Few products win NECTAR’s TASTY Awards

The plant-based meat market supports everything from burgers made from soy to chicken nuggets crafted out of jackfruit, pea protein taco filling and cuts of steak based on mycelium.

None of the plant-based meat alternatives, however, will gain footing in the marketplace if their flavors fail to win over consumers.

For the recent TASTY Awards, a broad range of plant-based meats were subject to intense scrutiny by a panel of judges. The result: Twenty products appealed to omnivores dining on the products. With more than 100 products put up for evaluation and room for everyone to win, this outcome reveals the industry has a long way to go before the products reach flavor and texture parity with their meat counterparts.

“The results are a statement about the industry as a whole. The average product is not meeting consumer expectations for taste,” says Caroline Cotto, director of NECTAR, the nonprofit that hosted the competition. NECTAR, an initiative of the Food System Innovations platform, aims to accelerate the transition to plant-based proteins by leveraging large-scale sensory data in an effort to guide the industry toward improved taste.

The tastings of 122 products across 14 categories took place in restaurants in San Francisco, California, and New York City, New York, between November 2024 and January. Each product was prepared as instructed by the packaging and tasted by 100 omnivores in the restaurant dining rooms. While each product endured examination by 100 judges, a total of 2,684 judges took part in the event.

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If 50% or more of tasters said the product was the same or better than the meat version, it became a winner. In theory, all 100 products could have won TASTY Awards. 

Products were roughly evenly divided between European and American brands. Some entrants were big players, like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, while others were startups. Protein ingredients ran the gamut, including soy, mycelium, pea and more. 

Areas of triumph and improvement identified

Some categories, such as unbreaded chicken fillets, burgers, chicken nuggets and breakfast sausages supported several winners. Others categories, including bacon and pulled pork, failed to yield any victors. 

In many cases, brands that already are popular gained the most traction with tasters. The emergence of so many top brands as leaders “shows that R&D really matters,” says Cotto. 

“Better-tasting products also performed better in the market,” Cotto says. “We were excited to see that, because we know that in theory it’s true, but it’s cool to have the data to back it up.”

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One of many interesting data points from the study: While judges reported they found the idea of meat replacements from mycelium and mushrooms conceptually appealing, during the blind tastings, tasters scored those products lower than products based on soy or pea protein, Cotto says.

That finding could hint toward one of the study’s conclusions: that texture stands as the biggest opportunity for products to close the gap with animal products. While flavor ranks as the most important attribute, texture is close behind—and work needs to be done on that front, according to one the study’s main takeaways. 

Among plant-based products, texture ranked lower than flavor and appearance. Judges found that plant-based products were “juicy” 62% less often than the animal products. Increasing tenderness and reducing mushiness ranked as priorities.

Cotto says NECTAR plans to continue holding TASTY Awards. The organization held its award ceremony on March 12 in San Francisco. Here are the TASTY Award winners:

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