Millions Of Brits Plan To Go Meat-free This Year

Currently, 14% of adults (7.2 million) in the UK are following a meat-free diet.

8.8 million people across the UK plan to become vegetarian, vegan or pescatarian over the next 12 months - the highest figure recorded by shopping comparison site finder.com's annual UK Diet Trends research in the 4 years. 

Overall, there was a net gain of 105,000 people who have started to follow meat-free diets in the UK throughout 2021.

The diet that gained the most recruits in 2021 was vegetarianism, with 130,000 people joining the cause, while 52,000 people took up veganism. However, these gains were offset by a decrease of almost 79,000 pescatarians. It’s worth noting that some of these people may have been pescatarians who also gave up meat in 2021 though.

At the beginning of 2022, the most popular meat-free diet remains vegetarianism, with 3.3. million followers. Pescetarianism still has 2.4 million people who observe the diet, while veganism has 1.6 million. This means that 14% of adults (7.2 million) in the UK are following a meat-free diet

A further 4 million people are following a different type of diet outside of the top three, suggesting some are branching out to trending sub categories such as flexitarian. 

Brits are once again optimistic about cutting meat out of their diets in 2022.

While finder’s previous research suggests it is very unlikely that everyone will stick to these intentions, if they did, the UK would have a total of 16 million meat-free citizens at the beginning of 2023.

There is a clear age divide when it comes to views on eating meat. Gen Z’ers (aged 18 to 23) are the most likely to avoid meat already (25%) and plan on giving it up (30%). 

Millennials are not far behind, currently 18% follow a meat-free diet and they could be joined by an additional 26% throughout 2022. 9.6% are already following a different type of diet outside the main three meat free diets. 

While just 1 in 10 (11%) of aged 74+ avoid meat and only 5% plan to do so in 2022.

Commenting on the findings, Reemul Balla, shopping specialist at finder.com, said: “Although the number of people who turned meat-free has dropped significantly last year, this year’s findings still show that adopting a veggie diet continues to remain popular across the country.

“Meat-free diets and being ‘flexitarian’ are getting more media exposure than ever so you would expect these positive trends to continue growing. However it’s important to be savvy and shop around to make sure you’re not falling into traps with overpriced specialty products. A little bit of research and intuitiveness in the kitchen can go a long way. It will also be worth keeping an eye on how much inflation has spiked food prices this year”