VEGETARIAN scotch eggs are flying off a Thursday market stall at Hay-on-Wye.

Dave Prescott, from Clifford, has a background in sustainable development and wanted to develop something that was a tangible product and so The Future Snack Company was born.

He said: "We've sold out to date. We're all drifting towards a more plant-based diet.

"My thinking is that that can be a really exciting place that doesn't have to be all lentils."

Dave's gluten-free eggs are air-fried using a process that uses one per cent of the oil used in deep fat frying and yet tastes the same. "I don't think there's anything else like it in the whole world," Dave said.

"I love food. My background in research, analysis, writing and project management all informs what I'm doing."

He tested the prototype meatless scotch eggs on his Monday-night practice band members.

Dave said: "Although they're all too polite to say they didn't like them, I could tell by their faces that they were digging the egg.

"It's hard work preparing the handmade product from scratch and I do have to find some processing efficiencies."

He begins by making the jack fruit BBQ mixture the day before.

"Jack fruit is the largest tree-borne fruit which behaves like pulled pork when it breaks down and is an extraordinary flavour vector," Dave said. "It looks remarkably like sausage-meat, several people have assumed it is meat.

"People still like indulgent looking food and how much better if it's good for them and doesn't involve killing a pig?"

The Future Snack Company will be selling Dave's eggs at Presteigne's Spring Greens festival in May and every week at Hay's Thursday market.