After recently seeing a statistic that 7% of the UK now identifies as vegan, the supermarkets must surely be following suit, or are they?
Whilst at university I shopped mainly at Aldi with the rare visit to Tesco or Sainsbury’s. However, now that I am back at home, my food comes from all over the place, M&S, Waitrose, the CO-OP, and all the others! I thought there might be some of you in a similar position and want to find the best place to head to for their food shopping, or some who might be making the transition into veganism and want to make their lives easier for their parents by giving them a shop that they know will be vegan friendly enough.
For this reason, I have visited some stores and some websites, looking at their vegan range and I will be giving my thoughts on some of the most popular supermarkets in the UK. I think to keep things simple and informative I’m going to list any particularly good things about it or any thing I’m particularly disappointed with, as well as a link to their vegan range on their website (if they have one).
- Good cheese alternatives, especially the cheddar. Some of the best.
- Great for cheap fruit and veg
- Some of their own vegan burgers/sausages
- Good vegan Quorn selection which most supermarkets don’t stock
- Things are always on offer, especially Alpro yogurts, vitalite (butter) and alpro milks!
- I didn’t manage to find a website, which I would assume means they do not deliver…shook! I did find a blog though which I have linked to ‘Co-op’ which list all their vegan items!
- Great vegan snacks, especially their chocolate buttons!
- Stocks Quorn and Linda Mcartney
- Good few meal deals
- No store-own meat substitutes
- Vegan wines
- Good for labelling
- Vegan household products
- Their donuts are vegan and are to DIE for, try and get their for about 11am, they’re fresh out the oven and are still warm…mmmm.
- The biggest vegan cheese range I’ve come and I think the first to bring out cheese substitutes.
- Their own meat free pieces as well
- Good at labelling
- Their basics dark chocolate is vegan too, and an amazing bar of chocolate for only 50p!
Otherwise known as Marks and Spencer, this has to be the most disappointing supermarket for me and vegan friendly range for me. Not only are their prices extremely off-putting, but their range is so limited, they have a fair amount of vegetarian burgers and meat-free pieces, but their specifically vegan range is merely a few things. I managed to find 13 items on their website, of which most are salad or cous-cous, not the most imaginative or exciting. I find this so disappointing because of their huge budget for food, they’re not just a basic food shop, it’s a food shop for foodies. They’ve failed to identify that vegans are foodies too.
- Loads of Tesco’s own soya deserts/yoghurts which are so tasty and I’ve not seen store-own versions of these anywhere
- Tesco’s own vegan pesto too, much cheaper than the branded vegan pesto
- Good value
- Their own soya pieces (their “chicken nuggets” are amazing)
- Not amazing at labelling things vegan
My dad often pops into Waitrose, and I’m always pretty disappointed. Obviously their online delivery is partnered with Ocado which makes things that bit better, but in store, the vegan range is pretty poor.
- They stock some Quorn, Linda Mcartney and Tofu, although they’re very expensive
- Ocado have recently brought out their own vegan range which is great, a link to Ocado’s vegan page can be found by clicking on “Waitrose”
- Ocado stock so many great vegan brands I haven’t even heard of, including an egg replacement that can make omelettes, quiches, pancakes etc!
- On the pricey side but if you have a boujie budget then this place is perfect for you.
If you’re heading to uni in September and thinking about veganism or already vegan and worried about being vegan on a tight budget, one of my favourite vegan youtubers (and probably lots of others) has done several supermarket basics vegan finds as well as videos of the meals she makes with the food. It’s great for inspiration and also to help get together a little shopping list that’s budget friendly, I’ll link her videos here;
Which do you think is the best? I personally think that either Tesco or Sainbury’s are the best; they both do home delivery, both great value (Tesco that little bit better value), they both have a good range of their own vegan foods as well as stocking big name vegan brands.
Until next time,
Megan
x x
Tailored By Megan Taylor 