The Swiss Are Eating Less Meat, But Also Fewer Plant-Based Alternatives

Consumers in Switzerland are reducing their meat consumption, but also buying fewer plant-based analogues, with vegetables and legumes taking precedence among flexitarians.

The influence of health on food choices continues to increase in 2025, while climate change worryingly becomes less of a priority for many consumers.

This is true in Switzerland too, where a 2,200-person survey by retailer Coop has found that the importance of environmental benefits has diminished among flexitarians, vegetarians and vegans alike.

The 2025 Plant Based Food Report suggests that climate change is still the main reason for flexitarians – who make up 57% of the Swiss population – reducing their animal product consumption, but its significance has decreased by six points from the corresponding poll last year. Health, meanwhile, has gained ground, now outshining animal welfare.

For vegans, environmental benefits fell by eight points from first place to third in their list of dietary motivations, with ethics taking the lead. While health is fourth on the list, it jumped by 15 percentage points from 2024.

Meanwhile, substitarians – a subset of flexitarians identified by Coop who eat plant-based meat products several times a month – are placing less emphasis on benefits for the environment (a 10-point drop), health (down by two points) and animal welfare (four points lower) compared to 2024.

Swiss interest in plant-based meat falls

Encouragingly for public and planetary health, Swiss people are eating fewer animal proteins, reducing frequent consumption of meat, milk, and cheese by two, three and six percentage points, respectively.

This is thanks to the high number of flexitarians, which has remained steady after explosive growth in 2022. This demographic is dominated by older populations and women, who are significantly more likely to give up animal proteins than younger and male consumers.

Meanwhile, 30% are classed as ‘substitarians’, a two-point increase from 2024. Overall, the number of people who have tried plant-based alternatives has remained steady since 2022, growing by one percentage point.

Substitarians mainly live in German-speaking parts of Switzerland. Interestingly, 41% of people under 29 eat vegan meat and dairy products several times a month, much higher than the 19% of older Swiss consumers that do so – a complete opposite of the trends among the overall flexitarian category.

Likewise, men buy more plant-based meat than women, with the former group’s purchases increasing across all vegan categories in the last five years.

But the number of new substitarians remains low, with only 4% of participants saying they’ve been eating plant-based alternatives for less than a year. More than half (54%) have been consuming these products for four years or more. This highlights how onboarding new consumers is tough, but retention seems easier for plant-based brands.

Looking to the future, 26% of flexitarians want to eat animal-free meat and dairy products more often in the next five years – a 10-point decrease from last year – and 35% want to continue their current consumption rates. Likewise, only 37% of substitarians now want to increase their intake of these foods, a 21-point drop from 2024.

Health a major driver of plant-based consumption

While flexitarians’ favourite substitutes for meat and fish are actually dairy products like cheese, mushrooms and vegetables are second on the list, followed by legumes like peas, lentils and beans (all favoured by over 40% of respondents). Plant-based meats are almost an afterthought, attracting only 15% of Swiss flexitarians, behind tofu and tempeh (21%).

That whole foods and traditional plant proteins are above meat analogues is a reflection of the latter’s reputation hit amid the ultra-processed food (UPF) debate – despite their advantages over conventional meat.

In fact, when it comes to health, over four in 10 Swiss consumers reducing meat consumption are most concerned about their cardiovascular impact, followed by the presence of hormones or antibiotics, cholesterol, saturated fats, and calorie content. Health concerns are also why the northeastern canton of St Gallen banned meat and dairy with excessive levels of ‘forever chemicals’.

In fact, Switzerland’s new dietary guidelines – published in September – call on its citizens to eat more whole foods and plant proteins, taking into account both health and climate considerations. Climate experts are now calling on Swiss consumers to follow the recommendations to help achieve the government’s environmental goals.

However, sales of plant-based meat in the country decreased by 10% in 2024, with vegan seafood falling even further (15%). That said, dairy alternatives enjoyed a 5.2% hike in sales, representing nearly 4% of the overall milk market.

Within Coop, though, plant-based milk has continued to encroach upon the overall sector’s sales, taking a 17% market share. Here, oat milk is by far the favourite, accounting for 58% of alt-milk sales, followed by soy milk (18%).

In contrast, Germany is Europe’s largest market for plant-based food, with 30% of locals wanting to increase their consumption of meat analogues over the next year. In France, people are eating 6% less meat than they were two decades ago, and 28% consume vegan alternatives weekly. Across the EU, meanwhile, 51% of people have cut back on meat, with health the biggest factor.