US multinational chocolate manufacturer Hershey’s has launched vegan chocolate for the first time ever. It is made with oat milk and comes in two flavours — Classic Dark and Extra Creamy Almond & Sea Salt.
Initially, the bars have been launched as part of a limited-edition test release which will continue until June 2022. They are available at various retailers, including Target. Soul Miner’s Garden, a vegan food truck in Charlotte, North Carolina, is also offering them.
The chocolate bars are part of Hershey’s Better For You range, which the company is working to expand. They are non-GMO and made with Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa.
The global vegan chocolate market
The market for vegan chocolate is rapidly expanding worldwide, with its value expected to reach USD 1.41 billion by 2028. Growth is largely being driven by increased environmental awareness and concerns about animal welfare. In the UK, demand for vegan confectionery has soared so much that one confectioner had to add 300 products to its range.
“We started our work on the Hershey’s Oat Made products by evaluating the current plant-based offerings on the candy market,” Dan Mohnshine, Team Lead of Strategic Growth Platforms (SGP) at Hershey’s, told Totally Vegan Buzz. “After finding that the ingredient formulas of existing products could be improved upon, our masterful R&D team at Hershey developed formulas using oats that we believe deliver better on consumers’ expectations than what is in the marketplace today.”
