Haldiram’s, one of India’s largest food companies, has teamed up with plant protein player GoodDot to put its soy-based meat alternative on its menu.
One of India’s most popular restaurant chains is embracing plant proteins, opening up access to tens of millions of vegetarian customers.
Haldiram’s, which has been around since 1937, has partnered with Udaipur-based GoodDot to add its soya chaap – a staple soy-based meat alternative in India – to its menu.
The meat-free product will feature in Haldiram’s tandoori platter at all its stores in the national capital region, which encompasses the cities of Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, and more.
Haldiram’s bet on plant-based is a big deal
Courtesy: Haldiram’s
Founded in 2016, GoodDot is one of India’s earliest and most well-established plant-based meat players, with a product range spanning mutton-style bites, chicken-like chunks, BBQ tikkas, biryani, and even an egg-free scramble.
Its shelf-stable soya chaap is made from soybean flour, wheat protein, whole wheat and refined wheat flours, and gram flour. It contains 15.4g of protein and 3.5g of fibre per 100g, with zero cholesterol and only 0.2g of fat.
The ready-to-use product can be used in a variety of recipes, from curries and kebabs to stir-fries and salads, and caters to Indians looking for clean-label, additive-free protein options.
Having raised $7M in funding to date, GoodDot has expanded its offerings to international markets too, including the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and the UAE (among others). It also operates a spin-off foodservice business, GoodDo, with 15 locations across Mumbai and Udaipur.
Haldiram’s, meanwhile, began as a CPG company making confectionery and snacks, before expanding into a fully vegetarian restaurant chain that has become a household name among Indians both at home and abroad. Last year, its revenues surpassed $1.5B.
The food giant exports to 80 countries, including Singapore, whose state-owned investor Temasek took a 10% stake in the business earlier this year. The deal valued Haldiram’s at $10B.
“Soya chaap is one of the most crowded and competitive categories in India’s food space. Everyone sells it, from small stalls to big restaurants,” said GoodDot co-founder and CEO Abhishek Sinha. “And yet, when the country’s food giant […] chose GoodDot Soya Chaap, we are beyond thrilled.”
Courtesy: GoodDot
Local dishes and affordability can win over consumers
Research shows that low awareness and common misconceptions about plant-based meat have led to a lack of demand in restaurants, but chefs, restaurateurs and industry leaders suggest that these products need to be integrated into local cuisines to help position them as tasty and indulgent offerings on foodservice menus.
This year, 37% of Indians said they were looking to add more plant-based proteins to their diets. And despite only 11% having given plant-based meat a go, more Indians want to increase their intake of these products (43%) than conventional meat (36%). In fact, two in five want to reduce the amount of meat they eat.
Protein content and health are the most influential drivers of plant-based food consumption in the country- however, affordability is among the biggest barriers. Haldiram’s is known for its accessible prices and local cuisine, so GoodDot’s partnership with the chain fits right into these trends.
It’s not the only major restaurant chain that is betting on meat-free protein in India. In July, McDonald’s announced the launch of its Protein Plus range, which adds 5g of soy, pea, and whey protein per ₹25 ($0.29) slice to any burger. It’s available in all of its outlets in West and South India.
Meanwhile, plant proteins have also received a boost from the government. In the upcoming reform of its Goods and Services Tax, plant-based milk and texturised vegetable proteins (a common ingredient in meat analogues) will see their tax rate reduced from 12-18% to 5%, on par with milk beverages, butter, ghee, cheese, and sausages.
British vegan startup This has added a deli meat SKU while expanding the whole-food-championing This is Super Superfood line it launched earlier this year.
As sales of plant-based meat continue to weaken, some of the industry’s leading innovators are taking different approaches to arrest the slide.
These companies are looking to appeal either to flexitarians who want clean-label plant proteins without the ultra-processed tag, or meat-eaters who don’t want to give up meat but are open to reducing it.
In the UK, one startup is targeting both these consumer sets. London-based This, which made its name on quirky branding and its vegan chicken, unveiled a This is Super Superfood line in April, comprising a new product format that embraced whole foods and eschewed the meat-mimicking philosophy.
Designed as a competitor to tofu and tempeh, the range began with a plant protein block and lemon-and-herb pieces made from fava bean protein, shiitake mushrooms, a range of seeds, and vegetables.
The Super Superfood lineup wasn’t a replacement of its meat alternative lineup; rather, it’s an extension. “We still make the best plant-based meat alternatives, but now we’re giving consumers more options,” said Cuddigan.
Staying true to that promise, the startup has now launched three new products across the meat alternative and whole-food categories, targeting both weekday lunches and party-ready charcuterie boards.
This introduces vegan pastrami and Super Superfood bites
Courtesy: This
The new meat alternative is the brand’s latest deli counter innovation. Following the May launch of its ready-to-eat deli chicken slices is This Isn’t Beef Pastrami, a pack of smoked wheat and pea protein slices.
This has nearly 32g of protein per 100g, with 3g of fibre and 10g of fat (9g of which is saturated). Each 70g pack contains three portions and is priced at £2.95. The pastrami alternative is described as having a smoky, rich flavour and tender texture, and is available at Morrisons, followed by Sainsbury’s later this month.
This’s other new launches come under the Super Superfood line. The Super Veg Protein Bites are the range’s first frozen SKU, and are aimed towards time-strapped work-from-home professionals and health-conscious families.
They comprise a base of peas and pea protein (each 11%) with spinach, potatoes, carrots, rapeseed oil and a seasoning mix dominated by lemon oil and basil. These are encased in a multigrain crumb, and contain 14g of protein and 3g of fibre per 100g (the saturated fat content is minuscule here). The Veg Protein Bites are in Tesco’s freezers at £3.50 per 240g pack.
Finally, This has rolled out Super Superfood Breaded Pieces, featuring 49% rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, 12% fava bean protein, a mix of seeds, seasonings, and multigrain breaded coating.
