The UK’s largest bakery chain, Greggs, is to launch a vegan sausage roll this week. The company, which sells 1.5m traditional pork sausage rolls a week, says the new version, which will be on sale from Thursday, has been designed to mirror some of the original’s classic features. It will have, Greggs says, 96 layers of light and crisp puff pastry – made with vegetable oil – and a “bespoke” Quorn filling. The launch comes after 20,000 people signed a petition by animal welfare organisation Peta last year calling on Greggs to produce a vegan version of its bestselling item. The product arrives on Greggs’s shelves at the start of Veganuary – a growing movement that encourages people to embrace plant-based diets during January. This year in the UK record numbers of people have signed up to Veganuary and pledged to follow a diet free of animal products for at least a month. One in eight Britons are now vegetarian or vegan & lots of supermarkets & restaurants are developing their offerings for their markets.
