French supermarket chain Carrefour has opened the country’s first vegan butcher. Selling The Vegetarian Butcher’s range of meat-free products, the counter is paving the way for the growth of plant-based meats in France.
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French grocery giant Carrefour has premiered its first vegan butcher counter.
It’s the first fixture of its kind to open in meat-loving France.
The fixture sells vegan meats ‘butcher shop style’, with products sold by weight rather than pre-packaged.
The new vegan butcher uses vegan meats by Unilever’s Dutch meat-free brand, The Vegetarian Butcher.
The Carrefour vegan butcher counter will start with just four products – mince, ‘chicken’-style nuggets, ‘chicken’-style chunks and vegan burgers.
However, there is potential for the range to grow if the vegan butcher proves popular.
Vegan Butcher shops in the UK
Luckily for us, the UK is strides ahead of France in the vegan butcher department.
Sainsbury’s led the way, as the first UK supermarket to trial an all-vegan butcher shop.
The pop-up shop, which sold Sainsbury’s own range of Shroomdogs, Shroomballs, mince, and other meat-free products in London, ran for a short time in the Summer of 2019.
Later in 2019, The Vegetarian Butcher took over traditional East London-based butcher Hill & Szrok for National Vegetarian Day.
In January 2021, Asda trialled its vegan butcher shop, Veelicious, in Watford. This boasted a massive range of 22 meat-free alternatives plus plenty of other sauces and sundries that were hard to find elsewhere.
But it’s not all pop-ups and supermarket trials in the UK. In 2020 Rudy’s opened its first vegan butcher shop in London for World Vegan Day.
The new butcher proved a huge success, selling out quickly on its first day of opening.
By January, Rudy’s had to move to a larger kitchen to keep up with demand and in May 2021 Rudy’s opened its second butcher counter in Selfridges.
But vegan butchers aren’t just for Londonites. There’s also one in Nottingham!
Launched in spring 2021, Nottingham-based vegan butcher Faux offers its own range of vegan meat alternatives, along with pickles, gravy, fresh bread, and a range of local artisan products.
Hungry for more? Try making your own vegan butcher-style meat at home with Rudy’s meatloaf recipe.
Source: ConnexionFrance
