A Kilmarnock baker reckons his new vegan sausage roll is better than Greggs’ version.
Brownings look set to cash in on the lucrative meat-free market with their take on the tasty savoury.
And boss John Gall believes that their new creation is far superior to their high street rival’s popular version.
“We did a blind taste test in the factory with 10 people,” John told the Standard. “We got our vegan sausage rolls and Greggs’ vegan sausage rolls.
“At that point I hadn’t even tried our sausage roll or theirs.
“Every single person said ours was better.”
The Brownings vegan sausage rolls have been in the pipeline for three months and were launched last week along with a vegan sweet potato and lentil korma pie.
The sausage roll will cost the same as its meat counterpart – £1 – and the vegan pie retails at £2.50.
“We had a lot of big customers in England that have been asking for more vegan products recently,” John added.
“We developed our vegan pie with chef Paul Gellar, who made a vegetarian version and then we adapted it to be vegan.
“It initially had dairy in it and we swapped that out for things like soy milk so that people who don’t eat meat can enjoy it.
“I would happily have the vegan sausage roll over a regular sausage roll. I honestly can’t tell the difference.”
The vegan sausage roll is comprised of mock meat, mainly soy, wrapped in flaky pastry.
And the vegan pies will also be sold on the other side of the world after Brownings was invited to a food fair in Japan next month.
The firm said they could look at developing more vegan products, which could include a vegan scotch pie or a vegan steak and gravy-style pie.
Senior sales and marketing executive Nicola McCulloch has been a vegetarian since she was 10 years old.
“I thought I’d been given a real sausage roll when I first tried it,” she said. “I thought it was really tasty and I couldn’t believe that it wasn’t meat.”
Brownings is also trialling new artisan-style rolls that could be released next year.
Flavours include cheese and onion, chilli, cheese and black pepper and tomato and herb.
