On World Vegan Day 2022, Australia’s leading plant-based magazine, Nourish, has revealed the winners of its third annual Nourish Vegan Awards.
The consumer-voted awards, now in their third year, celebrate Australia and New Zealand’s most-loved plant-based brands, products, venues and advocates.
Winners and finalists across 29 categories were determined by popular vote following a competitive nominee selection process by Nourish plant-based living’s vegan team and eight external panellists with expertise across the plant-based sector.
Nourish Digital Editor and Nourish Vegan Awards panellist Catherine Laurence congratulated this year’s award-winning businesses and advocates. “We are delighted to reveal the winners and finalists across the award categories today,” she said. “What better way to mark World Vegan Day than a celebration of all the brands, products, and advocates that make our plant-based journeys easy, fun, delicious, nutritious, gorgeous, and abundant?”
With over 200,000 unique votes cast, the results reflect the opinions of real people who appreciate the outstanding diversity and quality of vegan offerings available in Australia and New Zealand in 2022.
Rachael Northey is CEO at Lovatts Media, which acquired Nourish magazine in 2018 and converted it into a plant-based lifestyle title. “An annual awards platform celebrating the outstanding vegan offerings in our region was a natural next step for Nourish”, she says. “Since their launch in 2020, the Nourish Vegan Awards have gone from strength to strength, expanding each year as vegan and plant-forward businesses respond to the growing demand for vegan options across the spectrum from food and fashion to wellness and beauty.”
Celebrating the best in plant-based living in 2022
A number of favourite brands have landed repeat wins in the 2022 awards, including Pana Organic, Cocobella, Vegie Delights, Nature’s Kitchen, and Beyond Meat across various food and drink product categories. Meanwhile, voters have once again heralded Boody, MIMCO, Sukin, LUSH, INIKA Organic, and Amazonia for their vegan fashion, beauty, and wellness offerings. In casual dining, Lord of the Fries have taken the top spot for the third year running, and Smith & Daughters return as second-time winner of the vegan restaurant dining award.
Other award winners include So Good plant-based milks, De Bortoli vegan wines, Zero Co cleaning products, Ethique in Haircare, and TOM Organic feminine care in the new Personal Care category – all winning trophies for the first time after scoring finalist spots across a range of categories in previous years.
The 2022 awards also see several new contenders sweep straight to the winner’s podium. The Vegan Dairy has landed Best Vegan Cheese, Health Lab has taken out Best Sweet Snack, and Loco Love has won the People’s Choice open category (in which voters put forward their free choice of nominees). VEJA’s vegan shoe range has scooped Best Vegan Footwear, while outdoor clothing company Patagonia – which moved its business to a world-first nonprofit trust model August – has won the Vegan Friendly Award.
Numerous other popular vegan products, brands, venues and advocates have landed finalist spots, a number of whom have placed in previous Nourish Vegan Awards – such as the Fry Family Food Co, TWOOBS, Aesop, and Vegan The Label – with others featuring for the first time, including MECCA MAX and Aveda, (brands that went fully vegan in 2018 and 2020 respectively), Fable mushroom meat, No Bones Bar & Kitchen, Byron Bay, and Eden Bondi restaurant, Sydney.
In addition to People’s Choice, the awards feature a second open-nomination category, Vegan Change Maker of the Year. This accolade has been awarded to nutrition expert, author and The Proof podcaster Simon Hill for the second year running, with voters recognising prominent Australian figures Lyn White of Animals Australia and Emma Hurst MP of the Animal Justice Party as finalists.
