Animal protein sales boom as food trends pivot
SASKATOON — Protein is “having a moment,” according to a panel of senior industry officials.
Jeff Simmons, president of Elanco, said the 2026 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends consuming 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, a 50 to 100 per cent increase from the previous recommendation of 0.8 grams.
“Buckle up,” he said during the 2026 Agri-Pulse Ag & Food Policy Summit in Washington, D.C.
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“This thing is for real and it is really big.”
Why it Matters: Sales of animal protein products are booming due to MAHA, Gen Z and other factors.
Users of the popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs are consuming 30 to 50 per cent more animal protein than the rest of the population.
McCormick & Co. is in discussions to purchase Unilever’s food business.
Simmons said Unilever is exiting the business because the processed and packaged food industry is contracting while animal protein demand is exploding.
“It’s our time. We can’t mess it up,” he said.
He recalls being on panels three years ago where all the questions were about meatless Mondays, the Impossible Burger, Beyond Meat and whether the animal protein sector would survive the plant-based protein assault.
“In three years, we’ve seen this continuum swing big-time,” said Simmons.
“Beyond Meat took Meat out of its name and has lost 100 per cent of its value.”
Misty High, senior vice-president of value-added protein with Cargill Food North America, said “protein is having a moment.”
Cargill research shows that 71 per cent of people say protein highly influences their food purchasing decisions and 61 per cent plan to increase their protein intake.
Ariel Dalton, head of strategic insights, planning and connected commerce with Danone U.S., said GLP-1 users are eating less but prioritizing high protein, satiety, fibre and metabolic health.
Dairy, and specifically Greek yogurt, are “over-delivering” on those priorities.
“We see it as a real moment for yogurt,” she said.
Emily Metz, president of the American Egg Board, said the pendulum has swung for the egg sector as well.
Bird flu affected more than 80 million birds last year, driving egg prices higher. Prices have come back down as the industry recovers from the outbreak, making eggs an affordable source of protein once again.
The egg sector is exploring innovations for making the product more convenient because people are no longer cooking the way they used to.
“They’re not bringing out that frying pan in the morning to make their scrambled eggs,” she said.
Simmons said the meat industry is shifting its attention back to the U.S. domestic market.
He noted that only two to three per cent of the food used by food banks is animal protein. He thinks that segment of the food market should be consuming another 500 million pounds of meat per year.
Simmons believes the growth potential in the domestic market is larger than the export market as meat continues to carve market share away from other calories.
Supply is having a tough time keeping up with demand, which is why the industry needs to reduce food waste. An estimated 20 per cent of animals are lost globally to morbidity or mortality every year.
“We spend a lot of time talking about bird flu and screw worm and other things, and they’re important,” he said.
“But respiratory disease is a major problem that hasn’t gotten better in the beef industry in the last five years.”
Mastitis costs the U.S. beef industry US$2 billion per year.
Simmons said there needs to be science-based regulatory reform to get new animal health products on the market faster. It takes 13 months longer to launch a new product in the U.S. compared to the European Union.
High said the protein craze is being driven in part by the Gen Z crowd, who are now of shopping age.
She has a 17-year-old daughter who wants to know how much protein, carbohydrates and fat she is consuming in her meals.
“She cares deeply about that,” said High.
The food industry needs to adapt to their quirky buying habits. For instance, the typical Gen Z consumer won’t buy deli meat in a grocery store, but they will eat a premium sandwich containing the same meat.
“They’re still highly interested in protein, just in different forms,” said High.
Dalton said there is a “retro revival” happening where long-forgotten products such as cottage cheese are making a huge comeback.
Gen Z consumers are blending it to get rid of the lumpy texture and then mixing it with their eggs because cottage cheese is high in protein and contains simple ingredients.
Metz credits U.S. president Donald Trump’s administration for the protein craze because it simplified the nutrition message down to three words — eat real food.
“In agriculture and food, we have struggled to have a simple nutrition message that really resonates, and they’ve done it,” she said.
Metz believes that simple message is a godsend for the industry and will lead to sustained demand for products such as meat, eggs and dairy.
“If you’re in the animal protein space, this is our moment,” she said.
“We need to lean into this wholeheartedly to make sure this movement has staying power.”
She also thinks the industry needs to embrace “radical transparency” because young people want to know everything about food production.
And that means developing a bigger presence on social media platforms.
The American Egg Board recently conducted a survey showing that Gen Z consumers are more likely to trust online influencers than their own parents.
One high-end egg brand in the United Sates was recently taken to task by an online influencer for the feed they wereit wasusing.
“This brand didn’t kowtow to the influencer. They stuck to the science and had facts to back it up,” said Metz.
“In the end, it won over a lot of the people that were following that brand and that influencer and turned the tide in the conversation.”
She said the protein sector needs to identify nutritionist and health professional influencers with which it can work who are active on social media platforms and can take up the cause when situations like that arise.
Source: producer.com