These can be added to curries, stir-fries and salads, and pack 14g of protein, 4g of fibre, and less than 1g of saturated fat per 100g, with an added omega-3 boost. They’re available in the chilled section at Sainsbury’s for £3 per 180g pack.
UK’s appetite for plants persists
Courtesy: This
“Our goal has always been to create delicious and nutritious plant-based products, and with our new Pastrami, Super Veg bites and breaded Super Superfood, we’re giving foodies new options,” said Cuddigan.
“We can’t wait for people to try them, whether they’re looking for meaty alternatives or tasty veg-packed products to cook with,” he added.
This’s move beyond meat analogues came as sales of these products fell by 10% in UK supermarkets last year, as ultra-processing fears pushed Brits towards traditional plant proteins like tofu and beans.
Despite three in five consumers being willing to cut back on meat, the share of those who eat it at least five times a week rose from 43% in 2022 to 50% in 2024. At the same time, half of them want to further change their diets by eating less meat and dairy (33%) and/or more plant-based foods (38%).
Still, the UK remains the second-largest market for plant-based food in Europe, and 9% of Brits are either vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian, while another 31% identify as flexitarians. This itself has bucked the trend, enjoying a 5.6% hike in turnover in 2024, totalling £18.2M. It also cut its losses nearly in half, from £11.3M in 2023 to £6.1M last year.
This is not the only UK company to take on meat alternatives, tofu and tempeh with a new format of plant proteins. The same week it launched the Super Superfood range, Oh So Wholesome rolled out Veg’chop, a range of cubes made from red lentils, quinoa, yellow split peas, mushrooms, seeds, and more plants.
Israeli startup Meala has debuted a pea protein powder that can replicate the multifunctionality of eggs in baked goods, offering a solution to the avian-flu-induced crisis.
With egg prices reaching an all-time high in the US and a decade-long high in Europe, food manufacturers have been left scrambling.
The demand for eggs has sharply increased, but anticipated price corrections have led some producers of powdered eggs to delay purchases, causing a supply gap. Combine that with the wider impact of food prices amid Europe’s cost-of-living crisis, and it’s a perfect storm.
Plant-based liquid egg products like Just Egg have seen sales soar in the US, with many bakeries switching to the mung-bean-based alternative. Now, Israel’s Meala Foodtech is aiming to replicate that success for the CPG bakery space with a single-ingredient egg replacer that has already garnered a distribution deal in Europe.
Called Groundbreaker, the pea protein innovation offers the same gelling, binding, emulsifying and foaming attributes of eggs – minus the chicken or the price volatilities.
“Our innovative texturising protein enables the baking industry to significantly derisk production,” said Tali Feldman-Sivan, co-founder and chief business officer of Meala. “Producers can stabilise costs, reduce exposure to price volatility, and avoid supply chain disruptions.”
A little goes a long way with Meala’s pea protein
Courtesy: Details Studio
Founded in 2021 by Feldman-Sivan, CTO Liran Gruda, and CEO Hadar Ekhoiz-Razmovich, Meala specialises in texturising plant proteins to enhance the taste, texture and nutritional value of a host of foods, while keeping costs low.
These solutions are designed as alternatives to ingredients like eggs and methylcellulose, which are common in the manufacturing industry, but have become problematic amid supply issues and the demand for clean-label formulations.
“Our proteins are produced through a proprietary process that elevates pea protein into highly functional ingredients. This process is green, environmentally friendly, efficient, and scalable – it avoids chemical modification or heavy processing,” Ekhoiz-Razmovich told Green Queen.
“This way, we preserve the natural nutritional qualities of the pea while unlocking multifunctional properties such as binding, gelling, foaming, and emulsifying,” he added.
Groundbreaker is described as a clean-label, allergen-free ingredient with “excellent water-holding capacity”. It can be used in sweet applications like pound cakes, sponge cakes, brioches, pancakes, and pre-made cake mixes, as well as in savoury foods.
“Our protein is highly functional, with a low inclusion rate,” Ekhoiz-Razmovich noted. “Only a small amount is needed in formulations to deliver great functionality. This efficiency can deliver significant savings – up to 30% cost reduction compared to eggs in applications like muffins.”
Meala in talks with global companies for Groundbreaker
Courtesy: Details Studio
The pea protein ingredient is offered to manufacturers in a powdered format, which makes logistics, storage, and handling “simpler and more efficient”, the CEO said.
Groundbreaker has already attracted interest from multiple companies, including packaged baked goods manufacturers and commercial cake mix producers supplying both retailers and bakeries.
Meala recently also entered a strategic partnership with a leading global ingredients maker based in Europe. The collaboration is built on an investment as well as a marketing and distribution agreement, and will open up a new, broad distribution network for Groundbaker.
“We’re producing at a scale that supports our current commercial activities, and we’re actively expanding capacity to meet growing demand,” highlighted Ekhoiz-Razmovich. “Our production is based in Europe, close to our customers through trusted manufacturing partners.”
He revealed that Meala has secured $8M in investment to date, and is about to open its next fundraising round soon. Plus, its solutions go beyond replacing eggs in baked goods. “Our first product for savoury applications launched in Europe a few months ago in partnership with DSM-Firmenich,” he said.
The Vertis PB Pea ingredient is designed to replace modified binders like hydrocolloids to make cleaner-label meat alternatives. “We have a strong pipeline of texturising solutions for the food industry, and this is just the beginning,” said Ekhoiz-Razmovich.
Meala is among a number of food tech startups offering innovative solutions to replace eggs in bakery products and plant-based meats. Eat Just, maker of Just Egg, launched a one-ingredient mung protein powder that doubles as an egg alternative.
Others, like Revyve, ProteinDistillery, and Yeastup, are upcycling brewer’s yeast (a byproduct of beer brewing) to make egg replacers for a range of applications, including baked goods and meat and dairy alternatives.
The European Parliament’s agriculture committee has voted to prohibit the use of terms like ‘burgers’ and ‘sausages’ on vegan alternatives, paving the way for an EU-wide ban.
