Don’t you miss the days when headlines were designed to inform, rather than as clickbait?
The answer, as usual, is profit.
boycecodd on
I know a few vegan people, and even cook a few vegan meals myself (even though I’m not vegan or veggie). I, and the people I know, have never really warmed to these new ranges of foods, but instead just cook good food from normal ingredients.
I think that the meat substitute products have a place, but generally for people just starting out with a vegan lifestyle, to give people a vague taste of what they had before (and it really is only a vague taste, from what I understand!).
It really isn’t that big a surprise that companies are scaling back their offerings. There are probably just as many vegans as before if not more, they just didn’t want what the companies were offering.
SpoofExcel on
1. The vegan version for some reason was inexplicably more expensive despite having less in it.
2. They tasted like shit
3. The “fad” started to die when people realised that eating one less ham and cheese sandwich was the environment equivalent of not throwing a plastic bag into an already burning coal pit.
D1789 on
I work with many companies in the hospitality industry and Vegan products aren’t selling as well as they have been in recent years; many have been reducing available lines in their offering over the past 12 months.
As much as many vegans are true to that lifestyle, there’s no denying that recent years there was also a bit of a “vegan fad” going on and of course companies made the most of that whilst they could, and are again shifting with the trends.
SadP0tat018 on
Because they are finally starting to realise that veganism is stupid.
Acceptable_Beyond262 on
Simply because most vegans just eat various veg and eat amazing homemade meals at home. Treat themselves to a takeaway or something fancy occasionally, but ultimately if you’re vegan for any of the numbers of reasons it is infinitely better to simply buy cheap veg from the supermarket and eat at home.
Allmychickenbois on
Wish restaurants would do it. I’m so sick of lazily assuming vegan dishes will do for vegetarians too. We like cheese and butter please!
Salty_Nutbag on
If your product actively advertises itself as missing something, then don’t be surprised if people have a negative view of it.
Veganism really needs a rebrand.
It’s defined by, advertised as, and thought of by consumers by what it lacks.
It’s the “batteries not included” of cuisine.
pipe-to-pipebushman on
We eat vegan/vegetarian food at least once a week. We almost never buy “vegan” products as most of them are just shit. We just buy fresh vegetables and beans/pulses etc. and make our own food.
No-Mark4427 on
Vegan here, this has been talked to death recently tbh. It’s inevitable that when there’s a bit of a ‘craze’ and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon to try and get a bit of the market share, it will follow by a bit of a retraction as people realise their products aren’t doing as well as they thought, or it was a temporary surge and not a permanent one.
There are lots of just straight up not very nice products, lots of ‘who is this even for?’ products, and tbh a lot of vegan products don’t even seem to be aimed at vegans as much as people who want to cut back on meat but still want to have something vaguely meat-like to replace it.
I have noticed more restraurants are pulling their offerings as well and not replacing them, or reducing them down to one or two easy/quick things like a beyond burger patty. Remember when Wagamama was saying a year or two ago that they were gonna eventually make the menu 50% vegan? And now it seems like while they are good for vegan options, they have actually gone backwards a bit on that.
And on top of that a decent portion of people who are vegan and are health conscious about it, tend to eat a lot of whole foods and home cooking instead of ready made stuff you can chuck in the oven. I eat a lot of vegetable rice/curries/beany dishes and none of them need meat replacements to be nice on their own.
I wouldn’t be surprised with the current ‘ultra processed’ craze going about that processed/ready made food sees a bit of a retraction in general, several of my coworkers have suddenly become obsessed with the idea of processed foods after ultra processed people has been in the limelight recently.
Opulantmindcaster on
I also suspect that the vegan craze is probably loosing its appeal. Probably not “cool” anymore.
Mammoth-Ad-562 on
Save you the click
Vegans realised eating meat was healthier and have turned their back on veganism urging others to do the same
UrbanRedFox on
As someone dairy-free, I’ve really appreciated the vegan movement – it’s been great for expanding the range of foods we can have. What annoys me are shops like Aldi (who are normally great) and do Veganuary – but in reality it’s for 1 week and the vegan products sell out in a week and they don’t bring them back. Lidl was the same. Hopefully they realise what products are commercially viable and make them mainstream.
hadawayandshite on
I wanted to try and reduce my meat consumption—but find it hard. I’ve got red meat down to maybe one meal a week or every other week (through veggie sausages)…maybe a burger out as a treat every couple of months
Chicken is the killer for me- I eat chicken most days and cannot find replacements
My issue is—I meal prep and freeze stuff every two weeks and it’s generally chicken curry, chicken in a sauce and veg. Can’t replace it with tofu and stuff because I can’t refreeze it.
