It’s the season of Lent and many of us have made our 40-day diet changes, giving up some of the treats we see as ‘necessities’ in our daily diet, such as meat, dairy and pastries. if only for the 40 days.This week we’re sharing the Anu Vibes manufactured vegan balls and golden burgers — healthy alternatives to meat. The story behind the Anu Vibes vegan products developed out of a necessity for alternative vegan food. Anu Vibes Limited’s General Manager Clive Redwood tells Thursday Food, “Being vegans for a long time, when my wife and I started our family, the taste of the then available vegan foods created a challenge, especially for the children. We started developing tasty, convenient and wholesome vegan foods for the family table. That’s how we came up with our original vegan-quality burgers.”

After years of being an engineer in beer and soft drink manufacturing operations, and with his wife having pursued her passion in becoming a baking technologist, the Redwoods decided to produce wholesome vegan food products as a business. “We regard our products as being plant-based whole-foods that do not challenge traditional tastes. In fact, they are downright delicious! Plant-based whole-foods (with nutritional yeast) provide all the nutrients required and significantly reduce the risks of developing several non-communicable chronic diseases,” shares Anu Vibes’ Production Manager Ivy Redwood.

Anu Vibes offers seven frozen products inclusive of three burgers and four vegan balls in three different flavours — original, golden, and hot and spicy. There are, too, non-dairy and sugar-free pastries such as buns, cakes, and brownies, in addition to several flavours of 100 per cent wholewheat patties.

The vegan balls and burgers are created from whole grains and legumes including: 100 per cent wholewheat flour, whole grain corn, oats, millet, whole grain soya mince (with no additives), barley, sunflower/soya oil, red peas (kidney beans)/split peas, sea salt, and natural seasoning (with no additives).

The Anu Vibes Vegan Balls and the Golden Burger may be found at MegaMart outlets; Progressive Grocers group — Shoppers Fair Supermarkets and Progressive Foods outlets; General Foods supermarkets; Lee’s Food Fair supermarkets; Loshusan, Barbican; John R Wong, New Kingston; Brooklyn, Twin Gates; and Family Pride in Sovereign, among other leading supermarkets islandwide.