Thursday, 9th December 2021
The past three years has revealed an exponential rise in the number of people switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet, which has had a knock-on effect on the restaurant and food supply industry, not only in terms of the number of new establishments specializing in serving these menus but in the bulk food production businesses as well.
Just some statistics that show this sharp increase include:
- Uber Eats reporting a 1436% increase in vegan food items and 59% increase in the number of vegan or vegetarian specific restaurants on their app
- Deliveroo reports that they now have over 14 000 vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants on their app in the UK
- A survey reveals that at least 20% of Brits are planning a plant-based Christmas meal this year
- At the recent COP26 global climate summit held in Glasgow, Scotland, over 80% of the food supplied to delegates was plant-based.
For those involved in the production or preparation of vegan and vegetarian foods, one of the interesting challenges has been to review and understand the food options, covering everything from standard vegetables and fruits to plant-based products to replace traditional meat products, for example burgers, pizzas, bacon, non-meatballs, sausages, schnitzels and nuggets, pies and even seafood options.
For those customers who enjoy these foods, in many instances the traditional methods of preparation have remained important, with a chargrilled finish, with bar markings and a smoky, seasoned flavour equally important in the taste profile as it is with regular meat products.
Kitchen and food preparation equipment has, therefore, had to adapt to allow food preparation to retain some of these traditional aspects but within the parameters of vegan or vegetarian ingredients.
Frampton recognised the need for suitable commercial cooking equipment many years ago and have been involved with cooking vegan and vegetarian foods for some time. In fact, as long ago as the 1990s, we launched a specially designed small grill at the Brighton Fast Food Exhibition, specifically for grilling vegetarian burgers.
As the trend has grown, we have continued to supply a number of grills and bar markers for vegan and vegetarian food production, including a large grill to chargrill small pieces of plant-based products to replace chicken pieces as a snack food. One of the most popular processes is chargrilling vegetables, fruit and other plant-based products. Frampton high temperature grills give the visually-attractive and familiar chargrilled appearance and taste whilst still keeping the product firm.
Over the last 20 years, bar marking has become increasingly popular for giving the traditional barbecue griddle marks on meat products such as burgers, but more recently we have supplied machines for bar marking many different non-meat products.
We offer an extensive range of commercial ovens, grillers, bar markers, flash roasters and other professional catering equipment.