Plant-based meats currently face challenging market conditions. Consumer adoption is weakening, with 46% of US buyers not making repeat purchases claiming “taste dissatisfaction,” Caroline Cotto, director of sensory research initiative Nectar, tells Food Ingredients First.

A new report finds out which plant-based products consumers like as much as meat

Nectar, a non-profit organisation aiming to accelerate the protein transition, has launched what it claims is the largest publicly available dataset on the taste of plant-based meats.

Meat-eaters find most plant-based alternatives inferior to animal protein in taste and texture, but some industry-leading products show how to bridge the gap.

NECTAR, a non-profit dedicated to accelerating the protein transition through taste, has launched Taste of the Industry 2025, claimed to be the most comprehensive publicly available dataset on plant-based meat sensory evaluation. The study, which assessed 122 plant-based products across 14 categories, provides a detailed analysis of how these products compare to their animal-based counterparts in flavor, texture, and overall consumer appeal.

Caroline Cotto’s research group taste-tests meat alternatives so plant-based companies can attract new customers – and help the climate

Caroline Cotto of NECTAR Research and Tim Dale from Food System Innovations join CEO of VegTech Invest and host Elysabeth Alfano on The Plantbased Business Hour to discuss the results of a recent study around consumer perception of blended (or plant-rich) meat.

Publisher of the world’s largest plant-based meat sensory analysis gains access to novel datasets to enable further data-driven research.

In a comprehensive survey about blended meat, Americans were found to prefer half-meat, half-plant burgers and nuggets more than the market-leading, fully animal-derived products.

A new report by NECTAR, a philanthropic initiative working to accelerate the protein transition with taste, has found that 74% of US consumers surveyed are interested or extremely interested in blended meat products.

In a blind taste test, a group of 1,192 omnivores and flexitarians found food products containing a 50/50 blend of animal and plant ingredients to be the most appealing.

“Taste is a primary purchase driver for all food products. If blended meats can offer better taste profiles for omnivores today, they have a significant role to play in the protein transition,” Caroline Cotto, director of Nectar – which carried out the research – told Green Queen.

Plant-based chicken nuggets outperformed meat in a blind taste test

Most plant-based meats underperform on the taste front for omnivores, and blended meat could be a potential game-changer, detailed sensory analysis has found.

Vegan meat analogues need to be spicier, smokier, sweeter, darker, juicer, and bolder to sway omnivores away from conventional burgers, sausages, bacon and other meat products, according to the results from sensory testing by Nectar, a new initiative focused on taste-based protein transition.

World’s largest sensory analysis of plant-based meats reveals unprecedented category-level insights

A new study from Nectar found that plant-based nuggets defeated chicken in the world's largest blind taste test with omnivores