Veganism has gone Mainstream – an unstoppable Trend

Long gone are the days when a vegan going out to a restaurant for dinner with friends would have to make do with a salad and a few tomatoes and slices of cucumber. Vegan options are now offered at most restaurants and there are, of course, specialist restaurants that cater to this lifestyle. The vegan trend is clearly here to stay. 

We see the trend towards veganism everywhere. The word is splashed all over marketing materials for restaurants while the phrase “plant-based diet” is now commonly used. Google searches for the word “vegan” are on the rise and major meat-producing companies are expanding into “plant-based meat” that look and taste like meat. 

Here are some of our stories on the vegan trend:

May 2019

• vegan food is to be made available in Scottish schools and in Irish schools;
• the shares of Greggs and Beyond Meat are soaring on the stock markets;
• vegan tuna called Tuno to be stocked by Morrisons supermarket;
• the vegan meat market is set to be worth $140 billion in the next decade;
• the Economist magazine is giving away free vegan hot dogs in New York;
• the first vegan restaurant in Hull is set to open;
• Morrisons are launching a vegan pulled pork pizza;
• the McDonald’s conundrum: will adding a vegan burger boost traffic to restaurants?
• Beyond Meat is set to open a factory in the Netherlands to boost its ability to meet European demand.

June 2019

• Ramadan is getting an increasing vegan makeover;
• Aldi is now selling vegan sausage rolls and sausages;
• New York hospitals will soon be required by law to offer vegan food options;
• is a Sainsbury’s three day pop-up store the world’s first meatless butcher?
• the first vegan fish & chip shop in the North of England opens in Leeds;
• Vivera Foods, the Dutch food giant, is divesting itself of Encko, its meat division to focus on vegan food;
• Meat will mostly not come from dead animals by 2040, according to a report by AT Kearney. It estimates that 60% of it will be plant-based or cultured;
• KFC is launching a vegan chicken burger, the Imposter, with a trial in three cities in the UK;
• Tesco is committed to becoming a leader in plant-based food with 600 stores set to stock its Wicked Kitchen brand’s products;
• McDonald’s is launching a vegan burger in Israel;
• a Waldorf Steiner School in Stockholm, Sweden has become the country’s first vegan school;
• the Wimbledon tennis championships are set to have a new vegan look with its iconic strawberries and cream to have a vegan makeover.

July 2019

• Millennials are raising a generation of vegan kids, according to a report by Impossible Foods;
• the Ceuta Group’s research on Google Trends shows a huge increase in vegan searches on Google – searches in the UK have increased by 469%  since 2014;
• the German manufacturer Rügenwalder Mühle is expanding its range of vegan meats;
• the plant-based meat company THIS set up a three-course fine dining event, cooked by a Michelin-starred chef, for 25 food influencers and critics, tricking them into believing the meal was actually meat when it most definitely was not. The reactions when the truth was revealed are remarkable and have been captured on video – a must see;
• UBS financial analysts believe that the vegan meat market is set to soar to $85 billion by 2030;
• vegan festivals are a thing! 7,000 vegan campers are expected at the Vegan Camp-Out festival in Nottinghamshire in August;
• Omari McQueen is an  award-winning 11 year old vegan chef and entrepreneur;
• with the UK restaurant sector suffering, vegan restaurants in the UK are closing down across the UK with a lack of customers;
• Greggs posts a 58% rise in profits thanks mainly to the success of it new vegan sausage roll.

August 2019

• Burger King is rolling out the vegan Impossible Burger across the USA following its highly successful trial;
• McDonald’s appears close to launching a vegan Big Mac;
• Goldsmiths College, University of London bans beef from its premises and integrating climate change topics into its degrees;
• the world’s biggest pork producer, Smithfield Foods, is launching a range of plant-based meat combined with vegan cheese; 
• Jamie Oliver will host a new vegetarian cooking show on Channel 4;
• Greggs is set to expand its range of vegan products by creating plant-based versions of all of its best sellers following the success of the launch of its vegan sausage roll;
• KFC rolls out a Vegan Fried Chicken faux nuggets and wings in partnership with Beyond Meat.

September 2019

• the New Zealand red meat representative claims that the EU meat demand has fallen 20% in just three months and that changing attituds to meat are the biggest issue facing the meat industry;
• the blockchain pioneer VeganNation has just bought a 10 year lease of 15,000 acres of Amazon Rainforest to ensure its protection;
• Aldi is to launch a huge new vegan range including ready-made meals for £2;
• a comprehensive survey shows that 48% of American adults bought plant-based meat and dairy in the last three months;
• the start of the academic year sees a huge rise in the number of vegan choices at university campuses with “conscientious consuming” by students now becoming a “mega trend”;
• Tesco is launching its own Plant Chef range to increase its range of vegan products and is introducing vegan aisles in its supermarkets;
• McDonald’s is introducing a PLT (plant, lettuce, tomato) burger in Canada in partnership with Beyond Meat.

