The plant-based market is at an inflection point. Consumer interest in plant-based alternatives is down 13.75% year-on-year, with meatless burgers declining 5.79%. Meanwhile, milk, yoghurt, beef, and turkey are all seeing renewed engagement.
The headline figures miss the more interesting story. According to Future Market Insights, the plant-based market could rise from approximately $14bn to $44bn by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 12%. Formats like chickpea cheese (+26.9% year-on-year) and oyster mushroom burgers (+29.9%) are growing fast.
The category isn’t retreating. It’s being rebuilt around taste, function, and commercial viability. For food retail professionals, the question is where that rebuilding is actually happening. The answer spans Barcelona, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Tokyo.
BARCELONA: Redesigning the Category
Heura Foods, headquartered in Barcelona’s 22@ technology district, makes seven of the ten best-selling plant-based products in Spain.
What makes it worth visiting its underlying technology: Heura’s process-controlled microstructure design platform uses heating, cooling, and mixing to create emulsions that deliver novel textures and improved functionality with a clean label, requiring less energy than extrusion and with higher throughput. The company secured €20 million from the European Investment Bank in 2025 and expects its first full year of profitability in 2026.
The company has opened a new innovation laboratory in Barcelona’s 22@ technological district and plans to register six new patents, focusing on foods with unprecedented nutritional density across widely consumed categories beyond plant-based meat — including cheese, pasta, and snacks. The technology is being licensed to other companies, meaning commercial impact extends well beyond Heura’s own products.
Essential Research
Heura’s Innovation Hub in the 22@ district receives trade visits. Stay at the Hotel Arts, 44 floors on the Barcelona waterfront, with Michelin-starred dining and direct access to one of Europe’s most active food tech corridors.
COPENHAGEN: Fermentation at the Frontier
Denmark is the most consequential plant-based market in Europe right now, and not only because of its industry. Denmark has assumed the presidency of the Council of the European Union, with a programme committing to an EU action plan on plant-based foods and a common EU protein strategy. It was the first country to release a national action plan for plant-based eating, backed by an investment of 1 billion kroner to advance plant-based foods.
The innovation infrastructure matches the policy ambition. Bridge2Food Europe 2026 opens with a dedicated Technical Course at the Novonesis Innovation Campus, co-created with Imperial College’s Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, with hands-on workshops led by Novonesis, ADM, Roquette, and Tetra Pak. For food retail professionals, this is the event where regulatory direction, ingredient science, and commercial application converge in a single week.
Essential Research
Bridge2Food Europe runs June 9 to 11 at the Novonesis Innovation Campus. Stay at the Hotel d’Angleterre on Kongens Nytorv, a 270-year-old property a short walk from the city’s emerging fermentation district.
AMSTERDAM AND WAGENINGEN: Europe's Protein Transition Hub
The Netherlands is home to over 500 food startups, with Amsterdam emerging as a leader in alternative proteins, AI-driven farming, and plant-based innovation. The ecosystem spans from lab to shelf in a way few places in the world can match.
Nourish Ingredients, pioneers of precision-fermented “designer fats” that replicate the sensory experience of animal products, has established its European commercial hub at Leiden’s BioPartner 5 facility, the Netherlands’ first energy-neutral laboratory. An hour south, Wageningen University anchors the research base, with companies including TiNDLE Foods, Beyond Meat, Redefine Meat, and the Vegetarian Butcher all having established operations in the Netherlands to access its talent and networks.
The Future of Protein Production conference returns to Amsterdam in November 2026, having attracted 750+ participants from 38 countries in 2025, covering technical, commercial, and regulatory challenges across the alternative protein value chain.
Essential Research
Future of Protein Production runs Amsterdam, November 4 to 5, 2026. Plant FWD takes place at Midden Nederland Hallen in April. For the Wageningen corridor, stay at the Vondelpark House in Amsterdam, a well-positioned base for both city visits and day trips south to the university campus and Leiden.
TOKYO: Solving the Taste Problem
65% of consumers reducing meat consumption are doing so for health reasons, and 22.7% cite lack of flavour as the primary reason they avoid plant-based products altogether. Japan has spent longer than any other market engineering solutions to both problems simultaneously.
Takasago International Corporation’s Shojin platform applies flavour science rooted in Buddhist temple cooking to enhance the taste, mouthfeel, and aroma of plant-based products. Fermentation, analytical, and processing technologies work together to recreate sensory satisfaction — the barrier plant-based has consistently failed to clear at scale. FOOMA JAPAN at Tokyo Big Sight in June 2026 brings 1,000+ food manufacturing technology exhibitors, the most concentrated showcase of production-scale food innovation in Asia.
Essential Research
Takasago’s R&D facilities are available for industry visits. FOOMA JAPAN runs June 2026 at Tokyo Big Sight. Stay at Aman Tokyo in Otemachi, a fitting base for a market where precision defines both the food and the hospitality.
A2D INSIGHT
The companies winning in plant-based right now share one characteristic: they treated taste and nutritional density as the brief, and sustainability followed as a consequence. That requires seeing the innovation in person — in the labs, the pilot facilities, and the retail formats where it plays out at scale. Barcelona, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Tokyo each offer a distinct lens. Together, they map the next chapter of the category.
Plan Your Plant-Based Innovation Program
A2D designs bespoke research programs connecting food retail professionals with the innovators, ingredient suppliers, and operators driving the next chapter of plant-based. Each program is built around your commercial priorities, timed to key industry events, and paired with exceptional hotels and dining throughout.
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