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Ted Zetzman's avatar

What's a "unit" of plant based meat? Is that weight or volume and how does it compare to actual meat?

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Danny Sheridan's avatar

Great question (that many others shared too). The source—Statista—isn't clear about how they measure this. They reference servings per container sold, but don't clarify how they got to define a 'unit.'

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Kevin's avatar

Great question. We're accustomed to thinking of meat based product as protein and fat... so if we buy 80% lean ground beef, we assume (perhaps incorrectly?) that the product we just bought... say 1# is 3.2 ounces of fat and 12.8 ounces of protein. Will plant based protein products be measured the same way? If not... how can you make an apples-to-apples comparison that the 1/4# plant based beef burger has the same protein value as the 1/4# ground beef burger? It'll be interesting to see how the industry responds as demand and commoditization increase.

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Austin Root's avatar

Think adding comparison to beef/chicken/pork price per unit would help provide valuable context, along with clarifying that the price is for US (based on Statista link report title).

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Kevin's avatar

It will be interesting to see whether the beef industry reacts to the term plant based meat the same way the dairy industry reacted to almond-based milk... the products attempting to replace milk with non-dairy substitutes can't be called milk... so what will these plant-based protein products end up being called? ;-)

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