![]() | |
The Fry Family Food Co. | |
Company type | Private |
Industry | Food |
Founded | 1991Durban, South Africa | in
Founders |
|
Headquarters | , South Africa |
Areas served | Worldwide |
Key people | Wally Fry (Founder) Tammy Fry (Co-Founder) Debbie Fry (Founder) Hayley Fry (Co-Founder) |
Products | Meat analogues |
Production output | 40 tons per day (2018) |
Brands | Fry's |
Number of employees | 400 (2018) |
Website | fryfamilyfood |
Footnotes /references [1] [2] [3] |
Fry Group Foods is a manufacturer of vegan meat substitutes founded by South Africans Wally and Debbie Fry in 1991. [1] [4] In March 2020 it joined LIVEKINDLY Collective, the global plant-based food company.
Wally Fry is a vegan convert who once ate meat and traded livestock for a living. [1] [2] He decided to follow the example of his vegetarian wife Debbie and daughter Tammy after observing the inhumane conditions in a working pig farming facility built by his own construction firm. The couple created meat substitutes in their Durban home for personal consumption to help Wally adapt to his new meat-free diet. [1] [5] Due to growing demand from others, they eventually registered a company to manufacture meat substitutes on a commercial scale in 1991. As public demand for vegan food in South Africa was marginal at the time, the company had to innovate as a manufacturer in a new market. [1] [3] [5] Since inception, the company has also advocated for a plant-based diet via public awareness campaigns including Meat-Free Monday and Veganuary. [2] [3]
In 1998 the company began exporting its meat substitutes from South Africa to Australia, where its headquarters have been based since 2014. [1] [2] As of 2018 [update] its frozen food products, which are manufactured in a custom-built factory in Durban and by a contractor in Cornwall, are sold by supermarket chains and other retailers in over 30 countries. [1] [2] [3] In 2020 the brand became part of the stable of plant-based food brands under LIVEKINDLY Collective - opening up its export market potential. Currently its biggest markets are South Africa, UK and Australia.
The product range initially consisted of only a handful of basics including sausages, hot dogs, and burger patties. [1] [5] As of 2023 [update] it has expanded to include more than 40 products —including schnitzels, sausage rolls, chicken-style nuggets, stir-fry strips, pea protein mince, plant-based popcorn (chick'n style), polony and more—which are made without any meat, egg, or dairy ingredients. [1] [2] [4] The unpatented plant-based meat substitutes are made from legumes, grains, natural flavourings, and spices, and do not contain any genetically modified ingredients. [6] [7]
Fry Group Foods has won numerous awards for its products. It received the 2010 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (Emerging category) from the Ernst & Young South Africa chapter, [3] [6] the 2013 Green Lifestyle Award for Food (Company), [9] the 2016 Food Bev SETA Gold Award (Medium Companies category), [10] and the 2017 Anuga Taste Innovation Award for Soy and Flaxseed Schnitzel. [2] [5] It was the recipient of the VegfestUK Award for Best Vegan "Meat" in 2017, [5] 2018, [11] [12]
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan.
Vegetarian cuisine is based on food that meets vegetarian standards by not including meat and animal tissue products.
Quorn is a brand of meat substitute products, or the company that makes them. Quorn originated in the UK and is sold primarily in Europe, but is available in 11 countries. The brand is owned by parent company Monde Nissin.
A meat alternative or meat substitute, is a food product made from vegetarian or vegan ingredients, eaten as a replacement for meat. Meat alternatives typically approximate qualities of specific types of meat, such as mouthfeel, flavor, appearance, or chemical characteristics. Plant- and fungus-based substitutes are frequently made with soy, but may also be made from wheat gluten as in seitan, pea protein as in the Beyond Burger, or mycoprotein as in Quorn. Alternative protein foods can also be made by precision fermentation, where single cell organisms such as yeast produce specific proteins using a carbon source; as well as cultivated or laboratory grown, based on tissue engineering techniques.
A veggie burger is a hamburger made with a patty that does not contain meat, or the patty of such a hamburger. The patty may be made from ingredients like beans, nuts, grains, seeds, or fungi such as mushrooms or mycoprotein.
Morningstar Farms is a division of the Kellogg Company that produces vegan and vegetarian food. Many of their offerings are plant-based variations of traditionally meat products. Their products include meatless chicken nuggets, popcorn chicken, corn dogs, breakfast sausage, burgers, hot dogs, bacon, and pizza snack rolls with vegan cheese. Originally, Morningstar offered some, but not all vegan products. In 2019, Morningstar Farms announced all products would be vegan by 2021, but had not yet done so as of December 2022.
The Toronto Vegetarian Association (TVA), also known as VegTO, is a volunteer-driven, charitable organization based in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in 1945, its mission is to inspire people to choose a healthier, greener, more compassionate lifestyle through plant-based eating.
Vegetarian and vegan dietary practices vary among countries. Differences include food standards, laws, and general cultural attitudes toward vegetarian diets.
Gardein is a line of meat-free foods produced by Conagra Brands. In 2003, the company was founded by Yves Potvin, who remained as the CEO of Gardein until 2016. In November 2014, Pinnacle Foods purchased Gardein for $154 million. Pinnacle was acquired by Conagra in 2018.
Vegetarian bacon, also referred to as veggie bacon, vegan bacon, vegan rashers, vacon, or facon, is a plant-based version of bacon.
VegfestUK is an annual vegan food festival held each year in various cities including London, Brighton and Bristol, starting in 2013. The 2019 festival in London included around 370 stalls. Vegfest is one of the biggest Vegan/Vegetarian festivals in the world, with 14,500 visitors at the 2018 London Vegfest (compared to on average 8,000 visitors at VeggieWorld.
Veganz Group AG is a vegan brand headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Veganz was founded as the first vegan supermarket chain in Europe.
BOSH! is a duo of British vegan chefs from Sheffield consisting of Henry Firth and Ian Theasby. They rose to fame in 2016 with the launch of their YouTube channel, and have gone on to host the ITV1 television programme Living on the Veg and author a number of books. Their eponymous vegan cookbook ranked fifth in the Sunday Times Bestsellers chart in 2018, and is among the top 50 best-selling UK cookbooks of all time.
ProVeg Nederland, known as Viva Las Vega's (VLV) from 2011 to 2017, is a Dutch foundation that aims to accelerate the transition towards a plant-based food system. The foundation's stated goal is to make it easier for consumers to eat plant-based more often and also to help companies address the growing demand in plant-based products. ProVeg Nederland is a member of the international ProVeg International.
ProVeg International is a non-governmental organisation that works in the field of food system change and has ten offices globally. The organisation's stated mission is to reduce the consumption of animal products by 50% by 2040, to be replaced by plant-based or cultured alternatives. Instead of increasing the share of vegetarians and vegans, ProVeg's focus is on reducing animal product consumption in the general population.
Lord of the Fries is an Australian and New Zealand casual dining fast food chain, originally based in Melbourne, before expanding into other regions. It serves only vegan dishes including loaded fries, veggie burgers, hot dogs and a number of various sides and breakfast items. Lord of the Fries first started as a vegetarian "mobile chip van" in August 2004 which was driven across the country until late 2005 when the first store location was opened in Melbourne's city centre. Due to the menu consisting entirely of plant-based products, all meals from the chain are Kosher and Halal. The restaurants became 100% vegan in 2018. The founders are vegan as are most of the franchisees.
Corn schnitzel is an Israeli fried corn dish and variant of Israeli schnitzel that is especially popular among vegetarians, vegans, and children.