I’ve also tried using veggie meatballs and stuff…which aren’t nice (but I do half and half with chicken meatballs to cut down)
Not going to lie, having a full time job and a toddler who I get to see maybe 2 hours a day (in which we have to make meals etc) hasn’t lent itself to complicated meal prep
If I could get nice meals which I can preprepare and freeze which were veggie/vegan then I’d make switches (chicken itself is just a bit of protein which adds heft to the meal and it’s the spices etc I can actually taste)
Salaried_Zebra on
As a meat eater, in most cases you can’t replicate the taste and texture. The best meatfree foods haven’t even tried.
But I guarantee you’ll attract more converts if your fake chicken and fake burgers (which are made up primarily of either a genegineered fungus/microbe you can mass produce by adding sugar, or by compressing lentils and legumes, neither of these methods being hugely expensive) were the same or lower price than the animal products they’re to replace. If I can buy four chicken fillets for a fiver (for example), why would I pay more for half as much of the meatless one? From a simple home economic standpoint it makes no sense.
“Oh but subsidies” I hear you cry. Last I heard, subsidies were given to crop farmers too, so…
Robocuck2 on
For some veganism is a lifestyle. For a lot of others it’s just been a bandwagon jumping fad that they’ve left behind as it’s no longer making them look cool.
Kasha2000UK on
We were flooded with new items, many failed because the market was saturated, and now they’ve decided vegan and vegetarian products aren’t profitable – boom and bust. Very frustrating for those of us who are veggie as there’s been a huge drop in options.
Harrry-Otter on
I’m gonna guess at over-saturation of the market.
There was a time when there was about 8 different brands of vegan burger even in the small Tesco near me. I can’t believe there’s enough demand out there to support that many very similar burgers.
astronemma on
The market for vegan alternatives became oversaturated. I remember when I lived off Linda McCartney vegan sausages, as they were pretty much the only widely available protein alternative I could find near me, when I first when vegan. Any new vegan product that came out, I would buy it to try, as it was such a novelty. Now there are so many different brands, and they all compete with each other. It’s good in a way — competition helps keep the quality up and prices lower (in theory…)
sober_disposition on
I think the real question is, why did so many companies introduce vegan products in the first place.
I suspect the answer is tangled up somewhere with lots of people wanting to try something new around the time of the pandemic and then gradually going off it. Personally, I know a lot more former vegans than vegans.
CaptainDarlingSW4 on
No one is buying it, it’s to expensive. It’s cheaper to make, your own
PurpleTofish on
I think the answer is simple and that is cost of living.
I am not saying that veganism is expensive by the way. It is actually a very cheap way to live but a lot of the ready made convenience vegan food is expensive and I think a lot of people simply cannot justify the cost any more.
MattHardwick on
As someone who can’t have eggs or dairy or a myriad of other things – I actually end up having to have the vegan option often- and I’ve noticed a decline and it often means I go with out or have to manage feeling sick (or worse).
Radiant_Shower7086 on
Well I haven’t read the article. I’m guessing because not enough people are buying them/They aren’t profitable enough…?!?
saintedward on
A lot of vegan food/meat substitutes are ultra processed, if you’re looking to a vegan or veggie diet then you might want to avoid these things.
Also a lot of stores have their own own brand stuff that’s cheaper.
There’s also the fact that a fair few of these brands are prohibitively expensive, beyond meat sell two burgers for somewhere around a fiver, there’s much cheaper alternatives around or just make your own bean burgers for a fraction of the price.
chaosandturmoil on
the simple answer is the corporate manufacturers tried to sell the wrong products.
people don’t eat meat for a variety of reasons but many *vegans* don’t want shit that tastes and looks like meat. this is where companies have gone wrong assuming ‘plant based’ (which does not necessarily equal vegan) products need be a meat-flavoured alternative.
there are plenty of plant based and vegan products out there that use a bit more imagination and sell extremely well. and they are not the crap listed in the article.
eairy on
It’s because like most unhealthy fads, it’s come and gone, thankfully.
xian0 on
I’m not sure they realised how many people were choosing vegetarian options because they didn’t particularly like meat and wanted to get a good variety of ingredients and flavours. Swapping ranges for bland meat-like products was an insane strategy.
im_not_here_ on
There was a massive explostion back when it was a curiosity everyone wanted to try. It made the market look so much bigger than it really was. There was a brief period where the explosion of people trying brought in money, which meant they invested and brought out new products, that people then wanted to try . . . . .
