Why read this: This article explains a real business story that students will recognise from their own supermarkets. Plant-based burgers were a hopeful new product just a few years ago, but now sales are falling. The article shows how real markets work: customers, prices, taste, politics and public image all matter, and a product can fail for several reasons at once. For Chinese-L1 students, the article is also useful because it uses some of the specific business language they will meet again in news and exams — 'went public', 'market value', 'correction', 'ultra-processed', 'subsidies'.
What to notice: Pay attention to how the writer uses evidence. In paragraph 2, specific numbers ($400m, 10%, three quarters) support the claim that the industry is in trouble. In paragraph 3, two real prices ($7.43 vs $9.04) let the reader see the problem directly. Notice how the writer presents different voices — a company boss, an investor, a critic — without picking a side. The structure is easy to follow once you see it: first, the problems (price, taste, politics, the ultra-processed label), and second, what the companies are trying now (new marketing, hybrid burgers, lab-grown meat).
Skills practised: Reading: following an argument across many paragraphs; finding and comparing numbers in a news article; recognising the difference between facts and opinions from named sources. Writing: using specific numbers to support an opinion; writing balanced paragraphs that include more than one view; starting a paragraph with a clear topic sentence. Vocabulary: learning business and food-industry words such as 'went public', 'market value', 'ultra-processed', 'subsidies', 'scale up'.
Why the Fake-Meat Boom Has Stalled
Plant-based burgers were meant to reshape the supermarket. Sales are now falling, and companies are searching for a new idea.
Tap any green word in the article to see its meaning.
In 2019, Beyond Meat, an American start-up making beef-free burgers, at a of almost $4bn. The following year, US sales of plant-based meat jumped by 45% to $1.4bn. Many start-ups entered the market, and even traditional meat companies .
Today the picture looks very different. Sales of plant-based meat are falling, and Beyond Meat is now worth less than $400m. Its revenue shrank for most of 2025. A YouGov poll for The Economist found that the share of American adults who regularly eat plant-based meat has stayed below 10%. Conventional meat, meanwhile, is selling well. The industry says it is going through a , not a collapse. So what has gone wrong?
Price is one reason. Real meat is more expensive than it used to be, partly because cattle and costs more. But thanks partly to , real meat still costs less than its plant-based rival. A pound of at Walmart sells for $7.43, while the same amount from Impossible Foods costs $9.04. For a family shopping every week, that difference adds up.
Taste is another reason. Mark Cuddigan, boss of This, a British meat-free company, admits that some plant-based products are still "awful". One bad burger can stop a customer from trying again.
Fake meat has also become part of America's political debate. Robert F. Kennedy junior, the US health secretary, the slogan "Eat Real Steak". Critics of plant-based meat argue that it is full of salt, fat and ingredients. Impossible Foods admits that some of its products contain more sodium than raw meat, but points out that few people eat meat raw and unseasoned — so the comparison is not fair.
A bigger problem is that plant-based burgers are officially classified as ultra-processed food. Their long ingredient lists and factory production methods place them in the same food category as crisps and Oreo biscuits. David Welch of Synthesis Capital, an investor in food tech, argues that this comparison is misleading, but health-conscious consumers are making it anyway.
The industry is trying new strategies. One is to emphasise nutrition. Many plant-based products contain more and more than real meat. Both Impossible and Beyond now print protein grams clearly on their packets. Impossible has also partnered with a bread and pasta company. Beyond has launched a with 20g of protein per can, and last year it even dropped the word "Meat" from its company name.
Some companies are also experimenting with . It might sound strange, but Tim Dale of Food System Innovations, a research group, says the real customer is the parent who wants to secretly add vegetables to a child's plate.
Other investors are now putting money into — meat grown in a laboratory from animal cells. A few American states have banned or proposed banning cultivated meat, but the federal government appears more open to it. In Britain, cultivated meat has already as pet food. Cost, however, is still a big barrier.
Nick Cooney of Lever, a venture-capital firm, thinks that plant-based meat has suffered from the idea "that it's a 'fake' thing". Cultivated meat, being made of real animal cells, may avoid that problem and one day appear in normal . Uma Valeti of Upside Foods, a cultivated-meat company, sees the next ten years as the time to prove the industry can . Moving too fast, he warns, could leave the whole alternative-meat business in trouble again.
