Greggs is launching a "vegan friendly" version of an old customer favourite - the sausage roll.

The bakery chain, which sells 1.5 million traditional sausage rolls per week, said the UK's 3.5 million vegans will be able to enjoy a "next generation" version of its best-selling item - and they are available from today.

The vegan version has some "classic features" of the traditional sausage roll, according to Greggs, including 96 layers of puff pastry - but instead of meat the filling is made with Quorn.

Greggs said the launch follows "strong consumer demand", including a petition by Peta last year signed by more than 20,000 people.

Roger Whiteside, chief executive at Greggs, said: "Like many food retailers we have seen increasing demand for vegetarian and vegan products.

"We have been trying to develop a vegan version of our famous sausage roll for some time now.

"It has not been easy but our taste panel customers all love this one, so we have decided to launch it as our contribution to Veganuary."

Veganuary encourages people to try vegan food for January and across the year.

Recent research from Waitrose found that a third (33.5 per cent) of people now have meat-free or meat-reduced diets.

Many are dipping in and out of being meat eaters, the research found, with half of those who say they are vegan or vegetarian eating meat "at weekends", "occasionally" or "on special occasions".

Meanwhile, TGI Fridays said a new meat-free vegan burger that "bleeds" due to beetroot juice will launch in UK restaurants from January 7.

As well as beetroot, the flame-grilled burger is made from coconut oil, mushrooms, herbs, plant proteins and spices. It is served in a vegan bun.