A look ahead to Veganuary – the drive for plant-based eating.

With January now routinely dubbed “Veganuary” by many, the start of 2023 will give operators the chance to promote their vegan and vegetarian food offering with the traditional café fayre of cakes and bakery goods offering particular scope to generate customer appeal.

CONSCIOUS CONSUMERISM

“There has been a big increase in ‘conscious consumerism’ particularly among young people, which is helping to fuel demand for vegan food across all categories, including in baked goods,” observes Jacqui Passmore, marketing manager UK and Ireland at Dawn Foods.

“‘Generation Z’ is increasingly concerned about knowing that an ingredient or product is from a sustainable or ethical source, or that it has been made without animal derivatives, and will make buying decisions accordingly.

“Veganuary provides coffee shops with a chance to showcase the very best in vegan products, whether the café is completely vegan in approach, or is offering a selection of vegan options to customers. What we eat today is very much anchored in thinking about environmental issues and sustainability.”

The key to a successful Veganuary and adapting vegan foods into your business is to recognise that many consumers do suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out), feels Jacqui Passmore, and with this in mind, a good vegan bakery offering is one way of providing consumers with vegan alternatives of traditional café fayre that replicate, as close as is possible, the eating experience of non-vegan products.

Dawn’s recently launched 2023 Global Trends Report has identified Mindfulness Matters as an important trend impacting on many of the food choices that consumers make in both in home and out of home settings.

Consumers are putting a great deal of thought into the foods they eat, whether that is choosing to adopt a full or part-time vegan lifestyle or simply becoming more aware of sustainable sourcing, they claim. Acutely aware of how their choices affect their personal health, community and planet, consumers are looking for authenticity and to feel reassured that the products they buy meet ethical sourcing standards. That is why certification marks for cocoa, such as Rain Forest Alliance (used in Dawn chocolate products), can be so important as they give caterers reassurance that the cocoa is sourced ethically.

“Vegan cakes, for example, are fast becoming mainstream as the high quality of many vegan finished sweet bakery products, as well as ingredients, means that vegan is no longer an ‘add on’ to a bakery range but an integral part of it,” Jacqui Passmore continues.

“Good quality cakes should appeal to all, whether those who are ‘dabbling’ in veganism or those who are fully committed, without having to buy in specialist ingredients, or invest in additional staff training. Manufacturers such as ourselves have worked hard to produce some innovative vegan options to ensure that finished vegan products taste just as good as their regular counterparts. This means there is no need to ‘double stock’ on ingredients but focus on serving great tasting sweet bakery products, which happen to also be vegan.

“For operators who wish to make sweet vegan bakes and desserts themselves, using ready to use mixes means all the hard work in ensuring a completely vegan finished product has been done for you. It’s almost like having a blank canvas to create your own ideas.”

Dawn Foods’ vegan mixes, which only require the addition of water and oil or margarine, are ideal to use in a variety of desserts and cakes that are suitable various diets. Their range includes Vegan Crème Cake Mix in plain and chocolate to make pound cakes and sheet cakes, while Dawn’s Vegan Muffin Mix, available also in plain and chocolate, makes authentic American-style muffins for finishing with vegan-friendly toppings and fillings. There is also a Vegan Brownie Mix, suitable for making either fudge or cake brownies – both are soft eating and hold inclusions well, claim the firm.

A recent addition to Dawn’s thaw and serve range are two vegan donuts, available in two classic shapes – a glazed ring donut and a jam filled ball donut that simply need to be thawed and served, making them well suited to the busy coffee shop sector.

MORE THAN A MONTH

YouGov research carried out in December 2021 in the countdown to 2022’s Veganuary, revealed that more than a third of Brits were considering becoming vegan, and before that, with the number of people practicing veganism increasing by 40% in 2020 according to shopping comparison web site, finder.com, it is no wonder cafés nationwide are now adapting their menus to include more and more vegan-friendly food and drink.

