Retailers urged to shift to 60% plant 40% animal protein

Call to action by ProVeg International, WWF, and the Green Protein Alliance

Retailers can help societies shift to healthy, sustainable diets by setting targets for rebalancing the protein split on their shelves, three leading food and environment NGOs said today.

ProVeg International, WWF, and the Green Protein Alliance have joined forces to call on food retailers to set ambitious targets to rebalance food sales aligned with the Planetary Health Diet developed by the EAT-Lancet Commission. The split between plant-based and animal-based foods in this diet is around 70% plant to 30% animal when all food groups are included, and 60% plant to 40% animal when just focusing on protein source foods including meat, eggs, fish, and legumes.

The call comes as Lidl this week became the first retailer in the UK to set a protein split target. The company is aiming to ensure that plant-based protein sales (in tonnage) accounts for 25% of its total protein sales by 2030.  

Worldwide, consumer dietary preferences are shifting. Many consumers are reducing their meat consumption and moving towards more plant-centric diets. In Germany, for example, 59% of consumers report reducing their yearly meat intake. Meanwhile, in France and the UK, it’s 57% and 48%, respectively¹. ProVeg and partners are calling on retailers to leverage these changing consumer trends to set even bolder protein split targets. 

In the Netherlands, over 90% of Dutch food retailers are already tracking their protein split using ‘The Protein Tracker’ methodology, developed by the Green Protein Alliance and ProVeg Netherlands. To change the protein split from 40/60 to 60/40 in six years, these retailers must take targeted measures using protein tracker data. To achieve its intermediate goal of 50/50 in 2025, the Dutch retailer Jumbo recently stopped running promotions on animal-based meat products. Meanwhile, Lidl Netherlands is testing the integration of meat substitutes on the meat shelf to work towards its target of 60/40 by 2030. 

In the UK, nine retailers, representing over 80% of the major UK supermarkets, have adopted the ‘WWF Basket’ methodology to report on protein source food sales, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Coop, M&S, Lidl and Aldi. Major retailers in Belgium, Germany, and Austria have also adopted methodologies to track their protein split goals.

Retailers are encouraged to report progress toward targets against a clear baseline and reference year, using a methodology that ensures internal comparability. At a minimum, retailers should report on protein-source food sales², while best practice would include reporting and setting a target to rebalance animal and plant-based food sales across the whole product portfolio, including composite and prepared products.

Joanna Trewern, Director of Partnerships, ProVeg International, said: “Retailers play a pivotal role in ensuring that societies shift to healthy sustainable diets. Some retailers have already set clear targets to rebalance their protein sales, and we are now calling on others to set a goal aligned with the dietary recommendations outlined in the Planetary Health Diet, and ensure they have a strategy in place that will support customers in transitioning to plant-rich diets. Establishing a standardised approach for measuring the protein split will pave the way for a comprehensive understanding of the shift toward healthier, more sustainable food systems, which is why ProVeg International, WWF, and the Green Protein Alliance are working together to enable food companies to track sales of animal and plant-based foods and measure progress toward protein split targets”

Mariella Meyer, Senior Manager Sustainable Markets, WWF said: “Retailers must be prepared to adapt their sales strategies to achieve both their own sustainability commitments and contribute to global goals. We know that intensive agriculture is the number driver of the catastrophic decline of wildlife and nature, so promoting sustainable dietary choices is key. In countries where animal-source foods are overconsumed, food retailers can lead the way by rebalancing their product offerings. We want to work alongside retailers and companies to enable a transition to more sustainable and healthy diets”

Jeroen Willemsen, Founder of the Dutch Green Protein Alliance, said: “In order to lower the environmental impact of our food consumption and to improve our dietary health, a switch to more plant-based protein in our diets is important. Food companies play a crucial role in this transition. Setting goals and tracking progress has proven to be effective in the Dutch protein transition, where the Green Protein Alliance and ProVeg Netherlands are supporting retailers to implement effective interventions in different product categories. Let this be a shout out to other food companies to do the same”

Impact of the food system 

The global food system is a major driver of both climate change and environmental degradation, responsible for around one-third of global emissions³. Animal agriculture plays a significant role in these emissions, producing large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, specifically carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. 

Beyond greenhouse gases, agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation and biodiversity loss, with the majority of agricultural land going toward producing animal products and growing crops for animal feed. 

Shifting diets can drastically reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, potentially cutting agricultural emissions by 61% in high-income countries by 2050⁴. 

Dietary changes can reduce the environmental impact across multiple indicators – including land use and biodiversity loss – and enable a move towards nature-positive farming. Dietary changes can also offer significant social cost savings and enhanced public health, with the potential to further improve global hunger and animal welfare. Shifting dietary patterns presents one of the most optimal ways to mitigate and address these interconnected problems.

ENDS

Footnotes

1. Evolving appetites: an in-depth look at European attitudes towards plant-based eating | Report | ProVeg Corporate
2. Protein source foods are those found in the protein source food group in the Planetary Health Diet, and include meat, fish, eggs, legumes, nuts and seeds.
3.  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (2022), Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3 
4.  Sun, Z., L. and Scherer, et al. (2022), Dietary change in high-income nations alone can lead to substantial double climate dividend. Nature Food 3(1), 29–37. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357723207_Dietary_change_in_high-income_nations_alone_can_lead_to_substantial_double_climate_dividend

Notes to Editors

For media inquiries, email Peter Rixon at [email protected]

For scientific data about the benefits of plant-based eating, see our Food System Data website.

About ProVeg International

Our vision is a world where everyone chooses delicious and healthy food that is good for all humans, animals, and our planet. ProVeg International is a food awareness organisation with the mission to replace 50% of animal products globally with plant-based and cultivated foods by 2040.