The amount of dairy and meat substitutes bought in Australian supermarkets and other food retailers rose a further 14 per cent in 2020-21, after rising 14 per cent between 2018-19 and 2019-20, the Australian Today said Bureau of Published Data Statistics (ABS).
ABS Health Statistics spokesman Paul Atyeo said: “Apparent consumption of dairy and meat substitutes per person was 20 grams per day in 2020-21, an overall increase of 29 percent from 15 grams per day in 2018-19 is equivalent to.
“About 17 grams of the apparent consumption per person per day came from milk substitutes such as soy milk or almond milk. This equates to about half a metric cup per week.
“Consumption of dairy substitutes increased by 4 grams per day between 2018-19 and 2020-21, reflecting a 4 gram per day decrease in milk over the same two-year period,” said Mr. Atyeo.
“Almond milk saw a particularly rapid increase in apparent consumption of 31 percent over the past two years. Soymilk rose 16 percent over the same period.”
Of other product categories that saw increases, the most notable were non-alcoholic beverages, which grew 7 percent between 2018-19 and 2020-21. The increase was driven by diet soft drinks (up 21 percent) and packaged water (up 8 percent per person). In contrast, sugar-sweetened soft drinks remained relatively flat, although they still make up the majority (61%) of soft drink volume.
For more information, see Apparent Consumption of Selected Foodstuffs, Australia, 2020-21, which can be downloaded free of charge from the ABS website at https://www.abs.gov.au.
