Americans Like Blended Meat Burgers & Nuggets More Than Their Bestselling 100% Animal Counterparts

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.

People prefer the taste of blended meat over most plant-based analogues, as well as some 100% animal meat products, a blind taste test has shown.

Nectar, a new initiative focused on taste-based protein transition, convened 1,192 meat-eaters from across America to analyse their views on blended meat products, which combine conventional meat with plant-based proteins and ingredients.

The Future of the Industry 2024: Plant-Rich Meat report contains insights from sensory panels where participants analysed over 50 sensory attributes for 22 blended meat products across nine categories: burgers, steaks, hot dogs, pork sausages, beef and pork meatballs, chicken sausages, chicken meatballs, chicken nuggets, and unbreaded chicken patties.

Two-thirds of respondents (67%) expressed interest in buying blended meats. While this was (expectedly) much lower than the 90% who would buy conventional meat – given this was a poll of omnivores – fewer people said the same about plant-based analogues (57%).

The results mirror those of Nectar’s Taste of the Industry report from June, where the Both Burger by 50/50 Foods outperformed plant-based meat on taste, and was the only alternative patty that came within one point in average liking of the conventional burger.

50/50 Foods was recognised as one of the leading taste performers in the blended meat category, alongside Fusion Foods’ Duo burgers, Teton Waters Ranch’s Veggie Blends, and Fable Foods, which announced its move into blended meat today.

Teton Waters Ranch was also the leader in the “plant-rich” beef/pork meatball category, while Kidfresh was the top performer for chicken meatballs and nuggets, and Grateful Eats in the chicken patty segment.

Blended meats have been recognised by many in the food industry as a pathway to accelerate emissions reduction from meat consumption in the short term, especially at a time when meat intake is said to increase and plant-based meat sales have suffered. But for greater consumer uptake, several challenges lie ahead.

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