Pizza Express recently launched a competition to find a new pizza to go on their national menu.

The 53,000 entries have now been whittled down to five, one of which is vegan! I've already voted for it - please go on the website and vote for it too, and encourage your veggie/vegan friends to do the same. To my knowledge, there isn't currently a vegan pizza on their menu.

http://www.pizzaexpress.com/create-your-pizza/vote

Thanks

Emma

Oh all right, but I don't like courgettes.

Well, you can't please all the people all the time!!!! I'm sure if it wins and you ever order it, they'll happily take the courgette off for you!!

Doh, it's dropped to second place (after being first for ages) :-( I've asked Ben (founder of Volentia) to rally his 13,800+ members to help out (he kindly emailed everyone), and Eric to do the same on here, and sent a message to The Vegan Society. It would be a great coup as Pizza Express did toy with a vegan pizza once.

I contacted The Vegan Society (again) about the pizza, and received the following reply -
"Dear Richard,
This is Amanda Baker at The Vegan Society.
Many thanks for getting in touch about the Pizza Express competition.
We're always happy to hear from supporters. We have in fact been making our supporters aware of the vegan finalist in this competition for some time, but it's great that you took the time to check we know.
Pizza Express have been invited to register for The Vegan Trademark, as they can produce vegan-suitable pizzas.
It would be great if you could contact Pizza Express directly and encourage them to apply for the Vegan Trademark, as they have not yet chosen to take up our invitation.
Best wishes, and many thanks for your support of veganism.
Amanda"

Here's my reply -
"Hi Amanda
Thanks for the quick reply. It's a shame that your website isn't encouraging voting on the front page, even your Pizza Express page is quiet on the subject. It doesn't even mention their original vegan pizza.
May I ask how you've been making your supporters aware of the vote? A Google search of your website shows no mention of the competition, only your email campaign. Maybe it's time for a reminder before that 12th November deadline?!
As I see it, there's no point in asking Pizza Express to adopt the Vegan Trademark until they offer a vegan option (which isn't currently the case, despite what your website says) - this competition is a real (and possibly the only) chance to make that happen. If the vegan pizza gets on the menu in January, and proves popular, they'll be more likely to add a vegan option on their regular menu.
Thanks again for any help you can offer.
Take care
Richard"

Please, can any members of The Vegan Society comment on what they've been told by the Society regarding the competition?

The vegan pizza came second... :-(

Yes, so I saw. Still, second is better than nowhere and to be honest, I'm still surprised it made it to the final five in the first place.

Hopefully Pizza Express may have taken the hint just from the fact that it came second. I'm certainly going to email Pizza Express direct to request that, despite it coming second, they add a vegan option to their menu and once sorted, take up the offer of having the Vegan Society accreditation. I'm sure a lot of companies don't really see how things like that can help them but in certain towns, a VegSoc (veggie or vegan) logo can make a real difference.

Let's see if we can't find some more recipe competitions and blitz them with veggie/vegan ideas!