Business | A taste of things to come

Plant-based proteins are no longer a side dish in diets

Their makers’ place as the main course is another matter

FILE -- Impossible Foods burgers at their production facility in Oakland, Calif., March 31, 2019. Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat want to expand to the Chinese market but face significant governmental and cultural hurdles. (Matt Edge/The New York Times)Credit: New York Times / Redux / eyevineFor further information please contact eyevinetel: +44 (0) 20 8709 8709e-mail: info@eyevine.comwww.eyevine.com

May 25th 2022

A good vegan milk needs to look like milk and taste like milk, whether it’s a fatty version, preferred by bakers, or a skimmed one, favoured by the health-conscious. And, for coffee-drinkers, it should ideally foam like the stuff from a cow. For years manufacturers have had trouble hacking this delicate imitation game. Rapidly rising revenues suggest that they are getting much better at it. In America alone, $2.6bn of plant-based milk was sold in 2021, up from $2bn in 2018.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “A taste of things to come”