But a huge number of these people were not truly interested in staying vegan, many weren’t being vegan while trying and eating the food to start with, and they have been slowly getting bored and moving on from the “trend” and back to the normal eating habits. And so the market has crashed down, and now there are not enough people to support all the options and amounts that companies were producing.
specimen174 on
because noone is buying them, or at least not enough people to maintain a product line
30 Comments
Don’t you miss the days when headlines were designed to inform, rather than as clickbait?
The answer, as usual, is profit.
I know a few vegan people, and even cook a few vegan meals myself (even though I’m not vegan or veggie). I, and the people I know, have never really warmed to these new ranges of foods, but instead just cook good food from normal ingredients.
I think that the meat substitute products have a place, but generally for people just starting out with a vegan lifestyle, to give people a vague taste of what they had before (and it really is only a vague taste, from what I understand!).
It really isn’t that big a surprise that companies are scaling back their offerings. There are probably just as many vegans as before if not more, they just didn’t want what the companies were offering.
1. The vegan version for some reason was inexplicably more expensive despite having less in it.
2. They tasted like shit
3. The “fad” started to die when people realised that eating one less ham and cheese sandwich was the environment equivalent of not throwing a plastic bag into an already burning coal pit.
I work with many companies in the hospitality industry and Vegan products aren’t selling as well as they have been in recent years; many have been reducing available lines in their offering over the past 12 months.
As much as many vegans are true to that lifestyle, there’s no denying that recent years there was also a bit of a “vegan fad” going on and of course companies made the most of that whilst they could, and are again shifting with the trends.
Because they are finally starting to realise that veganism is stupid.
Simply because most vegans just eat various veg and eat amazing homemade meals at home. Treat themselves to a takeaway or something fancy occasionally, but ultimately if you’re vegan for any of the numbers of reasons it is infinitely better to simply buy cheap veg from the supermarket and eat at home.
Wish restaurants would do it. I’m so sick of lazily assuming vegan dishes will do for vegetarians too. We like cheese and butter please!
If your product actively advertises itself as missing something, then don’t be surprised if people have a negative view of it.
Veganism really needs a rebrand.
It’s defined by, advertised as, and thought of by consumers by what it lacks.
It’s the “batteries not included” of cuisine.
We eat vegan/vegetarian food at least once a week. We almost never buy “vegan” products as most of them are just shit. We just buy fresh vegetables and beans/pulses etc. and make our own food.
Vegan here, this has been talked to death recently tbh. It’s inevitable that when there’s a bit of a ‘craze’ and everyone is jumping on the bandwagon to try and get a bit of the market share, it will follow by a bit of a retraction as people realise their products aren’t doing as well as they thought, or it was a temporary surge and not a permanent one.
There are lots of just straight up not very nice products, lots of ‘who is this even for?’ products, and tbh a lot of vegan products don’t even seem to be aimed at vegans as much as people who want to cut back on meat but still want to have something vaguely meat-like to replace it.
I have noticed more restraurants are pulling their offerings as well and not replacing them, or reducing them down to one or two easy/quick things like a beyond burger patty. Remember when Wagamama was saying a year or two ago that they were gonna eventually make the menu 50% vegan? And now it seems like while they are good for vegan options, they have actually gone backwards a bit on that.
And on top of that a decent portion of people who are vegan and are health conscious about it, tend to eat a lot of whole foods and home cooking instead of ready made stuff you can chuck in the oven. I eat a lot of vegetable rice/curries/beany dishes and none of them need meat replacements to be nice on their own.
I wouldn’t be surprised with the current ‘ultra processed’ craze going about that processed/ready made food sees a bit of a retraction in general, several of my coworkers have suddenly become obsessed with the idea of processed foods after ultra processed people has been in the limelight recently.
I also suspect that the vegan craze is probably loosing its appeal. Probably not “cool” anymore.
Save you the click
Vegans realised eating meat was healthier and have turned their back on veganism urging others to do the same
As someone dairy-free, I’ve really appreciated the vegan movement – it’s been great for expanding the range of foods we can have. What annoys me are shops like Aldi (who are normally great) and do Veganuary – but in reality it’s for 1 week and the vegan products sell out in a week and they don’t bring them back. Lidl was the same. Hopefully they realise what products are commercially viable and make them mainstream.
I wanted to try and reduce my meat consumption—but find it hard. I’ve got red meat down to maybe one meal a week or every other week (through veggie sausages)…maybe a burger out as a treat every couple of months
Chicken is the killer for me- I eat chicken most days and cannot find replacements
My issue is—I meal prep and freeze stuff every two weeks and it’s generally chicken curry, chicken in a sauce and veg. Can’t replace it with tofu and stuff because I can’t refreeze it.
