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Leading UK supermarket Sainsbury’s will soon be selling vegetarian and vegan meat alternatives alongside animal meat at its butcher counter.
Sainsbury’s supermarket has reported that sales of meat are falling, whilst sales of vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives are booming in stores.
So much so, that from Sunday (4th February) the retailer will be stocking vegan and vegetarian meats in 20 of its stores to test demand.
Products set to sit alongside meat, poultry and fish in the butcher counter and aisle will include 26 meat and fish alternative products such as the supermarkets Love Veg! Vegan Chorizo Shroomdogs, and juicy Sainsbury’s Love Veg! Jackfruit Quarter Pounders.
Plant-based buyer, James Hamilton, told the Telegraph the decision comes as a result of declining of meat across the industry: “We were looking at as a business the challenge we face in the future, if we sell less and less meat what do you backfill it with. So we are supplementing our ranges with alternative proteins and plant-based ranges. We are interested to see what happened.”
The supermarket claims to have witnessed an 82 per cent increase in customers searching for vegan products online year on year, and a 65 per cent increase in sales of plant-based products year-on-year, as customers increasingly opt for meat-free meals.
Speaking to news outlet i, a spokesperson for Sainsbury’s said: “We’re seeing increasing demand for plant-based products, and with the unstoppable rise of ‘flexitarianism’ in the UK, we are exploring further ways to make popular meat-free options more accessible.
“Through this trial, we hope that by placing meat-alternatives within their own dedicated bay in our meat, fish and poultry aisles, our customer’s shopping experience will become even more seamless”.
