Last updated: 16-07-2026

Blended Meat's Breakout Year: What FSI's 2026 State of the Category Report Means for Europe

Food System Innovations' State of the Category report, covered by Green Queen in February 2026, puts the first hard numbers on blended meat's 2025 breakout: 65 companies and private-label brands now sell the category globally, the US serviceable obtainable market is worth $5.3 billion, and retail adoption is running well ahead of commercial foodservice, led chiefly by European supermarkets.

FSI frames blended meat, which it calls "balanced proteins," as moving from proof-of-concept toward proof-of-category. That framing matters for European retailers and brand owners tracking the same shift on this side of the Atlantic, since the report's clearest retail wins, and its clearest gaps, both point back to decisions Europe is already further along on.

The Market Size: 65 Companies, $5.3 Billion, Still 2 Percent of US Meat

FSI and research agency Schaefer calculate the US serviceable obtainable market for blended meat at $5.3 billion, roughly 2 percent of the total US meat market, with more than $60 million invested in the category since 2023 from private investors and government funding including the US Department of Defense. FSI describes the category as "meaningfully under-capitalised" relative to its early commercial wins. That capital gap is the same one FoodConNext Foundation tracks through its own investment-case coverage of European hybrid foods, where funding has similarly lagged commercial traction on supermarket shelves.

Retail Outpaces Foodservice, and Europe Is Leading Retail

The report finds commercial foodservice has underused blended meat, with fewer than 500 US restaurants, 0.1 percent of the total, serving blended burgers on menus, according to foodservice intelligence firm First Bite, while retail adoption is "uneven but promising" and driven chiefly by European supermarkets. Albert Heijn has introduced 13 private-label blended meat options in the Netherlands, Lidl's blended beef mince sells at 33 percent below the price of its beef-only equivalent, and one in four burgers sold at Lidl's Belgian stores now contains plant-based ingredients. Non-commercial foodservice, in contrast, produced the report's most striking single data point: the Dutch Grand Prix sold 29,000 of Olijck Foods' Halfway Burger in three days. The gap between Europe's retail progress and America's foodservice caution is exactly the territory Hybrid Foods Europe's session on North American food service lessons, presented by Elsa Group and ADM, sets out to close.

Why Consumers Try Blended Meat, and Why They Don't Buy Again

FSI's consumer research names curiosity as the leading motivator for a first blended meat purchase, but curiosity rarely converts into repeat buying, and only 8 percent of people who reject the category cite unfamiliarity as the reason, meaning most consumers know what blended meat is and still are not persuaded. Health is the second driver, cited by half of respondents, while 30 percent of sceptical consumers remain concerned about ingredients and 27 percent about processing. Schaefer's research identified the value propositions that resonate most: flavour enhancement (73 percent), budget stretching (70 percent), stealth health (68 percent), and macro-maxing, getting more protein without more effort (67 percent). Gen Z's appeal rating for balanced proteins runs 52 percent above the average respondent. This value-proposition confusion is precisely what Circana's session on plant-based and hybrid demand trends at Hybrid Foods Europe is built to unpack for European category teams.

The 50Cut Connection: A Hybrid Foods Europe Partner Inside the US Data

One of FSI's headline foodservice examples, New York's Pat LaFrieda selling a 50 percent mycelium meat burger at a lower price point than its 100 percent beef patties, uses mycoprotein from 50Cut by JOYN Foods, the same mycoprotein-ingredient partner exhibiting at the Hybrid Foods Europe Innovation Plaza. That overlap is a useful reminder that the European hybrid meat conversation and the US balanced-protein data are drawing on the same small set of ingredient suppliers, not two separate industries. Delegates working the European hybrid meat opportunity session with Innovate.NU will be looking at formulation choices that already have a proven, price-competitive US foodservice reference point.

Comparison: Where Blended Meat Is Winning and Where It Is Stuck

Take-Home Messages

Commercial

• European retail, not US foodservice, is where blended meat's commercial proof already exists; FSI's own data confirms it.

• Price positioning below the equivalent full-meat product, as Lidl has done, is a demonstrated driver of category share.

• Value propositions built on flavour and budget outperform sustainability-only messaging with mainstream shoppers.

• Capital is the binding constraint on scaling, not consumer demand or product readiness.

  
  

Technical

• Mycoprotein ingredient suppliers like 50Cut now anchor both a headline US foodservice case and Europe's Innovation Plaza formulation work.

• Sensory performance improvements are named by FSI as a prerequisite for consumer trust and repeat purchase, not a nice-to-have.

• Distribution access, not formulation, is identified as the main bottleneck for commercial foodservice scaling in the US.

• Category-level performance data and benchmarking are FSI's top priority for blended meat in 2026, a data gap Europe can help close first.

  
  

Verdict & Next Step

FSI's report confirms with hard numbers what FoodConNext Foundation's community has argued from the retail floor: Europe is not following the US on blended meat, it is ahead of it. The value-proposition confusion FSI flags in American consumers is the same question Circana, Innovate.NU, Elsa Group, and ADM will address directly on the retail and food service day at Hybrid Foods Europe, Van der Valk Zuidas, Amsterdam, 14-16 September 2026. Places on that programme, and the Innovation Plaza sessions featuring the ingredient suppliers behind this data, are filling ahead of September. Register now to bring these numbers into the room with the people building the next stage of the category.

About Gerard Klein Essink

Gerard Klein Essink is Founder & CEO of FoodConNext Foundation. He has run an international plant-based foods and proteins community for more than 20 years, published numerous industry reports, and written innovation reports on proteins for the Dutch government. He has advised the Canadian government on its pulse strategy, produced strategic outlook reports for Pulse Canada and the Australian Grains Research & Development Corporation, and leads FoodConNext Foundation's 100+ member Global Research Ecosystem. He has led multiple Horizon EU protein-transition projects, including Metaphor, Prominent, Plenitude, Profuture, HealthFerm, and Giant Leaps, and spoke at the European Parliament and European Commission in June 2026.

About FoodConNext Foundation

At FoodConNext Foundation, we believe that the future of food lies at the intersection of innovation, sustainability, and global collaboration. Our foundation is dedicated to accelerating the transition toward more resilient and responsible food systems by connecting key stakeholders across the agri-food ecosystem.

Our Mission

FoodConNext Foundation exists to bridge gaps in the global food system — bringing together entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers, and investors to co-create solutions that address some of the world's most pressing challenges, including food security, sustainability, and nutrition.