Major food industry trailblazers including Iceland, Aldi and Subway pledge action to double UK bean consumption

Major food industry trailblazers including Iceland, Aldi and Subway pledge action to double UK bean consumption and improve the nation’s health

• Food industry leaders including Iceland, Aldi, Subway, Brakes and Elior have pledged to increase their bean sales, helping make healthy, sustainable and affordable food more appealing and accessible across the UK
• The announcement comes as a new playbook for retailers and brands is published to highlight untapped commercial opportunities for beans  
• Food service companies will come together today at a London Climate Action Week event hosted by The Food Foundation, the World Resources Institute and Beans Is How at Wahaca, to share ideas and insights on how to more sell more beans
• Keen Bean Pledgers announced today join a roster of food industry giants who have already signed up, including Lidl GB, Sainsbury’s, M&S and Ocado, Bidfood, ISS, Waitrose, Harvester, BaxterStorey, Compass Group UK&I and Wahaca
• Good Food join the Bang in Some Beans campaign as major media partner
• Only 4% of UK adults are eating the amount of fibre needed to keep them healthy, and the average person eats just one portion of beans a week.

Food industry leaders including Iceland, Aldi and Subway have pledged action to increase their bean sales as part of the Bang in Some Beans campaign, which aims to double UK bean consumption by 2028.

Led by The Food Foundation and Veg Power and funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, Bang in Some Beans aims to promote beans to the nation as nutritional powerhouses that are a delicious source of protein, fibre and micronutrients.

The new pledgers are announced today as a new playbook for retailers and brands, ‘Unlocking Commercial Growth for Beans’, is published to highlight untapped commercial opportunity for beans. Drawing on examples from across the sector, the playbook argues that while the bean category is growing, significant opportunities remain untapped across retail, hospitality and foodservice, and shows how businesses can increase sales by making beans more visible, accessible and appealing to consumers.

Also today is the ‘Business Case for Beans’ London Climate Action Week event, which brings together food service businesses and is hosted by The Food Foundation in partnership with the World Resources Institute and Beans Is How at Wahaca Oxford Circus.

The new Keen Bean Pledgers announced today have committed to delivering on the following targets for bean procurement and sales by 2028:

•  
• Aldi: increase volume sales for all bean products (including composites) by 15%
• Almanhall: increase volume sales for all bean products (including composites) by 30%  
• Brakes: increase volume sales of fresh and ambient beans
• Elior: increase the proportion of beans procured by 20%  
• Higgidy:  increase volume sales for beans by 15%  
• Iceland: increase volume sales for all bean products (including composites)
• National Trust for Scotland: Increase the proportion of beans procured by 15%
• Subway: increase volume sales for all beans by 20%
• Vegetarian Express: increase volume sales for all beans by 25%

They join a roster of food industry giants who have already signed up, including Lidl GB, Sainsbury’s, M&S and Ocado, Bidfood, ISS, Waitrose, Harvester, BaxterStorey, Compass Group UK&I and Wahaca, bringing the total number of businesses involved to 41.

Only 4% of UK adults are eating the amount of fibre needed to keep them healthy, and beans are currently under consumed in the UK, with the average person eating just one portion of beans a week, despite their increasingly lauded health benefits. However, this seems set to change, as food businesses come together on commitments to make beans more available and appealing to their customers. 

Also announced this morning are the businesses who have promised to promote beans to their customers. Asda, Food Standards Scotland, Aramark, Little Lunches, Plate Up, Booths, Phat Pasty and Wildly Tasty join those already committed to ramping up their bean promotion, with Samworth Bros, La Bonte Catering, Honest Bean Co, Bird’s Eye, Co-op and Gosh! also signed up.

News of the Keen Bean Pledgers follows with the launch of the new Bang In Some Beans podcast mini-series, from the award-winning Food Foundation podcast. This six-part series is hosted by best-selling food writer and chef Melissa Hemsley and sheds light on the many ways that beans, pulses and lentils are good for health and the planet, as well as being good news for stretched family budgets.

Good Food is joining the campaign as a major media partner and will be promoting beans across all their content and platforms including on podcasts, websites and in magazines. They will also be hosting bean sessions at the Summer and Winter Good Food Live events.

Liz Fox, Sustainability Director at Aldi UK, said: "At Aldi, we’re committed to providing healthier food choices at an affordable price. By joining the Food Foundation’s Keen Bean commitment, we’re helping make it easier for all shoppers to build a balanced diet - because beans are versatile and an affordable way to get your five-a-day."

Judith Batchelar OBE, Director, Food Matters International, said: “Not only is the Bang in Some Beans campaign the right thing to do for the planet, people and their purses, it is also an opportunity for manufacturers and retailers to provide affordable, delicious, nutritious, products and ideas for their customers.

"The combination of retailers' unique consumer insights and The Food Foundation's Playbook provides everything that is needed to implement a game changing plan and deliver real, meaningful and measurable impact. I can't wait to see the results."

Chloe MacKean, Food Business Transformation Manager at The Food Foundation, said: "It's very exciting to see so many businesses wanting to join the Bang in Some Beans campaign and setting out on their own journey to get the UK eating more beans, pulses and other legumes.

