Is it the beginning of the end for plant based meat? After appearing on every menu you open for the past few years, creating a whole new neighborhood in the supermarket aisle, and dominating the conversations of all your plant-interested friends, alternative meats seemed like the future… Then Beyond Meat’s stock price dropped a staggering 85% and cut 200 employees.

Why?

Merchant and retailers stopped ordering as consumers rejected plant based meat products after giving it a try.

The outcome

Today the US eats more beef than a decade ago, and poultry consumption is now at an all-time high.

What caused this?

The Los Angeles Times reported on mold, listeria, and other food safety concern such as the presence of “foreign matter” in food from the plant.

While negative publicity is never good for business, concerns about food safety are unlikely to spill over into consumer trends. If it did, no one would eat factory-farmed meat again. Instead, it has increased.

According to Jessica Randhawa, creator and writer of The Forked Spoon, tells Salon Food, “While the plant-based meat substitute market and market capitalization have declined this year, I think it has more to do with its pricing and inflation than with our tastes. Most people I know who have had the plant-based options enjoy them, but the cost makes it more of a luxury item.”

Will the consumer switch back to plant based meat if the price is right?

Time will tell.