Emily Armistead
19
May
2025
Two reports caught my eye recently.
First Commitment Issues, an excellent audit of UK supermarkets’ climate and sustainability commitments by Feedback Global and the Food Foundation. It shows that British retailers have collectively made a staggering 600 commitments over the past 10 years.
These, Feedback says, are fragmented, inconsistent and poorly enforced. It criticised retailers for a lack of transparent reporting making it harder for companies to be held account. Feedback, amongst others in the UK, is calling on the government to introduce mandatory reporting on retailers and food companies around climate targets and healthy and sustainable diets as part of the upcoming National Food Strategy.
Tesco misses target
As if to highlight Feedback’s argument that retailers are failing to meet their promises, Tesco has revealed that it is not going to meet its commitment to increase plant-based meat sales by 300% by 2025. The company says health-conscious consumers are turning more to wholefoods and dishes where vegetables are the star and away from meat analogues. Veg-led foods, says Tesco, now make up 40% of plant based sales.
Tesco’s news aligns with a trend of a tapering in the sales of plant-based meats in the UK, as previously reported by the Good Food Institute. And whilst we should celebrate that consumers are keen to eat whole food proteins and veg-based meals, there’s a few things to highlight here in terms of a path forward for Tesco and other UK retailers.
Most critically is that voluntary commitments still have a role in helping shift our food system. But these need to be well-designed, resourced and backed up with a timebound strategy.
It is now widely accepted that setting targets for increasing the share of plant vs animal proteins by volume is the best pathway towards improving diets for health and climate. Such targets (like the one set by Lidl GB last year) could be met by both increases in sales of vegetal and wholefood sources of protein, as well as plant based meat alternatives.
Once targets are set, retailers need a proper strategy to ensure they are met and be iterating their approach as they learn more about consumer preferences and as trends change. It’s not clear the extent to which Tesco missing the plant-based sales target was out of the company’s control or whether it could have done more to promote plant-based meats (via marketing, deals and price parity for example) and by educating customers on how to use them.
Changing tastes
Retailers should capitalise on consumers' appetite for wholefoods and veg, reformulating ready meals to include more of these to increase share of plant proteins. Since consumption of ready-meals is on the rise in the UK, making them more healthy and full of veg is a no-brainer.
But we can’t give up on plant-based meat alternatives. Despite some consumers’ concern about UPFs, plant-based foods with the taste and texture of meat can still be a gateway for many consumers into diets richer in plants and lighter on meat.
A core pillar of Tesco and other retailers’ sustainability plans are targets to meet their indirect (Scope 3) emissions reductions. (Scope 3 emissions make up about 98% of retailers’ emissions). Recent research conducted by Madre Brava with BCG Consultancy, Quantis, showed that increasing the share of plant protein sales to animals remains the quickest and most cost-effective way to meet these emissions reduction targets.
So whilst I’d applaud Tesco for its transparency in recognising that it won’t make its (perhaps knee-jerk) plant based sales target, it begs the question, what will Tesco do instead?
It can’t step back from efforts to support customers to eat diets higher in veg protein and lighter in meat. It needs to learn from failure, as well as its European peers and lead the UK in setting meaningful protein targets, with an ambitious strategy to meet them.
