Family-run North Yorkshire food brand that's in 3,000 stores to appear on Channel 4 TV show

The UK's biggest independent sausage brand, HECK! will feature in a special vegan edition of Channel 4's Food Unwrapped tonight, Monday, July 10 with the focus on its meat-free sausages.

Tonight's programme will see the show's presenter, ex-Strictly Coming Dancing contestant John Whaite, follow the Bedale-based firm’s vegan sausages down the line and find out how you get the best bite for a vegan sausage – by using ground-breaking seaweed science.

On hand with his expertise will be the company’s very own sausage scientist, Calum Smith.

An incredible 90,000 meat free sausages are made at HECK! every day and the company use a seaweed-based casing, which can be changed by a micro millimetre to get the right bite.

“We work hard to get every aspect of the sausage perfect in every way," said Calum.

Our “bite” test is effectively a really scientific way to check the snap the sausage delivers.”

HECK! brands are sold throughout the UK in Tesco, ASDA, Morrisons, Booths, Waitrose and more.

As well as the meat-free and vegan aspects, HECK! has a dedicated team in-house working on its net zero journey.

In 2022 the company met some significant milestones, including saving 175 tonnes of CO2 by reducing plastic intensity, donating 65,000 portions of food to food banks and creating on-pack C02 information.

This year, the business will finalise its Scope 3 emissions and set out a carbon reduction roadmap.

It also aims to reduce energy consumption by 10% by installing an energy monitoring system.

HECK! co-founder Jamie Keeble said: “Our meat free sausages are really popular, and we’ve seen a lot of growth in this area as a company,

where consumers want a tasty meat replacement.

"They’re available now in 3,000 stores nationwide and we’ve just doubled our distribution in Tesco, so there’s obviously a real appetite for them.”

Supermarket Unwrapped: The Vegan Aisle, is broadcast on Monday, July 10, 8pm on Channel 4.