On this day in vegan history · April 17, 1998
Linda McCartney Launches a Frozen Vegetarian Range
The photographer who spent the decade trying to make meat-free food ordinary died the same year her frozen range had already put beefless burgers in British supermarket freezers.
The facts
- Company founded
- 1991, by Linda McCartney
- First products
- Golden nuggets, ploughman's pie, ploughman's pasties, lasagna, Italian-style toppers, beefless burgers
- Manufacturer
- Ross Young's, a frozen food company
- Died
- April 17, 1998, age 56, breast cancer
Linda McCartney, photographer, musician and wife of Paul McCartney, started Linda McCartney Foods in 1991, a line of frozen vegetarian meals built on textured vegetable protein instead of meat. The first products included golden nuggets, ploughman's pie, lasagna and beefless burgers, made by the frozen food company Ross Young's and sold without either the Ross or the Young's name attached. The range spread from British freezers into Europe and America through the early 1990s, at a time when vegetarian food mostly meant a health-food shop, not a supermarket aisle. Linda had been vegetarian with Paul since 1975 and backed animal rights groups including PETA. She died of breast cancer at 56 on April 17, 1998, at the McCartney family ranch in Tanque Verde, near Tucson, Arizona.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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She died from the disease at the age of 56 on April 17, 1998, at the McCartney family ranch in Tanque Verde, near Tucson, Arizona.
Wikipedia biography of Linda McCartney
Source: Wikipedia -
Linda McCartney Foods was founded by Linda McCartney in 1991.
Wikipedia entry on Linda McCartney Foods
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
The range showed a mainstream supermarket could sell meat-free food as an everyday grocery item rather than a specialty product, and the brand kept selling under new owners for decades after her death.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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