Five years after the European Parliament voted against a ban on meat-like terms on plant-based product labels, its agriculture committee has taken the first step to overturn that decision.
In a vote last night (September 8), the 49-member committee agreed to ban these designations on both vegan and cultivated meat (which hasn’t been sold for human food in Europe yet), moving the legislation forward to a vote with all MEPs.
The proposal was brought by the Parliament’s rapporteur, French lawmaker Celine Imart, in a review of the Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulation in July. It was swiftly followed by a similar proposition in the European Commission, which sought to restrict the use of 29 “forbidden” meat-related terms on the packaging of vegan alternatives – the Parliament’s version is broader.
“The proposal will make it to plenary vote with all the MEPs, probably in October,” Rafael Pinto, senior policy manager of the European Vegetarian Union, tells Green Queen. “If approved there, it will make it to the trilogue negotiations on the file, between the Commission, Council and Parliament.”
He adds: “Although the initial proposal on this file from the Commission or Council had no mention of denominations (it’s out of scope), the Parliament rapporteur, Celine Imart, might try to put it in the final text. It’s unclear how the Commission will react, since they also have a separate proposal, on another file, with different wording.”
EU takes aim at plant-based and cultivated meat, despite no consumer confusion
Courtesy: La Vie
How veggie burgers are labelled has been debated for nearly a decade in the EU, but there were signs that the discourse would come to an end last year, when the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that no member state can prohibit companies from using these terms on vegan product labels.
The decision noted that such bans can be implemented only if a member state legally defines meat products and descriptive terms first (a lengthy and complex process), and even then, such a ban would only apply to products manufactured within that country. The only other option would be an EU-level ban, which is the goal of Imart’s proposal.
Her suggested amendment to the CMO argues that meat-related terms “shall be reserved exclusively for the edible parts of the animals”, such as ‘steak’, ‘sausage’ or ‘burger’ (notably, these designations aren’t included in the words the EU Commission is seeking to ban).
“The above-mentioned names shall not be used for any product other than the products referred to and shall exclude cell-cultured products,” the proposal reads.
The agriculture committee was in favour of this, seemingly disagreeing with the EU’s highest court, which ruled that existing legislation was sufficient to protect consumers from possible misleading.
“There is no data to support the argument that consumers are confused by plant-based burgers, sausages or any other alternative,” said Pinto. “Policymakers continue to bring up this non-issue, when it’s simply not a problem for citizens.”
In a large study by the European Consumer Organisation in 2020, 80% of people said plant-based meat should be allowed to use such terms. And in the 2023 Smart Protein survey, only 9% of citizens from nine member states said they didn’t recognise plant-based meat alternatives.
In fact, in an opinion published last September, the ECJ’s advocate-general stated that the use of several different names resulting from such a ban could be more confusing for consumers.
Conservative Parliament could vote for EU-wide ban
Courtesy: Heura
The amendment was voted in favour of by 33 members of the committee, with 10 opposing it and five abstaining. It’s meant to strengthen the position of farmers in the food supply chain.
“On the contrary, banning the use of these terms will hurt the farmers producing raw materials such as pea or soy, the companies innovating with new products and hinder consumer transparency with the use of unknown names,” argues Pinto.
“Although this goes against the 2020 plenary vote, it follows the line of the agriculture committee that also voted for the ban before the plenary,” he says, highlighting how a repeat would see the effort to ban meaty terms thwarted.
It’s also an important issue for other EU committees, such as those overseeing internal market and consumer protection, environment and food safety, public health, and industry, research and energy. “We hope they step up to vote it down,” says Pinto.
But he adds: “Unfortunately, this time around with a more conservative Parliament, there’s a significant chance the ban goes through.”
These proposals came amid increasing pressure from a dozen member states to prevent such designations on plant-based meat products. These concerns echo – and are likely driven by – the livestock lobby, which has its arms deep into the EU’s decision-making, especially when it comes to green legislation.
The fact that the proposal made it to an amendment where it’s essentially out of scope raises suspicion of lobbying pressure – very few consumers care about how this debate, as can be evidenced by the fact that Europe is the world’s largest market for plant-based meat.
The Parliament’s move is contradictory to the EU’s promise to diversify protein sources and bolster domestic plant-based production, as well as its new bioeconomy initiatives. The Danish presidency of the EU Council is also focusing on a common EU action plan for plant-based foods. And last week, the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) published a report recommending policymakers to increase support for meat alternatives for climate, health and food security benefits.
It remains to be seen how the proposal to ban meaty designations holds up in the plenary. As for the Commission’s version of the proposal, the EVU says it’s unclear when the discussion will take place and how it will interact with events in the Parliament, but either way, it notes that this is a “political crackdown on meat alternatives”.
A new study showed people a mock Chipotle menu with and without plant-based options to see whether it affected their decisions to choose meat. The results go against the grain.
Will seeing more plant-based options on the menu make you less inclined to eat meat at a restaurant?
It’s a question that researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine contended with in a new study of nearly 4,500 participants.
“It is not yet known whether the presence of a plant-based meat analogue on a menu reduces the consumption of meat, or alternatively, whether it is mainly consumed by vegetarian and vegan eaters who would not otherwise have eaten meat,” they wrote.
“Furthermore, although plant-based meat analogues are designed and marketed to replace specific animal meats (e.g., beef burgers or pork sausages), it is unknown whether [they] especially reduce consumption of their intended meat counterpart.”
To test the theory, the researchers reproduced the menu of Chipotle, except they customised the number of vegan alternative options available, from none, to one (Sofritas, a braised tofu dish), to two (Sofritas and a fictitious “chick’nitas” dish).
Courtesy: Stanford University School of Medicine
Offering more plant proteins reduced demand for veggies, not meat
On the copycat Chipotle menu, the researchers described both the plant protein options as having 150 calories, the same as steak, and a price of $8.40, at parity with chicken as the cheapest menu items. For the Chick’nitas, they used a photo of shredded chicken to match the appearance.
