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Frontiers Report Examines Perception of Clean and Plant-Based Meat in The USA, China and India

A recent report from Frontiers explores the acceptance of clean meat and plant-based meat alternatives in the USA, China and India. Revealingly, meat-eaters would be more likely to purchase clean meat than vegetarians in all three countries, and as much as 62% of consumers in China and India are interested in plant-based meats.

Key points of interest from the report include the following:

Familiarity of clean meat and plant-based meat

Consumers in China and India were substantially more familiar with clean meat and plant-based alternatives compared to the USA. Just 10.8% of North Americans were very or extremely familiar with clean meat compared to china (29.9%) and India (38.7%). For plant-based the results followed a similar pattern: 19.1% were very or extremely familiar in the US, with China at 29.9% and India 39.9%.

Acceptance

This category explored purchase likelihood, which again is far higher in China and India compared to in the USA for both clean meat and plant-based.

Clean meat is very or extremely likely to be purchased by 29.8% of respondents in the US compared to 59.3% of Chinese and 48.7% of Indian consumers. Those who are very or extremely likely to purchase  plant-based meats in the USA is 32.9%, whereas in China it is as high as 62.4% and India slightly more still at 62.8%.

Frontiers
©Frontiers

Clean meat

Except for in China, those who are politically liberal or left-leaning are more likely to purchase clean meat. It was noted that in all three countries those who are heavy meat-eaters are more likely to purchase clean meat over vegetarians. Chinese females are more likely than males to purchase clean meat.

Plant-based

Chinese and Indian meat-eaters are significantly more likely than vegetarians and vegans to buy plant-based meat, whereas in the USA meat attachment was found to be negatively predictive of acceptance. In China, we again find that women are more likely than men to buy plant-based meat (click here to read a related interview on this subject).

The report concludes:

“Whilst there is a multitude of unexplored factors which could affect consumer acceptance of clean and plant-based meat, this study has demonstrated the importance of China and India as potential future markets. All three markets are substantial, with consumers in China and India showing even more initial interest than the US. These findings indicate that consumer demand in the three most populous countries will be ready when producers begin supplying these markets.”

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