Yeti Foods Partners with UC Davis MBAs to Research Alternate Protein Market

Alternate meat and protein products have experienced significant market volatility in recent years. While some products have garnered strong consumer followings in niche markets, other offerings have failed to meet initial expectations. Similarly, financial returns on both private and public investments in companies within this sector reflect the same mixed results.

Over a four-year period ending in 2021, sales of so-called “fake meats” grew by well over 50%, leading some analysts to forecast that growth trend to continue indefinitely.

However, the combination of these products' price points, recent inflation and questions about the processing required for some of these products have led to flatter sales growth and declining profits. Some companies that expanded based on initial, rosy growth forecasts have since declared bankruptcy.

Multiple industry analysts have even declared the sector oversupplied. These views often vary somewhat by geographic region. But the reality is that tens of millions of consumers globally are still seeking sustainable protein products that are reasonably priced, taste good and do not contain additives they can’t pronounce.

UC Davis MBA Student Project: Analyzing the Alternate Protein Market

A team of UC Davis MBA students was asked to research and analyze this market space to separate reality from speculation.

This project was part of the Integrated Management Project (IMP) course offered at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. The course allows MBA students to apply their collective business skills and knowledge to a 10-week project performed during an academic quarter. It also represented another experience as part of the Graduate School of Management’s unique Food and Ag Industry Immersion.

I served as team lead for the project conducted for Yeti Foods, working alongside my MBA colleagues Payton Marcu, Neelofer Abrahemkhel and Alena Dollar. We worked closely with Tue Rasmussen throughout the project. According to Rasmussen, Yeti Foods partnered with UC Davis after learning about the IMP Program through professional contacts.

Tue Rasmussen is the entrepreneur-in-residence at the Danish BioInnovation Institute (BII) and the primary Yeti Foods contact for this Integrated Management Project.

“The opportunity to have MBA students—key consumers for alternative protein products—work on this project was highly appealing.”

— Tue Rasmussen, Yeti Foods

Christian Tillegreen, director of planetary health at the BioInnovation Institute, was a keynote speaker at the 2024 UC Davis Institute for Innovation Institute for Food and Health’s Partner Summit. The Summit attracted more than 300 key industry decision-makers to the campus in November 2024.

At the Summit, Tillegreen shared that UC Davis and BII are expanding their collaboration to accelerate the commercialization of protein nutrition discoveries important to consumers worldwide. 

Getting to the Core: Unpacking Yeti Foods' Technology, Research and Product Development Strategies

Our team started by learning about the technology behind Yeti Foods’ research and development to date. Many alternate proteins derive from either plant-based sources or are “cultured” from animal cells. Each type of product presents challenges when attempting to be scaled to commercially viable volumes.

Yeti Foods is focused on offering protein-rich products by converting fungi—mushrooms—into mycoproteins.

The mycoprotein technology Yeti Foods has developed minimizes the need for additives or stabilizers in its alternate protein offerings. These processed ingredients are found in many alternate protein products marketed currently. The need for these additives and stabilizers both raises the cost of the finished product and can often result in off-putting smells or tastes when some current products on the market are cooked. Both of these issues have been cited by consumers as reasons for only trying alternate protein products once or twice and remaining unsatisfied by them. 

Next Steps: Interviews, Research and Focus Groups

Once our team learned about Yeti’s technology, we conducted interviews and focus groups to gauge potential consumer reactions to Yeti’s potential products.

One important characteristic of Yeti’s research and development was that its mycoprotein could potentially lead to final products that were similar in taste to red meat, chicken, tofu or other products already well-known to consumers. Thus, one of the goals of gaining consumer feedback was to understand how individuals would react to a new product competing in one or more of these potential market segments.

Our surveys, interviews and focus groups were conducted primarily with people living in the U.S. However, those asked to participate came from various diverse backgrounds. This allowed our group to gather anecdotal perspectives on how individuals from across cultures were likely to react to various potential products based on Yeti’s mycoprotein offering.

A key to our project’s progress was the counsel of both Dr. Rasmussen, who is based in Denmark, and our faculty advisor, Keith Weissglass. Their feedback and our team’s ability to be nimble was essential to our progress.

Delivering our Findings to Yeti Foods

We presented our team’s findings to Yeti Foods’ management at the conclusion of the 10-week project. Yeti has since built off our findings to consider how best to gather more detailed consumer feedback about what types of products Yeti’s alternate protein would best be suited to.

This consumer feedback may vary by geography. Europe, for example, has a higher percentage of consumers than the U.S. who express interest in going meatless.

Interest across different geographies was also validated by various interviews and focus group feedback. Relevant examples of how consumer interest varies by geography include McDonald’s introduction of a plant-based burger in multiple countries. Sales in various European countries met or exceeded expectations. However, a U.S.-based trial was not as successful, leading to the offering not being expanded nationally here.

However, there are also negative perceptions against certain types of ingredients and how foods are produced that are more prevalent in Europe when compared to consumer preferences in Asia or the U.S. Yeti Foods will address all these various product and market issues as their research continues. The goal is to create one or more viable products that align with consumer acceptance on flavor, texture and price.

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Global Food Trends: Key Takeaways from our IMP Experience

We often accept why we like certain foods, but dislike others without giving it much thought. Those assumptions may be based on family or cultural history, convenience, our current lifestyle or other factors.

However, this project led us to confront these assumptions as we sought to better understand what drives the food choices of the individuals from our surveys and focus groups. We also learned more about designing consumer interviews and focus groups to help us get to the information we were looking to gather.

What we learned during the project allowed us to deliver the information that Yeti Foods sought when it chose to participate in the IMP Program. But it also increased our understanding of a critical economic sector—and made us more informed consumers in the process.

Our team was very grateful for the opportunity this Integrated Management Project presented us. It was a differentiated experience as we each moved on to varying career pursuits once we completed our MBA curriculum!

 “Yeti Foods will build off the MBA team’s findings. The team both gathered important consumer feedback and identified potential market entry and price points for a range of products. Overall, the project will help shape our future planning—and exceeded my initial expectations.”

— Tue Rasmussen, Yeti Foods