Back in May, we reported that the Netherlands consumes the most meat-substitutes per capita of any country in Europe, so it might not be such a surprise to find that 42% of Dutch society is trying to cut back on meat and dairy intake.
However, whilst this makes the Netherlands the most flexitarian of all EU countries it does not mean that we have the most vegetarians here. Only 5% of Dutch residents identify as vegetarian, and just 2% identify as vegan. This compares to Germany where 10% of people are vegan and vegetarian, followed by the UK in which 9% of people say they’re vegan and vegetarian.
In complete contrast, Poland had the highest amount of omnivores making up 68% of respondents, followed closely by Italy’s 67%. Overall, 37% of Europeans in the 10 countries surveyed (Italy, the UK, Spain, Poland, Romania, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Austria) said that they were flexitarians. So, it seems that Europeans are enthusiastic about reducing their meat intake, with 46% of respondents saying that they intended to eat less meat in the future and 30% of respondents saying that they wanted to reduce their dairy intake.
The survey was conducted by The Smart Protein Project and supported by the EU, and it makes for very interesting reading. If you’d like to download the full report then you can do so on the website.