Kraft Has Good News For Vegan Mac And Cheese Fans In Australia

Move over, Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat! Not that we don't adore you, with our love growing more and more every day, especially as you venture into new territories such as chicken nuggets. But that leaves us speculating on pretty much a daily basis about what food brands will think up next to offer to vegans and other veggie-focused eaters as demand grows for these products.

It turns out the latest innovative plant-based offering is good ol' macaroni and cheese. And not just any macaroni and cheese, mind you. We're talking the OG blue box, the one you adored as a kid and probably still eat now as a grown-up: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

Yes that's right, Kraft now offers a totally vegan version of their famous food. While this offering is limited, for the moment, to the Australia market, it's still very good news — and hopefully the popularity will encourage the company to expand its availability.

The global market for vegan food offerings continues to grows by leaps and bounds — in fact, it's an audience anticipated to increase by 11.4% by 2027 (via a press release). And as such, food companies continue to invest heaps of money into coming up with new and exciting vegan alternatives to foods people already know and love at the rate of millions of dollars in research and development every year, says this press announcement. Among them is Kraft Heinz Company who has just launched its first-ever vegan version of its signature blue box macaroni and cheese. 

According to Veg News, the new food is made with dairy-free sauce and rice flour noodles, so it's not only vegan-certified but also gluten-free, appealing to a wide range of eaters. Even the instructions on the box suggest the use of plant-based milks like soy or almond milk rather than cow's milk (as if a vegan would ever!).

There is one catch, however. While this is inspiring news for vegan mac and cheese fans the world over, for the moment, it's only "aces" (that's Australian for "great" or "excellent") for those who live down under. And more specifically, the new plant-based version of the blue-boxed fave has been spotted solely in Woolworth's grocery stores in Australia (via Veg News). 

We can only hope to find it Stateside soon — and there is hope we will now that Kraft has been investing in the plant-based mission Stateside too. According to Veg News, in 2019, the company selected five vegan startups to get behind during a Springboard Brands program held in Chicago and they also helped contribute to the $35 million raised in funding by a company in Silicon Valley called New Culture that is looking into how to create dairy-free mozzarella that tastes just like the real thing.