Sign-ups to this year’s annual Veganuary challenge have hit a record rate at one person every 2.4 seconds as more Brits look to try out a vegan diet.
A new YouGov poll found that 71% of British adults have heard of the 31 day vegan pledge and almost 10% have taken part since it launched in 2014.
Of Veganuary participants, 53% have completed the challenge more than once, while 21% have done four times or more.
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For those taking part for the first time, 52% were still eating meat or fish while 31% were vegetarian and as a result of doing Veganuary, 85% of non-vegan past participants have reduced their consumption of animal products.
Veganuary has also seen 23% of past non-vegan partakers becoming vegan with the majority of participants citing animal welfare as a motivating factor for having taken part.
For 54% this was due to environmental reasons, with personal health for 46% and global health for 30%.
“Having been vegan myself for more than 30 years, it’s amazing how the conversation around veganism has changed in recent years and I know Veganuary’s friendly, non-judgemental, just-give-it-a-go-for-a-month-and-see-what-you-think approach has played an instrumental role in this shift,” Veganuary head of communications, Dr Toni Vernelli said.
“To everyone who took their first step towards a vegan diet with us in January 2014 – Happy 10th Veganniversary. To everyone taking their first step with us today – welcome to a growing global movement taking positive action for a better world.”
This comes as Waitrose has expanded its vegan offerings, rolling out plant-based meat products from Heura and This ‘Isn’t Streaky Bacon’ across stores in time for Veganuary.
Other plant-based brands including Tindle and Crave are hitting some of the UK’s leading supermarkets for January, while Heinz also expanded its offerings last week, launching vegan alternatives to some of its classic recipes.
