Sainsbury's to sell vegan 'fake' meat in chiller section alongside the real thing as UK's 'flexitarian' market booms

Beyond Meat already sells its popular plant-based patties alongside meat products in US grocery stores
Beyond Meat
Tom Powell12 June 2018

Sainsbury’s is set to sell “fake” meat products in the chilled section alongside real burgers and sausages in a bid to capitalise on the UK’s burgeoning “flexitarian” market.

The supermarket’s new vegan range, which is going on sale later this month, includes burgers with lookalike blood made from beetroot juice.

It is aimed not just at the UK’s 3.5 million vegans, but also the 22 million so-called flexitarians who want to reduce their meat consumption but still enjoy it occasionally.

The plan to sell plant-based products in the same section as real meat marks a landmark new approach. UK supermarkets have traditionally always sold vegan and vegetarian products such as Quorn in separate, dedicated sections.

But in the US, Beyond Meat’s highly successful plant-based products are regularly sold alongside meat, as was the firm’s vision.

Sainsbury’s said its new products will be made by Danish firm Naturli’ Foods, which has been a leader in the vegan food market since its launch in 1988.

Henrik Lund, the chief executive officer of Naturli’ Foods, told the Guardian: “We’ve developed this product assuming that many people want to eat plants instead of animals, but are afraid of compromising on flavour and maybe even missing out on their favourite dishes such as lasagne or burger patties.”

Elsewhere, Tesco is reportedly set to start selling frozen Beyond Burger patties this August, while Waitrose recently increased its vegan range by 60 per cent.

It comes after new research revealed cutting out meat and dairy products is the “single biggest way” to reduce your environmental impact on the Earth.

Oxford University scientists found that a vegan diet can reduce a person’s carbon footprint by up to 73 per cent, depending on where they live.

The study found that global farmland use could be cut by three quarters if everyone stopped eating meat and dairy – with enough food still produced to feed the world.

Joseph Poore, at the University of Oxford, UK, who led the research, said: “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use.

“It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car.”

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