"Fake Meat Was Supposed to Save the World. It Became Just Another Fad." That was Bloomberg Businessweek's cover line back in 2022, and it stung enough that Impossible Foods bought a full-page New York Times ad to argue back — in the same week it announced layoffs. Since then, the obituaries have basically been non-stop. For several years, plant-based meat has been written up as a cautionary tale. Beyond Meat’s collapsing valuation, retreating supermarket shelf space, and a steady drumbeat of “fake meat is over” headlines have made the category look like a global failure.

There is a real story behind those headlines. But it is mainly a story about the United States, and to a lesser extent parts of Europe. It is not a reliable shorthand for what is happening to alternative proteins worldwide. Climate change and animal welfare, the two major problems this industry exists to solve, aren't American problems or European problems. They're all of our problems.

The more interesting question is not whether one American burger brand has met its forecasts. It is whether different countries are finding reasons and routes to use less animal protein. On that question, the picture is far more varied.

In a way, America jump-started the modern plant-based meat industry. Two companies, Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, built the category more or less from scratch between 2016 and 2021. However, the American plant-based-meat market is having a difficult stretch.

US retail sales of plant-based meat and seafood fell 10% by value and 11% by unit volume in 2025, according to SPINS data analysed by the Good Food Institute. The products remain substantially more expensive than their animal-meat counterparts, while retailers have reduced distribution. Health concerns about ultra-processed foods amplified by the “Make America Healthy Again” movement have also made the “looks and tastes exactly like meat” pitch less appealing.

The obituary writers are not inventing the downturn, but they often make a category error by treating the fortunes of a handful of US public companies as a verdict on a global food transition.

Europe complicates the story further. According to a 2026 analysis by The Good Food Institute, France is leading volume growth in Europe with a 13% increase in plant-based food sales between 2024 and 2025, while Spain is also accelerating with 6.6% sales growth. Italy, well-known for its conservative food culture, also saw plant-based retail volumes rise 5.8% in 2025, including growth in plant-based meat. In contrast, the UK, one of the largest markets at €4.5bn, is showing stagnation with sales declining by 2.5% in 2025. 

In Europe, price remains a major barrier, and the EU’s recent restrictions on many meat-related terms for plant-based products add a fresh regulatory headache. Europe has become a fragmented market in which some products and countries are losing ground while others are finding buyers, especially when prices fall and products fit familiar eating habits.

Israel is the clearest Middle Eastern case study to add to this conversation. StoreNext retail data, summarised by GFI Israel, puts plant-based products at roughly 10% of the meat market and 20% of the dairy market, far ahead of most national benchmarks.

Israel is also treating alternative proteins as more than a consumer trend. Its public sector and research ecosystem links plant–based foods to food security, efficient water and land use, economic development, and climate resilience. That is a sturdier foundation for growth than the temporary marketing campaigns in USA aimed primarily at upper-class consumers who want a novel burger.

Asia is not one market, but China and India make the global framing impossible to ignore.

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs' 2021 Science and Technology Development Plan put “future foods” including cultivated meat and plant-based eggs into its national agricultural planning for the first time, as part of its current five-year agricultural modernisation agenda which promotes food security and agricultural competitiveness. Although public sales data for the modern plant-based category are patchy, it is clear that China has placed protein innovation inside a national security agenda, providing an important positive signal from the world’s largest food market.

India also offers a concrete early-market signal. An Ipsos report for the Plant Based Foods Industry Association estimated India’s plant-based-food market at roughly $36 million in 2024, after 18% growth over three years. In January 2026, Swiss fermentation company Planetary signed a deal with Indian sugar producer Dhampur Bio Organics to build mycoprotein production right next to its sugar mills. They aim to produce their fermentation-based proteins for under $1 per kilogram by using affordable feedstock and labor, essentially copying the playbook solar manufacturing used when it shifted manufacturing to Asia a decade ago. 

China and India together are home to roughly 2.8 billion people. A small change in the share of protein supplied by plants, fermentation, or cultivated meat in those markets could have global significance. But population is potential, not proof. The case for optimism rests on the availability of products people actually buy, at prices they can afford.

Plant-based meat is still a nascent category with uneven global growth trajectories. In the US, the category may be contracting. In Europe, its performance is mixed. But the global story is certainly not that “fake meat” is dead. It is that the first, Western version of the category with premium, venture-backed products marketed mainly through climate and animal-welfare appeals, has run into price, perception, and distribution problems that probably won’t be solved overnight. 

In the Middle East and Asia, the picture is different. Israel links alternative proteins to resilience in a resource-constrained food system. China is folding protein innovation into agricultural strategy. India is an emerging market where local production coupled with lower costs could drive rapid growth.

This should not lower the bar for plant-based innovation. Companies globally still need to make plant-based products that taste good, provide nutrition, and are affordable to the masses. But it should shift the lens. Animal welfare and climate change are global issues, and progress anywhere in the world is progress for the whole world. 

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