When it comes to sustainability messaging around food, it sometimes feels like there’s an element of “all or nothing” — with campaigns outlining the things you’ll need to stop eating and drinking to help save the planet (including bacon).

But when it comes to eating and drinking sustainably, here’s what we’re learning:

• “Flexing” between meat and plant-based options is increasingly popular.
• Even slight dietary changes can have a massive positive impact on the planet if more of us do them.

With those trends in mind, the question becomes: What’s the best way for brands to message plant-based products?

To explore that problem, we pulled from our proprietary data stack to test what really motivates consumers to choose plant-based options. Plus, we scored an exclusive conversation with Danone about how to win friends in the yogurt aisle and influence people in the oat milk section.

How food and beverage brands can make big strides by ‘flexing’

Eating a plant-rich diet is one of the highest-impact ways an individual can help protect the planet — more than driving an electric vehicle or even installing a heat pump. However, most people have a tough time committing wholesale to vegan cauliflower chowder.

Instead, recent trends show that people are opting for more flexibility around animal- and plant-based products:

• 72 million households now consider themselves “flexitarian,” cutting out some meat and adding some plant-based products.
• And there’s a growing “reducetarian” movement focused on, you guessed it, reducing but not eliminating products like red meat, dairy, and eggs.

From a pollution standpoint, a little goes a long way. Eating one less burger each week can remove as much pollution as taking a car off the road for 320 miles over the course of a year.

For food and beverage brands, this “flex” space is a huge opportunity to introduce plant-based substitutes and new products, while also leaning into sustainable practices for their animal-based offerings.

For example, dairy-free products continue to gain traction — 42% of U.S. households now regularly purchase plant-based milk, and at coffee chains like Blue Bottle, oat milk is now the default.

It’s no surprise, then, that data shows how “plant-based” messaging is hitting home with audiences (as opposed to “animal-free” framing). More on that below.

Our data: What’s the best way to market plant-based food options?

To test how brands can best market plant-based food options, we ran an A/B test highlighting an NBA team’s recent reveal of a 100% plant-based concession stand. One ad focused on “animal-free” messaging, while the other strategy focused on “plant-based.”

Messaging around “plant-based” options produced a higher attention score (measuring the likelihood that a message will capture eyeballs in the wild) and earned a higher engagement score (measuring the likelihood that a message will elicit a meaningful reaction from the captured audience).

The consistency between these high attention and engagement shares suggests that top-of-the-funnel interest in plant-based options is matched by genuine consumer passion — that is, “plant-based” wins hearts as well as eyeballs.

The results of our weekly consumer poll support this thesis while also rounding out the bigger picture. When we asked readers why they eat plant-based foods, 82% of respondents answered with either “health benefits” or “it’s good for the planet.”

This suggests that the decision to go plant-based hinges on one of two factors for the overwhelming majority of consumers.

That’s good news for Danone, the multinational corporation that’s taking plant-based dairy in stride while still competing as the world’s No. 1 fresh dairy products company. We’ll dive into that next.

See the full results →

DOING IT RIGHT

How Danone moved into plant-based dairy products — while still being the big cheese

Danone is the world’s No. 1 fresh dairy products company. It’s also the No. 1 plant-based food company in the world. How does it manage both? As it turns out, it’s all about the ability to flex based on consumers’ needs.

The Cool Down spoke exclusively with Melanie Chow, vice president of mission and sustainability for Danone, about the growing consumer demand for non-dairy products, as well as how Danone is still leaning into sustainable practices for its legacy yogurt operations.

Here are the big takeaways:

• No inter-product rivalries: Rather than dairy and plant-based products being at odds, Chow told us they are “huge complements of each other.”
• Sustainability isn’t just for oat milk: There are ways to make conventional products more environmentally friendly too — like using “rescued” fruit to create a lower-sugar yogurt that would otherwise be discarded in production.
• Food of the future: “I don’t think you can think about the future of a food and beverage company without sustainability,” Chow told us. “It is core to how we are able to meet the needs of our consumers.”

“We know consumers are interested,” Chow added. “It is something that they’re leaning into.”

Go deeper with the full article below.

Learn more →

🥯🧀 Philadelphia cream cheese sparked a social media frenzy with its latest product launch

After two years of testing, the iconic 150-year-old cream cheese brand launched Philadelphia Plant-Based — its first dairy-free, vegan cream cheese spread.

☕🥛 Why 1 major coffee chain made a big change to its milk offerings

Blue Bottle’s CEO recently explained the company’s pivot to oat milk as the default offering, telling CNN: “This wasn't simply a sustainability move — it was also a deliciousness move.”

🥩🤔 Plant-based meat companies are experimenting with a surprising ingredient

Who says plant-based meat has to be all plant? Ironically, these companies are adding animal fat into their recipes to perfect the flavor.

🏀🥦 An NBA arena opened its first-ever ‘100 percent plant-based’ concession stand

NBA players like Chris Paul have already switched to plant-based diets, and as of last season, fans at the Minneapolis Target Center will have the opportunity to do the same.

🍔🚨 Smashburger announced a new sustainable option at all 235 U.S. locations

The fast-casual chain has partnered with plant-based company Jack & Annie’s to start offering jackfruit “burgers” to customers looking for plant-forward options.

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