A survey conducted by The Vegan Society has found that 91 percent of vegans sometimes struggle to find food options whilst on the go. Despite the continual growth of the plant based market and the opportunities available to restaurants, cafes and supermarket chains, a gap in the market still remains.
Coffee shops such as Starbucks, Pret a Manger and Caffe Nero are offering up more vegan options following the high demand as more and more people each year are choosing to take up a plant based diet. Elena Orde, Communications Officer for The Vegan Society, said: “We’ve seen some fantastic strides forward in terms of new, affordable vegan products in supermarkets and restaurants but we want to make it even easier for people to go vegan and stay vegan.
“Offering vegan food options makes clear commercial sense – businesses are opening the potential market up to not only half a million vegans in Britain, but also to a million more vegetarians, the huge number of meat and dairy reducers, the lactose intolerant, the health-conscious and others who simply enjoy vegan food from time to time. Sometimes all it takes is removing a pesky small amount of dairy or egg to create a lovely vegan dish, which can really widen food retailers’ appeal.”
The survey also found that over half of Britons know someone who is vegan; over half are also adopting vegan buying behaviours, and 26 per cent thought that public sector food outlets should be, by law providing a vegan option on their menus. In recent years there has been 185 per cent increase in the number of vegan products launched in the UK between 2012 and 2016, but more is still to be done by food outlets to be inclusive of vegan diets.