Individual and social factors influence dietary practices during 'Meat Free Monday': results from a prospective study

With more people adopting or aspiring to meat-free diets, it is important to consider engagement with campaigns such as 'Meat Free Monday' (MFM). This study had three aims: (1) to explore the diversity within the population of people engaged with MFM; (2) to explore whether dietary identity and behaviour match, and whether this predicts subsequent dietary behaviour; and (3) to identify predictors of greater numbers of meat-free Mondays and all meat-free days. We conducted a prospective study with a one-month follow-up using online surveys. Excluding people who were already vegetarian or vegan, there were 594 respondents at baseline and 334 at follow-up. Analyses explored the relative importance of individual and social contextual factors in predicting meat-free days. The data revealed mismatches between dietary identity and behaviour for around 10% of participants. Multivariate analysis identified four significant predictors of both more meat-free Mondays and more meat-free days overall: a non-meat-eating identity; perceiving fewer barriers to being meat-free; expecting meat-free days to be less difficult; and longer engagement with MFM. Additionally, having more positive perceptions of the support from MFM predicted having more meat-free Mondays, and living in a house free of meat-eaters predicted having more meat-free days overall. These results indicate that efforts to eat less meat are influenced by a combination of: individual characteristics including identity; social factors such as the diets of other people; and using the support provided by MFM. The support provided to MFM participants should address both individual and social factors.