Most notably, vegan-friendly menus are no longer just a serving for ‘Veganuary’, as such, but a yearround offering by many in the industry. For vegans and flexitarians, cafés are more accessible and more inviting than ever, driving sales during difficult times for the hospitality sector.

It is without question that veganism is a growing trend, but why the surge in popularity? For most, the decision to practice veganism is the moral, sustainable choice. Carnivorous diets have been claimed by various research to have higher carbon, water and ecological footprints than those enjoying a vegan diet, in turn affecting consumer buying habits across the hospitality sector. For cafés and coffee shops not yet serving up vegan products, it could well now be a key time to consider introducing vegan sweet treat options as the stepping stone to a more inclusive menu all year round.

Although many in the café business are fully embracing vegan products, some are still hesitant. Food and drink brands providing cafés with various products have certainly not reacted as slowly to growing vegan trends with many brands now having a dedicated percentage of their sales focused purely on their vegan market.

Cake company Sponge, for example, offer over a dozen vegan cakes, which no longer serve as an ‘alternative’ to their wider cake range, simply due to the growing number of cake-lovers being vegan, they report. Thus, cafés should also be focusing on providing a greater offering on free-from produce, popular among vegans, flexitarians and those simply wanting an alternative (but still delicious) food and drink serving, they suggest.

With this in mind, Veganuary may be the time of the year that encourages vegan living and lifestyle among those not practicing veganism day after day, but it having grown from a jumped-on trend to a more permanent fixture in the food and drink industry.

SUSTAINABLE CHOICE

Many cafés and coffee shops are now striving to be completely vegan friendly, from the cake they serve, to the savoury food, cold drinks and even the utensils.

Cafés can make small changes that have a big impact for consumers. An example of this is providing sustainable packaging and utensils alongside vegan food produce, ensuring a ‘greener’ serving for each customer. These details don’t go unnoticed by consumers, it is felt, with a recent CGA survey revealing that 83% of us now expect hospitality brands to take part in sustainable practices and 80% of us believing sustainability is a deciding factor when choosing where to eat or drink.

Sponge say that they ensure all its vegan cakes are packaged and sent to trade customers with a biodegradable film and outer packaging, so the environmental impact is significantly reduced from production to when the cake is served on the customer’s plate.

Many in the business are embracing the vegan lifestyle completely, and customers are now dining there not only for the great food and drink service, but knowing that the café they are supporting is championing a wider sustainable message too, claim Sponge. By shopping at vegan providers for your produce, the benefits to the environment and the wider cause will be paramount, as well as being noticed and commended by your customers, they suggest.

VEGANISM

The UK vegan market is predicted to be worth £1.1bn by 2023 (Mintel Research 2018)

● According to the Vegan Society over half of Brits (56%) adopt vegan buying behaviour (vegan proves to be more than a micro-movement within vegetarian, as it has been growing strongly both across the UK and on a global level).

● The Vegan Society has also conducted research to discover how many vegans are currently living in the UK and found that the number of vegans in Great Britain quadrupled between 2014 and 2019 (in 2019, it suggested that there were 600,000 vegans, or 1.16% of the population).

● Flexitarian, vegetarian or vegan... What is the difference? The word ‘vega’ comes from vegetarian. The vegetarian customer does not eat animals. Vegans do not consume any animal products, so they leave dairy, eggs, cheese and honey out of their diet. Flexitarians consume mainly a plant-based diet with the occasional inclusion of meat, animal products or fish.

THINK ‘INCLUSION’

“When planning a Veganuary menu, the trick for coffee shop operators is to think ‘inclusion’ at all times,” says Lance Brooks, Maple from Canada UK’s first student chef ambassador.

“How can I easily change this dish to make it suitable for vegans or non-meat eaters? The same flavours can be easily adapted for vegan and non-vegans alike, meaning chefs don’t have to buy in endless ingredients and make different dishes for different dietary requirements.

