Plant based, 7 out of 10 Italians buy alternative products to meat and milk
According to research by NielsenIq for Unione Italiana Food, one in two households consume vegetable seconds and 42% consume animal protein-free drinks
2' min read
2' min read
Seven out of 10 families (i.e. 17.7 million) consume plant-based products and almost one out of two families buy them on a regular basis. These are some of the trends in the plant-based market in Italy that emerge from the analysis commissioned by the Plant-based Products Group of Unione Italiana Food to the research institute NielsenIQ.
Put simply, these are those products created from vegetable ingredients to flank and at least partially replace the protein intake traditionally reserved for meat and cheese (and therefore not all vegetable products per se).
And the consensus - not only in Italy, where the market is worth 680 million - emerges towards each of the different product categories of this sector: according to the research, 13 million Italian households (51%) consume 'second vegetable products' - such as burgers, vegetable sliced meats or cheese substitutes, etc. - and do so once a week. - and do so once a week. While 10.7 million (42%) buy 'vegetable drinks'," NielsenIq noted. The number of households in which 'plant-based alternatives to yoghurt', i.e. 4.3 million (17%), or even 'plant-based ice creams and desserts', amounted to 3.4 million (13%).
"Plant-based products are children of our time and respond to a stated and perceived consumer need. They are not a mere fad, but express a clear trend," say NielsenIq, "meeting the new eating habits of Italians. They are chosen by families wishing to adopt a varied and balanced diet, in which the consumption of vegetable protein-based foods can flank and not replace that based on animal proteins.
Sonia Malaspina, President of the Vegetable Based Products Group of Unione Italiana Food, says: "Our companies respond to the conscious choices of consumers by bringing quality, versatile, good and easy-to-prepare products to the table. After all, foods such as aubergine meatballs, chickpea panelle or almond drinks, to name but a few, have always been part of our culinary culture'.
The 'non-occasional' purchasing households - about 12.2 million - are more concentrated in Northern Italy. They are people with an average age of about 25-54 years, living mainly in medium-sized households, where the purchasing manager is middle-aged (45-50 years) and with children aged 11 and over. They are looking for "food and beverages with guaranteed nutritional characteristics and taste". The identikit? "They are sporty, with multiple interests and a good affinity with the web. Critical and careful about what they eat, they read and inform themselves about what they buy and are very curious and open to new things".
