Three global organizations, ProVeg International, WWF, and the Green Protein Alliance, are urging retailers to set targets for a 60% plant and 40% animal protein split in their sales to support healthy, sustainable diets aligned with the Planetary Health Diet by EAT-Lancet.
The Planetary Health Diet suggests that the split between plant-based and animal-based foods should be 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 organizations highlight retailers as “pivotal” in enabling societies to transition to sustainable diets and setting industry standards for measuring and achieving protein rebalancing. They encourage retailers to track progress toward these protein split targets to promote a comprehensive shift toward plant-based consumption.
“In countries where animal-source foods are overconsumed, food retailers can lead the way by rebalancing their product offerings”
The call comes as Lidl became the first retailer in the UK to set a protein split target this week: 25% of its total protein sales must be plant-based by 2030. The supermarket chain has also committed to doubling the proportion of plant-based protein sales from dairy alternatives in the same period.
Mariella Meyer, Senior Manager of Sustainable Markets at WWF, commented: “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.”
Tracking protein sales
According to ProVeg International, consumer dietary preferences are shifting toward plant-centric diets, with significant percentages of people in Germany (59%), France (57%), and the UK (48%) reducing their meat consumption, according to a ProVeg Corporate report.
Following consumer trends, many retailers have reset their protein sales targets, and 90% of Dutch food retailers are already tracking their protein split using the “Protein Tracker” methodology, a tool developed by the Green Protein Alliance and ProVeg Netherlands.
The protein tracker data helps retailers develop targeted strategies to shift the balance of protein sales within a time frame. For example, the Dutch retailer Jumbo is working to achieve a 50/50 protein sales split by 2025 by discontinuing promotions on animal-based meat products, thereby encouraging more plant-based purchases. Simultaneously, Lidl Netherlands is experimenting with placing plant-based meat on traditional meat shelves and lowering the prices of plant-based dairy to facilitate its 60/40 target by 2030.
“Establishing a standardized approach for measuring the protein split will pave the way for a comprehensive understanding of the shift toward healthier, more sustainable food systems”
Meanwhile, in the UK, retailers, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Coop, M&S, Lidl, and Aldi, representing over 80% of the major UK supermarkets, use the ‘WWF Basket’ methodology to report protein-source food sales. Retailers in Belgium, Germany, and Austria have also adopted similar methodologies to track their protein split goals, says ProVeg.
Joanna Trewern, Director of Partnerships at ProVeg International, said: “Retailers play a pivotal role in ensuring that societies shift to healthy, sustainable diets. Establishing a standardized 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.”
Protein transition for a healthy planet
Switching to more plant-based diets could yield substantial public health and animal welfare benefits and significantly reduce global GHG emissions by 2050, especially in high-income countries, which are the biggest meat and dairy consumers.
Animal agriculture plays a significant role, producing large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, specifically carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. These emissions fuel climate change, while animal farming degrades the environment with excessive land use, the main driver of biodiversity loss.
Jeroen Willemsen, founder of the Dutch Green Protein Alliance, said, “Setting goals and tracking progress has proven to be effective in the Dutch protein transition. 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.”
