Plant-based foods may be getting all the attention, but a “blended” or “hybrid strategy to addressing environmental concerns about the food system offers brands greater flexibility, according to New Nutrition Business.
 
Many people want to eat less meat and dairy and eat more plants, specifically vegetables. But many consumers don’t want to give up altogether on their favorite everyday foods—nor do they want to miss out on the taste and nutritional benefits of meat or dairy. 
 
Between these poles, in the gray area where consumers’ best intentions meet their love of meat and dairy, lies an emerging opportunity: “hybrid” products.
 
“A ‘hybrid’ or ‘blended’ strategy gives flexitarian consumers permission to indulge in favorite foods like meat, dairy, and bakery—they can eat them and feel no guilt,” said Julian Mellentin, director of consultancy New Nutrition Business and author of a newly-published strategy briefing on the hybrid opportunity titled Hybrid Strategy: Harnessing the Health Halo of Plants. “And while it’s currently a niche opportunity, it’s already earning companies significant price premiums of up to 140% over regular non-hybrid products.”
 
It’s early days and a white-space opportunity, but emerging steadily, according to New Nutrition Business, which predicted that hybrid products will have a 3-5% market share in many categories within five years.
 
From meatballs with mushroom to bread with beetroot, hybrid products deliver traditional foods along with a significant portion—at least 20%—of plant-based ingredients. Many successful products, such as Fazer’s vegetable breads, go up to 30% and more.
 
The terms “blended” and “hybrid” are starting to be more widely used by product developers and strategists, and plants are increasingly showing up as a prominent ingredient in categories where you wouldn’t traditionally expect to find them. The new emerging blends are:
 

• Plants + good carbs
• Plants + meat
• Plants + dairy

 
These blends can be found in many categories including snacking, bread, cakes, burgers, dairy drinks, ice-cream, breakfast cereal, and many others. 
 
“A surge of creative product development means that within a few years, a convenient vegetable content in bread and bakery, chips and snacks and many other categories will be everyday and unremarkable,” said Mellentin.
 
Companies already innovating in this area include both start-ups and established businesses such as Perdue, Hormel, Applegate Farms and Finnish bakery giant Fazer.