This dataset compromises 15 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2024 with UK-based consumers of a range of dietary practices (including self-defined vegans, vegetarians, pescetarians, flexitarians and meat-eaters) who regularly eat meat substitute products. These are plant-based food products that closely imitate meat (for example vegan or vegetarian burgers, sausages, mince). Most interviews were conducted online and were one-to-one interviews, although one is a household interview at the participants' request. The data was collected for a project called 'Meat Free Mondays', exploring the practices, perceptions and motivations of consumers of meat substitute products, with the following objectives: (1) To understand the practices, perceptions and motivations of regular consumers of meat substitute products and (2) To identify barriers to consuming plant-based substitute products and consider how the research findings might help encourage more sustainable consumption practices amongst a wider population.

EPIC-Oxford is the Oxford component of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), a large multi-centre cohort study with participants enrolled from 10 European countries. The EPIC-Oxford study began in the 1990s and follows the health of 65,000 men and women living throughout the UK, many of whom are vegetarian. The main objective of EPIC Oxford is to examine how diet influences the risk of cancer, particularly for the most common types of cancer in Britain, as well as the risks of other chronic diseases.

EPIC-Europe was initiated in 1992. It involves over 500,000 people from 23 centres in 10 European countries. It is coordinated by the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, and supported by the European Union and national funding agencies.

EPIC-Oxford is one of two EPIC cohorts in the UK, the other is EPIC-Norfolk.

For further details on the study design, recruitment, data collection and other aspects of the EPIC-Oxford study, please visit https://www.ceu.ox.ac.uk/research/epic-oxford-1