Germans, known for their love of sausages and pork, should consider becoming “part-time vegetarians”, a pressure group said, as the country recovers from a food safety scandal.

“The idea is simple: Two people decide to team up, each halves their consumption of meat and fish and therefore the net effect is one more vegetarian,” said Katharina Rimpler, who came up with the idea.

“In this way, they can do something good without completely cutting out meat from their diet,” said Rimpler, from the Federation of German Vegetarians.

Germany has recently been rocked by a food scandal after the potentially hazardous chemical dioxin was found in eggs and some meat products. A demonstration in Berlin in favour of reforms to agriculture policy drew some 22,000 people, organisers said.

Germany has around six million vegetarians, above average in Europe, said a VEBU spokesman, though Britain has more.