Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers NotCo’s Dubai chocolate, BrewDog’s collaboration with Impossible Foods, and new products at Expo West.
New products and launches
Chilean AI-led food tech player NotCo has released Dubai Style NotSquare, a vegan version of the viral pistachio-kunafa-filled chocolate bar.
Scottish pub chain BrewDog has partnered with Impossible Foods to introduce a vegan chicken menu across 48 UK locations, which includes cheeseburgers and tacos made from the latter’s Chicken FIllets, as well as nuggets. The limited-edition menu is running until the end of March.
UK oat milk chocolate maker Happi has rolled out Salted Honeycomb and Cherry & Almond Easter eggs, which contain 35% less sugar than mass-market brands and are available at Waitrose and other retailers for £11.99 per 155g egg.
British sports nutrition brand Myprotein has launched a caramel-pecan flavour of its double-dough brownie in collaboration with Hotel Chocolat. It’s available on its website for £25.99 for a box of 12.
Yorkshire-based Continental Wine & Food has launched Lacey’s Vodkashake, a line of dairy-free cream liqueurs available in strawberry and banana flavours. Inspired by 1950s-style American diner milkshakes, the 15% ABV product is stocked at 500 B&M stores, retailing for £12 per 70cl bottle.
Elsewhere, Indian plant-based meat brand GoodDot has obtained a listing at Australian health food store Wholefood Merchants.
Also in Australia, Coyo has unveiled a dairy-free yoghurt line made with 74% oat milk and 17% coconut cream. They come in natural, vanilla bean, mango and strawberry flavours, and will be stocked at Woolworths and independent retailers nationwide starting March.
Amid the US egg shortage, UK startup Crackd – which makes the pourable vegan No-Egg Egg – is gearing up for a launch stateside, and will have a booth at Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California (March 5-7).
Also at Expo West, alt-dairy leader Elmhurst 1925 will debut three new products: unsweetened vanilla cashew milk, barista cashew milk, and unsweetened coconut-cashew barista milk.
And Belgian retailer Colruyt Group has launched Boni Plan’t, a plant-based brand under its Boni Selection private label. The move unites over 100 existing meat-free products under the new label, with several new items to be added in the coming months.
Company and finance updates
Swedish dairy giant Valio has acquired Raisio‘s plant protein business, which includes the Härkis and Beanit fava bean brands, for €7M. The deal will see 16 employees transferred to Valio.
After two years of tumult, Swedish oat milk giant Oatly reported a 5% hike in revenue for both Q4 and the full year of 2024, and expects 2025 to be its “first full year of profitable growth as a public company”.
In northern Spain, Hijos de Rivera, Inproteins and the Xunta de Galicia have invested €7.5M in a new plant protein manufacturing facility. The project will receive a total of €18M in funding, supported by the Galician Institute for Economic Promotion and Banco Sabadell.
In the UK, AI-driven meal-planning platform Remy has acquired Kitche, an app that helps prevent food waste at the household level.
Dutch cultivated pork producer Meatable hosted a cross-industry event with 80 stakeholders to discuss sustainable proteins and the future of food.
Speaking of cellular agriculture, Singapore’s Umami Bioworks has introduced a cultivated seafood platform to address protein diversity in the pet food industry. It comes as the firm works with another startup to commercialise cat treats made with cultivated fish, and just after the first cultivated pet food launched in the UK earlier this month.
Policy developments
Californian alternative protein pioneer Eat Just and its cultivated meat subsidiary, Good Meat, have reached an “agreement in principle” to settle their legal dispute with bioreactor supplier ABEC.
Israeli startup Yeap has announced that its upcycled yeast protein now meets EU regulatory requirements, paving the way for its market entry in the region.
The European Plant-Based Foods Association (formerly the European Natural Soyfood Association, or ENSA) has changed its name to Plant-Based Foods Europe to “better reflect the industry’s dynamic landscape”.
After more than 70 years, Humane Society International and the Humane Society of the United States have changed their name to Humane World for Animals, marking the occasion with a new ad campaign featuring Sia.
In a written submission, the UK government is being urged by The Vegan Society to raise awareness of vegans in the parliament to prevent harassment and bullying, as well as increase plant-based options for policymakers.
Finally, in New Zealand, the Vegan Society of Aotearoa and the New Zealand Vegetarian Society have handed in a petition to ban the misleading labelling of animal-free products, since there’s no legislation to determine what products qualify as vegan or vegetarian in the country.
Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.
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