Vegan pledge for January leads to change in consumption habits, study finds

The month-long vegan pledge during January is found to be influencing food consumption habits, with many sustain meat reduction in food for over the six months.

As Veganuary 2020 gets underway, a new study by Kantar has revealed that people who cut out animal products for January 2019 maintained reduced consumption levels until at least July 2019.

The study commissioned by Veganuary has shown that the impact of the campaign is much greater than the number of people who officially sign-up online.

Based on the data from Kantar’s shopper panel that continuously tracks purchases from 30,000 British households, the study found that more than 1.3 million Brits gave up animal products last January, ten times more than officially signed-up to Veganuary in 2019 from the UK.

832,000 of these people gave up animal products for the first time in January 2019. 366,000 said they did it as part of Veganuary, over three times more than officially signed-up from the UK.

Scanned shopping receipts from the households have revealed that those who gave up animal products for the first time but did not stay vegan after January consumed a reduced volume of animal products until at least July 2019 when compared to the same period in 2018.

Veganuary estimates that this reduction equates to saving approximately 3.6 million animals.

“We knew that the ‘Veganuary Effect’ was real and many more people tried vegan in January than officially signed-up with us, but seeing the long-term impact that a one-month vegan pledge has on consumption habits – and ultimately animals’ lives – is very exciting,” said Toni Vernelli, Veganuary’s head of communications.