GB: Beyond Meat’s new vegan chicken line - What would it take for Britons to turn away from meat?
Beyond Meat has expanded its range in Britain, and for the first time, launched its vegan chicken products with three chicken-style products - chicken burger patties, fillets and nuggets. While the brand’s ‘Burger Chicken-Style’ launched at select Waitrose outlets on 19 April 2023, all three items will make their way to select Sainsbury’s stores 3 May 2023 onwards.
We look at YouGov data to see how many Britons follow a vegan diet.
According to YouGov Profiles - which covers demographic, psychographic, attitudinal and behavioural consumer metrics - 66% of Britons are meat eaters. About 14% of them identify as flexitarians, 7% as vegetarian and 2% as vegans.
In addition to looking at their current eating habits, we also explore YouGov data to see which factors motivate Britons to adopt a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle.
General health concerns, concerns over animal welfare and environmental reasons are some of the top factors encouraging the general population to adopt a vegan/vegetarian diet.
But when we look at motivation across age cohorts, we see significant proportions of consumers in each generation are not sure which factors might encourage them to adopt a vegan/vegetarian diet.
Among factors listed, prime motivations to potentially adopt a vegan or vegetarian diet differ across generation. For instance, around a third (31%) of Gen Z in Great Britain say concerns over health risks related to meat/fish production like bacterial infections might motivate them to go vegan or vegetarian. This is followed by environmental reasons (26%) - a factor that might motivate 23% of Millennials to adopt a vegan or vegetarian diet as well. For 20% of Millennials, vegan or vegetarian food option are a way to eat more cheaply.
For slightly older generations, health concerns are an important factor - 22% of Gen X, 27% of Baby Boomers and 18% of the Silent Generation say general health concerns could encourage them to go vegan or vegetarian, followed by concerns over animal welfare (20%, 18% and 18% respectively).
Along with looking at what could motivate Britons across generations to adopt a vegan or vegetarian diet, we also explore Profiles data to see what might motivate men and women in the UK.
Data also shows that 24% of women in the UK cite concerns over animal welfare and another 24% consider general health concerns as factors encouraging a vegan/vegetarian diet. In comparison, 17% and 19% of men would consider similar reasons respectively.
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Methodology: YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data for Great Britain is nationally representative and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race. Learn more about Profiles.
Photo by Beyond Meat on Unsplash