Tofu Wins the Protein Test — Cheese Comes Last

A new protein-scoring system has looked beyond protein grams to assess what foods deliver for people, household budgets and the planet. The result puts one familiar plant food firmly on top.

Tofu has been ranked the best all-round protein source in a new protein test combining nutrition, affordability, availability and environmental impact.

Developed by University of Cambridge behavioural scientist Dr Chris Macdonald, the first Better Protein Institute Score compared 20 commonly available protein foods. Tofu finished first, followed by chia seeds, beans and quinoa. Cheddar cheese ranked last, behind mozzarella, lamb and beef.

The scoring model measures more than protein content. Its People Score considers whether the food provides all nine essential amino acids, together with its sodium, saturated fat, cholesterol, price and supermarket availability. Its Planet Score covers greenhouse-gas emissions, land use, freshwater consumption and water pollution per 100 grams of protein.

Tofu led both categories. It is considered a complete protein, contains no cholesterol and delivers its protein with considerably lower land use and emissions than most animal sources.

Plant foods occupied every place in the top fifth of the overall ranking. Animal products filled the bottom fifth. Chicken breast and tuna performed better than most animal foods, showing the result was not simply produced by dividing the contenders into plant-good and animal-bad categories.

Cheese proved particularly vulnerable. While it is widely promoted as a convenient source of protein and calcium, cheddar and mozzarella were penalised by their saturated fat, sodium and environmental footprints.

There is an important qualification. The paper published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems is a perspective article introducing the first version of a scoring model, not a clinical trial or settled global standard. Its affordability data come from one UK supermarket, and its simplified points system does not fully reflect the sometimes enormous differences between individual foods.

Read the BBC Science Focus report and the original Frontiers paper.

TRENOS SIGINT

SIGNAL

The protein boom may be about to rediscover real food.

Much of the recent protein economy has focused on powders, fortified drinks, bars, engineered meat analogues and dairy products carrying enlarged protein claims.

The BPI result points in another direction. Familiar foods such as tofu, beans and lentils may satisfy consumer demands for protein, value, simpler ingredients and sustainability more convincingly than highly formulated alternatives.

This is not merely a victory for tofu. It is a signal that the next stage of the plant-protein market could be built around making established foods more convenient and desirable—not continuously inventing new substitutes.

HUMAN FACTOR

Tofu’s obstacle is not its nutritional or environmental performance. It is the consumer’s uncertainty about what to do with it.

A block of plain tofu requires seasoning, preparation knowledge and confidence in the kitchen. Consumers unfamiliar with Asian cuisines can experience it as bland, texturally unusual or inconvenient.

That creates a translation opportunity. Tofu does not necessarily need further scientific improvement; it needs better product design and communication.

Pre-marinated portions, crispable formats, flavoured slices, tofu-based bowls, sandwich fillings and familiar meal solutions could turn a high-performing ingredient into an everyday convenience food.

The winning message may also be less about sacrifice and more about utility:

METRICS SNAPSHOT

US$7.9 BILLION — US PLANT-BASED RETAIL MARKET

Plant-based foods remained a substantial retail category in 2025, despite an overall decline in sales.

Signal: Consumer interest has not disappeared, but the market is becoming more selective.

Why it matters: Products now need a clear everyday value proposition rather than relying on the plant-based label alone.

−10% DOLLARS / −11% UNITS — PLANT-BASED MEAT AND SEAFOOD

US retail sales of plant-based meat and seafood fell sharply during 2025, according to Good Food Institute analysis of SPINS data.

Signal: Expensive imitation products are struggling to maintain household demand.

Why it matters: Familiar proteins such as tofu may benefit from being simpler, more versatile and less dependent on reproducing meat.

POSITIVE DOLLAR AND UNIT GROWTH — TOFU, TEMPEH AND SEITAN

The US category continued growing in 2025, although more slowly than in 2024, while prices remained broadly stable.

Signal: Established plant proteins are showing greater resilience than the plant-based meat category.

Why it matters: Consumers may be shifting toward foods they recognise as ingredients rather than engineered replacements.

60% — HOUSEHOLDS BUYING PLANT-BASED FOODS

Six in ten US households bought at least one plant-based product during 2025; 78% of those households purchased again.

Signal: Plant-based consumption is already mainstream behaviour, even if individual categories are uneven.

Why it matters: The commercial target is not exclusively vegan or vegetarian. It is the mixed-diet household looking for useful alternatives.

96% — PLANT-BASED MEAT BUYERS ALSO PURCHASED ANIMAL MEAT

Almost all households buying plant-based meat also bought conventional meat.

Signal: The real consumer is predominantly flexitarian rather than ideologically plant-based.

Why it matters: Tofu should be marketed as another useful protein choice—not as a moral test or a compulsory meat replacement.

Additional market data: Good Food Institute 2025 US retail analysis.

LONG PLAY

Protein is becoming one of food marketing’s most powerful claims, driven by fitness culture, healthy ageing, weight management and growing use of GLP-1 medications. Dairy and meat companies have responded with high-protein milks, yoghurts, snacks and prepared meals.

Tofu has the underlying credentials to participate—but much of the category still looks and behaves like an ingredient sold to consumers who already understand it.

That leaves three pieces of commercial whitespace:

Convenience: Products that remove pressing, draining, cutting, marinating and seasoning.

Familiarity: Formats connected to recognised meals—stir-fries, curries, wraps, burgers, bowls and breakfast dishes.

Repositioning: Moving the language from “meat substitute” towards affordable, complete, everyday protein.

For Australian and New Zealand manufacturers, the opportunity may extend beyond imported tofu blocks. Locally developed products could combine regional soybean supply, Asian culinary knowledge and Western convenience formats.

The result also presents two separate competitive warnings.

For dairy, it challenges the assumption cheese is automatically a nutritionally superior protein food.

For alternative-protein companies, it demonstrates greater technological sophistication does not necessarily create greater consumer value. A highly engineered product must still outperform tofu on taste, price, nutrition and ease of use.

The next plant-protein winner may therefore be neither a laboratory breakthrough nor a convincing imitation of meat. It may be an old food, finally packaged and communicated for the way people eat now.

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