The UK is now officially the world leader for vegan food according to data from market expert Mintel.
When it comes to vegan food Germany has long been in the lead with recent reports showing that 10 per cent of the population would class themselves as vegan or vegetarian, with one in ten product in supermarkets having a vegan label on it.
However, new data from market research firm Mintel has revealed the UK has now taken over. There has been a rise in the number of Brits going meat free. One of the biggest increases in the past two years has been the milk intake. Many people have decided to drop dairy and go to alternative milks. This has subsequently led to more vegan products being released. Along with the trend moving all over the UK, you now have a choice of unto 4 different dairy substitutes in most coffee shops around the UK and this is only the beginning. Greg have announced a vegan-friendly sausage roll, available in 950′ stores from 3 January
In fact, Mintel reports that around 16 per cent of new food launches in the UK in 2018 were vegan, doubling from eight per cent the previous year. It also found that 34 per cent of British meat eaters have reduced their meat consumption in the last six months.
I spoke to Fig and Sparrow Barista, Annabelle Hartman to see if she had seen an increase of vegan demand in the past 6 months, “well we have always been a vegan/vegetarian friendly cafe but as we are in the ‘shoreditch of manchester’ I have noticed the we rarely use dairy milk and we have had to order new cakes, bread and soups to make sure we have a variety of vegan options. We used to only have one vegan option and mostly just vegetarian but its change now. I think its might be because people have started to realise that vegan food can still be nice and have lots of flavour, its not just nuts and seeds which is what people usually think of.”
From Greggs’ new vegan sausage roll and McDonald’s vegan-friendly Happy Meal to TGI Fridays “bleeding burger” and Waitrose’s ‘fishless fingers’, more and more companies are beginning to accept that veganism is now a mainstream lifestyle choice and this number is only going to keep growing apparently.
