Waitrose has announced its largest ever new vegan and vegetarian product launches with two new ranges, Plantlife and GoVeggie with include the likes of Crispy No Beef with Sweet Chilli Sauce and Thai Style No Fish Cakes.
The launch is part of the recently launched Holistic Living brand, features a number of ‘first to market’ supermarket products including No Chorizo Tortelloni and Mushroom Scallop Linguine, which are available now across the UK.
It comes as the number of vegans in Britain has quadrupled in four years to some 600,000, amid rising concerns over animal welfare and the environment.
Meanwhile, millions of Brits are making moves to cut back on their meat consumption to lead vegetarian or flexiterian diets.
Waitrose has announced its largest ever new vegan and vegetarian product launches with two new ranges, Plantlife and GoVeggie with include the likes of Crispy No Beef with Sweet Chilli Sauce and Thai Style No Fish Cakes. Pictured is the Crispy No Beef with Sweet Chilli Sauce
Also in the range is vegan dauphinoise potatoes and crispy plant-based mac and cheese bites
Waitrose say all the new products are designed to provide healthy and simple meals, snacks and treats for anyone looking to adopt a more holistic approach to their lifestyle.
The launch also follows recent research from Veganuary, the global organisation encouraging people to try vegan for January and beyond, revealing that six months on from Veganuary 2021, 82 per cent of participants have maintained a dramatic reduction in their animal product consumption.
The new ranges boast a variety of indulgent vegan savoury snacks, delicious main courses and desserts as well a variety of vegetarian sausages and burgers, all designed to introduce shoppers to meat free meals while keeping flavour front of mind.
Using recognisable ingredients such as miso, soy and a variety of spices, the supermarket’s team of innovation chefs have created a variety of mouth-watering dishes, each boasting a delicious depth of flavours.
Rich soy ragu spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, garlic and bay, tender slices of potato and aubergine, and a creamy vegan béchamel sauce on top, with sliced tomato and a paprika crumb make up the vegan moussaka
Pesto sausages also feature in the range (left) as well as beetroot and feta arancini(right)
Martyn Lee, Executive Chef at Waitrose told FEMAIL: ‘We wanted to provide our customers with more choice when it came to incorporating a holistic approach to their meals.
‘Making “meat free Monday” or a flexitarian lifestyle even easier, these new ranges have inspired us to be more innovative.
‘For example, by using pulses, we’ve been able to recreate a white sauce for products in the new Plantlife range such as Moussaka and Potato Dauphinoise which rivals any bechamel sauce we’ve tried!’
Fans of Waitrose appear delighted at the new launch, taking to social media today to celebrate
Fans of Waitrose appear delighted at the new launch, taking to social media today to celebrate.
After the chain shared the news on their Instagram account, one fan wrote: ‘This is the best news!’
Another added: ‘Love the sound of these’
A third commented: ‘I am so excited! The no chorizo tortelloni sounds like a dream’.
‘These sound amazing’ said a fourth.
It comes after the British high street favourite launched their Christmas 2021 line which included a vegan Jewelled Roast with a Fruity Centre.
The savoury mushroom-based roast with sweet caramelised onions, chestnuts, a clove-spiced apricot centre on offer.
While for a sweet treat those on plant-based diets can pick up the Waitrose Vegan Winter Pudding – made with apples, blackberries, raspberries and blackcurrants, layered with bread, and soaked in a lightly spiced fruit sauce.
Also on offer is the Waitrose Vegan No Lobster Marie Rose Roll. THe plant-based brioche-style roll in filled with roasted king oyster mushroom, vegan Marie Rose sauce, semi-dried tomato and lovage.
Dozens of British retailers have been adjusting their offerings to keep up with the surge in plant-based eating in the UK.
Pret A Manger this week delighted fans as they revealed its new autumn menu for 2021 including a vegan ‘meatball pot’.
The protein pot combines breakfast mushrooms topped with Pret’s chunky vegan meatballs made famous in the Meatless Meatball Hot Wrap is finished with a generous portion of breakfast beans.
Elsewhere, Costa Coffee has unveiled its latest new vegan ‘sustainable’ offering – a plant-based bacon bap costing £3 – and it has split opinion on social media.
The sandwich, which features meat-free ‘Naked without the Oink’ rashers from Finnebrogue Artisan is available now.
It comes as other major food outlets have seen staggering success with vegan remakes of their iconic offerings – including Nestlé, which recently brought a dairy-free version of the much-loved KitKat to market, and chain bakery Greggs.
The high street stalwart, which launched its £1 vegan sausage roll in January 2019, saw year-on-year profits climb by 13.5 per cent, with many crediting the veggie pastry for the firm’s success.
Now Costa – which already has a few plant-based menu items – could be trying to replicate these successes with its new sandwich – the first time it has offered a plant-based bacon breakfast bap.
Called the Vegan Bac’n Bap, it features a white roll, with spread, and the faux meat. Customers can opt for either tomato ketchup or brown sauce on the side.
Discussing the new launch, a spokesperson for Costa Coffee told FEMAIL: ‘It’s an exciting first for Costa Coffee and a delicious, innovative twist on a famous classic.’
Jago Pearson, Finnebrogue’s chief strategy officer, added that the way the rashers are made means the sandwiches are kinder to the planet.
He said: ‘[Naked without the Oink rashers] are a tasty substitute for real bacon and are high in protein, a source of fibre, vitamin B12, iron and zinc. And what’s more, they are made right here in the UK.
‘They also recently obtained a grade A enviro score from Foundation Earth. This means customers can now enjoy our tasty rashers with the knowledge they are produced in a more sustainable way.’