Plant-based proteins appeared in 52% of pet foods on the U.S. market in 2024, according to NielsenIQ data. That represented only 1.8% year-over-year growth, yet for the previous four years, use of such proteins experienced 7.8% compound annual growth.
Products with no animal proteins, and probably mostly plant-based ones, such as vegan dog foods, also seem to be on the rise. In Europe in 2024, vegan dog food sales increased by about 12%, according to Future Market Insights, though likely from a very small base. Even the British Veterinary Association dropped its longstanding objections to vegan dog food in fall 2024.
Yet none of this positive movement guarantees that vegan pet foods, or even mostly plant-based ones, are about to go mainstream. After all, in a survey of 1,000 pet owners conducted in 2024 by Lonnie Hobbs, Ph.D., assistant professor, and Aleksan Shanoyan, Ph.D., professor, of Kansas State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics, vegan/vegetarian ranked last among top ingredient attributes in pet food products currently fed by these owners, chosen by only 2.6%.
If the category is tracking human food, as most do, then significant challenges to plant-based remain.
Still figuring out plant-based
Though plant-based products in the human food and beverage sector have been on the market, and on trend, for at least 10 years, everyone is “still figuring out” the category, said Lu Ann Williams, global insights director for Innova Market Insights, during a November 2024 webinar.
In a separate interview with Missy Green of FoodIngredientsFirst.com, Williams shared Innova data showing that nearly 25% of consumers globally hesitate to buy plant-based products they consider overly processed. In fact, the products being too processed and artificial was the third most cited barrier to people buying them. “Taste and texture expectations are not being met,” said Williams during the webinar.
Another, more recent survey, this one from insights and advisory firm GlobeScan, surfaced similar concerns. The report, “Grains of Truth,” drew from responses from more than 30,000 consumers in 31 countries, who named barriers including affordability, flavor and accessibility of plant-based products.
Thus, while 68% of these consumers said they wanted to eat more plant-based foods, only 20% reported doing so regularly in 2024, down from 23% in 2023. On the other hand, Innova’s data indicated the category is still growing, at least for products that seem more natural, with 23% average annual increases from 2020 to 2024 in vegan/plant-based foods with a natural claim.
Is ‘natural’ a clue — and what does it mean?
“Natural” is a pretty broad, vague term used to market many pet foods (and probably also human foods) with little regard to specificity, transparency or even regulations. (In the U.S., such regulations are pretty limited.) Yet it tends to resonate with pet owners; the Hobbs/Shanoyan survey showed they ranked natural as the second highest ingredient attribute in the pet foods they currently fed, with 33.2% choosing it. Other ranked attributes may provide clues to what these pet owners consider natural: no artificial colors or flavors (chosen by 22.6%), no additives (21.4%), organic (17.9%), non-GMO (15.6%).
The Innova and GlobeScan data and surveys on plant-based human foods provide additional direction, with the citing of not being too processed or artificial, or lacking in flavor. In addition, in the Globescan report, the top reasons for eating more plant-based foods — or at least less meat or animal-based foods — highlighted health as number one by a large margin: 41%, compared to 17% for the second reason (financial concerns).
If plant-based products, whether for pets or humans, can crack the code in terms of affordability, clean label and lack of heavy processing, their trajectory may start to steadily rise, rather than showing the ups and downs, fits and starts of the past several years. That may be a tall order but not an impossible one.
