Since the development wave of plant-based food in China from 2019, the plant-based food industry has gone through a development process from "soaring and enthusiastic" to "calm and rational". The current development of the entire industry tends to be stable and orderly. After five years of developments, the understandings of plant-based food in its development concepts nutritional characteristics, quality characteristics, processing technology, and policy regulations have basically achieved consensus throughout the industry: Plant-based food is an important way for the food industry to achieve efficient resource utilization and green low-carbon development; plant-based food could provide high-quality protein, which is beneficial for improving the dietary structure of residents; plant-based food has a clear difference from traditional vegetarian food, and it gives full play to its functional properties; the processing of plant-based food should fully realize the nutritional enrichment, quality enhancement and excellent flavor of the products; and the standardized development of the plant-based food industry needs to be supported by the corresponding policies, regulations and standards. In the future, the development of plant-based food industry should be guided by the trend of diversified market development, taking taste, price and clean label as the main problems, breaking through technological bottlenecks, thinking from multiple perspectives, diversifying the choices, and exploring its potential value to achieve the steady progress of the entire industry.