Although only 12 per cent of people describe themselves as vegetarians, 86 per cent of adults eat meals containing no meat at least once or twice a week.
The trend for vegetarian food has been driven, in part, by the proliferation of Indian and Italian food on supermarket shelves – both cuisines with a wide range of vegetarian dishes.
The survey was undertaken by Pick Me, a new range of vegetarian ready meals that were created by a vegetarian publishing executive, Elizabeth Leath.
Married to a meat eater, she got fed up trying to find vegetarian food in the supermarket that he would also enjoy.
Fifteen years after first creating her recipes, Tesco has agreed to stock her range across 700 of its supermarkets. The dishes includes Nutballs with Nuts and Vegalicious Masala.
The slow decline of meat eating in Britain, especially the consumption of red meat, has made life very difficult for butchers, which are closing at the rate of 23 a month since the start of this decade, according to official figures.
John Griffiths, a Smithfield meat trader, said: "When I started 30 years ago there were 7,000 traders here each day. Now there are just 600.
"I love meat, don't get me wrong. But butchers need to move with the times. Some of the more successful ones have started stocking meat-free dishes in their shops. It makes sense."
