A cross-sectional study of the commercial plant-based landscape across the US, UK and Canada

Abstract

As plant-based foods comprise an ever-increasing proportion of the diet, understanding the nutritional composition of these products is critical. In this study we assess the nutritional content of all commercial plant-based products across multiple sectors (supermarkets, fast food & sit down restaurants, food delivery companies and manufacturers) in the US, UK and Canada. We identified 3488 unique products. Across all sectors, 45% of main meals had >15g protein, 60% had <10%kcal from saturated fat; 29% had >10g fibre per meal; 86% had <1000mg sodium. At restaurants, meat-based main meals were significantly higher in protein and sodium compared to vegetarian and vegan meals. The meat-based options were also significantly higher in saturated fat than the vegan but not vegetarian options. We conclude that plant-based items tend to be lower in saturated fat and sodium than their meat-based counterparts but improvements are needed to optimise their nutritional composition.