"The bean revolution is building momentum, and the businesses we're working with are coming up with great ideas and innovations to get more beans on the menu and on shelves in a whole host of delicious combinations."

Dan Elton-Allisett, Brand Lead at Good Food, said: “We’re delighted to be the first media owner committing support to The Food Foundation and the Bang in Some Beans campaign.

"Across our app, magazine and social channels, we will highlight the simple yet powerful case for eating more beans and encourage our readers to increase their consumption, both for the benefits to their health, and for the planet.”

Cathy Amos, Head of Sector Marketing, Brakes, said: “We are delighted to support this campaign. It’s values closely align with the menu choices we are championing as a business.

"With Fibre set to be one of the key nutrition trends of 2026, beans offer a simple, affordable, and delicious way to increase fibre intake and support healthier diets. We are happy to help promote their benefits and encourage more people to include them in their diets.”

David Edgar, the National Trust for Scotland’s Food & Beverage Development Manager, said: "Our menus focus as much as possible on delicious, seasonal, Scottish produce and making a pledge to increase the beans used on our menus supports this focus.

"It will challenge us to be creative, but beans are unquestionably versatile and nutritious, so it’s an exciting opportunity for us to explore new ways of cooking and preparing beans and seeing what our visitors enjoy most."

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Please contact: Pandora Haydon, Communications Manager, The Food Foundation on 07789 712608 or email pandora.haydon@foodfoundation.org.uk

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEW

Chloe MacKean, Food Business Transformation Manager at The Food Foundation, is available for interview.

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ABOUT THE FOOD FOUNDATION
The Food Foundation is a charity working to influence food policy and business practice, shaping a sustainable food system which makes healthy diets affordable and accessible for all. We work in partnership with researchers, campaigners, community bodies, industry, investors, government and citizens to galvanise the UK’s diverse agents of change, using surprising and inventive ideas to drive fundamental shifts in our food system. These efforts are based on the continual re-evaluation of opportunities for action, building and synthesising strong evidence, convening powerful coalitions, harnessing citizens’ voices and delivering impactful communications.
Registered Charity Number 1187611.  

ABOUT THE PROJECT
Thanks to National Lottery players, The Food Foundation, alongside Veg Power CIC and Kent University Student Union, will encourage people across the UK to eat sustainable food sources such as beans, lentils and pulses, as a way of helping them take achievable and affordable climate action.

The project has received almost £1.4m from The National Lottery Community Fund, the UK’s largest funder of community activity, and aims to reduce the impact of diets on greenhouse gas emissions, whilst creating a long-term shift towards healthier and more sustainable dietary habits.

With the support of local and national food businesses, activities will include a digital campaign to engage the public. This grant comes from the Climate Action Fund, a £100 million commitment over 10 years from The National Lottery Community Fund to support communities across the UK to take action on climate change and involve more people in climate action.

This forms part of one of the funder’s four key missions in its 2030 strategy, ‘It starts with community’ - supporting communities to be environmentally sustainable. On top of encouraging participation from national food businesses, other activities include a schools' programme and outreach, running student focused activities with Kent Students’ Union, and working with Birmingham City Council to activate the campaign at a local level.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY BEANS?
Our campaign refers to beans as a short-hand for talking about all pulses, beans, lentils and legumes given the limited familiarity of these terms among the public. While the public facing part of our campaign is focused on pulses, we include both pulses and other legumes within the more ambitious business commitments to our programme in order to allow for greater innovation and opportunity. Peanuts are excluded from our campaign given their nutrient profile is more in keeping with the nut category where they are typically categorised.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND
We are the largest non-statutory community funder in the UK – community is at the heart of our purpose, vision and name. We support activities that create resilient communities that are more inclusive and environmentally sustainable and that will strengthen society and improve lives across the UK.

We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with Government to distribute vital grants and funding from key Government programmes and initiatives. As well as responding to what communities tell us is important to them, our funding is focused on four key missions, supporting communities to:

• Come together
• Be environmentally sustainable
• Help children and young people thrive
• Enable people to live healthier lives.

Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, we distribute around £500 million a year through 10,000+ grants and plan to invest over £4bn of funding into communities by 2030. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life. National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £47 billion has been raised and more than 670,000 individual grants have been made across the UK - the equivalent of around 240 National Lottery grants in every UK postcode district. Website: https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/

ABOUT VEG POWER
Veg Power is a not-for-profit alliance dedicated to improving children’s diet by making healthy, sustainable eating irresistible. Through collaboration, creative communications, and real-world insight Veg Power gets kids excited about fruit, vegetables and beans and empowers parents to make healthy eating easy.

Our current campaigns include:

• Eat Them to Defeat Them the multi-award winning campaign which has seen 1.8m children eating more veg.
• Growing to Love, a tomato growing project for 30,000 primary school children across the UK in partnership with Aardman Animation
• Attack the Snack to encourage children to eat more fruit and veg snacks in partnership with Netmums
#SeasonalVeg social media influencer campaigns to increase consumption of British vegetables