Investigation of the Impact of Vegetarianism and Veganism on the Post-Covid-19 Gastronomy and Food Industry

Abstract

The aim of this term paper is to investigate the extent to which Covid-19 has influenced the gastronomy and food sector regarding fresh food counters and the to-go assortment in terms of vegetarian and vegan offerings.
An extensive literature and internet research was conducted for this thesis. In addition, this included a study of vegan- and vegetarian-friendly food offerings in ten different randomly selected restaurants in the city of Trier, Germany. The results show that on average a good selection of vegetarian dishes (33.6%) and a small selection of vegan dishes (11.8%) can be found in the individual restaurants.
The trend towards a plant-based diet has been evident for years but accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic as society began to doubt the safety precautions of the meat industry and awareness of animal, environmental and health issues increased. This has led to many restaurants and food retailers expanding their range of vegetarian and vegan options to meet this demand. More and more vegan products can also be found in food retail, and the range of vegan alternative products in the to-go area or at fresh food counters for actual meat, sausage, cheese and fish products is expanding, as can be seen at pioneer REWE Group, for example.