Huh: HEMA, do you or don’t you want to make a vegan bun?

Confusion and hilarity all around: has HEMA really completely missed the mark here? It doesn’t often happen that we catch this old-Dutch icon making a blunder – usually you read glowing stories here about, for example, wine at HEMA, tompouce beer or hotdog dog outfits, but this did make us do a double take: a completely non-vegan HEMA sausage that is nevertheless served in a ‘vegan bun’: the HEMA chicken hot dog kit. Ehhmm…

After seeing a surprised post on Twitter by @bonusvegan, we headed to the nearest HEMA store to see it with our own eyes. Because is a chicken sausage (with just 1 Better Life quality mark star) really being advertised on the packaging in a (genuinely) vegan mini bun with (also genuinely) vegan mustard sauce?

The vegan non-vegan HEMA chicken hot dog kit

Yep, it’s really true. HEMA: that’s weirrrd. Make a choice, like, well, you know, people do. Plant-based or not, but don’t put both in one factory-made bun and pretend you’re serving both camps brilliantly. Even if you’re a flexitarian, when eating a meatball sandwich you generally don’t think, ‘but at least the bun is vegan.’

A good plant-based range too

The fact that there’s a vegetarian smoked sausage is great in itself, considering the future of the planet (although people generally don’t find veggie smoked sausages tasty yet), and we understand that finding the right tone can sometimes be a challenge for the marketing department. But we don’t think this will win anyone over. Especially since you’re doing such a great job by also offering a completely plant-based version of these sausage rolls for anyone who wants one!

Water under the bridge and on to the next hit? Hint: we’re all ready for new spiced cookie specials!

Also read:

• You can now buy smoked sausage beer at HEMA
• Will the plant-based Whopper become the new standard?
• Tested: the one and only Chocomel Plant-based