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It’s interesting that alternative meat consumption in the U.S. is struggling but taking off in Europe. One thing I noticed after moving to the UK: alternative
by dmazin 1y ago
It’s interesting that alternative meat consumption in the U.S. is struggling but taking off in Europe.
One thing I noticed after moving to the UK: alternative milk is normalized here. Like, it’s so common to avoid milk that if you order coffee without specifying, you will be asked what kind of milk you want.
- account-5 1y agoWhat part of the UK does this happen in? I've never been asked this. I can only assume you're in London?
- dmazin 1y agoWoops, sorry, yes, this is in London. According to Good Food Institute (which is a plant-based food lobbying group), 35% of UK households purchased plant-based milk at least once during 2023 and 33% of UK households bought plant-based meat alternatives at least once during 2023. https://gfieurope.org/blog/plant-based-meat-and-milk-are-now-mainstream-choices-for-british-consumers/ https://gfieurope.org/blog/plant-based-meat-and-milk-are-now... For a less biased source, a 2022 ipsos poll found that 48% of the UK uses alternative milk and 58% " use at least one plant-based meat alternative in their diet". I think things dropped a bit since then due to cost of living crisis. https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/almost-half-uk-adults-set-cut-intake-animal-products https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/almost-half-uk-adults-set-cut-in...
- Adverblessly 1y ago> 35% of UK households purchased plant-based milk at least once during 2023 I'd estimate my household purchased ~200 litres of cow's milk in 2023. We also "purchased plant-based milk at least once" or twice when we had guests over that don't drink cow's milk.
- marliechiller 1y agoAs a counter, I cant remember the last time I wasn't asked what milk I'd prefer. In fact, I now prefer oat milk in coffee to regular milk
- karahime 1y agoHaving lived in both the US and Europe, I have to imagine at least some of that comes down to cost. In Europe, the plant based alternatives (at least where I lived) were actually cheaper, and meaningfully so.
- dmazin 1y agoInteresting, in Britain it's completely the opposite. Alternative milk is way more expensive.
- ffsm8 1y agoSame in Germany (~1€/l for milk, 2€/l for pretty much all milk replacements. You can obviously buy more expensive milk to, which would give it price parity... But there are also more expensive replacement products. On average, the replacement products cost about 50-100% more. The only way to save money via vegetarian meals is by making everything yourself and not the finished products from the supermarkets (at that point the relationship reverses - making meat meals about twice as expensive) And I feel the urge to point out the obvious: the reason why the vegetarian replacement products get ever more space in supermarkets is precisely because they've got a gigantic profit margin, whereas the "traditional" milk/meat products have razor thin margins
- vladvasiliu 1y ago> [profit margin] Sure, but if nobody buys them, a 1000% profit margin won't get them very far. So I think that it's a good enough indicator that more people are buying these products.
- danielbln 1y agoLidl has oat/soy milk for 99 cents, and the NoMilk clones for 1,50. In fact, Lidl had a respectable replacement line up now. If you only buy Alpro Milk then yeah, it's gonna be more expensive, but prices have come down tremendously, especially once the discounters hopped on that train.
- archi42 1y ago
- AStonesThrow 1y ago[dead]
- burnt-resistor 1y agoHere in hill country Texas, even Walmart sells MorningStar corn dogs. H-E-B carries most of the Impossible line including meatballs. I made some dirty rice with the IF ground "beef" and it was awesome. There's almost no oil in it, browning onions and peppers required adding some avocado oil (never use olive oil for high temperature cooking). PS: I'm a lazy vegetarian who will eat a real burger every few months. When vegan parm and swiss cheese get as good as the real stuff, then I'd go vegan.
- JoshTriplett 1y ago> There's almost no oil in the ground beef, so adding some avocado oil while browning onions and peppers was required. Their sausage works well for that, no added oil needed.
- burnt-resistor 1y agoRecipe called for ground beef. It was the most appropriate texture product for the recipe.
- messe 1y ago> never use olive oil for high temperature cooking This is a myth and needs to die. Olive oil is fine at high temperatures, even EVOO. https://www.seriouseats.com/cooking-with-olive-oil-faq-safety-flavor https://www.seriouseats.com/cooking-with-olive-oil-faq-safet...
- xeromal 1y ago350 degrees is not high temperature cooking. Stir fry for instance is 500+ degrees and even higher All this in F of course
- burnt-resistor 1y agoI do a lot of stir frying on high heat. Olive oil would create plastic-like compounds at these temperatures.
- cortesoft 1y agoI feel like most coffee shops here in California always ask what type of milk you want, too.
- t0mas88 1y agoIt's not all of the UK, you get asked in London, not in the countryside. Same in the Netherlands, you get asked in Amsterdam but not much outside. I guess San Francisco also has much more oatmilk latte's than rural villages
- adammarples 1y agoI don't know I've been in Bristol and Cornwall last week and was always asked. I guess you can extend that to anywhere they might reasonably expect a Londoner to turn up.
- twic 1y agoIt's more about the density of hipsters than Londoners per se. Lots of Londoners go to Canvey Island for a holiday, but you probably won't get oat milk there, because it's not that kind of Londoner. Bristol and the West Country are crawling with their own local hipsters. (actually, you probably will oat milk on Canvey, it really is everywhere now)
- AlecSchueler 1y ago> Bristol and the West Country are crawling with their own local hipsters. So it isn't only London then?
- Marciplan 1y agoIt’s very normalized in any of the medium to large cities in the Netherlands. (take “medium to large” with a grain of salt given that means population of 100k)
- rconti 1y agoObviously it depends on the venue. We visited many coffee shops on our recent trip through the Baltics and then across Ireland, and were always asked which of 6 "milk" options we wanted. On the other hand, we were staying in larger cities, stopping in towns along major transit routes, and going to the "kind of coffee shops" where you would expect such a thing.
- ricardobayes 1y agoSome high street chains already make some of their products with plant-based milk by default. I was shocked to hear the cow milk being an "option".
- low_common 1y agoI live in the US and it's normalized here as well. Not sure where you lived but there's ample variety of dairy alternatives that are offered at grocery stores, coffee shops, etc.
- j_timberlake 1y agoIt's just the prices. Normies here are never going to spend more to get an inferior-tasting thing. If it saves money though? Suddenly it's on their radar.