Vegan technology? There’s more than meats the eye.

How patents are proof that veganism is not just a flash in the pan.

Andrew Samm
4 min readJun 20, 2019

15th June 2019

The influence of veganism can be found in some pretty surprising places

“How can you tell if someone is vegan?” the old joke asks. “Don’t worry, they’ll tell you!” comes the punchline. No longer reserved for the stereotypes of counterculture such as dreadlocked, barefooted hippies, the popularity of living meat and dairy free is on the rise. In 2018, over 600,000 people in the UK identified as living on a plant-based diet, and the number keeps growing (pun intended).

What is fuelling the increase in popularity of veganism and the adoption of initiatives like this week’s ‘World Meat Free Week’?

It could be the knowledge that globally, cows are said to produce 38% more greenhouse gas each year than every car, truck, bus, boat, train & plane on the planet combined; or that breeding animals for food uses up a third of the world’s fresh water, takes up 45% of the earth’s surface and is responsible for over 91% of Amazon deforestation.

Or statistics like those released by British Medical Journal earlier this month, that appear to show cutting one serving of red meat per week can reduce the risk of death in the next eight years by 17%.

Whatever reason, environmental, ethical, financial or health, there’s no escaping the fact that veganism is now mainstream and has triggered a reaction in big business. Fast food giants like Burger King, Greggs, KFC and Domino’s Pizza are all on the bandwagon.

Burger King’s new ‘Impossible Whopper’ — in taste tests, apparently nobody could tell the difference

As companies invest more and more into research in these areas, the patenting activity is slowly increasing. A big sign that vegan innovation is here to stay is a new patent classification category dedicated to indexing patents relating to: ‘food ingredients or supplements targeted to meet non-medical requirements, e.g. environmental or religious, specifically all vegan ingredients, i.e. all animal product free’. (It already contains over 20 granted patents.)

Together with an existing classification category containing patents relating to: ‘the genetic engineering of skeletal muscle cells e.g. myocytes, myotubes, myoblasts’ (a.k.a. the growth of artificial meat) it is here we find the vast majority of vegan food-related developments, with US universities taking a lead role, and major food & beverage, and pharmaceutical companies like Kraft Foods, Unilever and Alpro also among the most active contributors.

But it’s not just these obvious food-related developments where vegan ideas can be seen. Analysing patent filings further we can see the influence spreading like sprawling pea tendrils across a wide variety of industries (before they are combined with pistachios to make an amazing vegan pesto).

In computing and telecommunications, for example, Microsoft has recently been granted a patent for a head-mounted display device to assist users whilst grocery shopping. Essentially a pair of ‘smart glasses’ that provide an augmented reality heads-up display, presenting nutritional facts about the products in view. The primary use case is to help vegans, vegetarians and food-allergy sufferers make better selections.

Selection of figures from US9053483

Meanwhile, in cosmetics, applications such as ‘Topical deodorant with 100% vegan ingredients’ and recently granted patents such as ‘Skin moisturizer’ which describes “all the ingredients are vegan or plant-based and gluten-free” are becoming more common.

With many other vegan-related improvements finding their way into patents for soap, animal feed, crop fertiliser, medication, paper manufacturing and textile treatments, the seed has clearly been sown amongst inventors regardless of sector and ‘Vegan tech’ is definitely more than just a millennial fad.

That's all for now, it’s time for lunch… to beef or not to beef? that is the question.

How do you feel about the shift to become more conscious of vegan concerns across the technological spectrum? Follow us on social media and tell us what you think.

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We have a lot more to say about vegan tech and patents. For information on this and any other patent information study, please visit www.patently.com or email us at ask@patently.com.

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Andrew Samm
Andrew Samm

Written by Andrew Samm

Certified QPIP, Patent data expert & tech enthusiast After work I'm a Spurs fan, Tigers fan, AFOL, Yognaught, GandDiva, Potterhead, and a lover of ATLA & LOTR

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