CHICAGO — ADM has identified four factors the company sees driving expansion of the alternative protein ecosystem, including a next wave of production advancements, consumer adoption, bridging the gap to better nutrition, and achieving accessibility with a tailored approach.
“The way we identified those four factors was a convergence of three parts. One is our global and food trends as we think about food security, nutrition, wellbeing, health and sustainability becoming a big part of the world,” said Leticia Gonçalves, president global foods, ADM. “Second is our continuation of understanding of what consumer needs are today and (in) the future, and the third is understanding what’s possible from technology and innovation.”
Several new production technologies are progressing toward scale, including cultivated meat, biomass fermentation, precision fermentation and animal-free dairy. By anticipating the next wave of advancements ADM’s study states consumers are increasingly more curious and open to trying different protein options without placing as much importance on the protein source itself as they have in the past.
When asked about interest in more novel or next-generation science and technological advances, global plant consumers are most interested in trying plant-based products with novel ingredients or hybrid sources, followed by fermentation-derived sources. Ms. Gonçalves said among the trends, this surprised her the most.
“Consumers are willing to entertain plant-based and animal-based products as hybrid protein sources; they are embracing those new technologies coming into their food,” she said.
When asked about their awareness of novel sources and technologies of alternative protein development, consumers reported knowing a little bit about the sources, or they have heard of them, but they don’t know much. Fifty-seven percent knew about cultivated meat, 43% knew about biomass fermentation, 42% knew about precision fermentation, and 40% knew about animal-free dairy.
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