Tesco Goes Big on Whole Foods As Veg-Led Meals Make Up 40% of Plant-Based Sales

At Tesco, vegetable-centric dishes take precedence over those featuring vegan meat alternatives, with the former accounting for 40% of the supermarket’s plant-based sales.

On Whole Foods Market’s annual trends report for 2024, the retailer had identified “Putting the ‘plant’ back in ‘plant-based'” as a key direction for the vegan industry.

A year on, the prophecy seems to have materialised across both brands and supermarkets, with the number of whole-food plant-based options hiking as consumers look to incorporate more fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and the like in their diets.

But this trend isn’t just constrained to the US – it has decidedly gone international. Take the UK’s largest retailer, Tesco, which has noticed a significant increase in shoppers’ appetite for plant-rich options that spotlight pulses, nuts, seeds and vegetable-based ingredients.

Vegetables dominate Tesco’s vegan Christmas meals

Vegetable-led foods now make up 40% of all plant-based sales at Tesco now, according to data from IRI/Circana. In the 41 weeks to October 12, the supermarket sold almost an extra 600,000 veg-forward dishes, compared to the same period last year.

Building on this, Tesco commissioned a survey of over 6,300 Brits, which found that over 27% of respondents will serve or consider prioritising meat-free meals as part of their Christmas menu this year.

“There is a growing appetite from plant-based shoppers to try products that are plant-rich as well as from flexitarians now wanting to take more control over what they eat, whilst continuing to reduce their meat intake,” said Fay Hasnip, plant-based product development manager at Tesco.

“With that in mind, we’ve crafted our finest ever plant-based offering this festive season that we believe will surprise and delight all at the Christmas dinner table,” she added.

The vegan Christmas menu is heavy on the vegetables, including a vegetable and cranberry star, featuring roasted butternut squash and parsnip with cranberry and chestnuts wrapped in puff pastry, as well as a butternut squash wellington with roasted shallot and mushroom duxelles.

There’s also a roast made from a blend of chestnuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, alongside kale, mushroom and a port gravy; a mushroom, butternut squash and chestnut wreath with lentils, red onion and brown rice; as well as vegan No-Prawn Tempura made with king oyster mushrooms and jackfruit.

In addition, Tesco’s vegetarian Christmas offering includes a spanakopita with hot honey, and a winter vegetable and three-cheese pithivier.

Whole food focus complements ‘phase two’ of plant-based movement

The whole-food-forward Christmas focus follows the launch of Tesco’s Root & Soul ready meal range in May, which is all about the veg. The labelling of the products showcases this intent, with the retailer listing out the vegetables, grains and pulses on the packaging, instead of traditional dish names.

“Everyone knows they need to eat more vegetables, and, while there’s a place for ‘meat mimics’, Root & Soul is all about delicious vegetable centrepieces,” Tesco executive chef Jamie Robinson told the Guardian in April. “We absolutely want to drive the agenda on making veg super tasty.”

The produce-centric meals also play into Tesco’s plans to increase sales of healthy products to 65% of its total by 2025 (by the end of 2023, it got to 60%). A 2,000-person survey by the retailer in December 2023 found that 46% of Brits were eating more vegetables than they did five years ago, with 47% doing so deliberately. By far, the major driving factor was health (81%).

These results were complemented by a growth in Tesco’s plant-based sales in the first three months of the year, driven in large part by whole foods. “We are seeing flexitarians now wanting to take more control over what they eat, whilst continuing to reduce their meat intake,” Tesco’s plant-based food buyer, Cate May, said in March.

“Awareness is also starting to increase around the health benefits of making some simple swaps in their diet, for example, to reduce saturated fat whilst maintaining strong levels of protein by increasing the amount of plants and plant-based foods in their diets and then supplementing with more fresh veg.”

The success of vegan food earlier this year led the retailer to dub the period as phase two of the “biggest food trend this century”. Echoing that theme, Hasnip said: “The plant-based revolution is so far the biggest food trend to have taken place this century and right now with chefs in this space creating and celebrating the diversity and deliciousness of plants, it is piquing the interest of plant-curious consumers.”