Veganism is a movement in constant expansion, and in recent years the number of people concerned about animal abuse and exploitation has grown, so more and more people are opting for this lifestyle. In this sense, the vegan industry is responsible for providing options for vegans to satisfy their needs to the maximum.

Meat substitutes and plant-based dairy products are growing in popularity, such as plant-based hamburgers and sausages, as well as soy or almond milk. This is also largely due to the fact that vegetable proteins have health benefits, since they do not contain cholesterol and have less saturated fats than animal proteins.

According to Euromonitor International, global sales of vegetable meat will increase 24% in 2020, reaching 4.2 billion dollars. Meanwhile, sales of vegetable milks grew 4% and reached 16.9 billion dollars.

Another factor that could influence the aforementioned upturn is that 25% of Americans between 25 and 34 years of age say they are vegetarians or vegans.

In Latin America, 22% of consumers say they want to reduce their meat consumption because they are increasingly aware of its negative impacts. Mexico is the country with the highest number of people who do not eat meat in the region. Nineteen percent are vegetarian, 15% are flexitarian and 9% are vegan.

In Europe, a case in point is Great Britain where the number of vegans has quadrupled between 2014 and 2019. In 2014 there were only 150,000 vegans and by 2019 this figure had risen to 600,000.

According to data from The Green Revolution, 16% of Germany’s population is vegan, 10% of Italians are vegan and 9.9% of Spaniards have opted for a vegan diet.

It should be noted that one of the negative effects of meat production is its contribution to climate change, air pollution, degradation of ecosystems, as well as loss of biodiversity.

More than just food

A point to highlight is that veganism is not only based on a diet free of animal products, but also excludes the use of any product or textile garment that could contain ingredients or elements from animals, as well as all those tested on them. For this reason, nowadays the industry offers not only meat substitutes but also cosmetic, personal hygiene and even cleaning products which, apart from not containing animal ingredients, are cruelty free.