09 May Are vegan alternatives the answer to chicken shortages?
Popular fast food chain, KFC has faced huge difficulty with their chicken supplier leading to a temporary closure of many of their stores. As a result, vegan chicken alternatives have become the next best thing, Nicola Coaker reports
Over the past week, much loved chicken fast food shop, KFC has been facing problems with their chicken distribution company which led to over 500 stores closing for a short period of time throughout the UK.
Vegan statistics infographic by Nicola Coaker.
In a recent study from IPSOS, it was found that over 500,000 people in the UK chose a plant-based diet. This is following a huge increase in what some call a trend led diet, fuelled by social media. With many alternatives becoming available and as people become more aware of the benefits of a vegan diet, the lifestyle choice is set to rise massively over the next few years.
Plant based fast-food store, Temple of Seitan are just one of many stores supplying vegan alternatives to the much loved meat favourites. Temple of Seitan have created a business alike that of KFC, providing vegan fried chicken which tastes very similar to the original, with a menu consisting of ‘Mac No Cheese’, ‘Popcorn Bites’ and ‘Fillets’, the familiarity of the food has gained popularity.
Temple of Seitan employee, Danny spoke to us about his opinion of the current KFC crisis: “Good riddance, I hope that they continue to have problems. Instead of KFC, come and get some cruelty-free chicken which is delicious and vegan.”
When asked about people’s opinion of the alternatives he said: “I think that once you see that people can get the alternatives that are as delicious as your regular chicken, it is easier to make the move onto a plant based diet. Somedays you don’t want to be healthy and you just want to eat some fried chicken.”
With an increase of alternatives and people converting to the meat-free and dairy-free diet, we spoke to two members of the public to find out their thoughts on the new options.
Daniel Jarvis said: “It’s too hard at the moment, I’m trying too but when I get really hungry I just crave for KFC.” Endrit Ferizolli continued to say: “My sister has actually been slowly introducing me to the alternatives. I like it and I think it’s really nice. I can’t really taste the difference to be honest.”
With such high demand, Temple of Seitan opened their second store in London after only a year of their initial opening. Although all KFC stores are due to re-open with a full menu within the next week, the every-growing food trend will allow restaurants such as Temple of Seitan to grow their customer base.
Other vegan alternatives in London include What The Pitta, Cook Daily and Cafe Van Gogh.
Factors to be considered:
This VT was broadcast during our live show on Monday 5th March 2018. The roles in our team, VT group 7, this week were as follows: Alice Heather was cameraman and video editor, Maddie was the overall editor, Moona wrote the online article and I was the presenter and also assisted Alice with the camera. I contacted the restaurant on the Friday and organised a date and time for us to film in their restaurant as well as organising to speak to a member of staff.
