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Broken Plate 2026: Price holds plant protein back more than its processing level

The Food Foundation’s Broken Plate 2026 report puts plant-based meat alternatives at 56% more per calorie than meat – a price gap that might matter more than its processed label.

Per calorie, plant-based meat alternatives cost 56% more than their meat counterparts, according to the Broken Plate 2026 report.

At a glance:

• Plant-based meat alternatives cost 56% more than their meat counterparts.
• Lidl Germany and BILLA in Austria saw plant-based sales rise 30 and 33%, respectively, after cutting own-label prices.
• Processing is one measure of quality, and many meat-alternatives beat processed meat on saturated fat and fibre.

The report – the annual audit of the UK’s national diet from the Food Foundation, a UK food and health charity – places plant proteins as a key part of both better population health and lower environmental impact.

And yet the authors are also clear about the obstacles: alternatives are often expensive and can be high in nutrients of concern – such as salt.

For Ali Morpeth, a public health nutritionist and co-founder of food systems consultancy Planeatry Alliance, whose clients include the Food Foundation, the price gap is one key area where the industry could concentrate effort.

According to Morpeth, one barrier holding back a shift to higher plant protein consumption is price and availability. She explained that at least 48 coalitions, alliances, and platforms are working on protein diversification across Europe, covering areas such as advocacy, investment, research, and market-facing activity. Much of that effort is based on advocacy and policy, she said, but unlocking the marketplace is also needed to increase sales.

“The challenge is much bigger than simply replacing meat with plant-based products,” Morpeth told Ingredients Network.

Around 96% of UK adults do not eat the recommended amount of fibre, she said, while intakes of fruit, vegetables, and wholegrains remain well below guidelines.

“The goal should not be to pit all animal food against all plants,” Morpeth explained. “It should be to create a food system that makes healthier, evidence-based choices easier across a wide range of options.”

Price parity will be key in driving plant protein sales

Price is one of the strongest determinants of food choice, particularly during the cost-of-living crisis.

“Households with children in the lowest income quintile would need to spend 85% of their disposable income on food to afford the Eatwell Guide,” the Broken Plate 2026 report authors wrote.

Morpeth said: “If healthier and more sustainable options consistently cost more, it is unrealistic to expect widespread dietary change.”

The encouraging part, she explained, is that the premium is not fixed.

Retail trials in Europe, for example, have shown that closing the gap moves volume. Morpeth pointed to two examples of this in action: in 2025, Lidl Germany reported plant-based sales were up by around 30% after bringing its own-label alternatives to price parity with meat, while Austria’s largest supermarket chain BILLA recorded an increase of about 33% in 2024, following similar reductions.

“These examples demonstrate that demand exists when commercial barriers are removed,” she said.

Affordability is only part of the picture, she added, sitting alongside availability, visibility, and familiarity.

“Where businesses actively intervene through pricing, placement, product innovation, and marketing, we see measurable changes in purchasing behaviour,” Morpeth explained. “The evidence increasingly suggests that creating healthier, more sustainable food environments is far more effective than relying on individual behaviour change alone.”

Are plant-based meat alternatives too processed?

Price is not the report's only caveat. The Broken Plate 2026 authors call for a shift towards plant proteins while cautioning that many of the plant protein products on supermarket shelves are highly processed and often high in salt.

“While plant-based options on average perform better than processed meat products on healthiness and sustainability – particularly when based on ingredients such as peas – some of these products do still have high levels of salt, and many are categorised as ultra-processed,” they wrote.

Morpeth, in response to this, argued that this calls for a harder look at a product’s overall nutritional profile and the diet it sits within. Many meat alternatives deliver less saturated fat, more fibre, she said, and contain comparable or higher protein than the processed meat products they replace.

That does not make the meat mimic the whole answer. Such products earn their place as convenient, familiar swaps for people in the early stages of cutting back on meat, she said, but they belong alongside minimally processed options such as beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu, and tempeh.

Where should the focus lie when it comes to plant protein product development?

If whole foods deliver the biggest wins to health and climate, the question becomes how to get more of them on to consumers' plates without asking them to completely change the way they cook and eat. That, Morpeth said, is one opening for product developers.

“Innovation can focus on making wholefood ingredients more convenient, desirable, and culturally relevant rather than expecting consumers to fundamentally change how they eat,” she said. In practice, that means reformulating familiar products, developing hybrid protein formats that blend meat and plants, improving ready-meal solutions, and raising the visibility of plant-rich options within categories shoppers already buy.

Consumers “do not choose foods because they are sustainable”, she said, adding: “They choose foods because they are delicious, affordable, convenient, and fit naturally into their lives.”

The companies that combine those qualities with better health and lower emissions, she added, are the ones likely to shape the protein market.

For an industry wondering where to invest, Morpeth's advice is this: “The challenge now is how we build on the robust science base we've created and translate it into commercial action.”