The awards
VEGAN FOOD & DRINK
Best Vegan Ice Cream – Pana Organic
Best Vegan Yoghurt – Cocobella
Best Vegan Cheese – The Vegan Dairy
Best Plant-Based Milk – So Good
Best Vegan Spread – Nuttelex
Best Vegan Sweet Snack – Health Lab
Best Vegan Savoury Snack – Cobs
Best Vegan Chocolate – Pana Organic
Best Plant-Based Burger – Beyond Meat
Best Alternative Meat – Vegie Delights
Best Vegan Sausage – Vegie Delights
Best Vegan Ready Meal – Nature’s Kitchen
Best Vegan Frozen Meal – Nature’s Kitchen
Best Vegan Wine – De Bortoli Wines
VEGAN DINING
Best in Vegan Casual Dining – Lord of the Fries
Best in Vegan Restaurant Dining – Smith & Daughters
VEGAN FASHION & BEAUTY
Best in Vegan Fashion – Boody
Best in Vegan Accessories – MIMCO
Best in Vegan Footwear – VEJA
Best Vegan Haircare – Ethique
Best Vegan Skincare – Sukin
Best Vegan Body Care – LUSH
Best Vegan Personal Care – TOM Organic
Best Vegan Makeup – INIKA Organic
VEGAN LIVING & WELLNESS
Best in Vegan Living – Zero Co
Best in Vegan Wellness – Amazonia
Vegan-Friendly Award – Patagonia
PEOPLE’S CHOICE
People’s Choice Award – Loco Love
VEGAN CHANGE MAKER
Vegan Change Maker of the Year – Simon Hill
The full lineup of winners, finalists, and nominees in each category is celebrated in The Ultimate Guide to the Best in Plant-Based Living, a special supplement to Nourish magazine issue 73, available in newsagents and supermarkets from 7 November and at LovattsMagazines.com.au/Nourish. Exclusive plant-based offers from selected Nourish Vegan Awards nominees can also be found at NourishMagazine.com.au/NVAoffers, and brand registration for the 2023 awards is open at NourishVeganAwards.com/brand-registration.
Special thanks
On behalf of the Nourish plant-based living team, Laurence thanked the panellists who rose to the challenging task of shortlisting candidates across 27 product and venue categories, as well as the Nourish Vegan Awards supporting partners, voters and nominees.
“Team Nourish is grateful to the stellar lineup of external experts who joined our awards panel in 2022: author and journalist Katrina Fox, Vegan Australia board director Lucy Stegley, Collective Fashion Justice director Emma Håkansson, interiors architect Aline Dürr of Vegan Interior Design, PR and marketing expert Jessica Cotton of Plant Powered Press, Vegan Diaries podcaster Elizabeth Douglas, nutritionist, author and podcast host Simon Hill, and Vegan World Guides founder Renee Buckingham.”
“We’d also like to acknowledge our wonderful Nourish Vegan Awards 2022 supporting partners: Coles, Cruelty Free Super, Eden Health Retreats, Vitamix, Vegan Australia, and Vegan Easy.
“Above all, thank you to everyone who cast their vote, and every nominee working to create positive plant-based change. Together you have truly created the ultimate guide to plant-based living in 2022.”
Select quotes from 2022 Nourish Vegan Awards panellists
Emma Håkansson is a former fashion model turned global vegan advocate and founding director of the not-for-profit Collective Fashion Justice. She returned to the Nourish Vegan Awards panel for a second year in 2022. Emma commended the businesses whose ethical products are showing that we can thrive as a society without animal exploitation, and to the increasingly plant-forward public. “People are buying with their values in mind more and more, and that shows when we see which brands get celebrated in the awards,” she said.
Lucy Stegley of Vegan Australia – also a return panellist – congratulated this year’s winners, finalists, and nominees. “It has been thrilling to witness the exponential growth of the Australian vegan landscape over the past few years,” she said. “I am heartened by the determination of every advocate, entrepreneur, creative and organisation doing their part to expand the diversity and accessibility of a plant-based lifestyle.”
Jessica Cotton, founder of vegan PR agency Plant Powered Press, joined the panel in 2022 for the first time. “Initiatives such as the Nourish Vegan Awards help to create greater interest in the diverse range of vegan products and services that are accessible within Australia today,” she said. “The Awards also serve as an opportunity to celebrate innovation and ingenuity within the plant-based space.”
Interviews
Catherine Laurence, Nourish plant-based living
catherinel@lovattsmedia.com | +61 2 4302 1517
ABOUT NOURISH PLANT-BASED LIVING
As Australia’s leading plant-based magazine, Nourish plant-based living empowers people to make positive changes in their everyday lives. Distributed throughout Australia and New Zealand, each issue of Nourish includes advice for holistic health and wellbeing, ideas for more sustainable living, the lowdown on ethical fashion and cruelty-free beauty, and a huge range of delicious vegan recipes. Nourish advocates for a compassionate lifestyle in a way that uplifts and empowers readers, enabling them to make fulfilling plant-based choices while still enjoying all that life has to offer.
To learn more about Nourish plant-based living please visit NourishMagazine.com.au.