M&S axes popular summer staple from all UK supermarket stores
M&S discontinued one of its beloved summer products, leaving shoppers heartbroken. The upmarket supermarket chain confirmed recently on X - formerly Twitter - that it had axed its Plant Kitchen ice cream.
The news came to light after a number of shoppers reached out to the chain asking where the products had gone. Likely due to the recent heatwave and warm weather over the last few weeks.
One X user asked: "Have you stopped doing the plant kitchen ice cream?" A second also wanted to know asking M&S: "Have you discontinued the Plant Kitchen vanilla ice cream?"
M&S responded to the X user asking if there was any flavour in particular they wanted to know about, as they would check with the supermarket's food team. The X user noted that the vanilla product was their favourite; however, he had not seen both of the Plant Kitchen flavours for a while.
M&S first released vegan ice cream flavours back in 2020 under its Plant Kitchen range. The first two flavours were Raspberry Ripple and Chocolate. Both products were made with coconut cream with the former flavour consisting of vanilla and Scottish raspberries, and the latter with chocolate.
In 2022, M&S launched three new flavours with Madagascan Vanilla, Mango & Passionfruit, and Vegan Salted Caramel & Biscuit. All the ice-cream flavours were available in M&S stores and retailed at £3 for a 500ml tub
However, M&S has confirmed that it has now discontinued its Plant Kitchen Ice Cream range. In the post to X, M&S said: "Hi there - I'm sorry for the delay! As suspected, the Plant Kitchen ice creams have been discontinued."
The retailer did not share why it's own-brand range had been scrapped from stores, noting that it now stocked Booja Booja Vanilla ice cream, and Caramel Pecan Praline ice cream. They added: "I hope this helps!"
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Veganism and plant-based diets became incredibly popular towards the end of the 2010s and continued into the early 2020s. The launch of the "Veganuary" campaign, which started in 2014 and saw participants commit to being vegan for the entire month of January, spearheaded the awareness of the diet.
Research by comparison site Finder suggested there were an estimated 2.5million vegans in the UK in 2024. This equates to 4.7% of the population, and the number has increased by roughly 1.1 million since 2023. Due to the rise, many businesses and food manufacturers started to create vegan and plant-based ranges.
However, the momentum for the movement has since slowed down, and companies have been slowly reducing the number of vegan products in their ranges. Many are citing the cost of manufacturing and the drop in demand as the reasons for the moves. Most recently, Nestle announced that it was discontinuing its Vegan KitKat product from the UK - with the treat set to be gone by the summer.
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