Over 400,000 people back Veganuary
The campaign also revealed that hundreds of new plant-based products and menu items were also launched this January – including the first Veganuary offerings from fast-food giants KFC, McDonald’s and Burger King.
KFC sold one million vegan burgers in the first month they were on sale – equivalent to one being sold every three seconds since the launch on 2 January. And, according to Deliveroo, orders of vegan dishes almost doubled when compared to the number in January 2019.
Food outlets and retailers said that interest in vegan food increased during the month.
Sales of Hellman’s Vegan Mayo saw a growth of nearly 400% in Tesco during Veganuary, while Marks & Spencer’s (M&S’) Plant Kitchen No Chicken Kiev sold at a rate of four every minute since it launched on 2 January.
April Preston, director of product development at M&S, said: “Veganism is a trend that we are absolutely loving at M&S, and as our customers continue to experiment and adopt more flexitarian diets, we too are having fun creating new products to fit within this.”
Greggs, which is famous for its Vegan Sausage Roll, said: “The launch of our Vegan Steak Bake has been a huge success, even bigger than we had originally anticipated. Due to the success of the launch, we’re now working on rolling the Vegan Steak Bake out to all shops as soon as we can.”
Veganuary’s head of communications Toni Vernelli said: “With the link between animal farming and the climate crisis making headlines nearly every day, we expected Veganuary 2020 to be the biggest yet, but it exceeded all of our expectations.
“We applaud everyone who took part and encourage them to continue eating vegan food as often as possible. And we’re grateful to all of the businesses embracing Veganuary and making it easier for more people to eat more plant-based food more often.”
