Maybe you can't make friends with salad?
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Although vegetarianism and veganism are centuries old practices, there has been a distinct rise in their popularity over the last 20 years.
With evergrowing awareness of the multipronged impacts (environmental, ethical, health) of a reliance on animal-derived food products, we saw more plant-based recipes on social media, on TV, and in books.
We had easier access to plant-based foods in supermarkets and restaurants, and plant-based diets featured more frequently in public discourse.
These things haven't seemed as prevalent recently...
Is this merely a reflection of individual perception, or have things actually changed?
Public Interest in Plant-Based Eating
As an indicator of public interest in plant-based diets, let's examine historical Google search trends for 'vegetarian recipes' and 'vegan recipes'.
The 'Interest Score' is standardised on a scale from 0-100, with higher scores indicating greater popularity of searches relative to other Google searches.
Producing meat and dairy products contributes significantly to freshwater consumption, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Coupled with a growing population, dietary patterns and agriculture systems continuing without change were forecast to become unsustainble.
In June 2010, the United Nations Environment Programme released a report highlighting these environmental impacts, and urging a reduction in the consumption of animal products.
This urgency coincided with a sustained increase in Google searches for vegetarian recipes.
As seen in the chart, popularity for 'vegetarian recipes' remained relatively consistent, on average, between 2010 and 2019.
The dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of 2020 marks a sudden decline in the popularity of this search term.
Although the World Health Organisation declared the public health emergency over in May 2023, this downward trend has continued.
Google searches for 'vegan recipes' shows a similar but unique pattern.
Although not as popular relative to 'vegetarian recipes' intially, a distinct increase also coincides with the release of the UN report and growing global awareness of the benefits of a vegan diet.
The inaugural Veganuary campaign in 2014, which promotes a month of vegan eating each January, corresponds to another boost in popularity.
In 2016, the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger were released. These alternatives to beef patties were sold in well-known fast food chains, and their release also coincides with another uptick in popularity of searches.
As with 'vegetarian recipes', searches for 'vegan recipes' peaked just before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Similarly, the declining interest, which may reflect a decline in engaging with veganism itself, has also been sustained.
But, why is this?
In 2018, Aarti Ramachandran, head of research at the Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return Initiative expressed that
"...this is a market that's not going to go away. Plant-based diets aren't a trend or a fad; we see this very much being the basis of consumer growth.”
The environmental and ethical impacts haven't changed, but is the trend over?
The previous section focused on public interest based on Google searches. Next, a look at supermarket shelves may help us further understand what's happening with people's diets.
In 2022, Australia's Grains and Legumes Nutrition Council (GLNC) conducted an audit of the four major Australian supermarket chains.
The GLNC catalogued the number of plant-based products on supermarket shelves across Metropolitan Sydney.
A follow-up audit was carried out at the end of 2024.
A comparison between the two time points may provide insight into consumer patterns and the trends observed above.
On Australian supermarket shelves in 2022, there were:
312
plant-based
meat alternatives
178
plant-based
milks
100
plant-based
dairy alternatives and
129
plant-based
ready meals.
By the end of 2024, the number of:
plant-based
meat alternatives
dropped by
51%
plant-based
milks
dropped by
22%
plant-based
dairy alternatives
slightly increased by
7%
and plant-based
ready meals
dropped by
32%
Overall, by the end of 2024, there were
0%
fewer plant-based products available for purchase on
Australian supermarket shelves than there were in 2022.
This data suggests that members of the public now have fewer plant-based options available at the supermarket.
A contributing factor to this stark decline could be a decline in sales. As with any other product, if sales decline, the retailer is unlikely to continue restocking the product.
Let's consider next the state of Australian household grocery budgets.
Household Food Security
Each year, the Hunger Report by Foodbank Australia chronicles the state of food insecurity amongst the population.
Food insecurity describes circumstances in which individuals do not have regular access to sufficient, safe, culturally appropriate, and nourishing food to sustain development, growth, and health (UN's Food & Agriculture Organisation).
In 2025, Foodbank surveyed a representative sample of 4,260 Australians aged 18+ years and a booster sample of 378 similar individuals from less-populated states (the Northern Territory and Tasmania).
To the right are 100 squares. Each square represents one percent of households.
After weighting by age, gender, state, and location, they determined that one in three (33%) Australian households faced food insecurity at least once in the past 12 months.
Now, let's look at some specific concerns facing these two groups.
The graphic to the right will be populated to show a hundred squares for each group, allowing us to visually compare percentages.
Let's label them, too.
85% of food secure households indicated worry about the cost of living, compared to 91% of food insecure households.
This suggests similar concerns across households.
Let's also consider their respective concerns about the environment and climate change, as this is a prime motivator for many who have reduced their consumption of animal products.
While 26% of food secure households are worried about the environment/climate change, only 16% of food insecure houses are.
This statistic may suggest that households struggling to afford food are less equipped to prioritise plant-based eating.
Understandably, they may be eating what they can afford or what they are familiar with.
Lastly, 23% of food secure households swap food for cheaper alternatives when shopping. More than double (54%) of food insecure households do this.
Foodbank's report shows that a large proportion of Australian households are worried about finances and are doing what they can to manage the affordability of the food they eat.
Anecdotally, plant-based foods are said to be more expensive than their animal-derived counterparts. In a 2024 survey, 70% of Australian consumers indicated that they believe this to be true.
In the next section, we will explore whether this perception is reflected in the actual prices of products.
Premiums on Plant-Based Foods
Food Frontier's State of the Industry report (published in December 2023) details the premium Australians pay for opting for plant-based meat alternatives.
The lollipop chart to the right shows that there is wide variation amongst them, but all are more expensive.
Notably, chicken-style alternatives (crumbed/chunks/strips), mince and beef-style chunks/strips carry premiums between 12% and 35%.
These are more likely to be base ingredients used in everyday meals (as opposed to burgers and sausages).
In the context of increased cost of living, it is understandable that individuals may opt for more affordable meat products.
On average, the premium paid is almost 33%.
Individuals in comfortable financial positions may be able to afford this, but given the extent of food insecurity highlighted previously, it may not be possible for as many people to do so.
Source: Food Frontier (2023)
What does this tell us?
We've seen that, since 2020, interest in plant-based recipes appears to have declined and fewer plant-based products are available on supermarket shelves.
We've also seen that almost all Australian households are concerned about the cost of living, with many opting for cheaper alternatives when at the supermarket. With plant-based alternatives costing 33% higher, on average, than their animal-derived counterparts, this is all understandable.
Vegan and vegetarian recipes can often call for specialised ingredients that are expensive or difficult to find. Time to explore new recipes, foods, and restaurants is another luxury that many Australians may not have in the current economic climate, and so, returning to what is familiar is reasonable.
Increasing political polarisation has been suggested as another potential factor contributing to the changes described, however such an exploration would require its own separate analysis.
Although all data analysed and presented describes trends in Australia, similar observations have been reported across the world, including in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States.
It's not all bad!
Recent research by Food Frontier indicates that the most common diet, followed by 21% of Australians, is now the “meat reducer”. On top of this, almost 4 in 5 Australians have a meat-free day at least once per week.
While fewer adopt the more formal flexitarian label, they intentionally prioritise a plant-based diet, whilst still occasionally eating meat, fish, or other animal products. Not following a strict vegetarian or vegan diet allows people the flexibility to continue to make choices to better their health, combat climate change, and uphold the ethical treatment of animals.
In the challenging post-pandemic economic and political landscape we are now navigating, flexibility might just be what works best.
Maybe we can make friends with salad...we might just need a little more flexibility.