The ManaBurger, a nutritionally complete vegan burger made by Czech company Heaven Labs, has been voted the Czech Republic’s favourite plant-based product. It knocks last year’s winner, vegan mince made by Next Level Hack, off the top spot.
The burger was one of ten products nominated for the Plant Product of the Year poll. Voting took place between February 17th and March 17th 2021.
The poll was hosted by Rostlinne.cz, a Czech initiative that helps producers, supermarkets, and restaurants bring new plant foods to market. According to the site’s manager, Marianna Slováková, interest in plant-based diets is soaring in the country.
“Almost a third of Czechs want to eat less animal products and more plant products,” she said. “This is due to the fact that more and more of the population is becoming flexitarian, or trying to reduce consumption of animal products for ethical, ecological, health, or other reasons.”
When the ManaBurger launched in 2019, the company claimed it was the world’s first nutritionally complete vegan burger. It is made with peas, rice, hemp, mung beans, and algae, and is a good source of nutrients such as fibre and omega-3 fatty acids.
In an interview with vegconomist last year, the company described the burger as “a European response to the Beyond Burger”.
“Winning Plant Product of the Year in the Rostlinně poll is a great motivation and incentive to continue contributing to positive change in food production practices, combating poor nutrition, and answering questions about the food security of our future that have gone unanswered for too long,” said Jakub Krejcik, founder and CEO of Heaven Labs. “The ManaBurger is popular not only among customers of our e-shop, but also among those of Czech online supermarkets. And by this summer, we plan to make it available in all retail supermarkets — in addition to Globus, where you can already buy it, as well as through all burger delivery services.”
