Plant-based products vs their meat equivalents: UK wholesale (foodservice) price check

Public-sector and contract caterers buy at wholesale, not retail, so this page tracks the same plant-vs-meat comparison at UK foodservice distributors: JJ Foodservice (cash-and-carry and delivered wholesale) and Brakes (contract-catering distribution), whose product prices are publicly visible without an account and scraped daily, plus Bidfood (contract-catering distribution), whose account-gated prices appear only as ratios in a one-day snapshot below. Rows marked "same brand" compare a brand's own plant-based line against its animal-product line.

JJ Foodservice

Brakes

Prices marked * were on promotion at scrape time (the regular price is recorded in the data as was_price).

Bidfood (account-gated: one-day snapshot, 22 Jul 2026)

Bidfood's ordering portal requires a trade account, so unlike JJ and Brakes its prices cannot be tracked daily, and its trading terms treat specific pricing as confidential, so the rows below show only the price ratio of each pair, not the underlying prices. Ratios come from a hand-curated snapshot taken through a trade account on 22 Jul 2026: ex-VAT wholesale list prices as shown to a new account, not the negotiated prices a contract caterer pays.

Wholesale method notes

• Price basis differs from retail and between distributors. JJ Foodservice prices are ex-VAT Collection prices at the Enfield branch (its product pages publish every branch's price; the data records the min-max across branches). Brakes shows an anonymous indicative price based on an "average customer discount": a real caterer's negotiated contract price can differ, so treat Brakes figures as indicative list-level prices, not transaction prices. Bidfood ratios are computed from ex-VAT list prices shown to a new trade account on the snapshot date; the specific prices are withheld because Bidfood's trading terms treat them as confidential. Ratios within a distributor are internally consistent.
• Catering pack formats: per-100g/100ml figures are computed from each product's stated pack weight or volume (recorded in the register and cross-checked against the distributor's own per-kg unit price where published and where its basis is consistent; the register documents one Brakes bulk-mayonnaise case where the published per-litre figures mix a mass and a volume basis). Pack sizes differ within some pairs; the pair notes flag where that matters.
• Range gaps are themselves a finding. JJ lists 28 beef burger lines and no beef-style plant burger (its plant burgers are vegetable or coated chicken-style, so the JJ burger pair compares coated chicken formats). Neither JJ nor Brakes lists a vegan coleslaw. At the July 2026 same-brand sweep, JJ carried no Richmond, no vegan Pukka pie and no Magnum; Brakes carried no Richmond and no Ginsters; and no brand sells both cow milk and a plant drink at either. The wholesale plant-based assortment is far thinner than retail.
• No published wholesale benchmark exists for plant-based products. AHDB publishes weekly GB deadweight (carcase) price series for cattle and pigs, but a carcase price is a farm-gate commodity price, not comparable to a catering product, and no plant-based equivalent series exists anywhere in its taxonomy.
• Scrape conduct: JJ and Brakes are scraped as anonymous visitors from their server-rendered product pages, within each site's robots.txt (Brakes sets a 10-second crawl delay and a 04:00-08:45 UTC visit window; the daily run is paced and scheduled accordingly). Bidfood is not scraped: its snapshot was curated by hand through a trade account.

Pair matching notes (wholesale)

