Interest in Veganism Treble Interest in Vegetarian as Vegan Trend Doubles in 12 months

No stopping the rise in vegan now

According to Google trends, interest in the search term 'vegan' has doubled in the last 12 months alone having already quadrupled in the previous 4 years.

Interest in Vegan quadrupled, then doubled again since April 2015

Record number of Vegans

 VegfestUK exhibitions and festivals are seeing record crowds even though many other vegan festivals and shows are popping up in cities all over the UK and Ireland. Interest in vegan food, clothing, cosmetics and fashion as well as vegan politics has never been so high.

Similar vegan trends are being seen all over the world, not just Europe and the USA.

Treble Top 

Interest in veganism is now running at nearly three times than of the search term 'vegetarian'  . All restaurants need to re think their menus as a vegetarian lasagne just doesn't cut it anymore. Just substituting the meat for a bit of Feta, Goats cheese or Haloumi is ..Yawn, just, Yawn, too lazy.

More than double the interest in vegan , often treble vs vegetarian

Eating Out Vegan 

Eating out has never been easier with a number of Restaurant chains introducing new vegan menus. Pizza Express has had a Vegan Pizza for some time but now Zizzis has launched a Vegan Pizza with Dairy Free Cheese which has left Domino's missing the boat on their chance to introduce the vegan pizza that they sell in Israel to UK high streets.

A string of household mainstream brands have announced their intention to bring out vegan versions of their most popular products, even Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and Guinness.

Dietitians the new 'Extremists'

It's only a few years ago when local government and NHS health trusts were calling Meat Free Mondays a step too far. Now health professionals are saying it's not far enough. Respected dietitians, nutritionists and dietetic scientists have become overwhelmed with the scientific evidence that is bombarding them and reluctantly overturning years of post war indoctrination and revising guidelines. Leading Dietitians around the world and public health officials in Holland are now recommending meat only 2 times a week - That's five days less a week than Paul McCartney's Meat Free Mondays,  Meatless Monday and Meat Out Days

Science uncovering inevitable truth

Scientists have discovered and isolated the distinctive taste of red meat is from haem iron that they have replicated from iron rich plants. Soon you will be able to buy a veggie burger that not just tastes like but bleeds like a piece of an animal flesh. What excuses then for encouraging and sustaining the torture of animals with your shopping budget?

London Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston Says "anyone who says they 'need' meat are deluding themselves, unless they mean it in a ' I need a drink' kind of a way

It's never been so easy to be vegan and more and more people are running out of excuses to stop increasing the risk to their health and the health of the planet as well as the inexcusable cruelty and death to millions of animals.

What excuses are there left for not going vegan?

http://vegfestexpress.co.uk/tabs/blog/2016/4/veganism-doubles-again-since-april-2015

Interest in Vegan Diets in UK Doubles in Two Years

Google Trends reveals that interest in veganism over the last two years has more than doubled. Interest in vegan diets has been steadily rising over the last 10 years but stories in the press about the horse meat scandal, the dire situation about the environment, plus health scares about eating meat and dairy, have led to a phenominal increase in interest in veganism in the UK

Interest in veganism and the solutions it provides have been noted all over the world. The UK is not the only place to have seem dramatic increase in interest in vegan diets, Australia, Canada, Germany and Israel have also seen ubiqitous changes.

UK interest in Vegan doubled in 2 years

Dramatic increase in Vegan awareness all over world

Whilst Vegfest UK couldn't claim to be the sole reason veganism has grown so quickly in theUK since 2012 Vegfest has undeniably played a very big part in the jigsaw.

In straw polls taken at Vegfest 20% of those interviewed said they would be changing their diet following their visit to Vegfest UK. Time to get a Vegan Cookbook?

"Clearly any food manufacturer investing in NPD  and wanting to break a new product into the UK market would be shooting themselves directly in the foot by not making it to VegfestUK and engaging with the thousands of visitors looking for new solutions" says consultant Tony Bishop-Weston

This year, in a new bigger venue, VegfestUK offers even more reasons for visitors to visit with political debates and a conference on sustainability.

