Vegan food products on the rise for 2.5 million Australians

THE number of new food products launched in Australia with vegan labelling has almost tripled in the past five years as veganism continues to rise in Australia.

Eileen Sims runs the Feast vegan cafe in East Geelong. She is pictured with some of the Vegan products she sells. Picture: Peter Ristevski

THE number of new food products launched in Australia with vegan labelling has almost tripled in the past five years as veganism continues to rise in Australia.

In response to the growing trend, mainstream restaurants and fast food chains are now offering vegetarian and vegan choices — McDonalds this week announced the return of its McVeggie burger in South Australia.

New figures from research company Roy Morgan show that almost 2.5 million Australians or 12.1 per cent of the population now have diets where almost all the food is vegetarian. This is up from 2.2 million in 2014.

While figures on the exact number of vegans in Australia are not easy to quantify, Vegan Australia estimates there are between 400,000 to 500,000. Many of them are young women concerned about animal welfare and animal cruelty. A vegan diet involves eating no animal products at all.

Director Greg McFarlane says Vegan Australia’s Facebook page has about 30,000 followers, 75 per cent of which are women aged 20-35.

“About 400,000 to 500,000 people in Australia would be vegan, that’s our best estimate,” Mr McFarlane said.

He points to Google trends that show in the past 12 months Australia was number two worldwide for the most searches for the word vegan. Within Australia most searches were in Victoria, followed by South Australia and Tasmania.

In a five-year period Australians topped the list of searches for the word veganism.

Global market research firm Mintel tracks new products and its data shows that the number of new vegan food products on the market is rising.

Mintel’s South Asia Pacific head of insights, Jane Barnett, said their Global New Products Database (GNPD), which updates daily on new products launched into the market, shows an increasing number of products carrying a vegan label.

She said in Australia so far this year 8.7 per cent of new products carry a vegan claim. This is up from 5.9 per cent in 2016 and just 3.2 per cent in 2014. This refers to packaging which labels it a vegan product or one which contains no animal ingredients.

“You can really see that it has been significantly growing over the last five years. I think it is really reflective of how people’s lifestyles are changing,” Ms Barnett said.

She said Mintel had also researched how Australians planned to change their lifestyles — 14 per cent said they were planning to follow a vegetarian or vegan diet and 22 per cent were intending to reduce their meat intake.

Industry research firm IBISWorld says based on current trends the number of people following a vegan diet is expected to continue rising in the next five years.

Originally published as Vegan food products on the rise for 2.5 million Australians