researchers and academics that can build upon NECTAR's foundational work and use our data sets to advance the understanding of consumer preferences and sensory science. We're actually working with some researchers currently to build a large language model tool that will ingest the sensory data and suggest specific experiments to improve the sensory aspects of those products. So, it'll basically be a food scientist's best friend and be able to reduce the number of benchtop trials needed to get to a better outcome.

Wow, that's really fascinating. And I think there's something that I want to highlight. Because you all are a nonprofit, the data that you're generating is being made publicly available. Is that a fair statement?

That's correct. Yes, so we have a whole digital dashboard where you can look at all of the category level data. You can see how the average product performed, how the leading product in that category performed, and how the animal benchmark product in each category performed. And we provide insight into what are the biggest opportunities for improvement at a category level. And then we also share the data on an individual brand's performance with that brand so that they can make improvements themselves.

May I ask, how did you get buy-in from the industry to allow their products to be considered?

We make sure that there's only upside for participating, so we only publish the brand names of brands that are top performers. And we do a lot of marketing and PR support for those top performers. We provide them with a marketing credential for the Tasty Awards that they can use on sell sheets and to socialize their products with the larger consumer base.

If the products were not top performers, we don't publish the name of the brand. But as I mentioned we do provide that data to them so that they can have a roadmap for how to improve their product and hopefully be Tasty Award winners next year.

Okay, great. So I want to wrap up by asking where do you see hope in the plant-based industry in the next five years?

Yes, to be honest, it's been a little bleak for the plant-based meat space for the last few years. And so, we founded NECTAR because we believe that there are great tasting products out there and we want to bring some hope and inspiration back to this industry. Our goal is that in five years all of the products on shelf will meet consumer taste expectations. And we're really able to show that products could be both sustainable and delicious and crave worthy, and that consumers will demand them. We have started to see that with the 20 products that really rose to the top. And our goal is that you know, all of the products are sort of meeting that threshold when we're through here. We're also seeing hope in that there's a lot of positive research around plant-based defaults on menus. So, hospitals and universities are starting to put plant-based options on the menu as the default. And I think that is especially supported by great tasting products. If people, as I mentioned, have a positive experience out in the world, hopefully that will continue to get that snowball effect and demand generation going. And we're also seeing some hope with a new category called balanced protein, which are products that combine some conventional animal meat with plant-based ingredients in the same product.  NECTAR actually conducted a taste test of balanced proteins this fall and found that in two categories, burgers and nuggets, balanced products actually outperformed their animal counterparts. And so, kind of like the hybrid car, we're hoping that the balanced protein will sort of get the hardcore meat skeptics on board and help ultimately move us towards a more plant-based future. And if there's anybody listening that wants to access our data or partner with us, we definitely welcome those conversations.

BIO

 

Caroline Cotto is a Director at Food System Innovations (FSI) where she leads NECTAR, an initiative accelerating the protein transition with taste. By conducting large-scale sensory panels of alternative protein products and operationalizing the resulting data, NECTAR aims to create category-level value and empower stakeholders to make sensory-informed decisions. Prior to FSI, Caroline co-founded Renewal Mill, an award-winning upcycled food startup. She served as the inaugural board president of the Upcycled Food Association, the world’s first trade association for upcycled brands. She regularly mentors food, tech, and circular economy startups. Caroline studied at Georgetown University and served as a Fulbright Fellow. She has been named to both Forbes 30 Under 30 and the 50 NEXT lists.