This emerging market offers unique investment opportunity for all types market opportunities and those with creative ideas on healthier, more sustainable versions and vegan alternatives to products we know and love but can no longer justify. Products that are healthy, more environmentally friendly and more ethically produced win hands down if they are of the same quality of experience (eg Taste) and competitively priced.

http://brighton.vegfest.co.uk/sponsorship
http://outofhand.co.uk/vegfest/mediabrighton2015/
http://brighton.vegfest.co.uk/stall-prices
http://brighton.vegfest.co.uk/press-releases
Brighton - Bristol - London

Google Trends - vegan diets - still rising

Google Trends - Web Search Interest: vegan - Worldwide, 2004 - present

Interest in Vegan Diets still rising



Want to know more about why?, what? and how? Go to Vegfest

Vegan Explosion – Vegan diet up 30-40% points on Google

Vegan Explosion in UK – Vegan diet surge averaging 30-40% points up on Google in 2013 | PRLog

Google - from Vegan Society World Vegan Day Voogle Campaign

We are looking at an unprecedented phenomenon  - dramatic increase in interest in vegan diets and vegan recipes that now seems unstopable. Bring your friends to Vegfest in London - it's a very good place to start and there's never been a better time

LindaMcCartneyFoods New TV Advert

LindaMcCartneyFoods (MeatFreeTweets) on Twitter and TV

Linda McCartney Foods, now owned by Hain Europe, tweeted this morning that they are to launch a new TV advertising campaign to claw back some of the market share they've lost to Quorn.

Grassroots vegan activists are dissappointed and exasperated that the Linda McCartney Brand hasn't played to it's vegan strengths to combat egg and dairy containing Quorn. So many of the new Linda McCartney products have dairy or egg in , particularly disappointing are the new vegetarian prawns which contain milk protein making them unsuitable for the Dairy Free, Vegan and Kosher markets.

Other Meat Free Food companies such as Redwoods, Frys, Vegusto, Wheaty, Goodlife, Amy's are managing to keep their Vegan Kudos alive and kicking with a "Sustainable, Delicious and Suitable For Everyone" theme and with a constant stream of new innovative sustainable products that can be enjoyed by all.

Animal Welfare

The trouble is that by adding dairy and egg into the ingredients many of the key USP of the brand and drivers for a greener, more sustainable world fall down. It's not kinder to animals, chickens and dairy cows are some of the most tortured souls on the planet, male chicks are gassed or crushed at birth as they can't lay eggs, baby calfs are dragged away from their mum's so the milk can be used for humans not them.

Health

It's thought that the natural growth hormones in cow's milk to help a calf grow to the size of a shed in a few weeks is like fertiliserfor cancer cells. Certainly it's milk implicated in the China study by Colin T Campbell that he saw switch cancer cells on and off. The other main problem is that milk has so much more saturated fat vs omega 3 fats as most dairy cows don't get a natural diet. Then there's the intolerance, or at least a sub clinical intolerance to dairy protein and lactose that irritates the digestive system.

London Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston says "New vegetarian products need to be not just as good as, they need to be better than meat. They need to be at least as tasty,  need to be more nutritious and need to be more sustainable and ethically produced than meat. Just being 'meat free' is no longer good enough."

Environment

This is the most perplexing as Sir Paul McCartney himself appeared on National News at 10 to highlight the United Nation's Livestock's Long Shadow report. The Dairy Farming industry is one of the biggest culprits in global warming - we simply no longer have the resources left to feed a cow, water a cow, clean up the waste just for some fatty white liquid that nature designed you to give up by 5 years of age. Second hand food is a luxury we can no longer afford. The clever money is moving into plant food. KFC, McDonalds and their ilk are already looking at plant based meat free alternatives for their products. Old school vegetarian products such as Linda McCartney and Quorn are not on the table.

Avatar director James Cameron says "You cannot call yourself an environmentalist if you are not vegan"

Vegfest 2013

Vegans have already given the Linda McCartney TV advert a makeover to encourage people to try more legitimately,  more sustainable options at The UK Vegfests at Brighton , Bristol and London

Vegans Give Linda McCartney TV advert a pirate vegan  makeover

Marmite Smoothie Trends in Google?