Of those who saw a menu with neither of the plant protein options, 89.1% chose an animal protein, while 9.2% opted for the veggie and guacamole filling in their taco (the rest declined to order).
But there was no real change when the plant-based proteins were added to the menu, with meat being chosen by 88.8% of consumers when Sofritas was available, and 87.6% when both Sofritas and Chick’nitas could be chosen.
“Total meat consumption remained unchanged. Instead, plant-based meat analogues primarily replaced demand for other plant-based options,” the researchers wrote.
Indeed, the addition of plant proteins took the choice share away mainly from the veggie option, which was opted for by 6.6% of people when Sofritas was available, and 5.7% when Chick’nitas was also part of the menu.
Courtesy: Stanford University School of Medicine
Consumer perceptions about taste, texture and processing at play
The researchers pointed out several reasons why adding meat alternatives may not reduce demand for animal proteins. “Many consumers may harbour negative expectations about the taste or texture of plant-based meat analogues. Additionally, individuals not already motivated to avoid meat may find little reason to change, especially if plant-based meat analogues are seen as overly processed or misaligned with personal values,” they wrote.
The phenomenon of ‘satisficing’ – where consumers just pick the first acceptable or familar menu item when faced with a choice overload – may play a role too, they noted.
The findings contradict common wisdom. In 2024, the World Resources Institute compiled a list of 90 techniques that can help foodservice players ‘nudge’ plant-based behaviours among diners. Some of the most effective strategies include chef training to improve the quality of vegan meals, integrating meat-free options into meat sections in displays, using indulgent and appealing language to describe them, and increasing the variety of plant-based dishes on offer.
Moreover, one study this year found that few people would choose meat analogues when given an option of beef, falafels and veggie burgers, a figure that remains low even when the animal protein option is taken out. But what can transform choice is price – not parity, but actively undercutting the cost of meat.
The Chipotle-focused research put the plant protein option at the same price as chicken, but it would be interesting to see whether the results change if the Sofritas and Chick’nitas had a lower cost attached to them.
Vegan meat alternatives remain a “potentially valuable tool for advancing plant-based diets”, but the researchers highlighted the need for further research on how to increase their consumption, potentially via educational, narrative, or taste-test interventions. Future studies should also consider whether these products “should be positioned as replacements for, rather than supplements to, existing meat entrées”.
The previous 12 months have seen a sharp increase in the number of alternative protein businesses that have ceased trading, come close to the brink, or been acquired. Here are all the major deals, starting September 2024.
The alternative protein sector has experienced a dramatic rise in business failures and consolidation over the past 12 months, reflecting significant market turbulence and shifting investor sentiment.
The bulk of activity occurred in Europe (23 deals) and North America (16 deals), with Asia-Pacific registering five notable events. This clustering highlights how alternative protein entrepreneurship, historically clustered in these regions, has faced pronounced headwinds from both consumer and funding challenges.
Particularly in Europe, legacy brands in the UK and the Netherlands have wound down or switched ownership, while several US-based startups, including those with substantial venture capital backing, have ceased trading or sold assets at losses.
Technology and product trends
Most casualties and transactions have been in plant-based companies (32 out of the total), whereas fermentation (7), cell cultivation (3), molecular farming (1), and blended protein (1) technologies make up far fewer. This skew suggests plant-based meat, dairy, and ready-meal startups have struggled most with scaling and profitability.
Of these, meat analogues (18 deals) and dairy alternatives (10 deals) were especially susceptible, perhaps due to intensifying competition and slower-than-expected consumer adoption. B2B protein suppliers and niche categories like honey and eggs also saw closures and restructuring, indicating market saturation or lack of stand-out differentiation.
Types of business events
Acquisitions constituted the largest share of deals (24), flanked by multiple closures (11), liquidations (4), bankruptcies (2), one merger, and several notable asset sales*.
In some cases, acquisitions afforded surviving entities access to IP or branded assets without assuming full operational risk. Other times, distressed sales reflected deep operational challenges and an inability to raise further funds.
*Note: The estimates for liquidations and bankruptcies do not include businesses that were later acquired or shut.
Macro implications
The spike in closures, insolvencies, and “fire sale” acquisitions suggests intense market correction, likely driven by rising production costs, tighter capital flows, faltering retail demand, and ongoing price sensitivity among mainstream consumers.
The sector is recalibrating around stronger, well-capitalised incumbents, with distressed startups finding new homes or dissolving. It’s clear that after years of expansion, alternative protein is experiencing its first widespread shakeout – a sign both of maturation and a need for strategic pivots in product, channel, and consumer engagement.
Despite recommending patients to follow a plant-based diet, very few cardiologists actually do so themselves, a new study has found.
The gap between heart doctors who prescribe a whole-food plant-based diet to patients and those who follow it themselves is sizeable, according to a new study.
Researchers from four US universities surveyed 166 members of the American College of Cardiology’s CardioSurve panel, with questions revolving around lifestyle medicine, personal dietary patterns, physical activity, sleep, alcohol and smoking, and recommendations for patients.
The findings, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, show that two in five (41%) of heart doctors frequently recommend patients to follow a whole-food plant-based diet to prevent cardiovascular diseases.
Kim Williams, a professor at the University of Louisville and lead author of the study, explained that this is because of the primary prevention guidelines developed by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association in 2019.
“All animal protein sources increase mortality relative to plant-protein consumption,” he told Green Queen. “Vegetarian/vegan diets can reverse or improve hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, inflammation, chronic kidney disease, and coronary artery disease (CAD), to name just a few. This reversal of CAD was on 32 months of [the] vegan Esselstyn diet.”
However, only 8% of cardiologists comply with their own advice and personally follow a whole-food plant-based diet. “Despite recognising the importance of lifestyle medicine as a foundation for cardiovascular disease prevention, many respondents reported inconsistent personal compliance to key pillars, particularly dietary and physical activity recommendations,” the researchers wrote in the study.
