Consumer interest in plant-based foods is thriving and driving explosive growth in the industry. Through our specialty practice, the Free From Forum, we run a monthly study of consumer attitudes and behaviors around natural products. Our March 2019 study shows that 34% of households reported purchasing dairy free products like plant-based milk, yogurt, or cheese in the past 12 months and 20% of households purchased plant-based meat and seafood alternatives.
Because Linkage has been monitoring this consumer trend closely, we have been very curious about the response to the FDA’s Request for Information on what the agency called “the use of the names of dairy foods in the labeling of plant-based products.” We partnered with the Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA), which commissioned us to read and analyze more than half (7,061) of the 11,903 publicly available comments on the issue.
WHAT IS THE OVERALL SENTIMENT?
Three-quarters (76%) of commenters are in favor of allowing plant-based foods to use dairy terms.Another 1 in 8 commenters (13.5%) believe plant-based foods should be precluded from using dairy terms. The remainder (10.5%) provide comments that are not conclusive on their opinion about the use of terms. Two-thirds of these inconclusive comments (66% of the 10.5% inconclusive) express concerns about animal welfare when it comes to the production of dairy products, suggesting that they support plant-based foods companies.
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