Innocent drinks - a blog about our smoothies and some other stuff

Innocent Marmite Smoothie ?

So it all started with Innocent Drinks blogging and tweeting about Cucumber and marmite. Then there was some idle innocent exchanges between @InnocentDrinks and @Thisismarmite on Twitter. Then either @Plantarian or @Omega3DHA put 2 and 2 together and made 5 suggesting that a Miso style Marmite Innocent collaboration smoothie with some vegan omega 3 DHA and EPA in it might be just the very donkeys! So then @Nutritionistw1 and a whole heap of other twitter people including Captain Plantastic tweeted that a Marmite Smoothie would be a 'Smashing' idea. Meanwhile Lady Gaga Twitter fans and Madonna Twit fans were slaying each other in a new twiitter trend war proving once and for all that the world needs more Vegetarian Omega 3 DHA before we all degenerate into a race of morons.

@omega3DHA got fed up with waiting for a reply from @thisismarmite and @innocentdrinks and posted a 'recipe' but it was basically just mix a smoothie and a spoonful of marmite together.

We, well I , thought you deserved better so here you are. The definative new National Vegetarian Week Marmite Smoothie Recipe. That's what I do after all hey? So I thought of all the things I like that go with that Miso / Marmite Umami savoury taste - Cucumber, apple, Tofu, seaweed, lime and then a traditional Japanese flavour such as Ginger. You could add some wasabi horseradish in if you like that kinda thing....

 National Vegetarian Week Omega 3 Marmite Smoothie Recipe

1/2 fresh cucumber
1 generous teaspoon of Marmite
1 handful of chopped curly Kale
1 small slice of fresh ginger
Juice of 1 lemon or limI
80g fresh bean curd / tofu
1 sheet of nori (sushi) seaweed
1 Kiwi, apple and Lime Innocent Smoothie
2 capsules of Vegan Omega 3 DHA / EPA (400mg DHA)

Whizz together in a blender with a couple of ice cubes.

Someone suggested that The Innocent team relive their founders first steps with a two bin voting system at The Bristol National Vegetarian Week Vegfest . Legend has it that the Innocent boys had one bucket with "yes" (give up our day jobs and make smoothies) and "no" (don't give up the day job) bin for empty bottles. The Bin with the most bottles won and the rest is history. Well that whole idea sits quite well we thought with the whole Marmite Love / Hate thing anyway. Bristol Vegfest the finale of The Vegetarian Society's National Vegetarian Week seems the perfect place for Innocent drinks and Marmite to give a Marmite Smoothie a trial run.

If you think that is a good idea then please tweet Marmite and Innocent Drinks, two of the UK's most prestigious and succesful vegetarian brands, to tell them you want a Marmite Smoothie and message them on Facebook too.

'Vegan' Still a Scarey Word for Public

Registered Vegan Trademark

Vegan restaurants, bakeries find success downplaying ‘v’ word to attract more diners - The Washington Post

I've met a lot of meat eating people who struggle with the concept of "vegetarian sausage' or 'veggieburger' "Why do you have to call it by it's meat name" they say complain.

Why? Because if we called it "A vegan rehydrated tofu, onion, breadcrumb and spiced mini log" even the vegans would steer clear of it.

Why is baby cow called veal? Why is a cow or pigs thymus, heart, pancreas served up as sweetbreads? - Marketing.

Why do veggie burgers, veggie sausages, vegan ice cream, vegan chocolate, vegan mayo taste like the real thing? because that's what people are used to and they are scared of change.

It sounds obvious but the most important thing is that food is not only good value for money but sounds, looks and tastes delicious. "It doesn’t matter if the “meatloaf” or cake is vegan so long as it tastes amazing, said Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst for The NPD Group, a consumer marketing research firm. Marketing a delicious cake or promoting that your restaurant offers the most diverse flavors will grow a business, not hocking them as vegan"

When the operations director from Cranks Restaurants (Yvonne Bishop) proudly called me to tell me that she had introduced a 'vegan pate sandwich' she was dissapointed with my response. "Please tell me you didn't call it that...........". Talk to me about a wild mushroom , portwine, red onion and thyme pate sandwich but a 'Vegan Pate Sandwich' who'll buy that? It's like an afterthought, a patronising token "oh look we even do something for you people who are always whinging that we don't do anything you can eat!"

