Plant-based eggs: Ethical appeals strong but taste remains key hurdle, flags US study

As the global food industry makes strides toward protein diversification while aiming to minimize the meat sector’s carbon footprint, a US study highlights that consumers still prefer conventional eggs over plant-based alternatives on food and nutrition attributes. 

However, plant-based eggs score higher on environmental impact, animal welfare, and cholesterol content, which may benefit marketing campaigns for companies in the sector.

Doctoral scholar Da Eun Kim from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Brenna Ellison, a professor at Purdue University in the US, set out to understand what prompts someone to buy a vegan egg — an under-researched area compared to plant-based meat alternatives.

“We know that consumers want food products produced ethically; research has repeatedly shown this. That said, taste still is an important driver of purchases, so plant-based food manufacturers must find ways to deliver a sensory experience comparable to their traditional counterparts,” Ellison tells Food Ingredients First.

The researchers used an experimental vignette design to examine how price, product type, and setting influence consumer behavior.

Vignettes are brief descriptions of a person or setting containing precise references to highlight key factors believed to have influenced the decision-making or judgment processes.

Price, location and product form

The methodology focused on asking participants to imagine they were about to eat breakfast, which could be had either at home or at a restaurant. Consumers were given a choice between scrambled eggs and pancakes made with vegan eggs.

The researchers note that while traditional eggs came on top in terms of taste and appearance attributes, the location where consumers ate did not have much impact. However, some nuances in consumer attitudes toward plant-based eggs may help food retailers position them more strategically.

“Our study shows that consumers were more willing to purchase plant-based eggs when they were used as an ingredient in a familiar product — in our case, pancakes. This suggests retailers may increase uptake of plant-based eggs by using them as ingredients in other familiar foods,” says Ellison.

Participants were also more likely to purchase vegan eggs if they were priced lower.

The egg industry is under growing pressure to improve animal welfare practices.The findings could inform menu development or product innovation in foodservice and QSR channels, especially among consumer cohorts that showed more openness to vegan eggs.

“This might encourage restaurants to use plant-based eggs as an ingredient in more traditional breakfast dishes, which would allow for vegan alternatives for things like pancakes, waffles, omelets, etc.,” says Ellison.

“Further, our results suggest pilot testing these products among certain consumer segments, such as younger individuals, parents, or people who live in metropolitan areas, may be a good way to increase uptake and generate positive word of mouth.”

Additionally, previous experience trying plant-based eggs was strongly linked with increased willingness to purchase the plant-based egg product.

Environmental and ethical win

The egg industry is under growing pressure to improve animal welfare practices, which industrial farming practices have severely compromised. While some countries have reportedly phased out caged systems, many retail giants are lagging or have stopped reporting progress.

Modern consumers are increasingly conscious of the planetary cost of food consumption. Europe, in particular, has seen a bevy of citizen-led action urging companies to embed animal welfare more deeply into production methods, especially amid a global rise in animal disease outbreaks.

In the context of this research, published in Foods journal, while animal welfare attributes influence purchasing decisions, delivering sensory satisfaction is crucial in nudging consumers to bite into a vegan egg.

“While we did not directly assess consumers’ sensory perceptions of plant-based eggs, we find that consumers perceive traditional eggs to taste better. This may result in more hesitancy when trying plant-based eggs. Other published research has shown that sensory characteristics can be a barrier to trying novel plant-based alternatives to meat and eggs,” Ellison concludes.