According to Information Resources Inc. (IRI) based in Chicago, during 2020, plant-based alternatives to meat represented two percent of fresh and frozen sales in supermarket meat departments. For the 26 weeks ending June 27th 2021, sales of meat alternatives totaled $1.4 billion, an increase of 14 percent over the corresponding first six months of 2020. IRI determined that 20 percent of consumers purchased a plant based product at least “occasionally”.
Realizing forecasts of growth will however depend on the relative prices of plant-based and real meat and their quality attributes as perceived by consumers. At the present time, alternatives to ground beef are more expensive than USDA-inspected product. Enigmatically despite the differential at retail, it appears that manufacturers of plant-based meats are unprofitable as denoted by quarterly reports of public-quoted companies.