European supermarkets are helping customers eat less meat and more plants in a bid to improve dietary health and reduce emissions. The new initiative, known as protein splits, aims to expand supermarket sales of plant proteins and shrink sales of animal ones. In Europe, a combination of shoppers wanting to eat less animal protein due to rising health, animal welfare and environmental concerns – plus supermarkets’ own worries about reducing their emissions and, in one country, government backing – appear to be driving the splits’ initial success. Here’s how protein splits work, and the prospects for seeing something similar at your local supermarket here in the United States.
How the initiatives were born
In the Netherlands, which has led the protein split initiatives, the idea was born after roundtables between food-system advocacy groups and retailers were held to discuss what the country calls a “protein transition” – a food system shift aimed at reducing dependency on meat and other proteins sourced from livestock.
Examples of animal proteins used to calculate the splits include fish, dairy, meat and eggs. Plant proteins include beans, pulses, nuts and seeds, as well as meat and dairy alternatives.
Though discussions around eating less meat are often fraught and contentious, this particular idea came about collaboratively. “It was fully voluntary [and later] the government . . . included it in their own protein monitor and commissioned the publication of the first national protein split,” says Pablo Moleman of ProVeg, a Dutch non-governmental organization that advocates for a more plant-based food system. From there, the idea spread to other European NGOs and international retail outlets, he says.
Initial results of protein split initiatives are promising
The split initiatives appear to be working, at least for one major Dutch retailer, where meat sales have fallen. The supermarket, Jumbo, is the second-largest in the Netherlands and made headlines in March by ending discounts on fresh animal meat as part of efforts to flip its current protein split sales from 60% animal/40% plant to 60% plant/40% animal by 2030.
Other major supermarkets that have publicly committed to reaching 60% plant protein sales in the Netherlands by 2030 include Aldi, Dirk, Ekoplaza and Lidl, according to a government-commissioned protein split assessment published in March this year.
The emergence of the protein split initiative in the Netherlands is not surprising. Years of intensive farming, which made the country one of the world’s leading dairy and pork exporters, have also turned the country into a nitrogen pollution hot spot.
There are also rising concerns about public health, especially heart disease, as well as concern over diseases that spread from animals to humans. Active civil-society groups have been a factor, too, raising public awareness of intensive livestock production’s negative impact on the climate, air and water, says Florian Wall of Madre Brava, an NGO that advocates for sustainable food systems.
Earlier this year, a survey of Dutch consumers found that consumers’ highest motivation for eating less meat and dairy was health, followed by animal welfare and environmental concerns.
Other efforts to reduce the effects of intensive animal protein production include a Dutch-led search for alternative proteins, like lab-grown meats, and a recent government announcement that it aims to increase the consumption of plant proteins to 50% of the national diet by 2030.
Yet another factor pushing the Netherlands ahead of other countries is size. The small country has become a global hub for food production and innovation, growing lots of food on tiny plots that are, in some ways, the exact opposite of America’s vast agricultural lands. But being so innovative cuts both ways, Moleman says: the country has one of the highest livestock densities in the world, but also the highest per capita consumption of meat alternatives in Europe.
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It’s too soon to tell what impact the end of fresh meat discounts will have on Jumbo’s protein split, but since the summer of 2022, when major Dutch retailers first set their protein split targets, company data shows that previous efforts to boost plant sales have succeeded, says Moleman, whose NGO co-authored the Dutch protein split assessment.
Jumbo’s plant-boosting initiatives include the introduction of price parity between animal meats and the supermarket’s own brand of plant alternatives. This led to a jump of 15% in alternative sales and, during the full year 2023, a drop of 3% in conventional meat sales.
At Lidl’s Dutch supermarkets, the current split is 61% animal-sourced meat versus 39% plant sales, and the company is aiming for a similar flip to selling 60% plant proteins by 2030. As part of that effort, Lidl ran a test project that placed alt-meats next to animal meats, resulting in a 7.14% increase in plant-based sales, Moleman says. It also launched a minced-beef product that uses 40% pea protein, is 33% cheaper than pure ground beef and produces 37.5% less emissions.
