How vegan food is taking the market by storm
With growing concerns regarding the environment, animal welfare and personal health, the popularity of vegan diets has skyrocketed. plant-based food sales are now growing twice as fast as in 2020. First coined in 1944 by British woodworker Donald Watson, the vegan food market is estimated to be currently worth over $16 billion and is expected to be worth over $22 billion by 2025.
The vegan lifestyle focuses on the exclusion of all foods and products that are derived from animals to avoid their exploitation. This not only includes food, but also everyday items such as cosmetics, clothes and toiletries. Therefore, vegan diets avoid animal-derived products such as meat, dairy, eggs, and substitutes them with plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes.
There are now approximately 8 million vegans in the world or roughly 1% of the world’s population. This shift in behaviour is due to numerous reasons, including health, environmental and ethical concerns (regarding animal welfare).
From an environmental standpoint, vegan diets have the lowest carbon footprint, due to meat-rich diets requiring a large number of resources for livestock, such as land, food and energy. With three quarters of adults in the UK claiming they are concerned about the impact of climate change, plant-based diets have become increasingly desirable. With regards to the health aspect, while they are criticised for lacking in some key nutrients, such as vitamins B12 and D3, research has linked vegan diets with many benefits such as lower blood pressure and cholesterol.
Vegan/plant-based diets have undoubtedly started becoming more mainstream in recent times, as evident by the rising number of vegan products being sold commercially. In Australia for instance, nearly 1 in 10 new supermarket food products are vegan. On top of that, according to the Sainsbury’s future of food report, their chains alone have seen a 24% increase in customers searching for vegan products online and a 65% increase in sales of plant-based products year on year.
Many plant-based food and drinks require industrial equipment in their manufacturing process such as sieves and filters to remove contamination and improve product quality. Having supplied to plant-based food and beverage companies in the past such as Beyond Meat and Rerooted Organic, Russell Finex provides the perfect solution for the production of plant-based food, with a range of sieving and filtration equipment that can increase throughput levels to meet the ever-growing demand of plant-based items.
For over 85 years, we have offered the highest quality separation equipment to the food industry, working with the industry’s leading companies. Contact us today to learn more about how our equipment can transform your production line.