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Open-source benchmarking of plant-based and animal meats

Sybren D van den Bedem, Ellen Kuhl, Caroline Cotto

Abstract

Global food production must reduce environmental impact while meeting rising demand for dietary protein. Plant-based meats aim to preserve the sensory and cultural role of animal meat, while lowering greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and health risks. Advances in protein structure and flavor chemistry have improved product quality; yet, consumers continue to prioritize taste and texture over sustainability and systematic large-scale consumer surveys are scarce. It remains unclear how plant-based products rank against animal benchmarks and which product attributes most strongly influence overall liking. Here we show, in a large-scale, blinded, in-person sensory evaluation across 14 product categories, 2,684 consumers, more than 11,000 product evaluations and 800,000 data points, that plant-based products still trail animal benchmarks at the category average level, but approach parity in selected formats: Plant-based unbreaded chicken filets, chicken nuggets, and burgers achieved mean overall liking scores of 5.1, 4.9, and 5.2, differing from the animal benchmark by only 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 points on a seven-point scale. For unbreaded chicken filets and burgers, 48% and 47% of participants rated the plant-based product the same as or better than the animal benchmark. Categories with higher sensory parity captured 5-14% market share compared with less than 1% for low-parity categories. Penalty analysis identified savoriness, aftertaste, juiciness, and tenderness as the strongest determinants of liking. These findings show that sensory parity is technically achievable, but not yet consistent across product types. By publicly sharing all data, we establish an open benchmark for alternative protein performance to democratize research and accelerate principled, data-driven innovation. All data are freely available at https://www.nectar.org/sensory-research/2025-taste-of-the-industry.

Open-source benchmarking of plant-based and animal meats

Abstract

Global food production must reduce environmental impact while meeting rising demand for dietary protein. Plant-based meats aim to preserve the sensory and cultural role of animal meat, while lowering greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and health risks. Advances in protein structure and flavor chemistry have improved product quality; yet, consumers continue to prioritize taste and texture over sustainability and systematic large-scale consumer surveys are scarce. It remains unclear how plant-based products rank against animal benchmarks and which product attributes most strongly influence overall liking. Here we show, in a large-scale, blinded, in-person sensory evaluation across 14 product categories, 2,684 consumers, more than 11,000 product evaluations and 800,000 data points, that plant-based products still trail animal benchmarks at the category average level, but approach parity in selected formats: Plant-based unbreaded chicken filets, chicken nuggets, and burgers achieved mean overall liking scores of 5.1, 4.9, and 5.2, differing from the animal benchmark by only 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 points on a seven-point scale. For unbreaded chicken filets and burgers, 48% and 47% of participants rated the plant-based product the same as or better than the animal benchmark. Categories with higher sensory parity captured 5-14% market share compared with less than 1% for low-parity categories. Penalty analysis identified savoriness, aftertaste, juiciness, and tenderness as the strongest determinants of liking. These findings show that sensory parity is technically achievable, but not yet consistent across product types. By publicly sharing all data, we establish an open benchmark for alternative protein performance to democratize research and accelerate principled, data-driven innovation. All data are freely available at https://www.nectar.org/sensory-research/2025-taste-of-the-industry.
Paper Structure (8 sections, 12 figures)

This paper contains 8 sections, 12 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Motivation
  2. Methods
  3. Tested products
  4. Study population
  5. Data analysis
  6. Results
  7. Discussion
  8. Conclusions

Figures (12)

  • Figure 1: Tested products. This study tested 14 product categories with a total 121 plant-based products and 14 animal benchmarks. We selected the 14 product categories by high sales volume and market development, and the 121 plant-based products by market presence, market-readiness, animal-analog design, animal-compatible flavor, and distinct ingredient or production technology. We served each product in a complete but simplified product-specific dish.
  • Figure 2: Study population. Demographic overview of the 2,684 study participants. We enrolled a gender-, age-, and educationally balanced population of omnivores and flexitarians to ensure that all participants actively consumed animal meat.
  • Figure 3: Overall liking scores. Mean overall liking scores of animal benchmark (gray), plant-based leader (dark color), and plant-based average (white) across all 14 product categories. Approximately 100 participants evaluated each product (mean per test = 99.4) on a seven-point Likert scale from dislike very much (1) to like very much (7). The overall mean across all 14 categories ranged from 5.7 for animal benchmark, to 5.0 for plant-based leader, and 4.3 for plant-based average (right).
  • Figure 4: Overall liking, similarity, flavor, texture, and appearance scores. Performance of animal benchmark (gray) and plant-based leader (dark color) across all 14 product categories, bacon, bratwurst, breaded chicken filet, breakfast sausage, burger, chicken nuggets, deli ham, deli turkey, hot dog, meatballs, pulled pork, steak, unbreaded chicken filet, and unbreaded chicken strips, scored by mean overall liking, similarity, flavor, texture, and appearance. Approximately 100 participants evaluated each product (mean per test = 99.4) on a seven-point Likert scale from dislike very much (1) to like very much (7). Across all 5 $\times$ 14 rankings, in 11 categories, there was no significant difference between animal benchmark and plant leader; in 59 categories, the animal benchmark scored significantly higher than the plant-based leader $^{***}$p $>$ 0.001, $^{**}$p $>$ 0.01, $^{*}$ p$>$ 0.05.
  • Figure 5: Overall liking, similarity, flavor, texture, appearance, and purchase intent scores. Performance of animal benchmark (gray) and plant-based leader (dark color) scored by mean overall liking, similarity, flavor, texture, appearance, and purchase intent across all 14 product categories, bacon, bratwurst, breaded chicken filet, breakfast sausage, burger, chicken nuggets, deli ham, deli turkey, hot dog, meatballs, pulled pork, steak, unbreaded chicken filet, and unbreaded chicken strips. Approximately 100 participants evaluated each product (mean per test = 99.4) on a seven-point Likert scale from dislike very much (1) to like very much (7). Across all 5 $\times$ 14 rankings, in 11 categories, there was no significant difference between animal benchmark and plant leader; in 59 categories, the animal benchmark scored significantly higher than the plant-based leader $^{***}$p $>$ 0.001, $^{**}$p $>$ 0.01, $^{*}$ p$>$ 0.05.
  • ...and 7 more figures