It’s been a wild time for plant-based meats in recent years.

Sales of meat-like burgers, crumbles and more in both the refrigerated and freezer case exploded, largely fueled by consumer trial at foodservice.

In the years since, however, plant-based meat sales have fallen off considerably—though they still make up almost $1.2 billion in annual sales, about 1.5% of total meat department sales, according to data from consumer-research firm Circana (formerly IRI and The NPD Group).

But there’s a huge change afoot in plant-based meats, says Chris DuBois, Circana SVP and protein practice leader.

“There’s an enormous amount of innovation coming from small companies with very different ingredient panels,” DuBois says. “This could become a very exciting category again … There’s a ton of excitement in the alternative-meat space and there’s going to be a ton of excitement going forward.”