In 2020, major UK supermarket chain Tesco set an ambitious target to increase its plant-based meat sales by 300% by 2025. But in a new sustainability report, the retailer has acknowledged that it is now “highly unlikely” to meet this goal, following the slowdown in sales of meat alternatives in recent years.
Compared to the baseline year, 2018, plant-based meat sales were up 130% by the year 2021/22. However, this declined to 94% for 2024/25, indicating a fall in sales.
Despite this, there is still interest in plant-based products — Tesco says it has seen a growing emphasis on protein diversity, with consumers turning to whole foods such as lentils, chickpeas, beans, nuts, seeds, and tofu. Increasingly, shoppers are seeking out veg-led dishes; these now represent 40% of all plant-based sales, according to retail analysts IRI/Circana*. This is equivalent to almost an extra 600,000 veg-led dishes sold by Tesco last year.
Tesco says it remains committed to reporting sales of plant-based proteins as a percentage of overall protein sales every year, in order to track its progress. The retailer claims to have been the first in the UK to share this information publicly when it began doing so in 2021.
“Vegetables are the star”
Tesco first announced in 2023 that it was planning to develop more veg-led options to reflect changing trends. The following year, the retailer said it was seeing a second phase of the plant-based revolution, with rising sales of less processed products such as tofu and tempeh along with growing interest in certain meat alternatives like plant-based steaks, chicken breasts, and fish.
In late 2024, Tesco revealed it would be prioritising veg-led options again as part of its plant-based Christmas range, offering products such as seeded roasts and a butternut wellington.
“Eating more plant-based proteins is recommended by the NHS Eatwell Guide,” says Tesco in the new sustainability report. “Many of our customers
who are interested in plant-based foods are turning to veg-led dishes, where vegetables are the star, rather than relying on meat alternatives. These dishes inspire and make it easy for customers to incorporate more vegetables into their diets.”
*Data 41 weeks to 12 October 2024 versus the previous year