It's the same with 'Vegan Wine' - if the best and only thing you can think of to say about your product is that it's vegan then I don't want to buy it. Desperate Aunties may buy a bottle for their eccentric nephew for Christmas dinner......

The best way to use the use the vegan word on products and in marketing is as a mark of purity - To proudly, and quickly identify your product as free from key allergens, avoiding animal welfare issues and cruelty, avoiding ingredients that increase risk of disease and avoiding key ingredients that jeopardise the sustainability of our planet - it's not absolute but a good general aid to secondary buying preferences (after primary concerns of value for money and taste are met)

My father is an ex butcher who still refuses to give up cheap meat and dairy even though he knows it has riddled him with rheumatoid and osteo arthritis and osteoporosis and makes things worse. Even he views it as a mark of quality and excellence if a restaurant has a decent vegan option on the menu, he won't choose it but they go further up in his estimations that are also based on the quality of their napkins.

The Washington Post reveals

When vegan bakery BabyCakes NYC recently opened a satellite shop in downtown Disney World, honesty wasn’t a virtue. The shop’s teal signs touting their dairy- and egg-free treats proved too much for the mostly middle American, indulgent vacationers passing by.
“It was more of a repellant,” said owner Erin McKenna. “People were just walking away.”

Within a few days, the scary ‘v’ word on the sign was made much smaller. And soon, unsuspecting walk-in customers were gushing over agave sweetened vanilla cupcakes with lemon frosting and chocolate whoopie pies, unaware they were made sans eggs, milk and butter.

The easiest way to use vegan as a mark of purity and quality rather than a limiting and defining personification of your product is to use the Vegan Society Vegan trademark. You can get a whole range of products registered for as little as £100 / $150

Because vegan does still have a few negative associations, despite the best efforts of Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton and a host of other celebrities and famous sports personalities Foods for Life launched Plantarian and One World Day in January 2011

They use this basic logo used by Plamil foods, the pioneers of Soy milk and dairy free chocolate in the UK

It attempts to convey the idea of a journey to a better place, a pathway to health and sustainability rather than a very tight fitting box to squeeze into.

It's hoped that this will be less intimidating and more appealling to the hoards of people still undermining their health and threatening the sustainability of the planet by using their plates knives and forks as weapons of mass destruction.

Top 10 Food Trends for 2010

Nation's Restaurant News




Top 10 / top 20 food trends for 2010 - The NRN are, it's safe to say, fairly conservative, (their politics have been likened to a little right of the NRA) as you'd expect for a magazine whose readership are chefs who routinely think up new ways to kill animals and make dead rotting flesh taste nice.

The cliche of Chefs' animosity to vegetarians is perpetuated by chefs such as Gordon Ramsay - the only thing he says he hates more than vegans is traffic wardens.

So a good sign indeed that the National Restaurant News, NRN , one letter away from NRA, and their survey of chefs has come out with these encouraging results in their top 20 food trends for 2010 for the ethical environmentalists amongst us.

Exciting times ahead surely , good news for Vegetarian Visitor the UK Restaurant and accommodation guide and perfect timing for The Vegetarian Society's new campaign V Healthy that features leading London Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston's 7 ways to health

(Dec. 1, 2009)

• 1. Locally grown produce
• 2. Locally sourced meats and seafood
• 3. Sustainability
• 4. Bite-size/mini desserts
• 5. Locally produced wine and beer
• 6. Nutritionally balanced children's dishes
• 7. Half-portions/smaller portion for a smaller price
• 8. Farm/estate-branded ingredients
• 9. Gluten-free/food allergy conscious
• 10. Sustainable seafood
• 11. Superfruits (e.g. acai, goji berry, mangosteen, purslane)
• 12. Organic produce
• 13. Culinary cocktails (e.g. savory, fresh ingredients)
• 14. Micro-distilled/artisan liquor
• 15. Nutrition/health
• 16. Simplicity/back to basics
• 17. Regional ethnic cuisine
• 18. Non-traditional fish (e.g. branzino, Arctic char, barramundi)
• 19. Newly fabricated cuts of meat (e.g. Denver steak, pork flat iron, Petite Tender)
• 20. Fruit/vegetable children's side items
  

Source: The National Restaurant Association's What's Hot in 2010 chef survey.

