ADVERTISEMENT
A new study from Foodable Labs has discovered that 51% of chefs in the United States added vegan dishes to their menus this year.
This data signals a 31% rise in the number of plant-based menu items over the last year, which experts are claiming is due to the influence of food-bloggers and social media.
The study showed that tagged and shared photos of vegan food have increased by 79% over the last year, with nearly half of the influencers sharing this content requesting more vegan options at restaurants.
In the US, the last year has seen a 300% rise in the amount of people identifying as vegan, and – unsurprisingly – restaurant owners who added vegan options to their menus saw a 13% increase in business.
Takeaway delivery services and suppliers of meat-alternatives have both noticed the dramatic increase in demand.
Ethan Brown, CEO of protein-alternative company Beyond Meat, told The Independent: ‘We’ve gone from pushing and really trying to convince to now just being in response mode where the consumer is now driving the ship, so to speak, and steering the ship and we are just trying to keep up.’
Leading takeaway delivery service GrubHub also reported a 17% rise in vegan dishes in 2017.
It is clear that as more people decide to become vegan or choose vegan options, restaurants, cafes, takeaways and other eateries will adapt their menus to cater to the demand.
