Research report: modern alternative proteins did not replace meat purchases in restaurants

Published on August 26, 2026 12:42 PM GMTOverviewThis post summarizes a new preprint on alternative proteins from the Humane and Sustainable Food Lab: New alternatives, same orders. We investigated 19[1] restaurants[2] that introduced plant-based alternative proteins throughout 2016-2023, including Beyond sausage, the Impossible burger, and many others. We find essentially no evidence here that alternative proteins reduce meat purchases or those of other animal products, even for the same indivi...