Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the market was already seeing growing consumer interest in meat alternatives. In 2017, research by World Vegan Day said that 56% of UK adults had now adopted some form of vegan buying behaviour without identifying as vegan or vegetarian. That might be meat-free days, consciously choosing plant-based substitutes or buying soy or oat milk instead of dairy.

But further research during the first lockdown showed a clear connection between the pandemic and the change in attitude towards our relationship with animals.  This was especially shown to be the case in younger, urban, customers with 1 in 5 UK consumers cutting down on meat products as a result of the pandemic. 43% stated their reason was out of concern for their health, environmental or animal rights reasons rather than a lack of availability during the lockdown. In Germany, Coronavirus outbreaks in meat processing plants resulted in a third of people polled by YouGov indicating they were planning to reduce their meat consumption.

What was being shown in research is now actively playing out on the shelves. Beyond Meat revealed that a staggering 93% of their plant-based Beyond Burger customers were not vegan, or even vegetarian. They were consumers who were also purchasing meat products but less of them. This was one of the first clear cases of a meat-alternative actively taking spend away from the meat sector. Their competitors, Impossible Foods, have also released similar statistics, showing that up to 95% of their customers are also meat-eaters.  They are now also turning their technical talents to developing Impossible Milk that is indistinguishable from dairy but without the need for a cow.