Food dietAdd to myFTGet instant alerts for this topicManage your dery channels hereRemove from myFTMoving beyond ‘plant bait for the vegans’: can meat substitutes convince consumers?Shifting diets could cut emissions — if shoppers can be persuaded© Ben HickeyMoving beyond ‘plant bait for the vegans’: can meat substitutes convince consumers?
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on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Susannah SavagePublishedSeptember 29 2025Jump to s section this pageUnlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly .stock farming is a major climate change culprit.
Meat and dairy account for 15 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, mainly in the form of methane and nitrous oxide.
ducing plant-based foods generates roughly half the emissions of meat-based ducts, according to recent studies.
Shifting diets, even gradually, could free up farmland, cut methane, and imve public health.But old habits die hard.
For many people, a charred steak or succulent sausage is not easily swapped for tofu or lentils.
That tension is why governments and companies are ing for a middle way: meat substitutes and hybrids that mise familiar flavour but with a lighter environmental foot.
From beef burgers bl with beans to fermented dairy ducts, a growing range of substitutes is available.
But the challenge is whether they can scale quickly enough, stay affordable, and persuade people to change what ends up on their plates.How does it work?Meat substitutes use different strategies to recreate the flavour and texture of animal ducts while lowering emissions.FT Guides: climate This is the part of the FT’s guide to the nologies that will help the planet reach net zero.
Each article covers the same questions. Other cover rapid-charging EVs and rock weatheringOne of the most common is the use of plant teins such as soy, peas or wheat.
These are ground into flour, concentrated, and cessed through extrusion in a nique that uses heat and pressure to form fibrous textures resembling animal muscle.
The resulting material can be flavoured and shaped into ducts ranging from “chicken” nuggets to faux tuna.Another apach relies on fermentation.
Fungi can be cultivated to duce dense, tein-rich filaments that naturally mimic meat’s chewiness.
Precision fermentation goes further: microbes are grammed to generate specific animal teins such as casein or whey, which can be used to make dairy substitutes almost indistinguishable from the real thing.Finally, some companies take a hybrid route.
Dutch retailer Albert Heijn, has launched sausages and cold cuts that blend beef or pork with beans, beet fibre or celeriac, aiming to see if shoppers will accept gradual changes.
Because plant ingredients require far less land, water and fertiliser than stock, replacing even part of the meat reduces the duct’s overall carbon foot while also lowering saturated fat.Precision fermentation can be used to make dairy substitutes © Luke Duggleby/BloombergWhat are the s and cons?Meat substitutes could make a significant dent in emissions.
Substitutes can also reduce saturated fat in diets, with potential public health benefits.
For governments, they offer a politically easier route to cutting agricultural emissions than telling people to eat less meat.The biggest advantage, however, is familiarity.
By offering burger or sausage lookas, companies hope to lower the psychological barrier to change.
“We are not ducing plant bait for the vegans and the vegetarians; they have already found their solutions,” says Ulrich Kern-Hansen, founder and chief executive of Organic Plant tein, a Danish company that duces meat- ducts.
“People in the western countries that have grown up in a meat-based culture, they meat. They really do meat. They the taste and the feeling of when they bite it . . .
that’s what we’re aiming for.” But there are drawbacks too. Many plant-based analogues are highly cessed.
They often use additives, flavourings and stabilisers to achieve meat- textures, so the end-duct may not be particularly healthy.
Some can be more expensive than the real thing, particularly if made with precision fermentation, where costs remain high.
Critics also question their nutritional value: substitutes can match tein levels but sometimes fall short on micronutrients such as iron and vitamin B12.Taste remains a sticking point, too.
While some ducts come remarkably close to the “real thing”, others fall short.
As one Danish alt-tein entrepreneur puts it: “nology alone isn’t enough; if it doesn’t taste good, people won’t buy it twice.”Will it the planet?Substituting beans or fungi for beef can dramatically cut emissions: for every 1kg of beef, 60kg of CO₂ equivalent is duced, while legumes generate less than 1kg.
