As a bustling Low Carb pioneer that can now add ‘exporting to North America’ to CV (the epicentre of the of the global keto/low carb movement), SRSLY founder, Andy Welch remains perplexed as to why the keto/low carb movement continues to pootle within UK bricks & mortar retail despite its phenomenal online success.
SRSLY Low Carb Calls for Supermarkets to Embrace Low-Carb Options
‘What is beyond question,’ suggests Andy, ‘is that the food & drink narrative changed after COVID-19 as large swathes of the public looked a lot closer at their eating and drinking habits, tracking down ingredient decks and recipes that improved both their physical and emotional wellbeing (gut health, brain health, protein intake), whilst rejecting excessive amounts of those damaging ingredients (salt, sugar & lazy carbs) and production processes born from convenience not common sense.swathes
Today the free-from aisle is blossoming, a £3.41bn category, tackling manifold food intolerances (dairy, gluten or wheat), for whoswathesm only a small proportion of the population are truly medically intolerant, albeit significantly larger swathes of consumers dip in and out of the category to address milder intolerances.
At the same time, it’s worth noting that the obesity epidemic is spiralling out of control whilst the NHS continues to splutter and falter. Latest figures go so far as to suggest that 30% of the UK population is already morbidly obese (with a further 37% on the cusp), whilst snowballing diabetes numbers also show little sign of abating (4.3m diagnosed & a further 2.4m in real jeopardy of joining them).
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‘We know,’ continues Andrew, ‘that the NHS is increasingly leaning on low carb as an effective means of tackling obesity head on (45+ low carb clinicians within the NHS), whilst broadening its ‘in hospital’ offer, so has the time come for the supermarkets, food halls and delis that have been so pivotal in igniting our nation’s vegan and free-from solutions now do the same for better-for-you functional food, by building a credible standalone low carb offer from a number of the pioneering British food & drink providers already blazing a trail both online and overseas.’
Globally ketogenic/low carb is expected to exceed $15.6bn by 2027 with North America accounting for 44% of total sales albeit Europe is now the fast-growing sphere of keto/low carb influence, with 32% growth forecasted over the same time-frame.
