Supplier Spotlight | Vegetarian Express

Vegetarian Express is on a mission to fill everyone’s plate with plant-based goodness. For over 35 years they’ve been supplying vegetarian and plant-based ingredients to Chefs and food businesses. Right at the beginning, before Seitan, Tempeh and even Tofu were household names – they’re the original plant-based foodies. Specialising in cutting-edge plant-based meat and fish alternatives, as well as rare and regional ingredients that chefs find hard to get, they stock over 1,400 plant-based ingredients.

Vegetarian Express has recently successfully recertified as a Certified B Corporation (or B Corp) through their continued efforts to make a positive impact. B Corps have their impact independently benchmarked and the results are transparently published online. Vegetarian Express are delighted with their inspiring new score of 96.3! (The median score for ordinary businesses is 50.9 and a score of 80 is the minimum requirement for B Corp Certification.)

PERSONALISED IMPACT STATEMENTS | Helping Clients Measure Carbon Savings 

One of the ways in which Vegetarian Express endeavour to support their customers with their ESG agendas is helping them to quantify their greenhouse gas (GHG) savings from choosing plant-based food. To help customers measure their positive impact, Vegetarian Express has developed personalised impact statements. From the moment a customer starts ordering, Vegetarian Express calculate the amount of GHG emissions saved by choosing plant-based instead of the meat alternative. These calculations are made with industry experts, using the latest research. Personalised impact reports are sent out quarterly, showing the positive impact over the last 12 months using meaningful comparisons. They can be created at parent and site level to track environmental goals.

“Greenhouse gas emissions from food production account for 25% of total global emissions, with 66% of that coming from animal-based sources. In the past year alone our plant-based ingredients have replaced enough meat and dairy products to have saved 2,463 tonnes of CO₂ that would otherwise have been emitted though animal-based food production. However, like many of our customers, we understand that while dietary changes have the most significant individual impact in reducing environmental footprints, it’s not always at the forefront of people’s minds when eating out. That’s why we believe that to change end consumer behaviour, we need to appeal to their appetites first. We achieve that by providing our customers with all the necessary ingredients, ideas, and inspiration to create vibrant, exciting, and delicious plant-based food for everyone who eats out of home.” Vegetarian Express Managing Director, Dave Webster

SEED-BANK | Supporting chefs with data-backed plant-based inspiration 

One of the tools Vegetarian Express offer to help Chefs with plant-based ideas and inspiration is ‘Seed-bank’, a unique online recipe portal featuring over 400 plant-based dishes, available for customers to freely download. All of these recipes are created by Chefs for Chefs, include detailed nutritional information, allergen advice, and information on the land, water, and CO₂ savings that can be achieved by including the dish on their menu.

To find out more:

• Watch a short video on Vegetarian Express Impact Reports

• See how easy it is to use Seed-bank to find recipes and ideas

• • Get in touch, contact Luke Dalley, National Account Manager at Vegetarian Express at lukedalley@vegexp.co.uk.