A ‘balanced’ approach to alt-meat trial

Hybrid meat products — those that combine conventional animal protein with vegetables or plant-based proteins — have had difficulty getting consumers on-board. In fact, new research by Food System Innovations (FSI) indicates that prospective customers get turned off by too much information about what’s actually in the burger or chicken nugget or the like. But without that ingredient information, these products fair remarkably well in blind consumer taste-tests: Half of tasters in the recent TASTY Award competition offered by FSI affiliate NECTAR rated what NECTAR calls “balanced protein” products as the same or better than their animal protein equivalent. Tim Dale, FSI’s category innovation director, joins Alt-Meat for this MeatingPod episode to discuss balanced proteins and new avenues for helping this category find what could be a lucrative market for processors of all kinds.