• jj-saus (JJ Foodservice, sausages): Branded tier both sides (Quorn vs Blakemans). Meat side replaced 2026-07-22: SGS103 (JJ Butchers 8s, pork 42%) was out of stock at every branch since curation and lost its Collection offers on 2026-07-15. Blakemans Premier is pork (50%), same 8-per-pound (57g) frozen format; pack weight consistent between name (1x4.54kg) and size field (1x80). Larger pack than the plant side (4.54kg vs 2kg; bulk pricing flatters the meat side). Cumberland SGS035 re-rejected 2026-07-22 (weight/count contradiction persists); Tasty Bake 'pork' lines are chicken 24%/pork 14% by ingredients; JJ Quality lines are chicken.
• jj-mince (JJ Foodservice, mince): Both frozen, own-brand tier. Beef side is 10% fat: JJ lists no 20% fat mince (the retail comparator tier), and leaner mince is more expensive, so this ratio flatters the plant side relative to the retail convention.
• jj-balls (JJ Foodservice, meatballs): Same 1kg pack both sides, both fully cooked frozen. The beef meatball declares 55% beef content.
• jj-chickburger (JJ Foodservice, coated chicken burgers): Coated chicken-style burger pair (buttermilk-coated mycoprotein vs battered whole-muscle chicken breast), both fully cooked frozen catering patties. JJ lists no beef-style plant burger against its 28 beef burger lines.
• jj-mayo-heinz (JJ Foodservice, mayonnaise): Same brand both sides (mirrors the retail Heinz pair) but pack sizes differ (5L vs 10L; larger packs are usually cheaper per litre, which inflates the vegan side's per-litre figure).
• jj-mayo-sasco (JJ Foodservice, mayonnaise): Same brand both sides; pack sizes differ (5L vs 10L), same caveat as the Heinz pair.
• jj-mayo-lion (JJ Foodservice, mayonnaise): Same brand both sides (added 2026-07-22). Pack sizes differ strongly (1L vs 2x2.27L; bulk pricing flatters the non-vegan side) and the vegan line is badged Premium while Thick & Creamy is the standard line.
• jj-sausroll (JJ Foodservice, sausage rolls): Own-label both sides (KaterVeg is JJ Foodservice's plant-based own brand, the same pairing tier as the jj-mince pair; added 2026-07-22). Both frozen 40-count catering packs; roll sizes differ (100g vs 138g), so compare per 100g, not per roll.
• brakes-saus-chilled (Brakes, sausages): Chilled butcher-style tier both sides (branded premium plant vs 80% pork butcher-style).
• brakes-saus-frozen (Brakes, sausages): Tier mismatch flagged: branded plant sausage vs own-brand traditional pork in a much larger catering pack (Brakes lists no own-brand plant sausage in a standard frozen format). Similar sausage sizes (50g vs 57g).
• brakes-mince (Brakes, mince): Both frozen foodservice lines; the beef side is the standard 20% fat tier, matching the retail comparator convention.
• brakes-balls (Brakes, meatballs): Comparator is pork, not beef (the only beef meatball line, Green Gourmet, no longer renders a live page and appears delisted). Both cooked. The plant side was on promotion at curation (was-price recorded by the scraper).
• brakes-burger (Brakes, burgers): Comparable patty sizes (109g vs 113g), both frozen fast-food tier (own/foodservice brands both sides).
• brakes-mayo-hellmanns (Brakes, mayonnaise): Same brand AND same 5L pack size both sides (added 2026-07-22; the cleanest same-brand pair at any distributor). Both amounts are the stated 5L pack volume; Brakes' own published per-litre figures mix a net-mass basis (Real: 22.94/4.695kg) with a volume basis (Vegan: 17.70/5L), so the register cross-check is disabled on both sides and the volume basis is used consistently.
• brakes-mayo-sysco (Brakes, mayonnaise): Own-label both sides (Sysco Classic is the house range of Brakes' parent company), same 5L pack size (added 2026-07-22; both listed at 15.19 GBP at curation). Cross-check disabled for the same mass-vs-volume unit-price basis reason as the Hellmann's pair.
• brakes-pie-pukka (Brakes, pies): Same brand AND same variety (chicken and mushroom), both wrapped ready-baked frozen pies (added 2026-07-22). Amounts are Brakes' stated net weights (2.76kg/12 = 230g per vegan pie; 8.03kg/36 = 223g per meat pie); the meat side comes in a 3x larger case, which flatters it on bulk pricing.
• brakes-ice-magnum (Brakes, ice cream sticks): Same brand and same variant (almond), 20-stick catering boxes both sides (added 2026-07-22; the dairy-vs-vegan stick sizes, 100ml vs 90ml, mirror the retail Magnum pair, so per-100ml is the comparable basis).
• brakes-cheese-applewood (Brakes, cheese slices): Same brand, smoke-flavour slices both sides (added 2026-07-22). Pack sizes differ strongly (200g vs 750g; bulk pricing flatters the dairy side).
• bidfood-mince (Bidfood, mince): Both frozen, own/value tier (mirrors the jj-mince pairing). The beef side is 90VL (about 10% fat): Bidfood lists no 20% fat mince, the retail comparator tier, and leaner mince costs more, which flatters the plant side. Branded alternative on file: Meatless Farm plant-based mince. Quorn mince excluded as a bonus-pack promotion (1kg + 50% extra free).
• bidfood-saus (Bidfood, sausages): Branded plant sausage vs standard fresh pork 8s. Format mismatch flagged: the Quorn side is frozen, the pork side chilled (Bidfood's own-label Everyday Favourites pork 8s pack, 1x80pk, publishes no per-sausage weight, so it could not be used on a per-kg basis).
• bidfood-burger (Bidfood, burgers): Comparable patty sizes (109g vs 113g), both frozen catering burgers. The beef side declares 70% beef content and comes in a much larger case (5.4kg vs 2kg; bulk pricing flatters it).
• bidfood-milk-oat (Bidfood, milk vs oat drink): Cheapest per-litre oat line vs cheapest per-litre cow-milk line at the snapshot. Basis mismatch flagged: the oat side is long-life barista formulation in a 6-pack, the milk side fresh in a single 2L bottle.
• bidfood-mayo-hellmanns (Bidfood, mayonnaise): Same brand and same 5L pack size both sides (the Bidfood twin of the Brakes Hellmann's pair). The non-vegan side is the standard Hellmann's mayonnaise line; Bidfood also lists Light and Professional variants at other prices.
• bidfood-mayo-heinz (Bidfood, mayonnaise): Same brand both sides (mirrors the JJ Heinz pair) but pack sizes differ (5L vs 10L; larger packs are usually cheaper per litre, which inflates the vegan side's per-litre figure). Bidfood lists no 5L Heinz Original; the 5L Heinz Professional is a different recipe tier.
• bidfood-cheese-applewood (Bidfood, cheese slices): Same brand, sliced format both sides (the Bidfood twin of the Brakes Applewood pair). Pack formats differ (12x200g case vs a single 750g pack).
• bidfood-ice-magnum (Bidfood, ice cream sticks): Same brand and same variant (almond), 20-stick catering boxes both sides (the Bidfood twin of the Brakes Magnum pair; the vegan stick is 85ml here vs 90ml at Brakes, so per-100ml is the comparable basis).

Data

• Wholesale daily history: history_wholesale.json / history_wholesale.csv (one row per product, distributor and date, with price basis, branch range, stock and promo fields).
• Pair register with matching decisions: pairs_wholesale.json; Bidfood snapshot register: pairs_bidfood_static.json.
• Retail comparison: retail page; code: github.com/akanepajs/uk-food.