August 01, 2025

What Is the Future of Meat?

Alt-meat is advancing, yet conventional meat remains dominant, defying early predictions of its demise.

Kayt Sukel

Food Technology Magazine

Key Takeaway 1

Sales of conventional meat products are growing while alt-meat sales have declined.
Key Takeaway 2

Alt-meat makers are working to simplify formulations in a bid to woo consumers who are wary of products with long lists of unfamiliar ingredients.
Key Takeaway 3

Conventional meat producers have responded to consumer concerns with more grass-fed, humanely raised meat products.
Key Takeaway 4

The future of meat will be diverse, blending traditional, plant-based, cultivated, and hybrid options to meet evolving consumer expectations.

In 2020, Kearney, a leading management consulting firm, published a cautionary report suggesting that the costs of feeding livestock, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, and other issues would significantly disrupt the conventional meat market. In the publication, Kearney analysts argued that new solutions to grow meat production and make related processes more efficient were all but exhausted. As a result, agribusiness needed to prepare for more companies (and consumers) shifting away from beef and chicken and toward meat alternatives, including plant-based and cultivated meat products.

That year, plant-based pioneer Impossible Foods was taking the world by storm.

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