Vegan Vs Non-Vegan Products

By: Luis Lopez

Vegan food has been on the rise of popularity as of recently. Although many are hesitant to give products defined as vegan, the data presented in this article justify the attempt to try vegan food and showcases the foods popularity. This rising popularity of vegan food leads to some interesting data.  Data taken from a ‘Sentient Media” article entitled “Is Veganism Becoming More Popular? Using Data to Track the Growing Trend” it is evident that “veganism” is on the rise. The article cites the Guardian and says that it estimates that there are 79 million vegans around the world, which is nothing to scoff at. For the unaware being vegan according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “a strict vegetarian who consumes no food (such as meat, eggs, or dairy products) that comes from animals.”

Comparing two of the most popular vegan food distributors, Impossible meat and Beyond meat, there is a lot of data to be pulled there. An article from “Yahoo Finance” by Heidi Chung provided the graphic above. This graphic provides the health benefits for Beyond meat and impossible meat and weights out the options for consumers to help them find a suitable provider for vegan meat alternatives. The Yahoo Finance article also cites a survey conducted by Bank of America that consisted of 1,400 consumers and was conducted to gauge the overall appeal of alternative meat. The survey concluded that on a scale of 1 to 5 56% of consumers said that the ingredient list is important when making a purchase, so having this data so widely available is beneficial for consumers.

Vegan meats aren’t the only comparable things found when researching vegan products, as vegan milk alternatives, are just as popular if not more so than alternative meat. An article from the University of Health news entitled “Milk Alternatives: A Comparison of Non-Dairy Milk Options” provided the comparison graphic above which compares seven types of milk.

Vegan milk has been rising slowing in recent years in terms of popularity, the chart above is taken from a livekindly article and explains how more and more people are buying plant-based milk products as apposed to “cow based” milk products. Vegan milk alternatives consist of many different types of milk as stated previously in the article, and allows for many options for those who are looking into drinking vegan milk.

The Good Food Institute conducted research on the retail market insight of plant-based food products in 2021. The article concluded that the retail market for plant-based foods has increased annually, going from $6.9 billion in 2020 to $7.4 billion in 2021. The article also stated that plant-based food dollar sales gave grown 6% from 2020 to 2021, and that plant-based food sales grew three times faster than total food sales in 2021.

Vegan meats and milks are not the only prominent vegan products that have extensive research and interesting data, vegan or plant-based cheese is a product that has seen a boom in popularity recently. According to Grand View Research, vegan cheese’s market value is only set to increase annually and is expected to go up 11.9% from 2022 to 2030. The chart above shows the U.S. Vegan Cheese market data. In comparison to non-vegan cheese sales, it is evident that vegan cheese is gaining popularity and higher sales than its non-vegan counterparts. Dairy Foods reported that kraft single sales have gone down -5.3 percent and Daiya cheese which is a very popular vegan based cheese has gone up 51.3 percent in comparison.

According to data conducted by BBC, there are some health benefits to vegan food. The article explained that a study involving 48,000 people over 18 years showed that people who didn’t eat meat and are classified as having vegan or vegetarian diets have a lower risk of heart disease but did have a higher risk of stroke, so that is something those who are considering becoming vegan should take into consideration. The article also cites Marco Springmann a senior researcher of environmental sustainability and public health at the University of Oxford expressed that vegan diet is one of the healthiest diets.

Vegan food rising in popularity helps it gain mainstream appeal and will potentially make it more accessible for all who are willing to give it a try.