The catering and hospitality industry is evolving, or is it the diner who’s evolving? While we’re all for Darwin related survival theories, we don’t think that extends to needing a new fad diet for each day of the week to keep you from dying. To stay in sync with every changing consumer demands, chefs and restaurants owners are having to update and change their menus to appeal to the latest food trends (and appease the latest food falsities). Some, it seems, are more viable than others.
Last January, the Veganuary campaign saw over 60,000 people sign up to participate, a huge 260% growth from the previous year. Less meat can mean good things for waistlines, the environment and all round sanctimony. For many, a plant based diet has become a more permanent lifestyle change, with an increase of 350% of the number of vegans living in the UK. So, pick your poison and pick your position, here are 4 IDEAL reasons vegan menus are becoming more popular.
AN EVER WIDENING APPEAL
There are over 1.2 million vegetarians living in the UK, of which teenagers are thought to make up the majority. According to The Independent and Business Insider, 16-24 year olds spend more money on food than any other age group – with 53% of Millennials eating out at least once a week. With those figures in mind, restaurants are designing their food menus to cater for their biggest (and sometimes most fickle) consumers.
Veganism is a growing trend that many have adapted their lifestyle to accommodate for – however, some vegans have concerns that there isn’t enough choice on the menu for them when eating at a restaurant. Though, chefs and restaurant owners are aware of the demand for vegan meal options and are adapting their menus for this reason. This is apparent in the results from a recent Pulse survey by Nisbets, retailers of catering equipment, where 20% of businesses said they considered consumer demand when changing their menus.
ANTICIPATING FURTHER GROWTH
In fact, when it comes to vegan menus, for many restaurants the changes have already been made, and 15% of respondents believe vegan and vegetarian will be the next evolving food trend to look out for in 2018. The Nisbets survey results also revealed that many establishments have already begun to cater for vegans, and vegetarians – with 52% of respondents already offering 1-3 vegan and/or vegetarian options, 26% offering 4-8 options, and 8% offering more than 8 options.
A CLEANER PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS
Gone are the days of a dinner of meat-on-meat-on-meat (and how can we get meat into our dessert, too?). In 2018, the public health consciousness has shifted away from Roman style gorging, tactical puking and all round excess into something a whole lot more veg-centric and mindful, as our awareness of the impact of excessive meat on our health rises. Environmental considerations are also dictating a rise in vegan menus, with the effects of meat production on climate change now a fact rather than supposition, and the social guilt associated with a seven-days-a-week meat habit shaming us into submission. Many are now going vegan for a day or two a week in the hope of arresting the environment’s decline.
AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF DELICIOUSNESS
Vegetables in Britain used to get a bad rap; school dinners are to blame, we think. But now, with an ever increasing love of all things seasonal and local, the collective culinary opinion has shifted; vegetables are darn delicious and restaurants want to shout about their new found crop-based credentials. Top chefs are championing vegetables as the centrepiece of the menu more vocally than ever, and it’s about bloody time, we say.