In 2019, Beyond Meat, an American start-up making beef-free burgers, at a of almost $4bn. The following year, US sales of plant-based meat jumped by 45% to $1.4bn. Many start-ups entered the market, and even traditional meat companies .
Today the picture looks very different. Sales of plant-based meat are falling, and Beyond Meat is now worth less than $400m. Its revenue shrank for most of 2025. A YouGov poll for The Economist found that the share of American adults who regularly eat plant-based meat has stayed below 10%. Conventional meat, meanwhile, is selling well. The industry says it is going through a , not a collapse. So what has gone wrong?
Price is one reason. Real meat is more expensive than it used to be, partly because cattle and costs more. But thanks partly to , real meat still costs less than its plant-based rival. A pound of at Walmart sells for $7.43, while the same amount from Impossible Foods costs $9.04. For a family shopping every week, that difference adds up.
Taste is another reason. Mark Cuddigan, boss of This, a British meat-free company, admits that some plant-based products are still "awful". One bad burger can stop a customer from trying again.
Fake meat has also become part of America's political debate. Robert F. Kennedy junior, the US health secretary, the slogan "Eat Real Steak". Critics of plant-based meat argue that it is full of salt, fat and ingredients. Impossible Foods admits that some of its products contain more sodium than raw meat, but points out that few people eat meat raw and unseasoned — so the comparison is not fair.
A bigger problem is that plant-based burgers are officially classified as ultra-processed food. Their long ingredient lists and factory production methods place them in the same food category as crisps and Oreo biscuits. David Welch of Synthesis Capital, an investor in food tech, argues that this comparison is misleading, but health-conscious consumers are making it anyway.
The industry is trying new strategies. One is to emphasise nutrition. Many plant-based products contain more and more than real meat. Both Impossible and Beyond now print protein grams clearly on their packets. Impossible has also partnered with a bread and pasta company. Beyond has launched a with 20g of protein per can, and last year it even dropped the word "Meat" from its company name.
Some companies are also experimenting with . It might sound strange, but Tim Dale of Food System Innovations, a research group, says the real customer is the parent who wants to secretly add vegetables to a child's plate.
Other investors are now putting money into — meat grown in a laboratory from animal cells. A few American states have banned or proposed banning cultivated meat, but the federal government appears more open to it. In Britain, cultivated meat has already as pet food. Cost, however, is still a big barrier.
Nick Cooney of Lever, a venture-capital firm, thinks that plant-based meat has suffered from the idea "that it's a 'fake' thing". Cultivated meat, being made of real animal cells, may avoid that problem and one day appear in normal . Uma Valeti of Upside Foods, a cultivated-meat company, sees the next ten years as the time to prove the industry can . Moving too fast, he warns, could leave the whole alternative-meat business in trouble again.
Questions
Check your understanding
- 01
According to the article, what is the main reason real meat is still cheaper than plant-based meat?
- 02
Why do some health-conscious consumers compare plant-based burgers to crisps and Oreo biscuits?
- 03
According to the article, what advantage might cultivated meat have over plant-based meat?
- 04
The article names several reasons why plant-based meat is struggling. Choose the two you think are most serious and explain your choice.
Suggested length: ~80 words
- 05
Compare how the industry is responding to plant-based meat's problems with how it is responding to the rise of cultivated meat. What does this tell you about the companies' strategies?
Suggested length: ~80 words
Questions
Check your understanding
- 01
According to the article, what is the main reason real meat is still cheaper than plant-based meat?
- 02
Why do some health-conscious consumers compare plant-based burgers to crisps and Oreo biscuits?
- 03
According to the article, what advantage might cultivated meat have over plant-based meat?
- 04
The article names several reasons why plant-based meat is struggling. Choose the two you think are most serious and explain your choice.
Suggested length: ~80 words
- 05
Compare how the industry is responding to plant-based meat's problems with how it is responding to the rise of cultivated meat. What does this tell you about the companies' strategies?
Suggested length: ~80 words