British food retailer Greggs has unveiled two couture-inspired dresses made entirely out of fresh salad ingredients to celebrate the launch of its summer salad range.
The new menu comes in response to growing consumer demand for healthy food options. In research commissioned by Greggs, 61 per cent of respondents said they are more health conscious than five years ago.
The company’s lower calorie menu options now account for more than 10 per cent of its total sales, which were up 7.5 per cent in the first 19 weeks on 2017.
The survey of 2,000 British adults also found over two thirds of respondents (68 per cent) now rigorously read nutritional information before purchasing on-the-go items, and over half (54%) reporting that they regularly try to make healthy food choices – reflecting the continuing trend for focussing on healthy eating in the UK.
The study also revealed Britain to be a nation of seasonal eaters, with 47 per cent feeling that salad and fresh vegetables taste better during the summer, and 1 in 10 of eating a salad based lunch or dinner at least 10 times throughout the sunny season.
The dresses, designed by celebrity costume creator Kate Tabor, took a team of four designers around 200 hours to create, with the couture-inspired creations being built from a list of ingredients including lettuce, tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, jalapeños, onions, chillies and limes.
The freshly prepared salad dresses were created from a total of 5,000 salad leaves, 100 limes, 80 bell peppers, 150 chillies and 50 bulbs of garlic.
Designer Tabor, who has created costumes for Katy Perry’s music videos and stars including the Chemical Brothers and Birdy, began the design process by sketching an array of different styles, before an experimentation stage, testing out different ingredients to identify those which allowed the most visually stunning designs, while being able to create a design that could actually be worn by the models.
A spokesperson for Greggs said: “More and more people are looking for a healthier option for their on-the-go food. We wanted to celebrate our new salads with something fun and a little different that everyone could enjoy – and we can all appreciate a bit of ‘salad dressing’!”
Tabor added: “I’ve created costumes for Katy Perry and the Chemical Brothers to Birdy and Katy B, but I’ve never designed anything quite like this.
“Each dress is made up of over 20 individual ingredients from the Greggs salad range, with hundreds more of each making up the designs. This has definitely been my biggest challenge yet.”
The tailor-made designs were on display on streets of London on Monday surprising passers-by in the capital’s fashion hot-spots including Carnaby Street and Regent Street.
All of the options in the new range are under 400 calories and meet green and amber on the Food Standards Agency traffic light system for fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar.
To further encourage informed food choices, this year Greggs has been the first UK food-on-the-go brand to introduce traffic light labelling on its website and app.
