Z Energy's famous Mexican vegan pie will become a permanent fixture in Z stores, due to public demand and a petition.

The pie, the winner of the ‘DIY pie' competition in July 2015, was on sale for a month starting December 28.

Mexican vegan pies are returning to Z Service Stations.

'It basically sold out across the country within the first week of it being stocked and we've struggled to keep up with demand over the rest of the month,” says Z's pie aficionado, Mark Forsyth.

'We never expected to be in this position and we're now gearing up to get the pie into permanent production. This will take a few weeks and we expect Gemma's pie will be back in stores on a permanent basis in early March.”

The Mexican vegan pie is the recipe of ‘Gemma from Auckland'. And was among nearly 4000 pie recipes submitted in the DIY pie competition.

Z learned a lot about the challenges of producing vegan food throughout the process, says Mark.

'In particular we're grateful for the support and understanding of the vegan community, including Gemma, once we learned a pastry conditioner in the pies contained minute traces of an animal-derived product.

'As a result of learning about this we not only removed it from the pie, but from all of Z's pies and we've taken the opportunity to review every ingredient that goes into our pies to ensure they are what people expect,” says Mark.

'Z's committed to stocking a broader range of options in our stores and this pie and the process we went through while we were making it have taught us a lot and helped us take some important small steps towards that goal.”