Heart doctors don’t avoid red meat, despite known harms
Courtesy: Journal of the American College of Cardiology
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death both globally and in the US. In fact, the condition kills one American every 33 seconds. Among the main drivers of heart disease are high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, which themselves are caused by excessive sodium and saturated fat intake.
Red meats like beef and pork contain high amounts of saturated fat, which is linked to increased inflammation in the heart. And processed forms of meat, including bacon, sliced ham and hot dogs, have excessive salt.
These products have been directly linked to increased risks of heart disease (among other conditions). It’s why scientists advising the US government on its upcoming dietary guidelines have recommended a reduction in red and processed meat consumption, while highlighting the benefits of plant proteins.
Still, research shows that 63-74% of Americans consume red and processed meat on any given day. And the damaging health evidence hasn’t deterred cardiologists from their cheeseburgers either, with the study finding that only 8% of respondents actively avoid red meat.
Instead, they’re more focused on abstaining from alcohol (92%), maintaining strong social connections (84%), and incorporating physical activity into patient care (91%).
Late last year, a Harvard University study found that people who eat a higher amount of plants in their diet see drastic reductions in the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease. And last month, the American Heart Association’s scientific advisory reinforced recommendations to limit ultra-processed foods that are high in salt, saturated fat and sugar, and increase the intake of whole plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds and lean proteins.
In this latest survey, 68% of respondents said they consumed either an omnivorous or flexitarian diet. Explaining why their actions don’t meet their whole-food plant-based recommendations, doctors cited concerns about patient compliance (63%), social and cultural challenges (40%), and protein adequacy (28%).
“The latter is known to be inaccurate if a variety of inexpensive beans, grains, nuts, seeds, and mushrooms are included in the diet,” the study noted.
Williams said the best way to overcome these barriers is to “read up” and “realise that lifestyle [medicine] comes first by every recent guideline, can save lives and reduce healthcare costs”, while also helping the environment and reducing animal cruelty. “Why wouldn’t we all do this?” he asked.
Formal lifestyle medicine training can close knowledge-behaviour gap
Courtesy: Bit245/Getty Images
The survey also found that 87% of heart doctors in the US had not received formal training in the “adoption or counselling on the six pillars of lifestyle medicine”, which includes a whole-food plant-based diet. “This is consistent with publications citing the critical gap in physician nutrition training,” the researchers said. “However, 8% adopting a whole-food plant-based diet is significantly higher than the 0.3% rate recently published for academic physicians.”
This is a global problem that spans multiple facets of the medical sector. In New Zealand, while 96% of midwives feel equipped to give their patients advice on general nutrition, this level of preparedness falls to just 72% for plant-based nutrition. Moreover, 14% say they’re wholly unprepared to advise on meat-free pregnancies, and only 7% and 3% think plant-based diets are better for mothers’ and babies’ development.
“The teaching and training of healthcare professionals in general is still based around omnivorous diets when it comes to nutrition,” Dr Shireen Kassam, a consultant haematologist and founding director of medical association Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, told Green Queen in May.
“Gaining relatively specialised knowledge from general public health resources is challenging, and there remains a significant information gap in terms of plant-based diets,” she added.
A recent survey by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine found that half of Americans believe plant-based diets are healthy, and 65% were open to eating this way if they were shown this evidence. But only one in five have had their primary care doctor speak to them about the benefits of a vegan diet.
For the cardiologists in the new study, bridging the gap between knowledge and behaviour “may improve physician wellbeing and model more effective, credible counselling for patients”, the authors stated. “Integrating formal training in lifestyle medicine into cardiology education could play a pivotal role in achieving this dual benefit,” they added.
Will patients lose faith in the plant-based diet if they knew their doctors didn’t follow their own advice? Williams thinks it’s likely, unless they go to a cardiologist who eats a whole-food plant-based diet. “Then they don’t go back,” he said. “They like taking fewer medications and feeling stronger, [and] not ageing as quickly.”
Livekindly Collective is set to become profitable this fall, reversing the plant-based meat industry trend with strong brand building, private-label offerings, and Ed Sheeran.
Fresh from relaunching its Like brand of plant-based meat in the UK, the Livekindly Collective is approaching a key financial milestone: profitability.
The Blue Horizon-owned company’s CEO, David Suarez, has been at the helm for a year now, and has overseen a “bold strategy” that leverages its global footprint to accelerate its profitable growth plan.
“Our trajectory and financial plans indicate that we should be profitable in fall,” he tells Green Queen. “This is a result of applying learnings from many of the lessons. Since I took over last year, we finalised the consolidation of our back-office operations, which allowed us to unlock resources and invest them back in our front-office capabilities and products.”
While sales of plant-based meat have largely been stagnant, the holding company delivered high single-digit year-on-year growth in the first half of 2025. “Our growth over the past years has been consistent even while we were focused on consolidating the different organisations we acquired,” Suarez explains.
“In the first half of 2025, we are starting to collect the fruits of the strategic investments into growth we decided on, and we plan to continue on this path. Our results reflect solid progress not only on revenue growth, but at the same time improved gross margin, disciplined cost control and a clear path towards profitability.
“On top of that, we are seeing early signs of renewed momentum in our core markets, both from our established product range and from innovation-driven launches. We didn’t disregard the headwinds, but learned from them and quickly transformed to keep going strong.”
How Livekindly Collective is driving growth across markets
Courtesy: Oumph!
In the Germany, Switzerland and Austria region, the Like brand achieved double-digit growth, following its launch in the latter in Q2. This was built on strong brand activations like a Protein Bites campaign with Olympic champion Leo Neugebauer (set to relaunch this month to coincide with the Athletics World Championships in Tokyo).
“We’re also investing in brand-building initiatives like our ‘Color Up Your Taste’ collaboration with Berlin artist Josephine, and a major foodservice activation (including pink plant-based burgers) at the Ed Sheeran concerts,” said Suarez.
