Meat-Like Veggie Burgers
A Cost Comparison with Animal Products
by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
Consumers choose vegan burgers and vegan ground "meat" for lots of reasons. They may want to try something different. They may perceive vegan products as healthier or more environmentally friendly. They may be vegan and looking for a quick meal or for a product that can easily replace ground beef in a recipe. In 2021, approximately 18 percent of U.S. households purchased plant-based meat products.1
Several years ago, we examined the nutritional quality of meat-like veggie burgers (Vegetarian Journal, Issue 3, 2020). We recently conducted a study to compare prices of meat-like veggie burgers and vegan ground meat to animal meat. In late January and early February 2023, we obtained price information from Instacart that allowed us to determine the least and most expensive veggie meat and veggie burgers in seven different U.S. cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, and St. Louis.
In each city, we selected a store in a supermarket chain and identified the lowest and highest priced veggie meat and veggie burger and the lowest and highest priced animal ground beef and burger from that store. All prices were converted to the cost per pound of product, were non-sale prices, and did not include a shopper discount. We used a similar procedure on the Target website using the same cities that were used for Instacart.
In general, in supermarkets, veggie meats and burgers were more expensive than animal meats and animal burgers. There were exceptions, however. For the most expensive ground products, in three cities there was no difference between the price per pound of veggie meats and animal meats, in two cities veggie meats were less expensive than animal meats, and in 2 cities veggie meats were more expensive. The veggie forms of the most expensive and least expensive burgers and the least expensive meats were all more costly than the meat forms. At Target, all forms of veggie meat in all cities were more expensive than animal meat. Table 2 provides a summary of the price differences between veggie and animal meats.
Table 1. The Most Expensive Veggie and Animal Ground Meat in Supermarkets in Various U.S. Cities
| Veggie Meat, Package Size | Veggie Meat Price ($ Per Pound) | Animal Meat Price ($ Per Pound) | Difference Between Veggie and Animal Meat Price ($ Per Pound) | Store, City |
| Impossible Beef, 12 oz | 13.32 | 9.59 | 3.73 | Schnucks, St. Louis, MO |
| Impossible Beef, 12 oz | 12.79 | 12.79 | 0.00 | King Soopers, Denver, CO |
| Impossible Beef, 12 oz | 12.79 | 12.79 | 0.00 | Ralphs, Los Angeles, CA |
| Impossible Beef, 12 oz | 12.79 | 13.69 | -0.90 | Kroger, Atlanta, GA |
| Impossible Beef, 12 oz | 12.79 | 12.79 | 0.00 | QFC, Seattle, WA |
| Beyond Beef Plant-Based Ground 16 oz | 11.09 | 10.53 | 0.56 | ShopRite, Brooklyn, NY |
| Beyond Beef Plant-Based Ground 16 oz | 10.69 | 11.19 | -0.50 | Mariano's, Chicago, IL |
Table 2. Comparative Cost of Veggie vs Animal Meat, overall
| Type of Product | Mean Price Difference Veggie vs. Animal Product ($ Per Pound)* | Range of Price Differences ($ Per Pound) Veggie vs. Animal Product |
| Least expensive patty, supermarket | 5.73 | 4.24-8.21 |
| Most expensive patty, supermarket | 5.24 | 4.99-7.59 |
| Least expensive patty, Target | 3.48 | 3.10-4.35 |
| Most expensive patty, Target | 2.94 | 1.83-3.33 |
| Least expensive ground meat/veggie meat, supermarket | 2.56 | 0.27-4.26 |
| Most expensive ground meat/veggie meat, Target | 1.73 | 0.20-2.76 |
| Least expensive ground meat/veggie meat, Target | 0.91 | 0.20-2.23 |
| 0.41 | -0.90-3.73 |
*Average price difference over seven U.S. cities. Positive mean price differences mean that the veggie products are more expensive than the animal product.
We noted that at Target, plant-based and animal-based ground meats were relatively close in price; perhaps this will spread to other stores in the future. The lower cost of many of the animal products is due, at least in part, to government subsidies, including payments to farmers who grow animal feed like corn and soybeans. As consumers become more aware of the environmental and health costs of animal products, there may be a move towards reducing or eliminating government subsidies, and that could make veggie and animal products have similar prices. We hope that veggie meats will be more affordable in the future. We plan to repeat our study to determine if the market is changing.
A more extensive version of this article is available on our website at vrg.org/nutrition/ground-meat-article-2023.pdf
Thanks to Mae Y. Seon for her invaluable assistance in collecting all of the data used in this article.
Reference
1Good Food Institute. Plant-based meat sales. gfi.org/blog/a-deeper-dive-into-plant-based-meat-sales-in-2021, 2021.
