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Plant-based consumption has increased by 300 percent in just 12 months, according to an article by food industry insight company Foodable Labs.
According to the organization, this means the movement is now ‘in full swing’, with restaurants ‘starting to take notice’.
As a result, more than half (51 percent) of chefs have added vegan meals to their menus – up from 31 percent last year. “These plant-based concepts have increased traffic a whopping 13 percent year over year in a market where overall restaurant counts are down,” says Foodable.
Consumer demand
Producers of plant-based food have seen how demand for the products is growing. CEO vegan startup Beyond Meat, Ethan Brown, said: “We’ve gone from pushing and really trying to convince to now just being in response mode where the consumer is now driving the ship, so to speak, and steering the ship and we are just trying to keep up.”
HipCityVeg CEO Nicole Marquis added: “It’s no longer really about like interruptive marketing and manipulating someone’s purchasing choices, it’s really about communicating who we are, what we do, what we believe in. I think the driving force is definitely shared value.”
987% increase
This data follows 2017 UK news fro takeaway service Just Eat, which showed demand for meat-free food increased by 987 percent over the course of 12 months. The company predicted going vegan would be ‘the biggest food trend of 2018’.
Just Eat Marketing Director Edel Kinane said: “The results from this year are a good insight into the future consumer trends.
“While convenience will continue to be key for consumers next year and beyond, we know that they are increasingly looking for more diverse, healthy, gluten-free, and plant-based vegan options.”
