Restaurant & Café Magazine | August 2020

Page 8

plantbased

Good For Profits and The Planet The plant-based food market is booming. With one-third of Kiwi consumers choosing to actively reduce their meat consumption, the demand for plant-based innovation is growing at a rapid pace. Conscious consumerism and customers’ growing focus on health and wellbeing mean that plantbased options will survive the COVID storm.

8

restaurantandcafé.co.nz

THE SALE OF NESTLÉ’S vegetarian and plant-based food products has grown 40 percent. The company revealed this big rise in the meatless trend in its half-year results for 2020. It is thought that the strong growth in the non-meat category was explained by a shift in consumer habits towards cooking at home amid COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. “At the moment people are rediscovering cooking at home,” noted a Nestlé representative. “They are cooking at home and experimenting more and looking at different options to have at home and plant-based is a big element of that.” The Swiss food giant isn’t alone, in the U.S.A plant-based meat sales were up 264 percent since the pandemic outbreak. The US meat industry was rocked by the pandemic, with major producers shutting down production, this could go some way in explaining the rapid up-turn of meatless meat sales. The trend, however, began gaining popularity before COVID-19. For years, plant-based meat alternatives, typically made of vegetables, legumes, and grains, were considered of interest to vegans and vegetarians only. In the past


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.