Meat getting the chop as our tastes change

AUSSIES are putting meat on the backburner as they turn away from traditional fleshfilled feasts to become vegetarian or just cut down consumption radically.

Supermarket sales of beef, lamb and chicken all dropped last year, with only pork making gains because of heavy discounting and marketing.

“There are obviously those social pressures and other consumer trends in the market such as health, and some of the ethical questions as well in terms of welfare of animals that have played a part,” Ra- bobank senior animal proteins analyst Angus Gidley-Baird said.

Nielsen Homescan data, revealed sales of beef, chicken and lamb all declined slightly in the year to December 2017, with pork being the only meat to buck the trend.

Fresh beef was still the most popular meat with Australian shoppers, making up 28 per cent of sales in the year to March 2018.

This was followed by processed meat at 22 per cent, fresh chicken at 20 per cent, and fresh pork, lamb and other meat all at 10 per cent each.

Nielsen retail associate di- rector Chanel Day observed that in 2017 more than 25 per cent of Australians over the age of 14 said they were restricting fat-heavy foods, while the number of people claiming their diets were mainly vegetarian jumped 10 per cent from 2.8 million in 2016 to 3.1 million.