“In the Nordics, our Oumph brand is really strengthening its position, improving brand awareness and consumer first-choice preference, driven by our improved product quality and recognition through taste awards. In Australia and New Zealand, Fry’s is the clear number-one brand. We recently launched a range of new chilled SKUs and, combined with our campaign celebrating Fry’s 25 years in the region, this has translated into 30% sales growth despite overall category consolidation,” he added.
And in South Africa, both Fry’s and Like are seeing strong momentum. The company’s campaign with retailer Checkers has delivered double-digit uplifts on key SKUs, while its TikTok channels are growing rapidly. “Fry’s now has 15,000 followers with 48 million views, and Like gained thousands of followers since the launch, both growing by over 1,000%,” said Suarez.
“Apart from brand growth, we also took a lead role in shaping new labelling legislation for meat analogues, which gained national media coverage and reinforced our leadership in the category.”
A key lever of the company’s success is its B2B solutions division, which has expanded rapidly since its launch two years ago. Livekindly Collective has boosted its production, ships to 19 countries across five continents, and serves more than 40 customers with both private label and branded products.
“In 2024 alone, the B2B business achieved growth of 48%, with a projected increase of 120% in 2025. This was the first of many different segments we are pursuing to accelerate our growth,” says Suarez. “With our strong manufacturing footprint, three strategically located production sites: Stora Levene in Sweden, Oss in the Netherlands, and Pinetown in South Africa, we can deliver high-quality products at competitive prices.”
‘We’re always looking to make acquisitions’
Courtesy: Like
The headwinds of the plant-based industry, especially a sharp downturn in investment, have led many players to call it quits or sign M&A deals. In the last 12 months, at least 32 companies have either fallen into insolvency, closed, or been acquired, and around half of them are based in Europe.
Suarez’s explanation for this turbulence echoes many industry voices: it’s a young category that is now finally maturing. “It’s become clear that only strong and scalable business models can generate profit to keep investing in growth. From that view, consolidation isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” he says.
“On one hand, sometimes heartbreaking bankruptcies highlight the challenges: slower category growth, high competition, and the difficulty of scaling. But on the other hand, M&A deals can strengthen the industry by bringing together complementary capabilities, for example, combining innovation from startups with the scale, efficiency, and distribution networks of larger players, just like us,” he adds.
“Ultimately, I see it as a positive step towards the growth of the sustainable protein category, [one that] enables taking plant-based mainstream.”
Livekindly Co already owns Like, Fry’s, Oumph!, No Meat, Dutch Weedburger, and Alpha Foods – but is it on the hunt for more brands? “Look, this category will keep consolidating, which – given our strong position in the market – always gives us the opportunity to consider acquiring an organisation that could help us disproportionately accelerate growth and profitability,” says Suarez. “We are always looking, and if we decide to move, we will do it in a very strategic way.”
He continues: “We are constantly having conversations with different types of organisations, big and small, on opportunities to collaborate. The initiatives range from complementing our portfolio with a specific technology being tested, hybrids, or even opening a new market. At the end, we need to conquer more eating occasions, and we can accelerate this by collaborating with other successful companies.”
Asked about the company’s runway, the CEO reiterates the profitability forecast to suggest that Livekindly Collective “should keep looking for opportunities” to become more efficient. This would involve investing strategically in accelerating growth, and operating its supply chain network globally in a more streamlined manner.
Plant-based companies must ‘reframe the UPF narrative’
Courtesy: Like
This month, Livekindly Collective is bringing its Like Meat back to the UK around three years after it quietly exited the market. Rumours swirled that the decision was likely due to increased import and shipping costs post-Brexit.
“What we can afford to do […] is to test brands and products in different markets. We stopped a couple of years ago to focus and accelerate growth where we could obtain the best long-term result for the company,” Suarez offers. “Now, with the learnings of the market and a repositioned brand, we decided to invest back into markets where consumers will benefit from our products. Like launched in South Africa just before the UK, and we are seeing [a] positive response already.”
In the UK, the second-largest market for vegan food in Europe, it is targeting young, health-minded flexitarians with high-protein, high-fibre and low-fat formulations. “We’ve been talking to our customers, and we are attending the need to provide high-quality products to a younger generation of consumers that are health-conscious and on a journey to complement their diets with new protein options,” says Suarez.
A key battle for the brand will be to shake off the ultra-processed food (UPF) tag, which has informed a negative public opinion of meat alternatives. Sales of these products fell by 7% last year, as Brits opted for traditional plant proteins like tofu and beans, leading even plant-based meat players to develop whole-food options.
Like’s products will also face scrutiny from consumers looking for cleaner label, with one of its offerings containing over 30 ingredients. But the company will hope Brits look past the ingredients and processing and focus on the nutritional gains these products offer.
“For me, the opportunity is in reframing the narrative: instead of focusing only on the word ‘processed’ we should highlight the positive impact these foods can deliver to people and the planet,” Suarez says of UPFs. “Many everyday foods, from bread to yoghurt, are processed, and processing often makes products safer, more consistent, and tastier. In fact, around 70% of all foods available in supermarkets are processed. That includes animal meat products.”
“What really matters is the nutritional value. Plant-based products generally contain less saturated fat, no cholesterol, and more fibre than their animal counterparts, and that’s a strong health benefit. At the same time, our R&D team keeps working on delivering even tastier and healthier formulations every day.”
Suarez doesn’t believe the industry got it wrong. “Different players might have come into the category with different objectives,” he explains. “What the market […] teaches us once again is that for an industry to thrive, it requires two main components: meeting consumer expectations and working the scalable model that delivers profit. And Livekindly Collective has these two components to succeed in the long term.”
Finnish Food Factory, a contract manufacturer of plant-based dairy products, has secured €10M ($11.8M) in scale-up funding from Taaleri Bioindustry.
To support the expansion of Finland’s plant-based dairy industry, Finnish Food Factory has brought in €10M ($11.8M) in fresh funding.
