McKinsey Report: Majority of US Consumers Willing to Try Novel Protein Ingredients
A report by strategy and management consulting firm McKinsey has found that most US consumers are open to trying food and drinks that contain novel protein ingredients. The report divides novel proteins into three categories — animal-free products made using precision fermentation, biomass proteins derived from microorganisms, and fungi proteins such as mycoprotein and mycelium. Plant-based proteins were also studied for benchmarking purposes. The results indicate that 63% of respondents would try animal-free proteins, 56% would try biomass proteins, and 49% would try fungi proteins. Comparatively, 77% are open to plant-based proteins. 28% said they would be more likely to try a novel ingredient if it made the food healthier, and nutritional descriptions such as “good source of protein” were found to be the most …
