Geodemographic Patterns of Meat Expenditure in Great Britain

The future of the meat industry will require the management of important trade-offs between economic, environmental and health aspects of both humans and animals. Understanding the patterns and trends of meat expenditure and consumption is crucial for assessing the current resilience of the system and for economic, planning, health and environmental applications. Here, we show how the technique of geodemographic classification, combined with fine scale expenditure estimates can be used to explore temporal and spatial patterns of meat expenditure in Great Britain between 2008 and 2017. Whilst the expenditure patterns of some food categories such as sausages remained relatively consistent, others such as lamb show a trend towards a reduced proportion of expenditure and increased inequality of purchases. Short term changes in expenditure patterns also occurred, potentially due to product specific price variability, price elasticities or zoonotic disease scare. Environmental attitudes, financial constraints and the prominence of communities who do not eat meat for religious or cultural reasons are likely to be driving the differences between geodemographic groups. The methodology and results could be a valuable tool for policy makers in the meat industry and beyond.