Author: Tom Walters

In our monthly series, Window on Europe, we consider the best policy ideas coming from the continent, and draw out lessons for the United Kingdom. In this piece, Tom Walters studies the Netherlands’ protein transition towards more sustainable sources. You can keep up to date with these articles and IEEP UK’s other work by subscribing to our monthly newsletter.

Thanks to joint efforts from NGOs, policymakers and supermarkets, the Netherlands has emerged as a leader in the transition from animal to plant-based proteins. The Dutch Government became the first in Europe to set a non-binding 50:50 target for plant to animal protein consumption by 2030. Alongside this, the development of common reporting and monitoring mechanisms has encouraged all retailers to work towards these, with some signing up to more ambitious targets.

The Protein Transition

There are many potential environmental benefits from shifting towards greater consumption of plant proteins and reducing demand for meat and dairy products. Meat and dairy production also requires substantial amounts of land, with some studies estimating that livestock accounts for around three-quarters of global agricultural land use, while providing just 37% of the world’s protein supply. A significant share of the protein-rich crops produced globally, particularly in the USA and Latin America, are used to feed livestock rather than being consumed directly by people. In the EU, for example, around 70% of the crude protein from cereals, oilseeds and pulses produced and consumed is used for animal feed. Europe is also heavily dependent on imports for some of these crops: only around a quarter of the protein supplied by oilseeds and protein crops is sourced within the EU.

Shifting the balance towards proteins consumed directly from plant sources could have environmental benefits beyond reducing emissions associated with livestock production. By reducing demand for animal feed and the land required to produce it, such a shift has the potential to relieve pressure on forests and other ecosystems, free up land for other uses, and reduce some of the environmental impacts associated with international agricultural supply chains.

However, in the context of polarized debates around eating and producing less (but better) meat and increasing the market for alternatives, policy makers and politicians have been nervous to be seen to tell people what to eat, even if it means they risk falling short of their own climate and environmental targets.

Dutch Courage

The Netherlands has emerged as a leader in the transition towards greater plant-protein consumption. Its experience provides a useful route map for how the transition can develop: a focus on retailer action, NGOs coming together around a shared aim, gaining political support and establishing a common approach to measurement and reporting.

The focus on working with retailers is notable as it is a relatively consolidated market and a point at which focusing energy can arguably make a huge difference in shifting supply chains alongside consumer purchases. An important early step in the Netherlands was bringing organisations together behind a common agenda, rather than a disparate set of ‘asks’. The Dutch Green Protein Alliance (GPA) united businesses and other organisations seeking to accelerate the shift towards plant-based protein, while NGOs including ProVeg and Natuur & Milieu helped build wider pressure for action. This collective effort led to some retailers voluntarily adopting targets and reporting on progress. Crucially though these commitments were cemented when Dutch Government supported this by introducing its own reporting of supermarket commitments and practice. Whilst not mandatory the Government involvement effectively encouraged a level playing field with most supermarkets engaging. The GPA were able to influence the Dutch Government in shaping the country’s National Protein Strategy (2020) which focused on promoting a more plant-based diet and discouraging the importation of plant proteins for animal feed. More significantly, in 2022 the Dutch Government adopted the GPA’s original goal, first set in 2017, of achieving a 50:50 balance between animal and plant protein consumption.

Reporting Infrastructure

A significant part of the journey has involved developing the infrastructure needed to establish where retailers are starting from and whether they are making progress. The Dutch case study is an excellent example of the importance of reporting mechanisms, something now promoted at a Europe-wide level by Plant-Rich Europe, whereby measuring plant to animal protein ratios then provides a much stronger base for reporting, and, of course, action.

In The Netherlands, considerable work has gone into establishing credible and comparable ways of measuring the balance between plant and animal proteins sold by supermarkets. Two related reporting mechanisms have emerged. The Eiweet methodology, developed through collaboration by GPA and ProVeg provides a harmonised method for calculating retailers’ protein splits. This allows supermarkets to measure their starting point and track changes consistently over time. The Protein Tracker (its international English title) has reported on the status and progress of large supermarket chains in The Netherlands since 2023 and now covers 95% of the market. Alongside this, the Dutch Government has produced its own Sustainability Dashboard, which brings protein-transition performance into a wider public assessment of supermarket sustainability.

Together, these mechanisms have helped move the debate from broad aspirations towards measurable performance. Common reporting makes progress visible, enables accurate comparison between retailers and promotes accountability. It can also encourage a degree of competition. Retailers that make progress can demonstrate leadership, while those that do not participate or fall behind are more readily identifiable. Major Dutch supermarkets have gone further, with many committing to achieving a 60:40 split in favour of plant proteins by 2030.

Bold Public Policy

A key factor in the success of the Dutch’s progress on reporting, measuring and encouraging action on the protein transition has been the involvement of policy makers.  Stakeholders have described the period between 2015 and 2019 as particularly important, with a succession of Dutch bodies and commissions recommending action on the protein transition and helping build support across government and its ministries. This created the foundations for greater government involvement, although progress was not seamless nor straightforward.

