Meat and dairy outperform alternatives this Veganuary

This was driven by a fall in vegetable-based product sales, such as bean burgers, rather than meat imitation products (like Quorn), as vegetable-based products saw a -12.4% decline year-on-year. This is in stark contrast to meat, fish and poultry (MFP) which saw volume growth of 1.4%.

Similarly, sales of plant-based dairy products decreased, with cow’s dairy outperforming plant-based equivalents (NIQ Panel on Demand Homescan Latest 4 Wks – w/e 25/01/25).

This weaker performance is likely due to declining engagement in Veganuary according to Google searches, and only a small proportion of the population taking part, which according to research by AHDB was 5.65% this year (YouGov/AHDB February 2025).

Of those who took part, 1.29% are vegan all year round, 2.30% completed Veganuary and 2.06% did not. Of those who managed to maintain a vegan diet for the entire month, 39% stated they are not going to continue with the diet beyond January.

Figure 1. Google Trends – Interest in Veganuary over the last five years

Source: Google Trends 24 February 2025

Search interest in Veganuary has been falling; in 2024, there were only half as many searches for the term via Google compared with the peak in 2020.

Meat-free and meat, fish and Poultry performance

Figure 2. Meat-free volume change over time

Source: Kantar 52 w/e 26 January 2025

According to Kantar, meat-free product has seen a decline in volumes sold on promotion year-on-year (-9.1%), which, along with high inflation, is likely to have contributed to its performance.

It is a similar story for lamb and beef, which have also seen price increases; this has negatively influenced volumes sold during January. However, volume gains for pork, poultry and fish outweigh this reduction, resulting in overall category growth (Kantar 4 w/e 26 January 2025).

Meat imitation products performed well (spend growth 12.9%, volume growth 3.7%); however, it is the only meat-free category to see both these increases, and we do not expect this to continue into February, as historically (2021–2024) there has been an average decline in volume of -22.5% from January to February (Kantar 4 w/e 26 January 2025).

Dairy and dairy-free performance

The volume of plant-based dairy sales decreased in January, with plant-based cheese seeing the largest declines in both spend (-25.6%) and volume (-30.6%) (NIQ Panel on Demand Homescan Latest 4 Wks – w/e 25/01/25).

A new trend is plant-based spreads declining faster than cow’s butter, spreads and margarines, with fewer buyers compared to a year ago despite price decreases and more promotional (NIQ Panel on Demand Homescan Latest 4 Wks – w/e 25/01/25).

Overall, the data shows that cow’s dairy products are performing better than plant-based dairy alternatives (NIQ Panel on Demand Homescan Latest 4 Wks – w/e 25/01/25).

Opportunities and recommendations

Over the years, Veganuary has garnered less attention, with an obvious impact on alternatives' sales.

Continued promotion of the benefits of meat and dairy products being part of a healthy, balanced diet and a natural source of vitamin B12 is important to the continued success of British meat and dairy products.

It is also important to ensure the categories keep up with current trends, such as convenience and health, by inspiring people to use British meat and dairy in tasty and convenient meals, for example via our Let’s Eat Balanced campaign.

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