Note 11: Purslane is not a fruit but a succulent herb a bit like a cross between cactus and watercress that has huge amounts of omega 3 essential fats - Chefs obviously still have some way to go but really exciting it's on their radar.

Vegan Review of 2007 - Vegan Market Trends

Vegan Review of 2007 – A Vegan Year

January 2007 – A London Nutritionist predicted 2007 would be the year of the seed, hemp seed. Meanwhile animal rights and vegan charities predicted the numbers of vegans would double during 2007 as vegans reached critical mass in terms of percentage of the population. A BBC 2 Newsnight correspondent went vegan for a month and even a Government website recognised the vegan diet as a sustainable option to counteract global warming and reducing carbon emissions.

February 2007– Veganism cropped up more and more than ever in the media. An LBC radio presenter turned vegan and in BBC 2’s ‘The Truth About Food’ a group of people with high cholesterol and high blood pressure was studied whilst locked in a zoo and fed nuts and raw fruit and vegetables. Dramatic reduction in blood pressure and cholesterol levels were observed. ‘Diet Energy and Global Warming’, a report from Chicago University, was published and revealed that you should be more concerned about your diet than the car you drive if you are concerned about global warming. Meanwhile more condemnation of factory farming followed the bird flu outbreak at Bernard Mathews Norfolk plant "the most bio-secure turkey plant in Britain”. The Vegan Oscars were launched.

March 2007– Radio London discussed veganism, exposés about pig farming and the plight of the world’s oceans due to overfishing encourage more people to look at veganism. Food manufacturers are encouraged to review unnecessary ingredients in their products following a published report on current market trend showing increase in demand for animal free vegan products. Micro Algae is hailed as a potential vegan saviour of the planet’s oceans for providing an ethical, sustainable vegan source of omega 3 long chain essential fatty acids EPA and DHA.

April 2007 – April 1st rumours of the world’s first vegan fried egg sadly prove to be merely another April fool’s joke. As a report is published that claims bacon can cause cancer, vegans seem more excited by a number of new ethical fashion ranges featuring vegan shoes and vegan handbags following in the footsteps of UK vegan designers such as Natalie Dean and Stella McCartney (who won Elle Style award 2007 for best international designer following her work with Adidas). Meanwhile UK Vegetarian and Vegan charities lay down the gauntlet to Green Party candidates and members of Friends of the Earth – ‘How can you call yourself environmentally friendly if you eat meat?’ they ask.

May 2007 - A Eurobarometer survey says that 8 out of 10 EU consumers are willing to make an extra effort to buy animal welfare friendly products, even if this means changing where they shop or paying more for goods. Over 25 Vegetarian and Vegan organisations join together to pool resources and help as many people as possible go Vegan during the weeks following national vegetarian week. Meanwhile a furore kicks off about a change in Mars’ non vegan recipe for Mars bars. Mars backtrack and agree to change rennet contaminated whey powder but still use battery eggs. Mono, a Glasgow vegan restaurant counters with a vegan Mars bar style dairy free ice cream dessert.

June 2007 – Vegan festivals spring up, not just all over the UK but all over the world in places such as Sweden and Thailand. The biggest of it’s kind is The Bristol Vegan Fayre attracting more than 10,000 pro - vegan festival shoppers. Vegan chocolate is hailed as providing numerous health benefits such as helping heart function through nitric oxide production and endorphin release to reduce stress. This is good news not just for companies such as Plamil Foods, who make vegan chocolate and rebranded during 2007 to highlight organic and sustainable production, but also the many raw chocolate companies who sprang up in 2007.

July 2007 – Even newspapers traditionally filled with animosity towards vegetarians start to publically recognise the new vegan trend. In a 2 page spread a Daily Mail reporter revealed he lost 2 kilos and reduced his cholesterol levels by 23% whilst spending a month on a vegan diet. Despite EU legislation threatening to ban the term ‘superfoods’, vegan superfoods continue to attract notoriety. Victoria Beckham provoked a flurry of activity on Google after admitting her secret to her svelte figure was partly down to drinking 2 pints of vegan seaweed and algae shake per day.

