Axfood and Garant to launch ground-breaking mince containing 50% beef and 50% vegetables

- This is a smart and healthy solution for mince lovers who want to continue cooking as usual and find an easy way to nearly halve their climate impact, says Åsa Domeij, Head of Sustainability at Axfood.

Healthy vegetables

Nöt & Grönt will make it easier for both children and adults to eat more vegetables, with mince that is slightly softer than normal minced beef making it perfect for popular meals such as spaghetti bolognese, lasagne and tacos. The mixture of vegetables makes the mince more succulent and gives it a fuller flavour, and the beef in the mince comes from Swedish farms and therefore bears the Meat from Sweden label. The carrots are also Swedish. The product is Green Keyhole labelled, which confirms that it is a healthy choice.

Healthy and nutritious food is crucial for the health and development of children. Together with Generation Pep, Axfood is now launching the first mince of this kind. This year’s Pep report, one of the most comprehensive evaluations of the health of children and young people in Sweden, shows that only four of ten Swedish children and young people eat vegetables on a daily basis.

- We know that most parents today want to make more conscious and healthy choices, but that it can be costly and difficult to get children to eat vegetables. With a popular product containing 50% vegetables that is also cheaper than regular minced beef, it will be easier for many people to make a better choice, says Carolina Klüft, Operations Manager at Generation Pep.

Nearly 50% climate impact reduction

Food production accounts for approximately a third of the global climate impact, and meat generally accounts for the greatest climate impact per kilo. Last year, the average Swede consumed an average of 50–55 kilos of meat, an increase from the previous year. This high meat consumption has a negative impact on the climate, water and land use as well as biodiversity. Reducing meat consumption in favour of increased vegetable consumption and vegetarian alternatives is therefore beneficial both for the environment and for people’s health.

One of Axfood’s strategic sustainability targets is to promote more sustainable production and consumption of food by annually reducing its climate impact per kilo of food sold through changes to the sales mix. Nöt & Grönt combines a more affordable and healthy meat alternative with a considerably lower climate impact. The inclusion of carrots and cauliflower in the mince almost halves its climate impact* compared with minced beef.

- Our new mince is a concrete example of an innovative, sustainable and affordable product that helps consumers reduce their climate impact without needing to refrain from eating meat entirely, sacrificing taste or being more difficult to prepare. It is also significantly cheaper than regular minced beef, says Hans Bax, Business Area Manager for internal business at Dagab, Axfood’s purchasing and logistics company.

Nöt & Grönt will be launched at Willys, Hemköp, Tempo and City Gross nationwide in the week starting 29 May. Axfood’s meal kit company Middagsfrid will also include Nöt & Grönt in their recipes in the near future. The mince will be placed beside regular minced beef in stores and will cost about 25% less than minced beef at current price levels.

* The climate impact is taken from RISE’s food climate database and amounts to about 28 CO2e per kilo for Swedish minced beef and about 14.2 CO2 for Nöt & Grönt (consisting of 50% Swedish minced beef and 50% vegetables in the form of equal portions of Swedish carrots and French/Belgian cauliflower).

For more information, contact:
Magnus Törnblom, Head of Press, Axfood, +46 70 266 27 12, magnus.tornblom@axfood.se