The new product, consisting of 60% ground beef and 40% pea protein, aims to reduce environmental impact while offering customers a familiar taste at a lower cost: it has a 37.5% lower carbon footprint and is 33% cheaper than traditional ground meat.
European Retail giant Lidl has launched a new product for the Dutch Market that combines 60 percent ground beef with 40 percent pea protein – and claims to be the first supermarket in the country to offer a partially plant-based ground beef option.
The new product is now available in all Lidl stores across the country
Netherlandsaims to reduce environmental impact — the hybrid minced meat mixture has a 37.5 percent lower carbon footprint than ground beef – and offers customers the familiar taste of beef at a lower price: Lidl sells 300-gram packs of the meat mixture for 2.29 euros – 33 percent cheaper than conventional minced meat.
Lidl has decided to innovate due to the popularity of minced meat: half of the Dutch eat minced meat every week, Institute for the Future of FoodIt is also a popular product among families with children.
Photo credit: Lidl Netherlands
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“I am proud of the product we have developed: a classic meat product in a new guise,” says Lidl buyer Geert de Vries“With this minced meat mixture you can make the most delicious pasta Bolognese – but also a classic meatball. The taste is the same, but the environmental impact and price are lower. It took quite a long time to develop. We wanted to develop a minced meat mixture that contains less meat but retains the taste. I dare say that even for the real meat lover, this minced meat mixture is indistinguishable from normal minced meat.”
Price reduction for plant-based staple foods
Lidl has set a goal for plant-based proteins to account for 60 percent of its protein sales by 2030. In addition to this initial hybrid meat offering, the retailer has also introduced a permanent price reduction on plant-based staples – including Meat substitute And Milk substitute
such as plant-based quark, yoghurt, cheese and oat fraîche – which now cost the same or less than their animal-based counterparts, so price is never an obstacle for shoppers to opt for the more sustainable choice.
“Lidl is taking two important steps,” says Martine van HaperenHealth and nutrition expert at Proveg Netherlands“Price is the main barrier to people choosing plant-based products more often. The move to offer plant-based products at the same price or cheaper than meat and dairy removes this barrier.
“Also, not everyone wants to eat meat substitutes or pulses. By introducing a hybrid product, just in the meat section, they are really appealing to the meat eater – they don’t even have to change their consumption habits. This is a valuable addition that really gives Lidl the opportunity to influence the protein content.”
Changing customer habits
There is a global shift towards more plant-based diets – with a significant growth in sales of plant-based foods in Latin America,
Asia
and the US. Between 2020 and 2022, plant-based food sales increased by 20 percent across Europe; around a quarter of European shoppers will choose at least one dairy alternative and one meat alternative in their regular grocery shopping. Among Dutch consumers in particular, research found an increased willingness to try new food products such as cultured meat; and sales of meat alternatives in the foodservice sector in the Netherlands more than doubled between 2021 and 2023.
“We are pleased that Lidl has decided to actively promote plant-based foods by both reducing the prices of the products and developing a mixed minced meat that reduces the CO2 emissions of pure minced meat,” says Jasmin de Booglobal managing director at
ProVeg International – a nutrition awareness organisation with a mission to replace 50 percent of animal products worldwide with plant-based and cultivated foods by 2040, which has previously worked with Lidl on social media campaigns to promote plant-based alternatives.
“Switching to a more plant-based diet is crucial if we are to successfully stabilise carbon emissions and halt the loss of habitat and biodiversity worldwide. Supermarkets have a big role to play here and Lidl has shown what can be done to encourage this shift. We call on other supermarket chains to compete with Lidl in promoting plant-based food.”
With this plant-based diet initiative, Lidl joins other European retailers taking creative measures to encourage healthier and more climate-friendly shopping choices: In 2022 Danish Retailers Coop
began an ambitious initiative to reduce 50 percent of its Scope 3 emissions related to food production by changing customer behavior. A pilot project included labeling 2,200 of the most climate-friendly products
in stores to show customers the “most impactful” climate choices in a number of popular product categories. Through the “climate journey” through the store – which gave shoppers nudges to buy, such as “more green and less red meat” and other more climate-friendly choices – Coop reported a remarkable
14 percent reduction in the overall climate impact of purchasing decisions in all categories in six months, as well as a 67 percent reduction In Food waste.