Recently I visited the The Just V show in London. Exhibition trawling is a fundamental part of our role at Opalbond to find out what's happening at the cutting edge of the nutrition industry. I was surprised by the number of interesting brands genuinely interested in offering healthy alternatives for a Vegan diet.
What struck me was the direction the Vegan market is now taking. Veganism has increased by 360% in the last 10 years, with over half a million Vegans in the UK. Whilst there were the inevitable cohort of open-toed Sandal and liberty-esk skirts, there were also a number of people looking to products to reduce meat intake and wanting to find genuinely healthy real alternatives. Beyond the plethora of cold pressed 'my bar has less sugar than your bar' market there were also some fascinating products:
Coconut jerky anyone?
Sounded and tasted strange but this type of product has evolved over to a genuine Vegan alternative it would seem. Birch water has moved on from maple into cactus water, and savoury snacks are now firmly routed in seaweed crisps or tiger nuts! Sports nutrition also had a presence at the show majoring in dairy alternatives, free from and/or organic. Definitely a direction the sports nutrition market is moving in along with paleo.
You may think the Vegan arena not worth paying much attention to, but actually the innovation, sustainability and environmental awareness is something which the rest of us can learn from, for instance protein sources that don't burden the environment like grazing animals, water extracted from the sap of trees/plants....all food for thought.
Opalbond are able to offer Vegan dairy drinks and Organic Vegan Gluten free and lactose free cookies, so please get in touch if you would like to find out more.