Top Vegan Trends

The UK is the largest consumer and purchaser of plant-based milk, meat, cheese and ready

meals in Europe. 25% of evening meals in the UK are now vegan or vegetarian, and one in

three people in the UK have stopped or reduced their meat consumption. (Source: T

Vegan Society)

Last year, up to November 2020, Deliveroo reported a 115% increase in demand for plant-based

meals. In my hometown of Cambridge, Stem & Glory was the only vegan restaurant in 2017.

Now there are five. Only those in denial about the unsustainability of animal consumption

can ignore or pass off veganism as a ‘fad’.

2020 was the year of plant-based ‘meat’, attracting both consumers and investors. The IPO

of US brand ‘Beyond Meat’ was the best performing first-day IPO in nearly two decades. The

UK brand THIS™ Seedrs campaign was the fastest ever campaign to hit £1.5m+ and closed

on £4.5m in a matter of days.

Investors are keen to invest in the plant-based space, and we’re seeing an ever-growing

number of vegan and ethical investment firms. The plant-based movement has not only

grown in popularity, but it’s now well capitalised and poised for even greater growth and

market penetration.

So, where is it we see new products starting to gain ground, and where do we see vegan

products in the UK heading in 2021?

1) Vegan Seafood

Vegan seafood has become a fast-moving trend all over the world, and seems to be

following a similar trajectory to vegan meat, in that seafood junk – deep fried scampi, deep

fried vegan shrimp, fish burgers, and fish goujons – is popular in both supermarkets and

early adopter food outlets. We are however starting to see better quality attempts at vegan

seafood, with greater attention to health and natural ingredients.

Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni from Vegan Capital is one of the best known and most active

investors in the plant-based space. Vegan Capital is an early investor in seafood company

‘Good Catch’ and Sebastiano has observed rapid growth in this area. Sebastiano also notes

that some companies that are still involved in animal seafood are now venturing into plant-

based. Nestlé, for example, recently released the first plant-based tuna in Switzerland.

These global companies seem to know that the writing is on the wall. Sebastiano believes a

greater focus on health, protein, and healthy fats is a new trend within plant-based, and this

echoes our own feelings at Stem & Glory.

2) Healthier Fake ‘Meat’

I predict that 2021 will be the year we start to see a trend in the direction of healthier and

less processed animal alternatives.

For example, Ed Al Subaei, executive Chef at Stem & Glory, creates fake ‘meat’ out of

vegetables, instead of highly processed ingredients. For example, he makes a show stopping

‘ham’ from smoked celeriac sheets, and ‘chorizo’ from beetroot. Using the classic flavours to

make the experience, whilst remaining 100% unprocessed.

It isn’t always the meat that is the reason you like a certain dish; it’s a combination of layers

of flavour, and if you can create those same layers of flavour from non-animal products, you

really can create the same taste sensation.

We are not the only ones – Tabitha Brown’s ‘carrot bacon’ video made her a social media

sensation this year, garnering over 12m views.

3) Vegan Ready Meals

One gap in the market appears to be quality ready meals. Tesco has been ahead of the game

with their Wicked range. But for me personally, having sampled the offerings from all the

major supermarkets, I am not convinced by taste or quality.

All too often products are veganised simply by removing the animal products, without much

attention to the taste or texture. At Stem & Glory we are in development mode for our new

ready meal range which does have a focus on taste and texture, as well as innovative dishes.

The aim is to bring restaurant quality to supermarket shelves and raise the bar on vegan

ready meals.

We believe we will also see a trend towards ready meals in general and grab-and-go foods

in a wide variety of settings. A view echoed by Castiglioni, who predicts that ‘vegan ready

meals will be the new normal, with a much greater variety of unequivocally plant-based

options, easy to buy and ready to eat, taking over shelves everywhere, from gas stations to

convenience stores’.

4) Vegan Cheese

Vegan cheese is the holy grail at the moment. The race is on to be the first company that

creates a plant-based cheese that has the same taste and texture as dairy cheese.

Personally, I feel there is a long way to go, BUT 2021 could see this start to change. A few

brands are now on the verge of creating an authentic product with an engineered cow’s

milk.

Reuben Waller from Plant Candi, a well-known vegan chef, believes ‘the slow demise of the

traditional dairy business will provide a marked contrast with the rise of products such as

laboratory engineered cow’s milk, which will signal a seismic shift for the vegan cheese

market’. This echoes our view too.

Imagine if you could get the full variety of cheese that we have all been brought up on

tasting exactly the same as the animal counterpart, but made 100% from plants. What a

huge change would come. ‘Not being able to give up cheese’ is given as the number one

reason for flexitarians not becoming vegan, so this would be a game changer. No wonder

investors diving into this space. An engineered dairy product would also take plant-based

cheese back in a natural and unprocessed direction.

5) Vegan Fashion

I am a lifelong customer of G-Star. Their range ‘Raw for the Oceans’ was making fashion

from plastic pulled from the oceans long before Blue Planet, they are committed to 100%

sustainable cotton, and use a wide variety of recycled materials in their products. G-Star is

an excellent example of how a brand can use their sustainability agenda to grow their

market share.

Another great example of an established brand being ahead of the curve is Dr Martens

which boasted that profits were up 70% year-on-year to March 2019 largely due to the

success of their new ‘vegan’ range. Vegan Dr Martens however, whilst being an excellent

hard-wearing product, are made from synthetic and non-biodegradable material. So, whilst

they tick the vegan box, their products are not yet sustainable.

But innovation in sustainable vegan leather is happening. Michiel van Deursen from Capital

V is one investor interested in the plant-based fashion space. ‘Leather is not sustainable at

all, and since the alternative is often plastic, this has brought about a shift now towards

plant based and biodegradable vegan ‘leather’. Michiel predicts massive growth in plant-

based fashion and materials in the next few years, where demand is currently outgrowing

production capacity. From an investor perspective, Michiel believes now is the time to get in

and invest; ‘lots of investors still only look at alternative protein. I expect that to change in

the coming year, when more funds and VCs enter the space. The market is ready to be

disrupted. I think we are at that point in time where the major players of the future are now

being built’.

These are my top five trends to watch for 2021, but one overarching trend which will

underpin all others; sustainability. To date, plant-based has been labelled, by sole virtue of it

being ‘made from plants’, as ‘sustainable’. Is something sustainable just because it is plant-

based? We believe that 2021 will be the year that this comes fully under scrutiny. We all

need to scrutinise our daily lives, and as businesses we have a responsibility to take

whatever steps we need to reduce our carbon footprint – packaging, supply chain,

ingredients. If we do this audit customers will feel safe knowing they are making ethical and

more sustainable buying choices. And as we all know, this in turn will be good for business.

In 2021 sustainability will be the greatest trend of all, with consumers utilising their

purchasing power in support of those with truly circular and authentic sustainable

credentials.