{"id":838597,"date":"2025-04-02T16:14:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T21:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/veganuary-health-trend-drives-consumption-of-vegan-food\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T16:14:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T21:14:21","slug":"veganuary-health-trend-drives-consumption-of-vegan-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/02\/veganuary-health-trend-drives-consumption-of-vegan-food\/","title":{"rendered":"Veganuary: Health trend drives consumption of vegan food"},"content":{"rendered":"
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January is often seen as a time for restraint, with many cutting down after the excesses of the Christmas season. It\u2019s a period that includes dry January and Veganuary – both ways for consumers to experiment with giving things up. <\/p>\n

Now the period is over, we have an opportunity to take stock. How many people participated in Veganuary, and what does this result say about wider consumer trends? <\/p>\n

Veganuary is still growing<\/h2>\n

The vegan food market is growing. According to Grand View Research, as of 2022 it was worth $16.55bn, and expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.7%.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, more consumers are participating in Veganuary compared with last year, according to data from the official campaign. In fact, it estimates that roughly 25.8 million people participated worldwide, up from 25m the previous year. <\/p>\n

This figure, explains Toni Vernelli, international head of policy and communications at the campaign, was reached by combining YouGov and Wakefield Research surveys with population estimates of the countries in which they were carried out. <\/p>\n

Three new countries – Malaysia, Canada and Peru – were added to the scope of the campaign, contributing to this increase. <\/p>\n

Also read \u2192 <\/span>How successful was Veganuary 2024?<\/a><\/p>\n

In particular, the vegan trend is showing strong growth in Germany. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe plant-based movement in Germany is going from strength to strength,\u201d says Vernelli. <\/p>\n

Other, nearby countries, such as Austria and Switzerland, are also increasingly becoming engaged in Veganuary. <\/p>\n

However, in the UK, the picture is more mixed. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still strong, but it\u2019s probably plateauing,\u201d says Vernelli. <\/p>\n

Veganism and the health trend<\/h2>\n

In recent months, we\u2019ve seen an increasing demand for health in food and beverage, whether that be through functional or fortified foods, or though a return to natural ingredients (and a backlash against ultra-processed foods, also known as UPFs). <\/p>\n

Health is a key driver for Veganuary. Consumers are increasingly opting for whole foods, such as tofu and tempeh. <\/p>\n

Both of these foods are seeing huge sales increases year-on-year, explains Vernelli.<\/p>\n

Criticism against the ultra-processing methods used in plant-based food production have also had an impact on consumer choices, although in the long-run, Vernelli believes that this could be a positive. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn many ways it\u2019s been good for plant-based food manufacturers because it has forced them to re-examine their products. I know many of them have been reformulating and really focusing on trying to make them as clean as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also read \u2192 <\/span>What did we predict as the drivers of Veganuary?<\/a><\/p>\n

Concerns about UPFs have also stimulated a rise in scratch cooking, with more consumers cooking using ingredients like lentils, chickpeas, legumes, and kidney beans. Such ingredients are not only very healthy, Vernelli points out, but also inexpensive, meaning that consumers can save money in the process. <\/p>\n

In conclusion, the UPF backlash has \u201cnot necessarily put people off a plant-based diet. It\u2019s really just reformulated what they\u2019re eating.\u201d <\/p>\n

Is the divide between \u2018vegan\u2019 and \u2018meat eater\u2019 still clear?<\/h2>\n

People\u2019s motivations for turning to vegan products have shifted since last year. <\/p>\n

The most significant shift, Vernelli explains, is the way people diet. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are much more interested in dietary change on their own agenda,\u201d she explains. People do not necessarily go completely vegan, but incorporate more vegan products into their diet at their own pace. <\/p>\n

\u201cToo many people think, \u2018I tried it. I did it for two weeks, and then I ate something that wasn\u2019t vegan, so I gave up.\u2018\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s better, she suggests, that people continue to try even if they don\u2019t succeed 100% of the time. She urges people not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. <\/p>\n

Indeed, the line between \u2018vegan\u2019 and \u2018meat eater\u2019 is less clear than it used to be. This has meant that, in some cases, brands have chosen to move beyond the \u2018veganuary\u2019 idea. <\/p>\n

Better Nature, for example, wrote recently in The Grocer<\/a> that it feels the \u2018conversation is changing\u2019 around veganism. While complimentary of the campaign and idea itself, the brand suggested that the lines between the categories of consumer – \u2018meat eater\u2019, \u2018vegetarian\u2019 and \u2018vegan\u2019 – are becoming blurred, with a tiny percentage of hardcore vegans contrasting to a large population of people cutting down on meat consumption. <\/p>\n

Take the UK, for example. A recent survey by the think tank Social Market Foundation revealed that roughly 58% of UK consumers have made some effort to cut down in their meat intake. <\/p>\n

The brand also points out that consumers are driven by health more than by sustainability or animal welfare. It feels it can reach more people by appealing to health than by appealing to those factors.<\/p>\n

Augustus Bambridge-Sutton
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January is often seen as a time for restraint, with many cutting down after the excesses of the Christmas season. It\u2019s a period that includes dry January and Veganuary – both ways for consumers to experiment with giving things up. Now the period is over, we have an opportunity to take stock. How many people<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":838598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267,27539],"tags":[7419,142974],"class_list":{"0":"post-838597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"category-veganuary","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-veganuary"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}