New categories of nutritional behavior?
Almost every child knows what a dinosaur is. Adults are more likely to know what a vegetarian is. But to find out what a flexitarian is, you probably need to have studied agricultural and nutritional science.
In the search for nutritional behavior in connection with meat consumption, agricultural scientists have launched a representative survey to provide information on the size of social groups and their potential market share in terms of meat and non-meat consumption. Four groups have been identified.
Vegetarians and vegans with zero meat consumption should be estimated at around 3.5%. That is a doubling within the last 7 years. The different eating habits within this group were not examined further.
The group of "carefree" meat eaters was found to be around 75%. This included 2% who said they would eat more meat in the future. Around 13% stated that they would eat more meat if it were cheaper.
In a third group, those respondents were filtered out who stated that they would be prepared to eat less meat but would not want to give up meat consumption. Their number is less than 10 %. This group was referred to as "meat eaters willing to cut back".
A fourth group was christened "flexitarians" with a calculated share of just over 11%. These are occasional meat eaters who flexibly adjust their behavior according to certain periods of their lives, depending on the season and the current opportunity.
The trend towards reduced meat consumption continues. Around 60% of respondents said they wanted to eat less meat. However, such survey results must be put into perspective, as there are considerable differences between declarations of intent and actual consumption behavior.
Nevertheless, it can be assumed that meat consumption will continue to decline. This is due to the shrinking population, the growing proportion of older people with lower nutritional requirements, increasingly nutrition-conscious behavior and, to a lesser extent, more people with convictions.
