Consumer research calls for greater clarity around meat-free products

The research was carried out by AHDB’s Retail & Consumer Insight team in collaboration with The Smithfield Collective to gain a better understanding of consumer attitude towards vegetarian and vegan products that are designed to compete with meat.

The findings indicate shopping bays where meat and meat-free products are displayed together has the potential to mislead shoppers, with 52% saying they sometimes find these aisles confusing to navigate.

The survey also found that products from unfamiliar plant-based brands, or historically meat brands that look very realistic, are the most likely to be unclear at first glance.

Since shoppers’ motives are very different for buying meat and meat-free products, 60% of respondents agreed plant-based products should be displayed in a different place to meat products.

There was also a consensus between consumers that meat-free products are trying replicate meat, with 69% agreeing plant-based products try to describe themselves in a way that sounds like meat.

Moreover, half of respondents agreed that manufacturers should abstain from using words like ‘steak’ or ‘bacon’ on meat-free product packaging, while 47% said words like ‘sausage’ and ‘burger’ should also be eliminated.

The research found that shoppers are fond of meat packaging with 70% likeability on average across the three meat packs tested, which was much higher than with meat-free packs. In addition, 75% of shoppers said the amount of detail on meat labels is about right, as opposed to only 66% for plant-based packages.

Grace Randall, AHDB retail insight manager, said: “This research is helping provide retailers and processors with evidence to protect and grow red meat sales.

“The findings give the industry the evidence needed to challenge retailers or government that meat and meat-free products shouldn’t be displayed together. AHDB will use these findings for further research in to how best to optimise meat packaging.”