Waitrose has launched 12 new PlantLiving products to meet the growing demand for flexitarian diets.
The new plant-based items include a plant and vegetable mince, organic firm tofu, garlic-filled doughballs, southern fried no chicken, a no chicken kyiv, no chorizo sausages, loaded vegetable kebabs, nduja style Fiorelli, Mediterranean style mini rolls, and curried vegetable mini rolls.
The upmarket retailer’s extended range comes as data from Waitrose.com found a significant uptick in searches for key ingredients such as canned lentils, marinated tofu and vegan salad recipes, with increases of 200%, 134% and 700%, respectively.
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It comes as the supermarket expects to see an uptick in flexitarian demand, as it found that May and June are the peak months for plant-based consumption, outside of January.
Waitrose vegan and vegetarian buyer Catherine Shacklock said: “Our customers are looking to consume less meat and by using PlantLiving, they can make delicious plant-based swaps without all the prep.”
“Plant-based proteins such as tofu, have become kitchen heroes, and our new PlantLiving: Organic Firm Tofu is made using traditional Japanese techniques – which means it is perfect to cook with and a great base for most recipes.”
It comes as Ottolenghi rolls out a range of sauces and spices exclusively in Waitrose to bring its products “to the masses”.
The range, which includes a miso pesto, kalamata olive and harissa sauce, shawarma marinade and a variety of aromatic spice mixes, has been created by the brand’s founder and chef Yotam Ottolenghi and his test kitchen team.
