UK Meat-free and Free-from Food Sales Set to Top £1 Billion
Proving it is not a fad, the meat-free and free-from foods market in the UK has experienced robust growth since 2007, with the market seeing a 39% increase in the past five years alone, reports Mintel. And there seems to be no limit to this growth, with sales set to reach £1.02 billion in 2013. Meat-free and free-from sales are expected to reach a total of £949 million in 2012 with meat-free sales set to reach £607 million and free-from market sales expected to reach £342 million. Almost four in ten (38%) Brits have bought vegetarian or meat-free food, while one in five (20%) have bought free-from food.
Amy Price, Senior Food and Drink Analyst at Mintel, says: “The meat-free segment has benefited from a more mainstream positioning than free-from foods, with around one in ten Brits avoiding red meat as part of a healthy lifestyle. However, it is the free-from market which has been driving overall growth, benefiting from increased awareness and diagnosis among allergy sufferers and those self-diagnosing. Free-from has also benefited from a surge in new product development by the specialist brands and own-label players, an increase in merchandising space in-store and endorsement from celebrities as far and wide as Bill Clinton, Kim Kardashian and Andy Murray.”
Mintel’s exclusive consumer research finds today as many as 15% of all Brits choose to keep red meat out of their diet and the majority of which are avoiding red meat for health and lifestyle reasons (13%). Indeed, just 2% of consumers avoid it because they have an allergy or intolerance.
Dairy is the single most avoided food type because of allergies and intolerance. Almost one in ten (8%) Brits give all products containing dairy (for example – dairy, lactose and cow’s milk and cow’s milk products) a wide berth. A further 7% avoid dairy for health and lifestyle reasons. Meanwhile, a greater number of consumers avoid fish or shellfish as part of a general healthy lifestyle (6%) than those who are avoiding it because of an allergy or intolerance (4%). Overall, 8% avoid wheat, 9% avoid gluten, 9% poultry and 8% nuts.
