Glossary of terms

Composite foods: Food products made up of multiple ingredients. 

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Fermentation-enabled products: Foods, ingredients, or functional additives created by cultivating microorganisms to produce, modify, or enhance protein-rich foods, specifically as alternatives to animal products.

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Flexitarian: Flexitarian diets focus on whole plant-based foods and include low to moderate amounts of animal-source foods.

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Food group: A category of foods that share similar nutritional properties. Each group typically contains foods that have common nutrients and contribute to a specific part of a balanced diet.

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‍Milk equivalent: a standardised unit of measure used to express the quantity of a processed dairy product (like cheese, butter, or milk powder) in terms of the amount of raw, liquid milk required to produce it.

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Protein diversification: A strategic shift in food consumption and production to include a wider range of protein sources beyond animal source foods, towards the goal of healthy, sustainable food for all.

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Protein split: Protein split is a metric that indicates the share of key plant-based vs animal-based foods or proteins sold. The metric is further defined within the WWF Basket Diets Methodology.

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Protein-source foods (Food Group 1): Plant-based or non-animal foods including beans, lentils, peas, soy, nuts, seeds and fungi; fermentation-enabled products and meat alternatives; as well as animal-based foods such as meat, fish and eggs. These foods, alongside dairy, are where the majority of the protein shift should take place.

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Whole assortment: The maximum scope of food and drink products included under each respective method, representing relevant supermarket sales as fully as possible.