I’ve also tried using veggie meatballs and stuff…which aren’t nice (but I do half and half with chicken meatballs to cut down)
Not going to lie, having a full time job and a toddler who I get to see maybe 2 hours a day (in which we have to make meals etc) hasn’t lent itself to complicated meal prep
If I could get nice meals which I can preprepare and freeze which were veggie/vegan then I’d make switches (chicken itself is just a bit of protein which adds heft to the meal and it’s the spices etc I can actually taste)
As a meat eater, in most cases you can’t replicate the taste and texture. The best meatfree foods haven’t even tried.
But I guarantee you’ll attract more converts if your fake chicken and fake burgers (which are made up primarily of either a genegineered fungus/microbe you can mass produce by adding sugar, or by compressing lentils and legumes, neither of these methods being hugely expensive) were the same or lower price than the animal products they’re to replace. If I can buy four chicken fillets for a fiver (for example), why would I pay more for half as much of the meatless one? From a simple home economic standpoint it makes no sense.
“Oh but subsidies” I hear you cry. Last I heard, subsidies were given to crop farmers too, so…
For some veganism is a lifestyle. For a lot of others it’s just been a bandwagon jumping fad that they’ve left behind as it’s no longer making them look cool.
We were flooded with new items, many failed because the market was saturated, and now they’ve decided vegan and vegetarian products aren’t profitable – boom and bust. Very frustrating for those of us who are veggie as there’s been a huge drop in options.
I’m gonna guess at over-saturation of the market.
There was a time when there was about 8 different brands of vegan burger even in the small Tesco near me. I can’t believe there’s enough demand out there to support that many very similar burgers.
The market for vegan alternatives became oversaturated. I remember when I lived off Linda McCartney vegan sausages, as they were pretty much the only widely available protein alternative I could find near me, when I first when vegan. Any new vegan product that came out, I would buy it to try, as it was such a novelty. Now there are so many different brands, and they all compete with each other. It’s good in a way — competition helps keep the quality up and prices lower (in theory…)
I think the real question is, why did so many companies introduce vegan products in the first place.
I suspect the answer is tangled up somewhere with lots of people wanting to try something new around the time of the pandemic and then gradually going off it. Personally, I know a lot more former vegans than vegans.
No one is buying it, it’s to expensive. It’s cheaper to make, your own
I think the answer is simple and that is cost of living.
I am not saying that veganism is expensive by the way. It is actually a very cheap way to live but a lot of the ready made convenience vegan food is expensive and I think a lot of people simply cannot justify the cost any more.
As someone who can’t have eggs or dairy or a myriad of other things – I actually end up having to have the vegan option often- and I’ve noticed a decline and it often means I go with out or have to manage feeling sick (or worse).
Well I haven’t read the article. I’m guessing because not enough people are buying them/They aren’t profitable enough…?!?
A lot of vegan food/meat substitutes are ultra processed, if you’re looking to a vegan or veggie diet then you might want to avoid these things.
Also a lot of stores have their own own brand stuff that’s cheaper.
There’s also the fact that a fair few of these brands are prohibitively expensive, beyond meat sell two burgers for somewhere around a fiver, there’s much cheaper alternatives around or just make your own bean burgers for a fraction of the price.
the simple answer is the corporate manufacturers tried to sell the wrong products.
people don’t eat meat for a variety of reasons but many *vegans* don’t want shit that tastes and looks like meat. this is where companies have gone wrong assuming ‘plant based’ (which does not necessarily equal vegan) products need be a meat-flavoured alternative.
there are plenty of plant based and vegan products out there that use a bit more imagination and sell extremely well. and they are not the crap listed in the article.
It’s because like most unhealthy fads, it’s come and gone, thankfully.
I’m not sure they realised how many people were choosing vegetarian options because they didn’t particularly like meat and wanted to get a good variety of ingredients and flavours. Swapping ranges for bland meat-like products was an insane strategy.
There was a massive explostion back when it was a curiosity everyone wanted to try. It made the market look so much bigger than it really was. There was a brief period where the explosion of people trying brought in money, which meant they invested and brought out new products, that people then wanted to try . . . . .
But a huge number of these people were not truly interested in staying vegan, many weren’t being vegan while trying and eating the food to start with, and they have been slowly getting bored and moving on from the “trend” and back to the normal eating habits. And so the market has crashed down, and now there are not enough people to support all the options and amounts that companies were producing.
because noone is buying them, or at least not enough people to maintain a product line