The investment comes from Taaleri Bioindustry’s Fund I, and will help the contract manufacturing organisation expand its production capacity to drive long-term growth and broader market reach.
“We are pleased to begin our collaboration with Finnish Food Factory,” said Marjatta Rytömaa, managing director of Taaleri Bioindustry. “With its experienced team, the company has achieved successful growth in both local and international markets while consistently delivering reliable production and value-add to its global customers.”
Finnish Food Factory producing Fazer’s non-dairy range
Courtesy: Fazer
Founded in 2021, Finnish Food Factory manufactures vegan dairy alternatives at its facility in Kouvola, which employs 55 people.
Its product range includes non-dairy milks, spoonable yoghurts, vegan creams, protein drinks, sauces, spreads, and meal replacement drinks. It mainly uses Finnish ingredients, with a key focus on oats and peas.
Finnish Food Factory leverages technology and production methods that ensure long shelf life without compromising the flavour or functionality of the products. Plus, it uses fully recyclable packaging.
The firm works in tandem with its clients to develop new products and manufacture them on the agreed terms, which include a range of well-established global and Nordic brands, including Fazer.
In July, Fazer finalised the transfer of its plant-based yoghurt production from its Koria factory to Finnish Food Factory. The move saw its entire Aito range reformulated with new recipes and packaging, which rolled out into stores in August.
“Finnish Food Factory’s modern production facility and advanced manufacturing methods enable us to produce oat-based gurts of even higher quality,” said Konrad von Otter, VP of plant-based drinks at Fazer Lifestyle Foods.
Funding success builds on sustained sales growth
Courtesy: Finnish Food Factory
“Finnish raw materials – particularly oats – have become a staple in consumers’ diets,” said Tuomas Kukkonen, chair of the board at Finnish Food Factory. “With many years of expertise in plant-based products, the cornerstone of our operations is efficient, innovative and reliable production. We are excited to welcome Taaleri Bioindustry as our growth partner,” he added.
Taaleri Bioindustry’s Fund I is an Article 9 fund, which covers products that have a primary sustainable investment objective. Through this, the firm is aiming to support the transition from cow’s milk to much more eco-friendly plant-based alternatives.
The dairy industry, for instance, accounts for around 4% of global emissions (twice as high as the aviation industry). The average oat milk, however, requires 92% less land and water, and generates 71% fewer emissions.
The investment is an outlier in an otherwise dire fundraising landscape for plant-based companies. In Q2 2025, this sector only raised $127M, and $100M of that came from a debt funding round for Beyond Meat.
But Finnish Food Factory’s successful raise is built on sustained sales growth. The manufacturer’s turnover has increased more than 11-fold since the start of the pandemic, from €1.2M in 2020 to €13.5M in 2024. It ascribed this to “a broad customer base” and its “ability to deliver high-quality, competitive products efficiently and on schedule”.
Its efforts to increase adoption of plant-based food will be bolstered by Finland’s new dietary guidelines, which encourage citizens to reduce red and processed meat intake and replace them with plant proteins. They further suggest consuming fortified non-dairy milk and replacing animal fats and tropical oils with plant-based spreads rich in unsaturated fat.
Lidl GB has blown past its target of increasing private-label plant-based sales by 400% by 2025, recording a rise of 694% in the last five years.
Brits are increasingly interested in plant-based foods, and they’re proving that with their wallets.
Discount retailer Lidl, already a retail leader of the protein transition, has announced that sales of plant-based meat, dairy and other products under its own-label brands have skyrocketed by 694% between 2020 and 2025.
This increase not only goes against the grain for vegan food sales in the UK, it also far exceeds Lidl’s own expectations – the retailer had targeted a 400% rise in revenue from these products in this period.
The success has been driven more by Lidl GB’s traditional plant protein and veg-led offerings than meat alternatives, which it sells under the Vemondo Plant label. In response, the retailer has now introduced a range of new products as part of this lineup.
Whole-food plant-based sales outpace meat alternatives at Lidl
Courtesy: Lidl GB
Lidl’s original target of a 400% sales hike is part of its wider goal to align with the Eat-Lancet Planetary Health Diet’s goal of slashing red meat intake in half by 2050.
When comparing the top three plant-based products with Lidl’s best-selling meat alternatives, the former items outperform the latter by almost 20%. According to the retailer, this is in line with the demand for wider sources of plant proteins – since the start of the year, it has sold more than 1,400 tonnes of pulses, seeds, and grains.
The discounter is adapting its offerings to meet these trends. The 20 new products rolled out this week include plant-based mince and burgers, but also marinated tofu, falafels, and vegan tortellini.
Across the UK, sales of meat alternatives fell by nearly 10% last year, as Brits opted for whole foods like tofu and beans in an era dominated by ultra-processed food (UPF) concerns, leading even meat alternative makers to develop whole-food options. Plant-based milk also saw a 2% decline in sales – but these products are still bought by a third of UK households.
At the same time, 9% of Brits are either vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian, and another 31% identify as flexitarians. And half of them want to further change their diets by either eating less meat and dairy (33%) and/or more plant-based foods (38%).
In fact, as of May, 65% of Brits had tried at least one plant-based product in the preceding 12 months, with vegetable-based meals and whole plants being the most popular foods, followed by milk and meat alternatives.
The shift away from animal proteins is driven primarily by cost pressures and health worries (cited by a quarter of Brits) – private-label offerings that put nutrition first can deliver on both fronts. Lidl’s new Vemondo Plant products start at £1.49, and the supermarket aims to get all of them certified by The Vegetarian Society.
Lidl strengthens leadership in protein transition
Courtesy: Lidl GB
Lidl’s sales success builds on its initiative to expand the number of vegan products it offers. The company has pledged to increase the share of plant-based food it sells globally by 20% by the end of the decade.
And in the UK, it aims to have 25% of all protein sales come from plant-based sources by 2030, rising from 14% in 2021. It is also looking to double the revenue share of non-dairy products from a baseline of 6.4% in 2021.
