International meal delivery service Just Eat named veganism as a top consumer trend in 2018 as people become more aware of healthy and ethical lifestyle choices.
Just Eat, which has delivery hubs in 15 countries, reported that 33 percent of its partner restaurants now offer vegan options, with many launching dedicated vegan menus, to keep up with increasing demand.
Just Eat Marketing Director, Edel Kinane said:
“The results from this year are a good insight into the future consumer trends and while convenience will continue to be key for consumers next year and beyond, we know that they are increasingly looking for more diverse, healthy, gluten free and plant based Vegan options”.
Following recent research, Just Eat has stated that they expect veganism to be the “biggest food trend of the coming year”.
The survey results also showed demand for healthy choices generally grew by 94 percent in 2017 versus 2016, and gluten free options increased by 72 percent.
Research by 1010 Data, a data insights company showed:
Consumers are getting more conscious. They’re mindful of the products they put in and on their bodies, and of the environmental impact they have. As this consciousness increases, manufacturers are taking note. Over the past couple of years, the number of products that include ‘plant-based’ in the item name has increased online. Searches for ‘plant-based’ tripled from 2016 to 2017 during March - July. Consumers have bought 2.7x more plant-based products online than they did in January 2016. It appears that growth really escalated in March 2017, which is when a popular documentary, What the Health, was released.
The most recent survey conducted in the UK found that over 542,000 people are following a vegan diet - an increase increase of more than 3.5 times the number of vegans over the past decade, making veganism one of Britain's fastest growing lifestyle movements. The movement is being driven by young people making more ethical and compassionate choices - 42 percent of all vegans are in the 15-34 age category compared to just 14 percent who are over 65. This indicates growth is likely to rise further in the future. In total an estimated 3.25 percent of the British population, around 1.68 million people, are either vegetarian or vegan.
Meanwhile in the USA 6 percent of the population now identify as vegan, showing a increase of 500 percent since 2014 according to research provided by GlobalData.