These additive foods, which are as high in oil, sugar and salt as some non-vegetarian foods, are also called vegetarian junk food even if they have vegetarian ingredients, such as replacing meat with artificial meat and replacing dairy products with bean products, because they violate people's consistent impression of vegetarianism-eating more fruits and vegetables is healthy and has less carbon emissions.
They are back in fashion now.
"There are too many unhealthy choices to resist." Jessica McCully, an American vegetarian, said at a recent vegetarian food festival that she was holding an artificial chicken taco when she said this.
Los Angeles even holds the "Vegetarian Beer Festival" from June 5438 to 10 every year. Vegetarians can enjoy soy protein ice cream, chocolate, large beer and fried snacks.
According to Harris Interactive's survey, from 2008 to 20 15, the number of vegetarians in the United States increased from more than 7 million to 10, accounting for 3.2% to 3.4%. Considering the population base of more than 300 million in the United States, this is not a fast growth rate-of course, other less strict vegetarians are also increasing-but it is enough to convince businesses that this is a potential market, and they seem to see the demand of vegetarians for high-calorie food earlier.
As early as the end of July, when the "juicy" artificial meat burger with R&D expenditure exceeding $65.438+$800 million went on sale in new york, some cheese companies occupied the market ahead of time. For example, Kate Hill has developed cream cheese made of almonds; Treeline vegetarian cheese products from new york are more abundant. There are six kinds of cheese, all made of cashew nuts.
$ 12 artificial meat burger | Image from impossible food
In March this year, By Chloe restaurant near new york University has successfully satisfied vegetarians' love for junk food. They offer various fast food brands, such as hamburgers, ice cream, cupcakes, pasta and French fries. It's just that the raw materials for making these junk foods are different: most foods contain avocados, plus mushrooms, cashews, almonds and vegetarian cheese, which brings satisfaction to diners.
This trend is not limited to the United States. Last week, at Ribfest held in Ontario, Canada, thousands of people lined up to buy a vegetarian burger called Big MACinnes, which used chickpeas, onions, mixed soy sauce and bread crumbs to create a patty-like taste, and then put mayonnaise, shredded lettuce, pickles and cheddar cheese on it, without dairy products. During the five-day food festival, 300 kilograms of air-dried chickpeas were used to make this hamburger.
The demand for vegetarian groups in Britain may be even greater-after all, the number of vegetarian groups in Britain has tripled from 6,543,800+0.5 million to 500,000 in the past decade-and in February this year, a new vegetarian junk food restaurant named V Revolution was opened in Manchester, serving hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese and desserts.
There is a long line in front of Chloe's vegetarian junk restaurant | Image from BI
And Australia. According to Euromonitor International, the world's largest packaged vegetarian market is the United States (US$ 654.38+75 million), followed by Germany (US$ 665.438+40 million), the United Kingdom (US$ 507 million) and Australia (US$ 654.38+36 million). Euromonitor predicts that by 2020, Australia's market share will reach 2150,000 USD, an increase of 58%.
However, in the packaged vegetarian food in the Australian market, vegetarian junk food accounts for a larger proportion-the largest category is dairy products (US$ 83.7 million), followed by sauces, seasonings and condiments (US$ 26.3 million), biscuits and snacks (US$ 654.38+US$ 02.5 million) and sweets (US$ 6.9 million)-and then breakfast cereals (which look healthier).
This seems to be no secret for the fast food industry. Grill'd, an Australian fast food brand, said that the sales of its vegetarian hamburgers increased by 12% compared with last year and are still growing rapidly.
Nelson Lima, manager of the Sydney-based Portuguese fried chicken chain Ogalo, said: "Although the salad is good, our goal is to occupy a larger share of the vegetarian market. "Now for every 30 hamburgers we sell, one or two are vegetarians, and vegetarians want the satisfaction of hamburgers."
Not to mention the Indian market. Due to cultural factors, vegetarians account for the largest proportion of India's population in the world. Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, McDonald's, Domino's ... Almost all of these high-calorie chain brands have vegetarian menus for India, and they are constantly innovating.
This trend of junk vegetarianism seems to indicate that people may become vegetarians more and more, not only for health reasons-because they don't worry about calories in their diet-but because of environmental awareness of reducing carbon emissions and protecting animal rights.
In other words, vegetarianism has become a choice of values, but human taste requirements and thirst for high calories are hard to be sacrificed in the diet of some vegetarians.