Flora Announces 'Plant-Based First' Smoked Garlic Butter Block

Dairy-free butter brand Flora has announced the launch of what’s thought to be the first ever plant-based smoked garlic flavor butter block.

The limited edition Flora Smoked Garlic is a category first for butters, spreads, and margarines. According to Flora, it works well in pasta dishes and garlic mushrooms. The block has been in development for 12 months, and is said to have 78 percent less climate impact than dairy butter. It also doesn’t contribute to the ethical costs of the dairy industry.

“We’re excited to launch Flora Smoked Garlic as a category first and, once again, push the boundaries of what’s possible with plant-based innovation,” Ian Hepburn, marketing director at Upfield, UK, said in a statement. “We know the UK loves garlic in their food and so it has always been an ambition to bring this iconic flavour to our product range.”

Flora Smoked Garlic will be available to buy from 250 select Sainsbury’s stores in the UK from September 29. It has an RRP of £1.75.

Flora goes vegan

Flora Flora has launched a campaign called “skip the cow”

Flora offers a wide range of dairy-free spreads, but it hasn’t always been a vegan brand. Up until October 2023, Flora still used butter in its “Buttery” spread, but it decided to make the entire range plant-based to cater to the ever-growing dairy-free market.

Soon after ditching dairy, Flora unveiled a new campaign named “Skip the Cow,” which it says is to encourage people to “stop and think” about consuming dairy. As part of the campaign, it released a TV advert describing milk as “a bit weird.”

“There it is, Flora, made with plants,” a voiceover stated in the ad. “And it tastes so good that it raises a question: ‘is it a bit weird we’ve spent so many years pumping plants through a cow?’”

As well as being environmentally destructive, dairy is widely regarded as cruel. Around 270 million cows are used for milk worldwide. They are made pregnant via artificial insemination, and have their baby taken away from them soon after birth so humans can milk them. When their milk supply dries up, they are sent to the slaughterhouse.