Although Moleman says it is too soon for concrete emissions-reduction data, lowering animal protein sales is expected to be a priority, given that about 34% of indirect, or Scope 3, grocery emissions come from meat, and 17% from dairy. The drive to reduce sales from animal-sourced meat will likely accelerate as supermarkets’ own emission targets kick in, with a recent study by Madre Brava finding that the 15 largest European supermarket chains “have a target in place or will set one by the end of this year to reduce emissions from the food they sell.”
Even partial reductions of meat and dairy sales should have major climate impacts. Another Madre Brava study found that six major food providers could cut their meat-sales emissions by 40% if they replaced half their beef, pork and chicken with legumes, tofu and plant-based meat alternatives.
Now, more European supermarkets have begun publishing their own protein split initiatives, although not all are committing to specific targets. The broader European protein split uptake, Wall says, is driven by factors that include both the emergence of flexitarian consumers and emissions concerns. Just as in the Netherlands, he says, “campaigning by animal welfare and environmental groups . . . has helped create a growing segment of conscious consumers . . . looking to cut down on meat and dairy consumption.”
Forward-looking retailers see the shift to selling fewer animal-based products as a way to meet their climate goals. As French retail giant Carrefour told Madre Brava, “a shift from animal proteins to vegetal proteins will be necessary to achieve our Scope 3 [emissions] targets.”
How the U.K. is doing with its reduction goals
In the U.K., where participating grocery chains tend to include fewer products in their protein splits, Lidl’s latest data shows it is selling about 15% plant-based protein foods and about 7% dairy alternatives. The U.K. chain Sainsbury’s annual data shows that about 15% of protein sales are plants, while the dairy split is 7% plant-based. Tesco’s latest disclosure shows a similar plant/animal split of 11% plant/89% animal-sourced and a dairy split of 7% plant versus 93% meat and other animal-sourced food.
Because of the different measurement systems, it’s difficult to compare the effectiveness of the Dutch and U.K. splits. Although there are no individual protein split targets, several U.K. retailers have signed up to a World Wildlife Fund commitment, called the WWF Basket, that includes an “ambition . . . for retailers to work towards a 50-50 split between sales of plant and animal proteins by 2030.”
Is there any hope for something similar in the United States?
To a U.S. consumer, these initiatives might sound a bit like hopeful fan fiction; one more example of the way Europe is so far ahead of the United States when it comes to combatting climate change through addressing food systems.
Wall says that although they lag behind Europe, cities like New York, with its university and healthcare company–backed Plant-Powered Carbon Challenge, are blazing a trail.
He holds out hope, too, that European protein split leaders – which own U.S. brands like Giant and Stop & Shop – might bring “inspiration from what's happening in Europe" to their locations in the United States.
Culture wars over meat inevitably make these kinds of transitions harder, Moleman says, adding that the Netherlands has its own share of polarization around meat and livestock. But that makes it all the more important for supermarkets to be involved, he argues.
Protein split initiatives have had some challenges, Moleman says. They often work better when major retailers publicly commit together, mainly because being the one to renege in that situation would be bad publicity. Government support for plant-based goals and broader behaviour change are important too, he says, as well as improvements in the quality and availability of meat alternatives. Finally, he adds, there are some relatively painless options supermarkets can take, such as removing egg yolks from salad dressing and reducing the meat content of ready meals and adding more plants.
“It is important to realize that the extreme opposition represents a very small but vocal minority, and we should not worry too much about convincing them. There is a much larger group of people that are on the fence; they are not very keen on alternative proteins or on changing their diets, but they broadly support measures to improve planetary and human health,” he says.
At the same time, Moleman warns, plant-based advocates should avoid falling into the trap of becoming culture warriors themselves. “It is crucial that the plant-based movement comes out of its progressive bubble and reaches out to people on the fence.”
Grocery stores, then, are in a unique position to get people eating more plants. Outside of the “progressive bubble,” supermarkets can be a “crucial partner,” Moleman says, one that can “reach almost the whole of society.”
This article was originally published by Sentient. It has been edited to conform with Corporate Knights style.
