Greggs customers unable to buy new vegan sausage rolls because bakery had ‘wrong tongs’

‘I was so excited about eating one of your vegan sausage rolls today, but my hopes were dashed’

An apparent shortage of tongs has prevented customers from trying Greggs' new vegan sausage rolls.

Customers took to social media after they were thwarted from trying the pastry because staff did not have enough tongs that had not been used for meat products.

Their complaints came just days after the pastry was across the firm's 900 stores, prompting a lively online debate.

“So was excited to finally eat at #Greggs today with the launch of the vegan sausage roll only to be disappointed that there were none due to shop not receiving correct tongs!” one person tweeted.

“Heartbroken,” another person remarked. “My local Greggs (who were very polite and apologetic, by the way) were unable to do vegan sausage rolls as they haven’t got the correct tongs.”

A Greggs spokesperson said the tongs that employees are supposed to use to handle the vegan sausage rolls are a different colour to the ones used for meaty products.

"Our shop teams have been advised to follow a number of procedures to minimise the risk of cross contamination, which includes using colour-coded, separate tongs," they inform The Independent.

"Unfortunately, a small number of our shops did not receive their tongs in time for vegan sausage roll launch day, but we are working hard to get the tongs to them as soon as possible."

The new vegan sausage roll has been created using pastry made from vegetable oil and a “bespoke Quorn filling”.

The vegan sausage rolls have proven extremely popular with customers, with many people sharing on social media that they’ve come across stores that have quickly sold out of the pastry.

The company has assured its Twitter followers that every branch of the bakery that stocks the pastry will receive a minimum delivery of 90 vegan sausage rolls a day.

The sausage roll is one of a number of vegan products recently launched by high street brands.

McDonald's now sells a vegan-friendly Happy Meal, the contents of which were chosen by a selection of children and their mothers.

Described as vegetarian, it contains dairy-free and vegan ingredients.

The tortilla wraps included in the range pass through the same toaster as the one used for McDonald's buns, which contain milk, meaning it cannot be labelled vegan