Add plant-based to your menus

Strategies to increase product adoption

In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in the global offering and availability of plant-based products. In 2021, it was worth an estimated 40.21 billion US dollars, and is expected to reach 78.95 billion dollars by 2028, with a CAGR of 11% (Globe Newswire, 2022). This growth is driven by the parallel increase of consumers who are choosing to buy less products of animal origin, mostly for health reasons, followed by environmental and ethical concerns. This group includes people who adopt actual diets, such as vegetarians and vegans, but also the so-called flexitarians or “reducers”, who still eat animal products but try to reduce their consumption of such products by buying plant-based alternatives as well. In the last few years, over 30% of consumers in Europe and the UK have reduced their intake of traditional meat and dairy foods, while from 2016 to 2020, the number of vegans has doubled. In the UK, for example, there is currently a real “protein transition” towards a more plant-based diet: the total consumption of meat per-capita has dropped by 17%, while the consumption of red meat has dropped by 37%, all in the period from 2009 to 2019 (Bryant Research, 2022)

The introduction of plant-based products in fast-food chains may represent a valid opportunity for growth as it would allow them to appeal to a larger pool of customers, including people who do not eat products of animal origin. What’s more, with their popularity and widespread presence, fast-food restaurants can also be a means of spreading more knowledge about plant-based products to consumers, bearing in mind that the main target for introducing such products would not be vegans or vegetarians, but flexitarians: records show that 21% of consumers who regularly buy animal meat also buy vegetable meat, making them the largest market segment of plant-based products (Good Food Institute, 2022).

As a result, this could lead to a general positive change for consumers: namely, by reducing the consumption of animal products and a consequent benefit for both human health and the environment, this helps to reduce the greenhouse gases emitted by animal farming, thus favouring greater sustainability all-round.

In recent years, there has been a rise in plant-based products on the menu of the most famous fast-food chains. ProVeg International has conducted a survey on this topic (2023 Proveg International Fast-Food Menu Ranking), analysing 43 menus of the most famous fast-food chains at international level (Burger King, McDonald’s, Subway, Pizza HUT, and KFC). The results of the survey show that only 6% of their main dishes and 4.6% of their desserts are plant-based, while side dishes fared better, with all the menus observed offering 27% of plant-based options. Of the chains examined, Burger Kind obtained the best results, offering 30 plant-based main dishes out of a total of 307, in all the Countries analysed. The company also intends to make all its menus 50% plant-based by 2030. Both Burger King and McDonald’s have included plant-based products from well-known brands in their menu, such as the Impossible Burger from Impossible Food, and the Beyond Burger from Beyond Meat.

According to the study titled “What’s on the menu?” conducted by ProVeg International, to attract a variety of consumers, it is not enough to simply introduce plant-based products on the menu, but the way in which these new products are included on the existing menu mut also be considered. The study analysed the impact of four different menu models, considering which of these models encouraged people more to choose a plant-based dish. The most successful menu was one that presented plant-based options either intermingled with the main menu, without any labels such as ‘vegan/vegetarian’, and in a section dedicated to plant-based products. Compared to the classic menu, where vegetable options are only to be found in a separate section, the proposed menu led to a 102% increase in the choice of vegetable-based products by consumers involved in the survey, while the inclusion of vegetable-based products in a dedicated, labelled section led to an increase of only 3% in consumer choice.

It is worth considering that if the target consumers are flexitarians, the use of terms such as “vegan”, “vegetarian”, and “plant-based” to describe a product may actually put them off, as they are seen as restrictive terms intended only for certain consumers. Instead, to try to attract a larger portion of consumers, it is preferable to use terms that refer to the taste and texture of the product, making unconventional products more similar to those already known, generating a sense of familiarity that may encourage and influence consumer choice.