October 2019

• vegan menus at weddings are predicted to becoming a major trend in 2020;
• the first American vegan cannabis cafe has opened its doors for business in Los Angeles with Miley Cyrus one of its investors;
• an independent Think Tank RethinkX claims that the Beef & Dairy industries will be effectively bankrupt by 2030;
• the Metropolitan Police have had to order a record number of vegan meals to feed the arrested Extinction Rebellion activists;
• a Nature Climate Change report has concluded that vegans and more trees could stop global agriculture absorbing carbon by 2050;
• vegan food is now coming to US Air Force military bases to cater for the changing choices in the recruits’ generation;
• Manchester City FC goes vegan with a partnership Nestlé Professional as “Coffee, Vegan & Vegetarian Partner” which ensure that healthier food options will be on the menu on match days at the Etihad and Academy Stadiums;
• the Giacomazzi Dairy, the oldest dairy farm in California has closed after 125 years and will convert to an Almond Farm;
• Subway to launch a vegan meatball marina in selected stores in the UK;
• “Eat ME-AT every day!” so says the plant-based subsidiary of the Dutch meat processor Voin which is converting its beef facility to plant-based production.

November 2019

• Australia’s iconic Vegemite has been officially certified as vegan to coincide with World Vegan Day by changing….absolutely nothing;
• Beyond Meat’s yearly sales have grown by an impressive 250%; 
• Morrison’s has added a footlong vegan sausage roll to its range – weighing in at nearly half a kilo and twice as long as its existing sausage roll and will only cost £1; 
• the Virgin founder, Sir Richard Branson has blogged about his experience eating real meat but with a difference: meat that had been grown directly from animal cells. It was sustainable, cultured chicken, the clean meat of the future;
• a 15-year-old from Hull who has a passion for creating vegan recipes is a vegan entrepreneur and has already gained a qualification in computerised accounting for business before doing her GCSEs;
• the 2019 Waitrose Food & Drink Report has identified a British nation that is tending towards a vegan diet without fully committing and a clear trend of “Mindful Shoppers” choosing eco-friendly products;
• Mars has announced that Galaxy is introducing three dairy-free milk chocolate bars which are Vegan Society approved with special compostable packaging;
• research has identified that 30% of Americans would happily consider a turkey-free and meat-free Thanksgiving Dinner with younger people being the most receptive to the idea;
• the rise of the flexitarian: almost 90% of sales of non-meat burgers are bought by non-vegetarians or non-vegans according to a study;
• Roger Whiteside, the CEO of Greggs has gone vegan after watching the Game Changers so we can surely export more vegan offerings from the high street chain;
• the first ever plant-based meat is to be made available in the wholesale Smithfield Meat Market in the City of London which supplies restaurants and hotel;
• a nursery in Chester has imposed a vegan diet on its 260 children to a very mixed reaction from parents;
• details of the 2020 Vegan Camp-Out in Nottinghamshire with event partners Viva! have been released for August next year.

December 2019

• vegan meat is compared to dog food in an aggressive meat industry advertising campaign that plant-based burgers are “ultra-processed”;
• Sainsbury’s plans a huge plant-based product roll-out of its Plant Pioneers vegan brand to begin on New Year’s Day as the supermarket chain seeks to be a leader in the sector;
• a Hungarian company Plantcraft has raised $150 million of venture captial and is poised to take its plant-based salami, ham and pâté into the US market;
• a South London nursery has done a u-turn after imposing a vegan diet on its children after a parents’ backlash and now reverted to a vegetarian menu;
• the Big Vegan Survey 2019 shows that the main reason for people going vegan is for animal welfare, though this is gradually changing; 
• McDonald’s is finally introducing a vegan meal in the UK in time for Veganuary; 
• Unilever has opened a Euro 85 million Food Innovation Centre on the Wageningen campus in the Netherlands in an area known as “Food Valley” in a nod to Silicon Valley as the area embraces a lot of food start-up technology companies as well as a university community;
• Greggs ran out of vegan sausage rolls in Chingford when Labour activists came canvassing in the UK’s December 2019 General Election;
• Just Egg has acquired a 30,000 ft2 production facility in Minnesota so that it can dramatically increase production to meet supply needs instantly becoming a town’s biggest employer;
• sales of Waitrose’s festive vegan food has increased by 40% showing a distinct shift away from Christmas turkey;
• the Metropolitan Police spent £14,000 on vegan meals during the year feeding  Extinction Rebellion protesters who had been arrested.

January 2020

• Greggs has launched its vegan steak bake just in time for Veganuary, and KFC has also launched its Vegan Chicken Burger at the same time.