Plant-based meat is dead. Or maybe it isn't.

A Deeper Dive

The plant-based meat trend is dead. Or maybe it isn’t.

This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast “A Deeper Dive” is about plant-based meat, and specifically, why fake meat hasn’t quite taken off at fast-food restaurants the way many predicted three years ago.

Nancy Kruse, RB’s menu trends columnist, joins me on the podcast to discuss the topic.

While products like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat burgers were all the rage in 2019, sales of both appear to have slowed considerably—both companies have laid workers off, for instance, and brands like McDonald’s have not followed through on hoped-for plans for plant-based offerings in the U.S.

We discuss why that trend hasn’t quite matched some of the early promise and whether that early promise was a bit overblown. We also talk about the reasons why average consumers have not been as accepting of such products as many hoped.