When it comes to eating pizza while living as a vegan, there are very few choices. You can either make your own pizza or order the pizza from a restaurant like Papa John's and tell them "no cheese." The idea of pizza without cheese is pretty depressing, as it is the cheese that makes it so addicting to so many people. So what is a vegan to do without their precious cheese?
They either eat pizza without the cheese, making sure to add a fair amount of toppings to it, or they add their own "cheese.".
Pizza Hut adds their own
In five locations around the United Kingdom, Pizza Hut has partnered with vegan cheese brand Violife to supply Vegan Cheese to adorn their pizza with. This will be starting on October 5th and run until November 26th at their Canterbury, Chatham, Thanet, Bluewater, and Crawley locations, and sadly, it is not available for delivery. These cheese options are only available in certain UK locations and have not been made available to the US yet.
Violife was also prominently featured in over 400 Pizza Pizza locations in Canada last March and seems to be an ever growing cheese alternative company.
Many vegans have paraded the cheese brand as one of the best out there and is widely available in certain Canadian and US supermarkets, such as Sainsbury's, and Whole Foods.
Other pizza places compared
Pizza Hut is starting to take the lead when it comes to plant-based friendly pizza places, but it is not too far ahead. Papa John's can be ordered without cheese to eliminate animal products, but in the UK Dominoes doesn't even have a vegan base. In most companies, pizza's can be made without animal products simply by removing the cheese and other animal product toppings, but in many cases, vegans take a risk with wondering if a pizza crust has eggs or dairy in it.
Pizza Hut has also been heralded by animal rights activist organization PETA for its numerous plant-based options.
When ordering from Pizza Hut, you have a ton of choices, including cinnamon sticks, pretzel crusts, and a wide variety of veggie toppings. To many vegans, this company is a godsend.
With veganism and plant-based diets on the rise in the US, it is good to know that companies like Pizza Hut are stepping up to fill that gap. It's an otherwise untapped market due to the fact that it is so niche. Less than one percent of people in the US are vegan, in comparison, twice as many people in the UK identify as vegan. The more people start to want to live a cruelty-free lifestyle, the more companies like Pizza Hut will take notice.