Ahold Delhaize, Aldi Nord, and Lidl are leading the race among European retailers to help people eat plant-rich diets as UK supermarket lag behind, according to new analysis.
The report from sustainable food NGO Madre Brava assessed the 15 largest European supermarket chains on the measures they have adopted to incentivise diets high in vegetables and other plant-based foods. This included three UK-based retailers: Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
The analysis found that all retailers have a target in place or will set one by the end of this year to reduce emissions from the food they sell, but just three have gone further and set targets to increase the share of vegetal protein sales, encompassing both wholefoods and plant-based products, and decrease the share of meat and dairy sales.
Albert Heijn, the largest food retailer in The Netherlands, has a target to achieve a 60% plant/40% animal protein split in The Netherlands by 2030. Ahold Delhaize, which owns Albert Heijn, said that by the end of 2024 all of its food retail brands in Europe will set targets to sell a higher proportion of plant proteins and less animal-sourced foods.
Aldi Nord has also committed to a 60/40 protein transition target by 2030 in The Netherlands, while Europe’s biggest supermarket chain, Lidl, has set public plant/animal protein split targets in six European countries – Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland – and has pledged that all other Lidl countries will set a concrete target to improve the plant/animal ratio.
Although some retailers have started to lead the transition to plant-rich diets, Madre Brava said “the protein transition has a long way to go”. None of the other major supermarkets has set a plant/animal protein split target albeit Carrefour and Tesco have committed to increase their plant-based sales alone, but not as a proportion of all protein sales. Tesco wants to triple its plant-based sales by 2025, compared with 2018.
Madre Brava noted that meat and dairy are the largest source of emissions in a supermarket’s operations and hence efforts to shift from animal to plant proteins are critical to achieving net-zero climate goals. It is calling on major retailers to set a 60% plant/40% animal protein split sales target by 2030 at group level and to lower the price of plant-based products to match those of conventional meat and dairy products.
Its analysis also assessed retailers on their scope 3 emissions reduction targets for the FLAG (forest, land and agriculture) sector. It found that all of the top 15 European retail groups have set a target, however only three – Rewe, Sainsbury’s and Tesco – have had their target verified by the Science-based targets initiative (SBTi).
