Supermarkets including Lidl, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Ocado and Waitrose have become among the first to back a new nationwide campaign to encourage people to eat more beans, lentils and pulses.
Bidfood, ISS and Harvester are also among food businesses to become “keen bean pledgers,” making commitments to increase sales or servings of beans.
The Food Foundation and Veg Power launched the new nationwide campaign, Bang in Some Beans, in September backed by almost £1.4m in funding from The National Lottery Community Fund.
It comes against a backdrop of figures showing just 4% of adults eat enough fibre and only 17% of adults eat their 5 a day.
The new campaign has been backed by celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and Tom Kerridge, among others, whilst thousands of children are taking part in The Big Bean Boost activities in schools.
The Food Foundation published its Bean Facts report today, which describes beans as a superfood that is a triple win for health, climate and affordability.
It says diets that are low in beans are associated with up to 9,000 premature deaths in the UK each year, with Brits on average eating just one portion of beans a week, and two thirds of the UK population (66%) eat less than one portion of beans a week.
The campaign also calls on restaurants, fast food outlets, pubs and cafes to up their game and get more beans on the menu, with beans costing on average 4.5 times less per 100g than other plant-based meat alternatives, according to the report.
The same organisations ran the Eat Them To Defeat Them and Peas Please campaigns, which have reached 36 million people since 2019, and claim to have led to over 1.1 billion additional portions of veg being sold in the UK.
Oliver said: “Not only are beans delicious and affordable, they’re plant-based powerhouses that are packed with fibre, are a brilliant source of protein and live happily in your store cupboard for ages. If there’s anything we should be eating more of, it’s beans.”
Fearnley-Whittingstall added: “Beans are fantastic for your health and are packed full of fibre, protein and micro-nutrients. Put simply, we should all be eating more of them.
“The campaign is bringing together chefs, influencers and food businesses so we can all get excited about trying new beany recipes, whether that’s exploring exciting dishes from all over the world, or simply banging some beans into family favourites to give them a brilliant boost.
Beans really are a super useful and super-special ingredient, and there’s no end of ways to enjoy them in your cooking.”
”Beans are a win-win-win for our health, the environment, and our wallets at a time when food prices continue to rise,” added Rebecca Tobi, head of food business transformation at The Food Foundation.
“As an affordable, healthy and sustainable food, beans deserve to play a much bigger role than they currently do in helping us to eat better as a nation.”
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