Responding to the growing trend among consumers to eat less meat or go meat-free entirely, freeze-dried food company Back Country Cuisine has added a new vegan mushroom bolognaise to its line-up of meals.

The meal is one of five new dinners, puddings and drinks released by the company and is the result of 12 months of product testing.

“Developing puddings, vegetarian and vegan meals is the hardest,” said BCC’s marketing manager Tony Caudwell. “Puddings take a lot of tinkering to get them just right and the challenge with vegetarian and vegan meals is getting them to be tasty, have enough energy and be filling enough within the existing ingredients we use.”

In comparison to another newly-released meal, the chicken carbonara, the mushroom bolognaise does pack less energy per serving. Where the chicken meal comes with a serving of pasta and offers 1680kj per serving, the vegan bolognaise is served with noodles and packs 1210kJ into each serving.

Also released by BCC are two gluten-free treats: chocolate brownie pudding and iced mocha.