One of the highlights of the Annual Meat Conference is hearing Anne-Marie Roerink of 210 Analytics reveal the results of the latest “Power of Meat” research. It’s critical to keep our ear to the ground to make sure we are meeting consumer demands and expectations, and this study helps the industry do just that.

In case you didn’t have the chance to attend the AMC and hear the results, here are my key takeaways to tide you over until the upcoming webinar you can join.

Despite the plant-based hype, the number of self-reported vegans and vegetarians has remained around 5% for all 15 years the Power of Meat study has been conducted.
Conversations around topics like animal welfare and sustainability are relatively tiny, but they are dominated by a loud and usually highly negative minority.
This negativity does have an impact on how people think about meat, especially with meat alternatives pushing hard on achieving perceived superiority. Likely as a result, 64% of respondents agreed with the statement that meat and poultry belong in a happy, balanced lifestyle. That’s quite a gap — 95% of people are eating meat, but only 64% think it has a role in a healthy and balanced diet. That should be a wakeup call that we have work to do.
Interest in plant-based alternatives is driven by perceptions about health, not taste. Meat wins on taste, and we have an opportunity to set the record straight on its considerable health benefits.
Transparency is important to many consumers, and they tend to look to retailers moreso than brands for information on topics like animal welfare. In Anne-Marie’s words: “Transparency is the currency of trust. And trust is the foundation of a strong and lasting relationship that can withstand attacks from many directions.”

Anne-Marie closed the results presentation with an excellent question: “How do we involve every link of the supply chain in addressing permissibility and favorability, from producers to brands to retailers to show our passion to deliver safe, nutritious, great tasting products produced humanely and sustainably?”

Ensuring trust and confidence in meat and poultry is a team effort from farm to fork. Misperceptions and adversarial voices pose quite a challenge to our industry, but I’m confident that we’re up to it and that the power of meat won’t be fading.

Power of meat remains strong

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