The study surveyed 155 participants. After answering a series of distractor questions, participants answered questions about various plant-based meat and dairy products, including whether they believed these foods were made from animals/animal products, how well they could imagine what the products taste like, and whether they believed the products could be used for various purposes. The study employed a between-subjects design. One group of participants answered questions about products whose names included terms like “beef,” “butter,” or “bologna”—terms traditionally associated with animal products. The control group answered questions about products that omitted these terms and replaced them with terms such as “veggie” or “spread.”
The results demonstrate that: (1) consumers are no more likely to think that plant-based products come from an animal if the product’s name incorporates words traditionally associated with animal products than if it does not. (2) Omitting words that are traditionally associated with animal products from the names of plant-based products actually causes consumers to be significantly more confused about the taste and uses of these products. Together, the findings imply that legislation prohibiting companies from using words like “beef” and “butter” on their labels does not advance the government’s interest in preventing consumer confusion.