Americans declare beef is better than its plant-based or lab-grown alternatives from almost any standpoint, from taste to nutrition and environmental impact, said a Purdue University report on Wednesday. Consumers gave slightly higher scores to “lab-grown meat” as opposed to “cell-cultured meat,” although it is the same thing.
Beef dominated the “which is better” responses from 1,200 consumers in the Purdue survey on 17 attributes, usually scoring more than 50 percent, and in the low 70s in a few instances, while an alternative protein got 25 percent or less. A quarter of respondents typically rated beef and the alternative as “about the same.”
“The biggest take-away from our alternative meat questions is that consumers still overwhelmingly prefer beef from cattle across a wide range of product attributes,” said Joseph Balagtas, the lead author of the Consumer Food Insights report, produced monthly. “And while cell-cultured meat has not yet hit the market, our study highlights that marketing — and in particular the naming of a new product or technology – can influence consumer perceptions of the product.”
Cell-cultured meat emerged a few years ago as consensus name for meat produced indoors by putting cells and a growth medium into a fermentation vat. It was superseded recently by “cultivated meat” as the industry’s preferred name.
Purdue tested “lab-grown meat” and “cell-cultured meat” in its survey and found consumers gave higher scores when lab-grown was the adjective. On environmental impact, for instance, 27 percent of participants said lab-grown meat was better than beef, compared to 22 percent for cell-cultured meat. For most attributes, the difference was a couple of percentage points in favor of lab-grown meat, although beef scored vastly higher against the rival products.
“Animal welfare is the only dimension on which consumers rated an alternative (i.e., plant-based) as better than regular beef,” said the report. Some 42 percent said plant-based substitutes were better, compared to 38 percent for beef.
Consumers rated beef, carved from cattle, as better for animal welfare than cell-cultured or lab-grown meat; 47 percent vs 32 percent for lab-grown meat and 50 percent vs 25 percent for cell-cultured meat.
In late June, UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat announced final clearance from regulators to produce and sell cultivated chicken in the United States. The initial venues are a few upscale restaurants in major cities. Cultivated meat is expensive to produce at present and volumes are small. In contrast, the USDA estimates Americans will consume an average of 226.3 pounds of red meat and poultry per person this year, or 9.9 ounces per day.
The meat industry derides the rival products as fake meat and has challenged the industry’s right to use names associated with livestock, such as steak. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, like other livestock groups, calls for “transparent and accurate labeling.”
“Cattle producers are not afraid of a little competition, and I know that consumers will continue choosing real high-quality beef over cell-cultured imitations,” said NCBA President Todd Wilkinson in late July. The NCBA said “we are aware of several companies attempting to create” cell-cultured beef.
The USDA has yet to issue a regulation on labeling but decided UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat would label their products as “cell-cultivated” chicken, reported Food Republic in June.