67% of Brazilians reduced their meat consumption in the last year

Motivations take into account issues related to health and price, and 47% intend to reduce their spending even further next year. Brazilians who already consider themselves flexitarians total 28%.

Research “The Brazilian Consumer and the Plant-Based Market 2022”, carried out by The Good Food Institute Brazil (GFI Brazil), shows that 67% of Brazilians reduced their meat consumption (beef, pork, poultry and fish) in the last 12 months, a significant increase of 17 percentage points compared to 2020. Of this total, 47% intend to reduce their consumption even further next year.

The 2022 survey reinforces many of the results found in the previous survey, published in 2020: the perception that Brazilians are more concerned about their health and that they seek to incorporate healthier options into their daily lives; the predominance of a diet focused on reducing, rather than completely eliminating, products of animal origin; and the increasingly frequent use of alternative plant-based proteins to replace products of animal origin. 

Price and health

The increase in the price of meat was the reason for 45% of Brazilians to reduce their consumption, but for another 36%, this reduction was motivated by health-related issues, such as improving digestion, reducing cholesterol or losing weight. When added to concerns about animals, the environment, influence from family members, and religious and spiritual reasons, we see that these issues motivated more than half (52%) of Brazilians to reduce their meat consumption in the last 12 months by their own choice.

The data shows that the intention of reducing meat intake is not something static or a habit that consumers intend to follow only temporarily. On the contrary: consumers who have already reduced their meat consumption, regardless of the initial reason, tend to want to maintain this lower level or reduce it even further. Even among Brazilians who started eating less meat due to the increase in prices, 33% say they want to reduce their intake even further in the next year, which indicates that most consumers are not interested in going back to eating meat at the same rate as before.

Flexitarianism and plant-based alternatives

Flexitarianism is a lifestyle that seeks to reduce, but not completely eliminate, the consumption of animal products. This group of consumers has been growing year after year in Brazil, and today, 28% of Brazilians already define themselves as flexitarians. Of these, 60% say they want to reduce their meat consumption even further in the next 12 months.

Consumption of Alternative Plant Proteins (plant based)

Plant-based alternatives are becoming more common on Brazilian tables: today, almost two out of three consumers (65%) consume some plant-based alternative (vegetables, grains, fruits) as a substitute for animal products at least once a week, while in 2020 this percentage was 59%. Among consumers who reduced their consumption of animal meat in the last 12 months, 34% replaced it solely or mainly with plant-based meats, while in 2020 this percentage was 25%. Among those who reduced their meat consumption in order to improve their health, 57% frequently use plant-based meat as a substitute.

If we take into account that the first analogue alternative emerged in Brazil in 2019 and consider all the challenges in the sector, the penetration of these products into the daily lives of Brazilians has become very significant. However, the survey showed that there are distribution challenges in the category. The survey found that 61% of consumers looked for some analogue plant-based alternative in the last six months, however, 53% did not find any of the items they were looking for and only 8% found all the analogue products they were looking for, either in physical supermarket stores or on delivery websites or apps, indicating that there is a pent-up demand for alternative plant-based proteins in the country, both in retail and in food service.

Alternative proteins, new technologies and ultra-processed foods

The survey also sought to understand the level of information and the type of perception that Brazilian consumers have about ultra-processed foods. The survey showed that the greater the level of information about ultra-processed foods, the greater the perception that these products, in general, are bad for health. However, 39% – a significant portion of consumers – believe that this depends on the manufacturing process and the ingredients used.

Among most Brazilian consumers, there is no direct association between analogous plant-based alternatives and ultra-processed foods, and almost half consider that the manufacturing process and ingredients are the factors that define whether a plant-based alternative is ultra-processed or not. Furthermore, 52% of respondents state that, when a food is ultra-processed, their purchasing decision is based on analyzing the nutritional table and/or the product's ingredients. The survey also found that 1 in 3 consumers are not at all concerned about whether the food is ultra-processed or not when purchasing it. 

About the Research “The Brazilian Consumer and the Plant-Based Market 2022”

Conducted by The Good Food Institute Brazil in partnership with Toluna, a global consumer research and insights company, the survey interviewed 2.500 people, men and women, aged 18 or over, from the ABC classes and from all regions of the country, through an online questionnaire applied from May 27 to June 1, 2022. Based on the results of the questionnaire, the team of experts at GFI Brazil produced complementary analyses that help to understand and contextualize the data. With funding from the companies ADM, GPA, Ingredion, Kerry, NotCo, N.OVO, Plant Plus Foods, R & S BLUMOS, Incrível!, Unilever and Vida Veg, the objective of the publication is to answer the main questions related to consumer behavior and the challenges of the alternative protein market.