Aldi announces plans to sell less meat and expand vegan range

Aldi has announced plans to cut back on the sales of animal products in favour of a larger vegan range.

The budget supermarket is promising an expansion of its vegan offering around the world, with an aim of offering more than 1000 products by the end of 2024.

To do this, they’ll be cutting back on some of their meat and dairy products.

Aldi is taking a plant-based pledge (Credit: Alamy)

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“Our goal is to offer our customers 1,000 plant-based product varieties spread across the year in our standard, seasonal, and promotional ranges by the end of 2024,” Aldi said in its nutrition report.

“To achieve this goal, we are focusing not only on reducing the small quantities of animal-based ingredients in our products, but also on consistently expanding our vegan range.”

Currently, Aldi has a vegan range which features 700 products, sitting across food and drink but also household and beauty items.

Whilst it’s usually January that the supermarket pulls out a bunch of new vegan product, this new move shows a more holistic approach to promoting veganism all year round.

Aldi’s vegan range will come at the expense of meat products (Credit: Alamy)

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The new vegan items are coming to Aldi stores in countries like the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Australia, Austria, and China.

Offering more is only half the story. Aldi is also bolstering its nutritional options, and says that as well as looking like meat and dairy, they want their products to be as healthy as possible, too.

It’s for this reason it has created strict recipe guidelines for its plant-based dishes, ensuring they’re packed with the best ingredients and no unneccesary additives and preservatives.

This pledge will come into effect by the end of 2025.

Aldi already has 700 vegan products (Credit: Aldi)

The news comes as Lidl also recently announced to cut back on animal based products, as part of a sustainable new business strategy.

Its German purchasing director Christopher Graf said the move was necessary to help the environment and “meet the demands of a global population”, adding that the world will only able to sustain 10 billion people living on it if we cut down on meat.

“There is no second planet,” he said. “All throughout the world, we need a more conscientious diet to nourish ourselves within our planetary boundaries.”

Like Aldi, Lidl will also be increasing its range of vegan plant proteins on offer, he told trade magazine Lebensmittelzeitung.