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Alternative meat is making big inroads into fast food and Wall Street is taking notice. And not only with packaged-food analysts that cover Tyson, Kraft Heinz and Beyond Meat. Restaurant analysts are also weighing in, because alternative meat is becoming a strategic issue for restaurant operators. This group of analysts don’t have an opinion on Beyond Meat’s valuation, but they are an unbiased source of information about consumer preference and ordering habits.

“Without question, plant -based proteins have emerged as the largest disrupter within the restaurant industry in 2019, with Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods leading the charge,” Cowen restaurant analyst Andrew Charles wrote in a Tuesday research report.

Charles conducted a survey in August, asking more than 9,000 adults in the U.S. about plant-based meats. About 11% of the people surveyed had tried either the Beyond Meat (ticker: BYND) Beyond Burger, privately held Impossible Food’s Impossible Burger, or both, over the previous 12 months.

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Overall, a quarter of respondents have eaten plant-based meats recently and almost 80% said they would continue to do so. “Plant-based proteins are enduring, due to high rates of retrial…and low awareness,” Charles wrote. Based on what he sees in the restaurant businesses he covers, alternative meat isn’t a fad.

“Not surprisingly, plant-based consumers skew younger and wealthier than the overall population,” he said. Consumers in the 18-to-34 age bracket represented 17% of survey respondents and 32% of the alternative-meat eaters. That means that about half of the younger population is eating plant-based meat.

The top reasons respondents cited for trying alternative meat were curiosity and health. Social responsibility came in a distant third. Beyond Meat is quick to point out the environmental benefits of alternative protein because the world’s livestock population generates 9% to 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

MKM Parnters restaurant analyst Brett Levy has also noted the impact that plant-based protein is having on the sector, but he seemed a little more cautious than Charles. “We are also starting to hear increased chatter around the potential health benefits [and] questions around the different product assortments,” he wrote in a Sept. 26 research report.

Not everyone is convinced plant-based meat is healthier than the real thing—it has similar levels of fat and sodium. But Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have the chance to improve the nutritional labels when they introduce new product formulations with less salt and fat. One of the benefits of alternative meat, according to the companies, is the flexibility of product design.

For restaurant operators, Charles found that plant-based sales are incremental, not cannibalizing existing sales. That will keep pressure on food-service outlets to add plant-based offerings to keep current customers and capture plant-based upside. Charles thinks Burger King, owned by Restaurant Brands (QSR), is in the best position based on its early introduction of the Impossible Burger.

Beyond Meat products are sold in more than 53,000 outlets, based on the latest numbers available. Impossible Foods said its products are now in more than 17,000 outlets.

Beyond Meat is the best performing initial public offering of 2019, rising almost 500% from its $25 IPO price. Shares dropped 2% on Monday, against a 0.3% gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The shares were up 0.2% in premarket trading on Tuesday. Dow futures were up 0.3%.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com