Greggs Roll Trilogy: Sausage vs Vegan vs Chicken Roll

The Vegan Roll actually edges it as the lightest of the three at 302 kcal, with the new Chicken Roll close behind at 305 kcal — both come in a good 43-46 kcal under the classic Sausage Roll’s 348 kcal. For context, the NHS’s guidance on daily calorie intake puts the average reference intake at around 2,000 kcal for women and 2,500 kcal for men — so even the Sausage Roll only accounts for roughly a sixth to a seventh of a full day’s calories on its own.

Fancy going even lighter? Our Greggs Items Under 300 Calories guide and Items Under 400 Calories roundup both cover exactly where each of these three rolls lands alongside the rest of the menu, and our full menu calorie guide has every other item too.

City/London and airport figures for the Vegan and Chicken Roll are estimated using Greggs’ typical tiered mark-up, since not every location has published exact pricing yet. Always check in-app or in-store for your local price.

Here’s a genuinely interesting one: the brand-new Chicken Roll actually launched cheaper than the Vegan Roll — 5p less at standard stores. Given how much extra press the Chicken Roll got on launch, that surprised a fair few people, us included. If you want the full picture on why prices jump so much at city and travel locations, we’ve broken it down properly in Greggs London Prices vs Rest of the UK and Why Is Greggs More Expensive at Airports?

Sausage Roll: seasoned pork sausagemeat wrapped in Greggs’ classic puff pastry. Contains wheat (gluten), and Greggs flags a cross-contamination risk with soya and milk from the shared bakery environment — worth knowing if you’re avoiding dairy strictly rather than just by preference.

Vegan Roll: a bespoke Quorn™ mycoprotein filling, built to mimic the texture of the original as closely as possible. It’s free from meat, dairy and egg by recipe, though it’s baked in the same shared ovens as everything else, so cross-contamination can’t be fully ruled out if you have a severe allergy rather than a dietary preference. Contains wheat and barley (gluten).

Chicken Roll: seasoned chicken in a lightly glazed puff pastry — that glaze is actually the main visual giveaway between this and the Sausage Roll if you’re grabbing one in a hurry. As the newest of the three, its full independent allergen and macro breakdown is still catching up across the web, so always check the in-store allergen guide or the Greggs app directly before ordering if you have a specific allergy.

Fancy having a go yourself? We’ve got copycat recipes for two of the three: how to make the Sausage Roll at home and how to make the Vegan Roll at home. We’ll be building a Chicken Roll version once we’ve had a proper go at cracking that glaze.

My honest take: the Sausage Roll remains the benchmark, the Vegan Roll is genuinely worth it even if you’re not vegan (that calorie saving adds up), and the Chicken Roll is a solid, slightly lighter alternative that’s worth trying at least once — the glaze on the pastry alone makes it worth the 5p premium over the classic.