August 2007 – An article in The Economist reveals that the number of Vegan young adults is set to soar and warned that the food industry should prepare itself for big changes. More research reveals the colours in fruit and vegetables could be behind their apparent ability to dramatically reduce cancer risks and destroy cancerous cells. Vegans are popping up everywhere - fire stations in Texas, running for president, in Jim Henson’s Muppet cast and even in Donny Osmond’s BBC TV game show.

September 2007– Even The Sun newspaper has started using the word vegan. The tabloid vegan word count is helped along by paparazzi quarry supermodel Kate Moss, who started dating vegan rock star, Jamie Hince, a guitarist with the indie rock group The Kills. More famous for their hand-made Vegan Chocolates the multi award winning Booja Booja company launched what is probably the world’s healthiest ice cream. Made from cashew nuts, filtered water, agave syrup and either chocolate, ginger, coconut, vanilla or maple syrup and pecan nuts it immediately won an annual nutrition award. A nutritionist with London Nutrition consultancy Foods for Life said “It’s vegan-daz, it made choosing the winner of The Foods for Life 2007 Health Food Award very simple.”

October 2007 – Vegetarian Visitor Vegetarian Guide says Glasgow now vies for title of no1 UK Vegan destination as caterers at Glasgow University join the many vegan establishments in Glasgow such as the café at mono, the organic restaurant bar at 78, the Flying Duck nightclub and vegan deli-café Stereo. Deans Foods one of the USA’s biggest milk distributors announce very tough market conditions forcing them to axe 700 jobs. This was in stark contrast to the ever increasing fortunes of European dairy-free leader, Alpro, who cranked up their TV advertising campaign for their vegan dairy free yoghurts and milks. Google trends and sales figures from leading vegan food companies such as Plamil Foods and Yaoh Hemp products confirm a greatly increased demand for vegan products. Vegan Hollywood star Jacquin Pheonix launches new vegan documentary called ‘Earthlings’

November 2007 – For the first time World Vegan Day is celebrated in high streets all over the UK as Lush Cosmetics stores’ staff go vegan for a day and launch their new website redesigned to make mail order vegan soap shopping easier than ever before. UK Vegan month is launched by Animal Aid who continue with their tour of UK cities. Meanwhile vegan fashion designer Stella McCartney was named Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards proving appreciation of her leading a market trend towards cruelty free fashion. Stella’s stepmother Heather Mills McCartney hopped out of a Range rover at Hyde Park’s speaker’s corner in London to launch a new vegan anti dairy pro environment campaign. A quest for a nationally available healthier vegan Pizza and a petition to The UK Prime Minister to legalize the word ‘Vegan’ was promoted by an organisation calling itself simply MiV, just one of a number of new Vegan groups suddenly springing up all over the world.

December 2007 – Whilst animal rights champions PeTA dish out awards almost weekly the most exclusive vegan awards were handed out at Christmas without Cruelty in London. Winner of the prestigious annual Arthur Ling Memorial Award sponsored by Plamil Foods went to Dr Dan Lyons from Sheffield based anti vivisectionist campaigners Uncaged. The 008 Vegan Awards sponsored by Yaoh Hemp Foods were launched whilst a vegan booby prize was awarded to Quorn by The Vegan Society for including egg and dairy throughout their entire myco-protein range. The Vegan Society’s new press officer also launched a new vegan catering guide, a CD Rom for schools and a booklet about environmental issues with Vegan solutions.


The Vegan Future

Following a string of Vegan awards during 2007, including the RSPCA good business awards, Lush cosmetics’ vegan campaigns team were invited to speak in the houses of Parliament on ethical retailing. This has won them many new friends in high places. The RSPCA claim Ethical consumerism is now worth a staggering £29.3 billion per year. This fact alone will ensure that veganism is driven forward in an ever more increasingly unstoppable vegan tidal wave of vegan awareness that’s blasting the dusty cobwebs out of every crevice of the establishment.

See also Vegan Market Trends