The range of meat-free snags available in Aotearoa is ever increasing, but which should grace your next barbie? We put 22 of them to the test to find out.

Innovative Wānaka piemakers Kai Pai Bakery have won two coveted awards from the 2021 NZ Vegan Pie Awards in Auckland.

Kai Pai Bakery took home the awards for best Vegetable Pie and the Commercial Award for their Vegan Roast Vegetable and Cashew Curry pie. More than 70 vegan pies from around New Zealand were judged as part of the awards, held by The Vegan Society.

Whangārei cafe Logan MacLean has seen one of its vegan pies win a category in the Vegan Pie Award. The Waipū cafe entered pies in five of eight categories in this year’s Vegan Pie Award. In 2019 its Cock-a-Leekie pie came second runner-up in the Vegan Chicken category. After the pies were judged on Friday, Logan MacLean won the Café boutique – any sort of pastry, shape, open or closed category for its Korean BBQ pie.
The judges said of the Korean BBQ pie: “flavour and texture beautiful”.

The AM Show were lucky enough to receive some of the award winning pies. However without Duncan Garner to eat them, the hosts were too busy ridiculing vegans to bother trying any of them 🙁

The video talks about Grater Goods and our inaugural Vegan Cheese Awards

Radio New Zealand interviews National Coordinator Amanda Sorrenson about her Xmas dinner

The Vegan Society has called for a reduction in livestock by 20% by 2025 and continued phased reduction until there is no animal agriculture by 2050. Supporting farmers to diversify and transition towards plant-based agriculture, including rewilding of “unproductive” land with native bush. The funds to pay for all this could be taken from revenue currently not collected from multinational corporations operating in this country.

Food giant Inghams has bowed to public pressure and will remove dairy products from a product it labelled as plant-based. Let’s Eat, which is owned and operated by Inghams Group New Zealand, sells a variety of vegetarian and vegan meat substitutes and one is called Golden Nuggets. The company has been criticised because the nuggets are promoted as plant-based, but contain milk.

I consulted Vegan Society of New Zealand’s Claire Insley before undertaking this challenge to see what treats I could find, and she informed me RJ liquorice is now vegan friendly, as it is made without palm oil – although palm oil doesn’t include animal products, most vegans avoid it because palm oil production destroys rainforests and threatens some species of animal with extinction.

A new vegan chocolate bar has arrived , but larger confectionery companies still aren’t offering a lot of options, a Vegan Society spokeswoman says. KitKat V has been released in New Zealand, but the vegan chocolate bar is only in stores nationwide for a limited time. This was because the bar, which is made with rice milk, had to be produced on a special factory line, a Nestle spokeswoman said, but the company was always open to extending limited releases based on interest .

World Egg Day is traditionally celebrated on the 2nd Friday of October, but now World Egg Free Day aims to eclipse and trump the outdated International Egg Commission’s awareness day – reminding people of the cruelty of eggs and offering alternatives. Kiwi actors and vegan power couple, Emmett Skilton and Holly Shervey, have teamed up with the Vegan Society to speak out in support of chickens.

Vegan cheese might sound like a contradiction in terms. Cheese is made from milk, which comes from cows or maybe goats…right? While that is still largely the case, more of us are buying plant-based cheese and more New Zealand businesses are producing it. 

The Vegan Society Aotearoa is always keen to showcase excellence in 100% plant-based and vegan products. Each month we have a theme to focus on and August is Plant Milk Month as it’s International Plant Milk Day on 22^nd August – but there are simply too many dairy-free alternatives to look at in just one day!

Whether it is melted in a toastie, on top of your favourite pizza or piled onto a humble cracker – Kiwis love cheese. But what about a dairy free version? Over the last few years demand for vegan options has skyrocketed. Now, the first vegan cheese competition has been held in Auckland – and it looked like your average cheese and cracker situation, but different.

What does it take for a vegan cheese to please the public and emerge as a supreme cheese? New Zealand’s first-ever vegan cheese awards begin in Auckland today. Over 30 entries from makers across the country will be assessed by a panel of judges across several different categories.

“Some cheeses do try to emulate your traditional dairy cheese, like the cheddars for instance might try and be really melty for your pizza or toasted sandwich,” Vegan Society spokesperson Claire Insley told Mike Yardley.

RESTAURANT AND CAFE

The Vegan Sausage Awards, which take place annually at the end of June, are hosted by vegan restaurant The Butcher’s Son, and aim to celebrate Kiwis’ growing love of and preference for healthier plant-based foods.

RESTAURANT AND CAFE

Sausages are part of Kiwi culture, as we cook outdoors on the BBQ during summer. But with more people going vegan to improve their health and reduce their carbon footprint, Vegan Sausage options have stepped up to the plate.

HAWKES BAY TODAY

There’s more than meets the eye to Goodtime’s winning sausage rolls – they’re vegan.  The Napier piemakers Café Vegan Sausage Roll took out the top award at the Vegan Sausage Awards, organised by the New Zealand Vegan Society.

10th May 2021

VOXY

The results from the latest survey of Kiwi men show that they are more concerned with appearing macho, than the health of themselves or the planet! It seems New Zealand men would rather die younger and take the planet with them, than stop eating meat.

8th June 2021

NEWSTALK ZB

To discuss this, Claire Insley media spokesperson for the Vegan Society New Zealand joined Kerre McIvor.

30th March 2021

ONE NEWS

A company that advertises as “100 per cent Kiwi-based, eco-friendly and vegan” has gone quiet after Fair Go challenged all those claims.

13th April 2021

NEWSTALKZB

19th March 2021

THE SPINOFF

The range of meat-free snags available in Aotearoa is ever increasing, but which should grace your next barbie? We put 22 of them to the test to find out.