With the vegan army on the march across the land, we’re all flexitarians now

Today is World Vegan Day. And forgive the capital letters there but veganism is a big deal. As big a trend as gin. In fact as James Halliwell notes in his well-timed feature there is even a vegan gin.

Considering the hippy stereotype vegans can be surprisingly vicious in making their case as Joanna Blythman argues here.

But veganism is going mainstream and as proof you only need to look at the number of consumers who are calling themselves ‘flexitarians,’ a teeth-grindingly hateful phrase, which means they actively want to reduce their meat and dairy intake without necessarily referring to themselves as vegans. Whether this is simply a gateway drug to full veganism doesn’t matter, as it has made the market broaden from half a million vegans to, potentially, every consumer in the UK.

Some impressively big names have lined up to endorse this as a lifestyle choice, including the World Health Organization, but it’s unlikely that consumers have been checking the WHO news feed over their bran flakes (moistened with oat milk, of course). Instead, people seem to be coming to the conclusion individually and in such numbers that even the supermarkets are paying attention.

Own-label vegan ranges

A notional tipping point has been passed, with Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons all with their own-label vegan ranges and plenty of branded vegan products on the shelves as well. These are not, significantly, the old, heavily processed, sugar-heavy ‘meat alternatives’, which relied on a surfeit of chemicals to simulate the taste of bacon, but nutritious, tasty foods in their own right that are more interested in providing the consumer with healthy food rather than a weakened substitute.

More brands are providing more innovative products, particularly the case in the chocolate market, which producers are saying has expanded greatly in the past 12 months, but also with that most paradoxical of foodstuffs, the vegan cheese.

This latter category was characterised as limp, yellowy stodge, oddly but memorably criticised by a grime artist who said “it got no taste”. But it is now available in a profusion of varieties - ade from cashews and almonds -from high-end brands to readily available supermarket brands. These have been joined by the bizarre sounding Vegan Easy Egg, a slight reversion to the idea of food substitutes for domestic cooks who pine for easy scrambled vegan eggs, omelettes and quiches.

With restaurants springing up across the UK catering exclusively for vegan palates, it is safe to conclude that this trend is here to stay.