PETA Vegan Food Awards 2021
As Australians wake up to the misery that animals endure in the meat, egg, and dairy industries as well as the nightmare they are for the planet, meat consumption Down Under has dropped to its lowest point in 25 years, and analysts are predicting that the market will only keep shrinking.
Meanwhile, newly emerging start-ups, iconic household brands, and restaurants big and small have stepped up to meet the ever-growing demand for vegan food in 2021.
PETA’s Vegan Food Awards highlight some of the most delicious and exciting new vegan offerings in Australia. Check out the award winners below and try them for yourself.
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Best Vegan Meat
vEEF Artisan Plant-Based Pulled ‘Lamb’
Full of flavour and made with mushrooms, vEEF pulled “lamb” is a delicious meat alternative, without the cruelty or the giant methane footprint of sheep farming.
Best Vegan Bacon
NEXT! Plant Based Extra Crispy Bacon Style Strips
What crisps like bacon, smells like bacon, and tastes just like bacon, without condemning mother pigs to life behind bars? NEXT Plant Based Extra Crispy Bacon Style Strips! Give them a go for breakfast.
Best Vegan Chicken
Vegan Fried Chick’n Plant Based Popcorn Chick’n
It’s vegan popcorn chicken. What more do we need to say? Chickens are intelligent and social animals, so if you care about birds, you have to try this crunchy, tasty snack that lets them keep their wings.
Best Vegan Ice Cream
Pana Organic Double Chocolate Ice Cream Stick
Is there anything better than chocolate? More chocolate, of course! This delicious treat takes creamy chocolate and covers it with crispy chocolate on an easy-to-eat stick. Genius
Best Vegan Fish
Commercial fishing is destroying our delicate ocean ecosystems, and people need to understand that fish are individuals who feel pain. Happily, Northcote Fish & Chips delivers vegan versions of fish-shop classics, including calamari rings and shrimp.
Best Vegan Cheeses
There was a time when vegans would dream of just one great non-dairy cheese. Now we have a whole cheese shop! From creamy bries to blues with bite, this is vegan heaven – and great news for male calves, who are discarded by the dairy industry.
Best Vegan Lolly
Who didn’t love chewy, zingy pineapple lollies as a kid? Candy Queens offers vegan versions of these sweets from our childhood – meaning no bones and cartilage (which go into gelatine-based lollies).
Most Innovative Vegan Product
Sprout Organic Plant-Based Infant Formula
In a world first, parents of two Jen and Sel Berdie worked with food technologists to create a plant-based range of infant and toddler milks. The result meets Food Standards Code requirements, has been approved by paediatricians and nutritionists, and prevents cows from being used as milk machines.
Best Vegan Bakery
Those lucky enough to live in Perth will know Darringtons, a gluten-free, vegan bakery that smells like heaven. From golden croissants to creamy doughnuts, the only struggle here is deciding which treat to take home.
Best Vegan Cookbook
The Vegan Butcher byZacchary Bird
Following the success of his hugely successful Vegan Junk Food, Zac’s back to prove that plants can do anything meat can but without the cruelty, cholesterol, or climate-changing gases. Pigs aren’t ham – but with this book, watermelons can be!
Launch of the Year
Launching in the Lake Macquarie/Newcastle area in May this year, Australia’s first vegan preschool exemplifies its sustainable values by offering a 100% plant-based menu developed with dietitians to meet Australian nutritional guidelines and teaches kids about the wonders of fresh produce.
Best Vegan Pies
Finally, vegan versions of party pies, the iconic snack, can be found frozen and ready to bake at Woolworths. It was hard to choose just one product from the extensive Meaty Vegan range, so we honoured them all.
Best Dairy-Free Milk
UP&GO Dairy Free Liquid Breakfast Choc Ice Flavour
When PETA joined UP&GO’s Brains Trust to help shape this cow-friendly version of the future, even we couldn’t have anticipated how delicious it would be. It’s gluten-free and perfect for busy mornings, and the vanilla flavour is fab, too.
Best Vegan Sausage
Flavoured with a tasty mix of herbs, these snags are perfect on a barbecue, in a curry, or as a side dish. As with all v2 products, the process from plant to plate is transparent, so you can see how the sausage is made. (Spoiler: no pigs were harmed.)
Best Vegan Burger
Brewski Bar Plant-Based Burger
When you have a craving only a burger can satisfy, Brewski Bar is the place to go. Almost all its menu items have a vegan equivalent, and this one – featuring a juicy vEEF patty – is to die for, except no one did.
Best Vegan Chocolate
Totally Vegan by Charlie Bubble Mint Bar
Charlie is a sorceress who conjures up kind versions of much-loved classics. We couldn’t resist her animal- and planet-friendly take on this minty, bubbly goodness.
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More than just delicious, these vegan innovations are helping to fix our broken food system. Every year, billions of animals are bred to suffer and be killed for their flesh. Humans cram cows into barren, faeces-filled feedlots; put pigs into gas chambers, where they writhe and scream in pain as they suffocate; dismember lambs for chops and chickens for nuggets; and yank fish out of their ocean homes to suffocate to death. Every single one of them fights to stay alive.
You can help stop this violence and suffering by leaving meat, eggs, and dairy out of your shopping trolley every week and filling it instead with vegan products, including some of the ones listed above.
Looking for a place to start? Why not sign up for our vegan challenge?
Let’s make 2025 a historic year for animals
