Companies and supermarkets are mixing vegetable protein into meat products, but consumers are not always aware this is being done, according to research by food industry lobby group Foodvalley in Wageningen.

The researchers analysed 115 products found in supermarkets since January 2024. It found that hamburgers, mince and smoked sausage increasingly contain pulses and other vegetable matter, including chickpeas, sugar beet fibre, jackfruit, seaweed and potatoes.

Some four in 10 Jumbo products put under the microscope had been “plant enriched”, Foodvalley said, followed by 28% of Albert Heijn and 8% of Lidl meat items.

Meat containing vegetable ingredients is on average €1.27 per kilo cheaper than pure meat, Foodvalley said.

In most cases, the amount of non-meat in meat products is around 10%, but this can rise to up to 40% in some items, the researchers found.

In most cases too, the presence of meat-replacement food is only communicated via the list of ingredients, a move which Foodvalley describes as “soft” communication.

“Driven by rising meat prices, experts predict the assortment will double within a single year,” Foodvalley said. “An increase in plant-enriched dairy products is also expected.”