Ashley Kramer (Auckland-based freelance journalist, www.doctorfeelgood. co.nz). I first became a vegan in 2012, but I’d been vegetarian since 1996. I’d started off cutting back on red meat for health reasons but believe it or not, I actually went fully vegetarian to avoid eating a family friend’s particularly nasty roast chicken dinner – I told a little white lie so as not to hurt her feelings, and for some reason, I thought, “Well, why not?” and I was basically a vegetarian the next day. My health-based attitude slowly morphed into a strong animal rights approach, and I was a happy vegetarian for many years. My swing to veganism happened when I started my plant-based health and fitness website with a vegetarian colleague. I was already cutting back on dairy at that stage, again for health reasons, but as I learned more about the harsh reality of the egg and dairy industries, I quickly realised that I couldn’t continue to support them, which completed my transition to a full-blown vegan. No one in my immediate family is vegan, but my partner Sarah thankfully is because that makes things very easy, especially since we’re digital nomads, traveling the world (I’ve spent less than a month in New Zealand since mid-2014). We’ve managed to stay vegan in places as farflung as Bali, Taiwan and Thailand, but it is of course easier in more developed countries. We’ve found living a vegan lifestyle in the USA to be effortless, thanks to the enormous range of reasonably priced vegan options available in supermarkets and grocery stores, not to mention 18 AUGUST 2016 the sheer simplicity of eating out. In many ways, Australia and New Zealand are far behind, especially in terms of restaurants and the limited choices in-store. Kiwi food producers in particular tend to put dairy in everything, which I’ve found frustrating over the years. When every single muesli bar in a supermarket has yogurt or milk solids in it, then I can’t and obviously don’t give those brands my money. Nor does anyone who’s lactose intolerant for that matter, which should be food for thought. So some vegan-friendly convenience food options, and even bread, would go down a treat! Seriously, what’s with all the trace amounts of dairy hidden near the bottom of ingredients lists? On another note, I’m not a huge fan of vegan food replacements such as fake cheese or meat. However, I acknowledge that the transition to a plant-based lifestyle would be much easier for people if they could keep eating favourites such as pizza or cheese toasties. The glitch with this type of product is that they’re often filled with super-processed ingredients, which detracts from the whole reason for their existence in the first place. My advice to food technologists is to find ways to make healthy and tasty vegan products across the board. You won’t just hit the vegan market, you’ll also reach the vegetarians, the lactose intolerant folk and people with a general focus on health – all of which are growing consumer categories. Plus you’ll make it easier for me to enjoy Sarah’s amazing vegan calzones when we head back to Auckland. A TYPICAL FRUITARIAN DIET Breakfast…juice of up to five lemons, raisins and melon Morning break… apples, pineapples, figs, pears, grapes, yellow plums, lima beans, kiwifruit and cucumber Lunch…Orange or tangerines, peaches, apricots and papayas Afternoon tea... Mangoes, cherries, strawberries, red plums, persimmons, pomegranates, watermelon and tomatoes Dinner…Grapes, blackberries and raspberries Late snack…Mangoes, cherries, strawberries, red plums, persimmons, pomegranates, melon and tomatoes. VEGAN AND VEGETARIAN FOOD BOOMING IN GERMANY Vegetarian and vegan meals are booming in Germany, as the rise of flexitarianism - a plant-based diet with the occasional inclusion of meat - offers new opportunities for manufacturers to experiment with meat-free product concepts. New research from Mintel, a market intelligence agency, reveals the number of meals and meal centres with vegetarian labels increased nearly seven-fold (633 per cent) in Germany between 2011 and 2015, while the number of vegan-labelled meals and meal centres has grown more than twenty-fold since 2011. Vegan claims in this category have also increased sharply, from just one per cent of all meal and meal centres launches in 2011 to nine per cent in 2015. What’s more, meal and meal centres containing plant-based proteins, such as soy or wheat, show particularly strong growth. Prior to 2014, the share of launches with plant proteins appeared stagnant, whereas innovation activity has increased dramatically over the past two years. In fact, the share of meal and meal centres containing plant-based protein climbed from nine per cent in 2013 to 23 per cent in 2015, Mintel senior food and drink analyst Katya Witham says. “Meat substitutes are increasingly spreading across various segments of the German meals and meal centres category, from prepared meals to pizzas and salads, recreating meatbased recipes,” she says. “From spaghetti bolognaise and paella to chilli con carne, recent launches of vegetarian and vegan prepared meals feature an unprecedented variety of ’meaty’ recipes and flavours. The growing use of plant-based meat substitutes in meals and meal centres highlights how foods that were once considered as inferior alternatives to non-vegetarian and non-vegan options are now becoming legitimate contenders for the attention of every day consumers.” V E G A N O L O G Y PERSPECTIVE
FT AUG 16
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