Over the last four years, NGO ProVeg International has completed two rounds of research with the Smart Protein Project to understand how consumer motivations and food choices are evolving.
The 2021 survey report, What Consumers Want, took a deep dive into consumer preferences and uncovered that European consumers are increasingly moving towards plant-based foods.
At the end of 2023, ProVeg completed another round of research to see how consumer behaviour has changed over the last three years. Its newly published pan-European survey, Evolving Appetites,[1] builds on the research published in 2021 and provides up-to-date insights and recommendations.
In the latest New Food Hub video, ProVeg’s Gemma Tadman and Elsa Guadarrama break down the key results and share invaluable advice for food and beverage businesses.
Health leads the way
“What do the results reveal?” says report lead research Elsa, “Well, people are shifting away from meat consumption – more than 50% of consumers from the survey are reducing their meat intake.”
But why are people reducing their consumption of animal products?
“Looking at the majority,” says Elsa in the interview, “we see that health continues to be the number one reason for meat reduction. This is followed by animal welfare and environmental concerns, but these concerns vary from country to country.”
Elsa continues: “For example, we see that the Netherlands and Germany are leading in terms of being concerned for the environment and are then reducing their meat intake. On the other hand, in Italy and Romania, there is less of a concern for consumers.”
Article Credit: vegconomist