Food for thought! More Poles choose vege dishes over meat
Increasing numbers of Poles are turning their backs on meat-laden platters in favour of vegetarian and vegan dishes a new survey has found.
Despite the allure of a hamburger or staples of the Polish diet such a cutlets around one million Poles are now vegetarians or vegans with a further two million planning to following in their footsteps, according to an IQS survey carried out for Pyszne.pl, an online meal ordering company.
The same survey found 43 percent of respondents planned to limit their consumption of meat while not giving it up all together.
Around one million Poles are now vegetarians or vegans with a further two million planning to following in their footsteps.
There are increasingly vocal calls for people to cut down on meat consumptions as a way of combatting climate change.
A UN report published last year called on people to eat less meat saying that a reduction was “essential” to avoid climate change and provide more food for the planet’s growing population.
“Vegetarianism has gone from being a niche market to a trend that will have a significant influence on the food and catering sectors,” Arkadiusz Krupicz, co-founder and managing director of Pyszne, told the newspaper Rzeczpospolita.
According to the report’s author, Arkadiusz Krupicz, co-founder and managing director of Pyszne: “Vegetarianism has gone from being a niche market to a trend that will have a significant influence on the food and catering sectors.”
“The influence of food on health and ethical considerations has made many Poles interested how a certain product was made, and, in the case of restaurants, what the ingredients are.”
A report by AT Kearney, a management and consultancy firm, found that by 2040 actual meat will only make up 40 percent of the meat market as people consume more and more alternatives.
The popularity on non-meat diets has encouraged meat producers such as Olewnik and Sokołów to roll out their own vegetarian sausages and pates.
Last year the Happy Cow, a website dedicated to assisting travellers who want vegan food put Warsaw a number three, just behind Berlin and Los Angeles in its list of top-ten vegan cities in the world.
Supermarket chains have also expanded their range of meatless products with even discount chains such as Biedronka and Lidl offering the likes of soya sausages and non-meat burgers.
The value of the plant milk market in Poland is also on the rise and is now worth an estimated PLN 120 million.
The shift away from milk-based products has also started to attract the attention of big dairy firms such as OSM Łowicz, which has launched its ‘Bez deka mleka’ range of vegan products that includes ‘cheese slices’ and mushroom spreads.
Supermarket chains have also expanded their range of meatless products with even discount chains such as Biedronka and Lidl offering the likes of soya sausages and non-meat burgers.
Warsaw has also become one of the world’s leading cities for vegan food.
Last year the Happy Cow, a website dedicated to assisting travellers who want vegan food put Warsaw a number three, just behind Berlin and Los Angeles in its list of top-ten vegan cities in the world.
To read more about Warsaw’s vege explosion read here.
