Understanding meat reduction in young adults
Background
We wanted to explore the experience of young adults transitioning towards a flexitarian diet, including their motivations, strategies they employed, and barriers that they faced. Market research indicates that a growing number of consumers across the globe including New Zealand, Australia, Europe, and the United States identify with a flexitarian diet. As consumers are more likely to reduce their meat consumption rather than eliminate it, a flexitarian diet is seen as a more plausible and aspirational diet compared to veganism or vegetarianism. Young adults in particular are reported to be the largest market segment transitioning towards flexitarianism.
Approach
We adopted a mixed-methods approach to gain detailed qualitative consumer insight into the experiences of young adults transitioning towards a reduced meat diet. Our participants were aged 18 to 35 and all actively trying to cut down their consumption of red meat. Participants were asked to complete a food diary for seven days before a 60 to 120-minute in-depth interview. During the interview, food diaries were used to facilitate discussion about dietary habits, and participants were guided through a body mapping exercise to explore their relationship with meat. After transcribing the interviews, we used thematic analysis to identify the main themes discussed by participants.
Outcomes
Out of this research, we identified four central themes that underpinned young adults’ experiences in transitioning towards flexitarianism. These included control, compromise, cravings, and concern:
Young adults perceive flexitarianism as affording them a sense of control over their diet as they transition out of the family home. Upon reaching this milestone, young adults begin experimenting with their cooking as they gain support from peers to adopt new dietary behaviours that were not accepted at home.
Young adults felt they needed to compromise by reducing, rather than eliminating, their meat consumption. This was due to social norms and not wanting to be perceived as difficult at social gatherings—leading to flexitarianism, not vegetarianism or veganism, being their goal.
Young adults experienced cravings due to enjoying the taste of meat and struggling with conflicting emotions and attitudes. For example, feeling guilty because they enjoyed the taste of a sausage while being aware of how it was made.
Young adults are motivated to adopt flexitarianism due to their concerns over the consequences of producing and consuming meat. These concerns were centred on the negative environmental, animal welfare, and health outcomes they learned about through peers and social media.
Recommendations
We identified four key recommendations for stakeholders such as manufacturers, retailers, policymakers, and social marketers wanting to encourage meat reduction:
Encourage limitation, substitution, and modification strategies to reduce red meat consumption. This can include reducing the portion size of red meat within a meal, increasing the portion size of vegetables and plant-based proteins—such as lentils, legumes, and tofu, and substituting with plant-based ‘meats’ for those less confident with cooking plant-based recipes.
Provide information and resources to increase competency and confidence in cooking with less or no meat. This can include offering community cooking classes, recipes, in-store demonstrations, substitution ideas (i.e., ‘easy swaps’), and nutritional information.
Leverage social settings and networks to raise awareness of the benefits of flexitarianism and to model reduced meat-eating practices. This can include using influencers to create and share content, producing documentaries, organising events that showcase low and meat-free eating, and partnering with food service providers to enable consumers to try dishes with little or no meat with their peers.
Centre ‘not all or nothing’ framing in commercial or social marketing campaigns to show consumers they can reduce their meat consumption without having to eliminate meat entirely.
Want to learn more about this study? You can access our published paper in Appetite or contact me to chat about how you can utilise these insights in your marketing strategy or intervention.
