Food Insights

Our new research reveals that almost three quarters of UK consumers think cafes, restaurants, pubs and fast-food chains could do more to support and promote sustainable diets on their menus. 

The new partnership sees the GARDEN GOURMET® brand highlighted on menus across the company’s hotel, restaurant and pub estate at 800 Premier Inn sites and 400 pub and restaurants including Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Bar + Block, Table Table, Whitbread Inns and Cookhouse + Pub sites, which serve over five million customers a month. 

Once upon a time, animal milk was the only option for certain recipes. Today, that’s no longer the case, and you can find plant-based alternatives to milk made from a variety of grains, nuts, and legumes.  

1 in 5 consumers plan to eat more plant-based alternatives over coming months.

Plant based alternatives to milk products have been on the market for a while now, so many of your guests have probably already heard of them. This growing awareness (and in some cases, a preference for plants) will make it easier for you to promote new recipes. Here are a few marketing ideas for plant-based menus to help you plan a successful rollout. 

Substituting new ingredients in place of something as familiar as cow’s milk can pose certain challenges to even experienced chefs. For the best results when using 100% plant-based alternatives to milk in your recipes, consider the following advice.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of consumers sign up for Veganuary – a pledge to follow a vegan lifestyle for a month. Since it started in 2014, over 600 businesses and 100,000 people have taken part, with sign ups in 2020 peaking at 400,000 & over 500 businesses joining in¹.

We partnered with Arena, the hospitality networking association, to host their Ask Arena webinar. ‘The Power of Plant Based – Opportunities within Hospitality’, sponsored by GARDEN GOURMET®, brought together an expert panel of operators and suppliers to explore how the opportunities plant based brings are being harnessed.

Myles Hopper, founder of the Mindful Chef, provides a lowdown on running a healthy food business, his mission to make healthy eating easy, and advice on how caterers can make ‘better’ menus a reality.

Spotlight on Sustainable Diets

The 2021 Footprint Sustainability Index in association with Nestlé Professional identifies six top trends and opportunities to help foodservice leaders develop strategy, benchmark good practice and identify issues. For this article, we delve into the future of Sustainable Diets.

Customers’ Top Reasons to Eat Less Meat and Become Flexitarians

Flexitarians are a large and growing population, which means there are more and more potential customers out there, keen to try plant-based meat alternatives that don’t compromise on flavour and satisfaction. But before you can win them over with your offering, here is what you need to know about how many of us are turning into flexitarians and find out what are some of the most common reasons why people eat plant-based meat, directly from consumers.

Typically made from soy, peas, wheat, or mushrooms, plant-based meat products look and taste similar to real meat, making them easy to substitute and integrate into favourite recipes. Using only plant-based ingredients, it’s possible to create the look, taste, texture, cooking properties, and even some of the key nutrients found in real meat.