UK supermarket Iceland has announced that they are going to be launching a frozen food section specifically for vegan food. The retailer launched their own ‘bleeding’ burgers earlier in the year, keeping up with the demand for new vegan products.
Neil Nugent, head of development at Iceland, said that the success is down to the recent addition, the No Bull Burger. The burger is made from soya protein and has the appearance and texture of meat, however, it is also a competitor to brands such as Beyond Meat, who are launching their burger in Tesco stores next month.
Speaking to Food Spark, Nugent said: “We are quite excited about it after the success of the No Bull Burger, which has been phenomenal. It’s outselling our wagyu burgers and we’ve not advertised it, it’s all been social media. [It’s] probably one of the first trends that [has] arrived in that format or that way.
“There are places like by. CHLOE in the UK with vegan style restaurants, but I think it’s been a totally social media-driven trend. What I do think is this vegan thing has such a massive growth and it’s not necessarily about vegans. It’s about people flexing the diet and just choosing meat-free options a bit more than they have done before, so we have to follow that trend as customers are demanding it.”
Iceland are the second UK supermarket to have an exclusively vegan section. Waitrose introduced a designated space for vegan food in stores at the beginning of June, following the increase in products offered as a result of customer demand.
Other major retailers such as Sainsbury’s are offering more plant-based options, with new brands being added to stores and additional items from existing brands being stocked.
Iceland is reportedly opening their vegan section in stores from September.