“With its earthy taste, pure Canadian maple syrup goes well with robust flavours and spices. A tablespoon or so of the lightest golden, delicate tasting maple syrup is a simple way to lift a salad or drizzle over charcoal-cooked vegetables. It is a great addition to many street food inspired dishes too where meat has been replaced with a plant-based substitute. It helps to ‘dial up’ the backgrounds spices in a ‘meaty’ jackfruit bao bun, drizzled over sweetcorn ‘ribs’ or to flavour tacos filled with pickled banana blossom to replace fish.

“These types of dishes satisfy consumer demand for meaty type products but without the meat, and without many of the artificial food engineering processes that many vegan dishes undergo. Consumers are becoming savvier to the difference between vegan and plant-based, seeing plant-based as often the healthier option.”

SPECIALITY VEGAN BREADS

The vegan bread market is a key focus area for those operating in the café/coffee shop sector, with marketing towards vegan alternatives having the potential to open up so many new opportunities for foodservice operators to help boost profits and drive footfall.

La Lorraine Bakery Group has tapped into this growth area with its wide range of over 90 vegan products across its Panesco brand, consumers demanding more premium options such as vegan speciality breads which in turn offer a whole new opportunity for operators to explore.

Suitable for vegans, amongst many others, are its Schiacciata Romana Multigrain and white pre-sliced breads, for example, both proving popular so far, they report, as well as their Crystal Roll Beer and Rustic breads - premium sandwich rolls offering a soft, delicate texture and taste.

Its vegan flatbreads also offer great variety to any foodservice operation. New to Panesco’s range is its Lebanese Flatbread Beetroot product. Offering a combination of premium quality, taste and convenience, claim the company, this slightly sweet product is good to not only eat, but also to look at - presenting customers with a bread that is an eye-catching shade of pink.

“Plant-based/vegan options are becoming available in all sorts of categories, across so many industries. Over the past year we have started to see more rich, plant-based foods including grains on menus - which are proving extremely popular in cafés and coffee shops, given the demand we are now seeing for healthier alternatives,” says Kevin Hughes, country manager UK&I for La Lorraine Bakery Group.

Ideal for breakfast or brunch items on café and coffee shop menus, suggest the company, their Panesco offers a wide range of speciality seeded breads, including its Naan Flatbread Multigrain Pre-fold product - a multi-seed flatbread enriched with a range of seeds including millets, sunflower seeds, brown and golden linseeds, malted wheat flakes, pumpkin seeds and quinoa. Inspired by traditional Indian naan bread, this product comes fully baked and offers an alternative to the standard sandwich option.

Kevin Hughes adds: “With plant-based now becoming the new norm at cafés and coffee shops across the country, it is important that operators continue to satisfy this growing demand by offering meat free alternatives that don’t only taste good, but look just as good, too. This opens up so many opportunities for operators to be more creative with their recipes - moving away from the expected and instead, rolling out new innovations that are entirely plant-based.”

GETTING INVOLVED

There is no doubt that there is huge potential in the vegan channel, and it is continuing to gain international momentum with the help from worldwide initiatives such as Veganuary.

This year, more than 600,000 people officially took part in the campaign, surpassing last year’s total of 580,000 participants. Throughout January at least 1,561 new vegan products and menu options were launched globally according to Veganuary’s campaign 2021 data.

Below are some key tips on how cafés and coffee shops can make the most of the 2023’s Veganuary campaign opportunity themselves.

● Create vegan versions of your top selling products on the menu.

● Create special offers to engage your audience, offering deals and discounts exclusively on your vegan range in January.

● Use clear signage to mark your vegan products and add the Veganuary logo to your POS.

● Increase your vegan messaging to raise your online profile, tagging Veganuary on social media channels.

● Competitions, prize draws and games are a fun way to entice customers with special discounted prices.

● Create delicious recipes to share with your followers (also, mention Veganuary in your press releases and PR activity using the Veganuary logo and key messages).

● Write Veganuary-themed blogs and add the Veganuary logo to your website to show you’re taking part in the campaign, linking to veganuary.com.

● Host an event inviting media and influencers to promote your new vegan dishes and get feedback on what people think.