New vegan products released in January 2019!


Papa John’s Introduces Vegan Menu!
After a joint petition from Animal Aid and Vegan Food UK, as well as campaigning from other organisations, Papa John’s released its new vegan menu on 28^thJanuary. The menu features three vegan cheese (or Sheese) pizzas – Vegan Sheese and Tomato, Vegan Sheese Garden Party and Vegan Sheese Hot Pepper Passion – as well as a vegan take on their new Cheese and Marmite Scrolls. The launch was so successful that Papa John’s reported that many of their stores had run out of vegan cheese!

Costa Coffee Now Serves Almond Milk
Coffee shops are always very convenient places to grab something to eat and drink, so it is always great to see them upping their vegan game. Costa already offers a couple of vegan snacks, as well as a vegan tomato soup and a Mexican Bean Wrap, and now they have introduced almond milk. Costa also offers soya and coconut milk for drinks.

Pizza Express Goes Even More Vegan!
Animal Aid was very lucky and thankful to be invited to the launch of Pizza Express’s new vegan options, which was held in collaboration with Veganuary. Recently, Pizza Express introduced dedicated vegan dough balls, which come with a harissa-spiced tomato dip. This adds to their numerous pizza options, including a vegan pasta dish, and vegan carrot cake! The full vegan menu can be viewed here.

Frankie & Benny’s Updates Their Vegan Menu
Frankie & Benny’s was, up until very recently, pretty poor for vegan options. However, since launching their first vegan options last year, they have certainly gone above and beyond. Seizing on the success of Veganuary, Frankie & Benny’s has introduced more than 20 new vegan items, including ‘chicken’ parm, mac ‘n’ cheese, cheesy garlic bread, vegan BBQ chicken pizza and hot dogs! We are certainly spoilt for choice now.

Gardein Reaches the UK
Gardein is one of the most well-known brands of vegan meat- and fish-alternatives in Canada and the USA, and long have we waited for it to hit our shores. Sainsbury’s have now started selling a number of Gardein products in their stores (and online), including Golden Fishless Fillets, Mandarin Orange Crispy Chick’n, and Sizzling Szechuan Beefless Strips. As the number of vegan options increases, so too does the general interest in vegan food, meaning that more people are inclined to purchase and try plant-based options.

Sophie’s Kitchen Salmon and Shrimp Launch in Sainsbury’s
Sainsbury’s have certainly surpassed themselves this January! Not only have they increased their vegan options across the board, but they have also introduced exciting and innovative products like Sophie’s Kitchen Vegan Shrimp and Vegan Smoked Salmon. Sainsbury’s have also recently revealed that the sales of their plant-based options have increased by 65% year-on-year, whereas meat sales have declined. The supermarket is now to trial placing more vegan ‘meats’ in the meat section, in order to further encourage people to try vegan food, and reduce their meat intake.

Pizza Hut Joins in on Veganuary
Pizza Hut released vegan cheese in January 2018, and in January 2019 they have released their Vegan Jack ‘n’ Ch**se Pizza which features vegan cheese, a tomato base, BBQ jackfruit, veggies and a BBQ drizzle. This brings their vegan pizza count up to three. Whilst the Jack ‘n’ Cheese was supposed to be a special for Veganuary, it has been so popular that Pizza Hut are making it a permanent feature on their menu and have hinted that they have more vegan delights coming soon!

Marks & Spencer Releases Plant Kitchen Range
One of the most exciting releases of January was Marks & Spencer’s launch of its Plant Kitchen range – featuring more than 60 vegan dishes, from snacks to mains. The range comprises brand new products such as their vegan pizzas, vegan coleslaw and vegan fishcakes. Also, some of their classic dishes – such as the Super Nut Salad – have been made vegan by removing or altering one or two ingredients. And to top it all off, they are all clearly labelled as ‘vegan’.

Gregg’s Finally Releases a Vegan Sausage Roll
And of course, we couldn’t speak about new vegan products without mentioning the Gregg’s vegan sausage roll. This was all over the news – including on a certain day-time TV show – and was so popular that it sold out in almost all of the 900 stores where it was released. As such, Gregg’s have said that they are in the process of rolling it out to all of their stores! What a time to be alive.

And that’s not all!
It’s been so hard to keep up with all of the new releases so far this year, with many restaurants and chains embracing Veganuary and the general rise of plant-based eating. 2019 is set to be a huge year for veganism and we are very excited.