Nestle is expanding its menu of vegan products by launching plant-based substitutes for egg and shrimp.

The substitutes closely mirror the taste, nutrition and performance of the originals, the food group said.

Branded Garden Gourmet vEGGie in Europe, the vegan-friendly egg contains soy protein and omega-3 fatty acids and can be scrambled, used in a frittata and as a cake ingredient.

The alternative shrimp, called Vrimp, comes after the launch of the company’s tuna substitute last year.

Chief technology officer Stefan Palzer said: “We want to be as close as possible to the animal-based version because then it’s much easier for people to switch to this type of products.”

He explained that Nestle had developed the new products in less than a year using its plant science expertise to engineer pea protein that didn’t taste like the legume.

“So we need to be very good in taste and texture and flavour. You need to have very good nutritional credentials and then you need to have also sustainable packaging solutions to have an attractive offer,” he said.

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The two products will initially have a limited launch in some European markets, including Switzerland.

Nestle, which owns the likes of KitKat, Nescafe and Cheerios, launched its first plant-based burgers in 2019.

However, it said it believed its products would do better than others on the market based on taste, texture and nutrition.

Chief executive Mark Schneider said the Swiss company’s vegan products were seeing double-digit sales growth.

Last year, Nestle’s sales from plant-based products were just 200m Swiss francs (£158,729,219), a tiny fraction of its total sales of 84bn francs.

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