Hamburg, April 2026 – Today’s consumers are not just cutting back on their meat consumption, they’re also looking for more balanced foods with optimum nutritional value and high quality. Reasons for this include health, environmental factors, animal welfare and especially the price of certain varieties of meat. This applies to poultry and red meat alike. However, the boom in plant-based alternatives shows that the desire for “meaty” enjoyment remains as strong as ever. In this context hybrid products are gaining in importance. Planteneers and Hydrosol have developed all-in concepts that bring both worlds together to enable a wide spectrum of hybrid products, combining Planteneers’ knowledge of plant proteins with Hydrosol’s expertise in taste and texture.
Familiar Flavor, Better Nutrition, Improved Cost Structure
Combinations of conventional meat with vegetables, plant-based proteins, and mycoproteins are steadily gaining ground with consumers, especially in young target groups like Millennials and Gen Z. Market researchers accordingly prognosticate annual growth rates of 9.5 percent through 2035. And no wonder – hybrid products offer the accustomed flavor and consistency of meat, fish, and dairy products, but with better cost structures, lower environmental burden, and added nutritional or functional benefits. A recent survey by ProVeg International shows that price parity and flavor are the strongest drivers, followed by health and the environment.
Poultry and beef are popular meat bases, as is pork. They are processed into burger patties, ground meat, nuggets, cold cuts, and sausage products. “Typically these are convenience products that are either ready to eat or only need to be heated up,” explains Dr. Pia Meinlschmidt, Head of Product Management at Planteneers. “The partial substitution of meat by ingredients like vegetables, legumes, or mycoproteins reduces the proportion of animal fats, especially saturated fatty acids, while adding fiber and plant proteins.” The plant components can be included as visible vegetable pieces or invisible ingredients, depending on the target group. Dr. Meinlschmidt: “In our experience, adults prefer products with visible vegetable pieces, because they make a natural, clean, healthier impression. The opposite is typically the case for children. With hybrid products they get an extra serving of vegetables without seeing it as they eat.”
Thus, hybrid products offer an ideal introduction to the protein shift. They combine nutritional and sensory benefits with cost efficiency, reduced resource use, and ecological benefits.
From Clean Label and High Protein to Food Service and Kids’ Products
Functional systems from Hydrosol and Planteneers give manufacturers a broad base of individual solutions tailored to different market requirements. “Through targeted combinations of different ingredients, for example, hybrid products can be created that have no declarable E-numbers or other additives,” explains Kirsten Jacke, Senior Product Manager at Hydrosol. “Also, they usually contain less salt and fat than conventional meat products. Clean label foods are especially suited to markets where natural, health-oriented products and ingredient transparency are important.”
Another possibility is products aligned towards the needs and preferences of children, like hybrid chicken pops enriched with cauliflower or chickpeas. Enrichment with selected micronutrients further improves the nutrient profile. Sister company SternVitamin helps with this, for example with a premix that contains B-vitamins, zinc, and iron to support growth, the immune system, and cognitive development.
In addition to micronutrients, hybrid products also offer a basis for high protein foods. Individual concepts can be implemented for retail as well as food service. The snack market offers special potential. According to the Innova Snacking 2025 survey, consumers prefer tasty and healthy snacks with low fat but high protein and fiber – perfect for hybrid products. Another advantage is that with snack products consumers are more experimental and open to new concepts than they are with meat products. That means that in this segment the barrier to entry is lower. In addition, margins and pricing are easier to work out. As these examples show, hybrid products offer a range of attractive approaches for addressing a growing market segment. And this is in no way limited to meat products – Hydrosol and Planteneers are currently working on new hybrid solutions for dairy products.
One more note: You can find photos of this press release under this link:
https://mediastock.stern-wywiol-gruppe.de/share/18DDD592-CEBB-4052-961F639D33EDC487/?viewType=grid