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Pretzels and hot dogs are two of the world’s most popular handheld foods. And long has the lovechild of the two (the pretzel dog) been a staple at pretzel shops and food stands.

Now, thanks to Kim & Scott’s Gourmet Pretzels, vegan pretzel dogs exist, and they’re available at certain Whole Foods and other retailers across the country.

This pretzel purveyors make the mini-dogs with soft sourdough pretzels and mini Field Roast Grain Meat vegan franks. The end result: a handheld vegan snack food that rivals any option in the mall food court.

They’re ready in seconds via microwave, and are non-GMO, free from soy, dairy, high fructose corn syrup and trans fat.

So how did this unique product come to fruition?

“We were talking about the idea of creating a pretzel dog and working with someone that was vegan,” says Andrew Kramer of J&J Snack Foods, Kim & Scott’s parent company.

“My boss at the time at J&J was at the airport, and she was sitting next to someone who was talking about the business and overhead Field Roast and vegan dogs. After the guy got off the phone she introduced herself and that was the president of Field Roast. They got into a conversation and one thing led to another and we worked together with them to deliver the product.”

In other words, it was meant to be.

While several of Kim & Scott’s other products are “accidentally vegan,” they saw the vegan pretzel dogs as a new opportunity to get into the vegan market.

“We wanted to offer it with a protein of some sort,” Kramer explains. “The parent company of J&J is SuperPretzel and they have a beef hot dog and pretzel, and we thought since Kim and Scott’s is focused on a national channel, we thought we should go more on the vegan side rather than an actual meat protein.”

The product has been out for a little bit over a year now, and is available in certain Whole Foods, some independent grocers, Jewel Food Stores,  various shops in the northeast and on VeganEssentials.com.

“It’s nice steady growth, it’s not like we have instant national distribution but it’s a good product out there. Obviously we know that people that are vegan are looking for as many opportunities and products as possible so we just thought that we would give them a good snack alternative, good for kids and adults.”

The vegan pretzel dogs joins vegan foods like Heritage Health Food’s Corn Dogs, Tofurky Pockets and Gardein’s Beefless Sliders in veganizing the snack food market and making life easier for herbivores. And if they’re not available at your local retailer, ASK. It’s demand that drives distribution, after all.

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