Greggs woos vegans with new meat-free sausage roll

Greggs has launched a vegan version of its popular sausage roll amid growing demand for meat and dairy free products.

The vegan pastry, filled with a bespoke Quorn filling and made using vegetable oil instead of butter, has gone on sale in 950 stores across the country today. It costs £1 – 5p more than the original.

The long-awaited launch comes after 20,000 people signed a petition by the animal rights group Peta last year asking the bakery chain to develop a vegan alternative to the bestselling pastry.

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It also coincides with the beginning of Veganuary, a campaign which encourages people to follow a plant-based diets during January.

This year in the UK, record numbers of people have signed up to Veganuary, according to The Guardian.

“The charity’s head of campaigns, Rich Hardy, said that on Sunday alone 14,000 people promised to go vegan for January – a rate of one every six seconds,” the paper says.

Between 2006 and 2016, the number of vegans in Britain more than trebled, with supermarkets, restaurants and high street cafes stocking a growing variety of plant-based products.

“Like many food retailers we have seen increasing demand for vegetarian and vegan products,” said Roger Whiteside, chief executive at Greggs. “We have been trying to develop a vegan version of our famous sausage roll for some time now.”

“It has not been easy but our taste panel customers all love this one, so we have decided to launch it as our contribution to Veganuary.”