Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report - Fourth Edition highlights:
- There has been a fall in new patent applications for the first time since 2013, possibly due to continuing commercial difficulties in the industry.
- Despite this, new filings in 2022 were still the second-highest level to-date.
- In contrast to other alternative protein sectors, large, established companies continued to dominate plant-based meat applications, with unique applicants falling and some start-ups struggling.
- Pea and soy remained the key proteins of interest, however tofu and tempeh were the only category seeing growth in 2022. This may have been related to increasing opposition to “ultra-processed” foods.
- Investment and funding in the sector remains high and there is still confidence that a second wave of plant-based meats is on the horizon.
The environmental impact of traditional meats is recognised by an increasing number of consumers. However, many consumers still have a strong preference for the texture and taste of meat. Plant-based meats offer a potentially more environmentally sustainable alternative to “real” meat and aim to replicate those desirable qualities using only plant-derived ingredients. While some companies have achieved some success in this field, such as Beyond and Impossible which led the boom in plant-based burgers in the late 2010s, the last few years have seen a significant downturn in the industry. The Good Food Institute’s annual report on the state of the plant-based foods industry shows a 26 percent decrease in plant-based meat and seafood unit sales from 2021 to 2023. There are many possible factors contributing to this fall in sales, such as consumer concerns around ultra-processed foods and a perceived poor texture and taste compared to conventional meats. Enticing vegetarians and vegans to plant-based meats could also be challenging because of potential reluctance towards foods imitating conventional meat. They are likely to prefer more traditional, vegetable-based products which involve less processing and don’t aspire to create a meat-like texture and taste.
Another consideration is the price of plant-based meat products. Despite conventional meat being an increasingly premium product, there is still a 77 percent price premium by weight for plant-based meats over conventional meat. This is particularly impactful given the ongoing cost-of living crisis in many parts of the world. Reducing the cost of producing and retailing plant-based meats may therefore be required to reinvigorate the industry. Despite the financial challenges in the sector, there is still optimism that plant-based meat can offer a solution for those consumers seeking meat alternatives that provide the sensations of consuming meat, especially if the current hurdles around nutrition and texture can be overcome. Fast-food chains appear to remain particularly optimistic about plant-based meats. Burger King trialled a fully plant-based location in Europe in 2022 and three more outlets went plant-based for a month in 2023. Meanwhile, Starbucks, Smashburger, Taco Bell, TGI Fridays and Subway all announced or launched plant-based meat options in 2023. In this report, we have examined the patent data for 2022 to see whether the patent trends reflect the current state of the industry and how the patent landscape has changed since our last report.
Global data
Figure 1: Global priority filings (1975-2022) - plant based meat innovations
(Priority filing = the first time a patent application for a unique invention has been filed (the first filing))
Last year, our global patent data showed that innovation held strong despite falling sales in 2021. However, the 2022 filing data shows a nearly 7 percent fall in global priority applications from 2021. The cause of this is likely to be the sustained drop in global sales, although there may also have been a late impact on filing activity from the COVID-19 pandemic. The rate of priority application filings in 2022 was still at the second highest level historically, suggesting that confidence is not lost entirely in this sector, which continues to innovate at a relatively high level.
Figure 2: Ten year trend (2013-2022) - priority filings by jurisdiction - plant based meat innovations
Breaking down the data by jurisdiction suggests a global slow-down, with a drop in filings observed in all the top jurisdictions from last year except South Korea, which saw a slight increase. This is notable as data from the Korea Vegetarian Union suggests that veganism, and especially flexitarianism, are becoming much more popular in South Korea. GlobalData has published research forecasting the consumption of meat substitutes to grow significantly in South Korea from 2021 to 2026. The research reveals that this may have been accelerated by health concerns prompted by the global COVID-19 pandemic. South Korea may therefore be a region to watch as a potential future leader in plant-based meat innovation.
Table 1: Number of unique assignees by year
(Patent assignee = the owner of a patent/application, also known as the ‘applicant’ (for a patent application), patentee (for a granted patent), or proprietor.)
"Unique assignees" indicate the number of individual patent applicants/owners who have filed a patent in a given technology, for that year. Unique assignees of newly-filed patent applications globally are decreasing in these technologies, indicating fewer entities are filing patents in this area. This may also suggest that the industry is becoming more challenging for smaller companies and start-ups.
An example of this is the closure of US start-up Nowadays in 2023. An innovator in plant-based chicken nuggets, Nowadays had two patent families relating to pea protein extrusion filed in 2021 and 2022 respectively. Co-founder, Max Elder, has since suggested that access to venture capital has become more difficult for start-ups in this field, but remains confident that the market will pick up.
Looking at the data covering the major classes of plant-based protein (tofu, tempeh, pea protein, soy protein and wheat protein) reveals that more patent applications focussed on soy protein from 2002 to 2015. However, this is now matched by those focussed on pea protein. Applications for tofu and tempeh proteins, while lower overall, were the only category to not fall from 2021 to 2022. This may be because these protein sources are seen as being less processed and therefore potentially more attractive to modern consumers.
Figure 5: Twenty year trend (2003-2022) - global priority filings - protein type
As discussed previously, texture and flavour are important aspects of improving plant-based meat. In 2022, these properties were the focus of almost equal numbers of new filings, showing them to have a shared emphasis. However, patent applications relating to texture appear to be growing at a steadier rate while the number of applications relating to flavour seem to have stalled.
Figure 6: Twenty year trend (2003-2022) - global priority filings - flavour and texture
Top global filers
Table 2: Top priority filers globally (2011-2022)
Looking at the most significantly active patent filers in this field a previous top filer, Nestlé, had a significant spike last year but returned to previous levels in 2022. Nestlé has a wide range of applications relating to protein binders, connective tissue analogues and various methods of improving the texture of meat and fish analogues, for example. Conversely, Roquette Freres appears to have ramped up its pea protein innovation in Europe and was the top filer in this field in 2022. These filings mostly relate to achieving different textures, although some focus on deodorised proteins, presumably for ultimately improving the flavour of the products. Similar to Nestlé, Cargill appears to have peaked in 2021, with a return to 2020 levels of filing in 2022. Also like Nestlé, Cargill has filed applications relating to a broad range of technologies – including soy, wheat, and fermented pea proteins – as well as several whole meat substitute products. Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd., based in Japan, has filed a series of applications focussed on meat-like compositions using carboxymethylcellulose. Meanwhile, South Korean Pulmuone Co., Ltd. focussed on soy protein-based meat analogues. DSM and Ibiden both filed relatively large numbers of applications in 2021 but significantly fewer in 2022. DSM has continued to file patent applications on texturised plant proteins, with a focus on legume proteins. The patent filings of 2022 are still dominated by larger, more established companies such as Nestlé, Roquette Freres and Cargill. This includes a mix of proteins and technologies, suggesting that there is still interest in a variety of approaches to producing plant-based meat products. Looking ahead It is notable that there was still significant funding in the plant-based meats industry in 2022, with over USD 1bn of investment that year and a similar amount in governmental research funding announced through 2022 and 2023. This shows that improving plant-based meats is still a topic that both investors and governments see as a potential solution to the problems of environmentally sustainable food production. Another positive note for the industry is the steadily growing interest in high-protein diets over the past decade, and the focus on meat-free high-protein foods, which may help to stimulate additional growth of this sector. In our review of the patent activity in 2021, we reported that industry insiders were looking forward to a second wave of plant-based meat alternatives. While the number of applications dropped in 2022, the level – the second-highest recorded – shows that considerable research activity in the area persists, perhaps pushing towards that anticipated second generation of plant-based foods.