But global demand for animal tein is rising as incomes grow, especially in Asia and Africa, and substitutes are unly to replace meat fast enough to cancel out that trend.
Hybrids, which reduce rather than eliminate meat content, der more modest climate benefits.FT MagazineHenry ManceHenry Mance: Why the vegans lostCost and uptake are also critical.
Precision-fermented teins and fungi-based meats remain expensive to duce, while many consumers in lower- and middle-income countries may struggle to access them.
Even in Europe and North America, sales of substitutes are tiny when compared to total meat sales.Advocates see potential for meaningful reductions if governments incentivise duction and if substitutes move from niche ducts into main diets.
Denmark, for example, has launched a €190mn fund to support plant-based foods, offering grants to farmers that grow legumes and to companies new substitutes.
Germany and South Korea have since ed with similar initiatives.
But critics argue that, without broader adoption, such efforts risk being too small and too slow to make a different in global stock emissions.Has it arrived yet?Yes, but unevenly.
Plant-based burgers and milks are widely available in rich , but remain niche globally. Hybrids are newer: Albert Heijn rolled out its bl meats and dairy only in 2023.
Denmark’s €190mn fund is in early stages, with most grants focused on boosting demand rather than duction.
Cultivated meat and precision fermentation remain nascent, with pilot apvals only in a few places, such as Singapore and the US.Who are the winners and losers?The most obvious winners are food- start-ups and established agries that invest early in substitutes.
Companies ducing soy, pea or fungi teins — or precision-fermentation nologies — stand to benefit if demand grows.
By selling hybrid ducts, retailers such as Albert Heijn may also win customer loyalty by positioning themselves as climate-conscious without forcing shoppers to abandon meat entirely.Consumers could benefit too, if substitutes become cheaper and healthier than meat, without the need to sacrifice familiar foods.The losers may include traditional stock ducers and suppliers, who could find market eroded if substitutes scale.
In rich countries, small farmers risk being squeezed if they cannot adapt quickly or afford new equipment.
In poorer regions, where meat remains a symbol and substitutes are often too costly, ducers could retain their . could sharpen these divides.
Farm lobbies in Europe and the US have already pushed back against meat substitutes, campaigning for restrictions on terms such as “burger” or “milk” when applied to plant-based ducts.
If governments side with ducers, adoption could slow; if they back substitutes, they risk a backlash from powerful agricultural constituencies.Who is ?Early-stage re into substitutes is still largely carried out in universities and specialist food laboratories, which test fungi-based teins, plant hybrids and precision-fermented dairy.
Governments are beginning to play a role too.
Denmark — already noted for its national plant-based food action plan — has vided funding to support re and farmers, while Germany and South Korea have announced similar grammes.Most commercial investment has come from venture capital.
Start-ups such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods attracted large sums during the boom years, but enthusiasm has waned.
Global funding for alternative teins fell from around $5bn in 2021 to less than half that by 2023, and Beyond Meat’s price has dropped more than 90 per cent from its peak.Some private equity funds have also begun backing companies that have ven supermarket sales rather than experimental nologies.
Large agries are hedging as well: Tyson Foods and Cargill have invested in plant-based start-ups, while JBS has committed money to cultivated meat — real animal cells that are grown in bioreactors rather than on farms.Reuse this content (opens in new window) sJump to s sectionmoted ContentExplore the seriesREAD MOREClimate explainedCan rapid-charging EVs eliminate ‘range anxiety’?3 hours agoCurrently reading:Moving beyond ‘plant bait for the vegans’: can meat substitutes convince consumers?Climate explained: low-emission steel plantsClimate explained: grid-scale battery storageClimate explained: methane inhibitorsClimate explained: direct air captureClimate explained: carbon capture and removalCan rapid-charging EVs eliminate ‘range anxiety’?See all 12 stories the topics in this article Climate change Add to myFT Environment Add to myFT Commodities Add to myFT Food diet Add to myFT Agriculture Add to myFT s