Aldi called out for selling 'flexitarian' burgers - containing meat

A vegan has criticised Aldi for selling flexitarian burgers to make non-vegetarians “feel better”about themselves.

One person posted to the Aldi UK Facebook thread accusing the supermarket chain of “trying to tap into a trend” by labelling a burger as being flexitarian.

“Flexitarian is not a thing. You either eat meat or you don’t. Don’t use flexitarian as a poxy bit of advertising to flog your products,” the commenter wrote, in the now deleted post, according to the Daily Mail. “It’s a meat burger and that’s all there is to it. You’ve got this very wrong.”

While the person acknowledged that selling burgers with a reduced meat content may be a starting point for people, it wasn’t right to call the burger ‘flexitarian’.

Unsurprisingly ignited a heated discussion around the lifestyle choice and what it means to be a flexitarian.

One Facebook user confessed to being a flexitarian by reducing their meat intake, but the original poster hit back that the man was simply an omnivore who was cutting down his meat intake.

And Laura Jane wasn’t the only one puzzled by the idea of a flexitarian burger with others taking to Twitter to voice their confusion.

According to new research, more than one third of people in the UK identify as flexitarian, or flexible vegetarians, who mostly eat a diet of plants with the occasional addition of meat.

Figures by the Forum for the Future and Counterpoint, commissioned by Flora, predicts that the number of flexitarians is set to grow even further.

Last year the Duchess of Cambridge‘s mum Carole Middleton admitted she was a flexitarian.

Speaking about the food she was going to be serving for Christmas dinner Carole told The Telegraph she’s going to serve vegan and non-vegan options since she herself has recently changed her diet.

“I’ve recently gone vegan. Or maybe that should be flexitarian,” she said

There are no particular rules to being a flexitarian, so you could eat meat once a month, or once a day, but it’s usually taken on by those who want to cut down on their meat intake but can’t fully commit to a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle.

Because, as a less-strict lifestyle choice, it opens up an easier way for people to eat less meat, and some see it as a way of helping to achieve many of the environmental aims of vegetarians and vegans.

But others argue that the middle ground option that flexitarianism offers simply doesn’t exist and those following the diet are just meat-eaters.

Earlier this year ‘GMB’ host Piers Morgan claimed flexitarians are the same as meat-eaters “except they just want to be with the cool kids” saying they are vegetarian or vegan.

He labelled flexitarians the “gender fluid of meat eaters” claiming: “You are the gender fluid of meat eaters, you want to be with the cool kids, but you are a meat eater.”

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