According to those involved in developing the supermarket Sustainability Dashboard, it ultimately took pressure from the Dutch Parliament to help get the initiative off the ground. Officials initially questioned whether such a system would work without supermarkets being required to provide their data. The response was simple: launch the dashboard regardless, leaving a supermarket’s entry blank where it failed to participate. This made non-participation visible and created an incentive to engage.

Support from within government subsequently gave the approach both resources and legitimacy. The Ministry of Agriculture provided financial support for the Protein Tracker, while protein-transition reporting was incorporated into the wider Sustainability Dashboard. This government backing was particularly important because participation remained voluntary. Similarly, although the Government’s national 50:50 plant-to-animal protein ambition is non-binding, some stakeholders have described it as helping to ‘inspire’ retailers to establish their own targets, with many subsequently going further and adopting a 60:40 ambition.

Wider Action Across Europe

The strides being made by The Netherlands have inspired action across the continent.  The Danish Government have produced an Action Plan for Plant-Based Foods which sets out a clear objective to increase ‘plant-based’ sales and sets out funding to do so. However, despite progress, stakeholders have cautioned that political support hasn’t automatically generated strong consumer momentum, particularly for meat alternatives.

In Germany, government policy has been less ambitious, though the 2024 National Nutritional Strategy does promote the increased consumption of pulses, legumes and vegetables. Where Germany has made significant progress is in the supermarket sector itself. In 2023, Lidl became the first major German food retailer to measure and publish its protein split and establish a quantitative target. The supermarket now accounts for four of the six top supermarket chains across Europe, measured on its climate plan and protein transitions, according to research conducted by Questionmark. The German supermarket giant has also committed to matching or reducing the cost of its own-brand vegan alternatives to meat products on sale.  In other countries such as France, non-governmental and private sector action is also supporting retailers with the protein transition. Altera has developed an AI tool which can classify products using the Eiweet and WWF Methodologies to calculate protein ratios. The aim is to go beyond measurement by turning the results into commercial actions and pilots.

EU Action

Most ambitious action is being taken at a national level. However, there are signs that the EU is becoming increasingly wary of environmental issues surrounding protein production.  The EU has recognised the case for shifting diets towards plant-based foods since its 2020 Farm to Fork Strategy, which called for more sustainable diets with less red and processed meat, though it stopped well short of any quantitative protein-split targets. The strategy did, however, call for retailers to help lead on shifting consumption. It recognises retailers’ influence over dietary choices and calls for more affordable, sustainable food, specifically stating that marketing meat at very low prices should be avoided.

The EU is also becoming more focused on its protein deficit, although primarily from the perspective of agricultural resilience and reducing reliance on imported animal feed. Its Protein Action Plan, published this summer, aims to increase European production of protein crops, including pulses and oilseeds. Whilst the Plan is geared towards feed, it does at least recognise the extent to which plant proteins, particularly those imported such as soy, are being used to feed livestock. It remains to be seen whether the EU will promote a shift in the consumption of protein, and the balance between its own environmental targets, and the shift in EU priorities since the farmers protests and 2024 European Parliament elections seeing the deprioritisation of the Farm to Fork Strategy and a broader move to a less regulatory approach.

Opportunities for the UK

There is currently no UK Government requirement, or even encouragement, for supermarkets to report their protein split. Research by Questionmark also suggests that UK supermarkets, including ASDA, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, lag behind some European counterparts in developing and delivering their climate roadmaps and progressing the protein transition. However, some action is being taken. Lidl became the first UK retailer to establish an explicit protein-split target in 2024, aiming for 25% of its protein sales by tonnage to be plant-based by 2030.

Environmental and sustainability concerns are notably weaved throughout DEFRA’s recent Food Strategy for England with four of the ten recommendations dedicated to sustainable food supply. The report creates a specific recommendation involving sustainable food sales and references the UK’s strong position to develop ‘alternative proteins’, but falls short of any mandatory requirements, or even Government-backed voluntary approaches to retailer reporting akin to the Netherlands.

One potential route for incorporating protein-split reporting and targets is through the Government’s health agenda. The Department for Health and Social Care’s 10-year health plan looks to introduce mandatory healthier food sales reporting for all large food companies. The plan also committed to introducing new targets to increase the ‘healthiness’ of sales. Plant Rich UK has championed the EAT-Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health Diet Study which shows that a diet optimised for population health would contain at least 75% plant-based foods by 2050.

There is an opportunity here to link healthier food sales reporting with protein-split reporting and targets. What is good for citizen’s health can also be good for the planet. The Plant Rich UK consortium is pushing supermarkets to measure and publish their protein-ratios and some supermarkets are starting to act. With the Government committed to consulting on mandatory healthier food sales reporting, policymakers have an opportunity to consider not only the healthiness of what retailers sell, but mirror the Dutch by pushing for a more equal balance between animal and plant-based protein consumption here in the UK.

Photo by Adrien Olichon on Unsplash