“Surpassing our 2025 meat-free and milk-alternative sales target marks a significant milestone in our wider healthy and sustainable diets agenda and supports our long-term goal of aligning with the Planetary Health Diet by 2050, a vital lever in the net-zero transition,” said Amali Bunter, head of responsible sourcing and ethical trade at Lidl GB.
“We’re proud to be leading the industry with our protein transition goal of ensuring that plant-based protein sales (by tonnage) account for 25% of our total protein sales by 2030,” she added.
“Alongside this, we are continuing to work closely with our farming partners on the sustainability credentials of our animal-based protein products, providing our customers with a full offering of sustainable choices when they visit our stores.”
Last month, Lidl also rolled out a new Live Well label, which will feature on the packaging of private-label products that align with the Planetary Health Diet. Some of the criteria include the presence of at least one plant protein or whole-grain ingredient, fully recyclable packaging where possible, and being a source of fibre.
The logo is encased in a green-coloured bean, a nod to experts’ call to “make beans more appetising”. A Food Foundation report last year found that beans and grains are, on average, the strongest-performing foods on sustainability, nutrition and price fronts.
Lidl’s playbook for elevating plant-based sales could serve as inspiration for its competitors, which have struggled to keep up with their own targets. The UK’s largest retailer, Tesco, said it is unlikely to reach its goal of increasing meat alternative sales by 300% by 2025 (from a 2012 baseline) – instead, it is now focusing on whole-food plant-based options, with vegetable-led foods now making up 40% of its plant-based sales.
Dutch startup Vegan Finest Foods, which makes plant-based seafood, meat and sauces, has declared bankruptcy, citing softening demand and post-Covid difficulties.
Vegan Finest Foods, the company behind brands like Vegan Zeastar and Beastie Plants, has become the latest casualty in the plant-based meat industry.
The Dutch startup has been declared bankrupt by a court six years after it first burst onto the scene, with its owners and insolvency firm working to find solutions that can keep its brands on the market.
“We are investigating the cause of the bankruptcy. According to the directors, this is due to several factors, including a decline in market interest in alternative plant-based products and the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the bankruptcy trustee of Fyrm Advocaten, according to AD.
Vegan Finest Foods fell victim to post-pandemic struggles
Courtesy: Vegan Finest Foods
Vegan Finest Foods was founded in 2019 in partnership with Dutch restaurant chain Vegan Junkfood Bar. It rose to popularity after a video of one of its initial products went viral, and the brand quickly found its way into supermarkets and eateries both in the Netherlands and overseas.
Its products have been sold in the UK, Spain, Germany, the US, Canada and Australia. It’s best known for its flagship Vegan Zeastar brand, which sells an extensive range of seafood alternatives. These span tuna flakes, calamari, breaded cod, shrimp, king crab, tuna and salmon sashimi, crab cakes, and sushi rolls.
On the other hand, the Beastie Plants line is focused on plant-based analogues of land animals. Think bacon, chicken wings, burgers, shawarma, and bitterbal.
Vegan Finest Foods also sells a five-strong line of egg- and dairy-free sauces under the Vegan Junkstar brand, such as sushi mayo, remoulade, and truffle, garlic, and Cheddar cheese sauces.
Early signs of trouble for the startup came during the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought about its first significant financial setback. Stores were buying less product, which meant it had an overload of inventory languishing in the factory.
These issues were compounded by the slowdown in sales of plant-based meat and seafood. Though they make up the largest share of vegan food sold in the Netherlands, retail revenues fell by 7% in 2024. Things were even worse in North America, where sales of vegan meat alternatives slimmed by 9.5%.
Alternative protein faces a sea of headwinds
Courtesy: Vegan Finest Foods
When asked by AD to comment on the bankruptcy, co-founder Rosella D’Angeli said: “It’s still too painful to talk about.”
The trustee of the company is evaluating potential options for a restart of the business, with a sale remaining a realistic possibility. “Anyone interested in the business operations and inventory can contact me,” said D’Angeli.
Building and sustaining a food tech startup in the current landscape is far from easy, but alternative seafood is an especially unforgiving category. Seafood analogues make up just 1% of both the plant-based meat market and the overall seafood industry. Despite consumers viewing fish as a healthier, more sustainable alternative to other meats, plant-based versions can still be lacking in protein and omega-3s.
For Robin Simsa, founder of Austria’s Revo Foods, consumers have no inherent desire to switch to fish-free seafood or think they “really need an alternative”. “The plant-based industry had a dogma that if you replicate meat 100%, consumers will come, and I don’t think this is true anymore,” he told Green Queen in April, shortly before his mycoprotein startup diversified from seafood analogues to standalone proteins.
Over the last year, several alternative seafood startups have reached the end of the road. In France, plant-based seafood startup Olala! ceased operations in March, and Waginengen-based cultivated fish fat player Upstream Foods shut down last month. Meanwhile, in the US, vegan sushi chain Planta filed for bankruptcy this summer.
Closures have become increasingly common in the alternative protein sector. In the last couple of weeks, a host of producers have made similar announcements. Scottish oat milk liqueur maker Beastly Brews has gone into insolvency, English cell culture tech firm CellRev has also called it quits, and legacy plant-based meat brand Yves Veggie Cuisine has been discontinued by owner Hain Celestial.
Yves Veggie Cuisine, a 40-year-old Canadian meat-free brand, is being taken off shelves by owner Hain Celestial, sparking furore on social media.
After four decades in operation, a fan-favourite brand of plant-based meat is being discontinued, leaving scores of consumers outraged.
Canada’s Yves Veggie Cuisine, which defined the earliest wave of meat alternatives and once made it onto the McDonald’s menu, has become the latest casualty in the vegan food sector.
The brand quietly announced the decision in response to an Instagram comment asking about its expansion plans, prompting heavy backlash from users against its parent company, Hain Celestial Group – partly due to the way it handled the announcement.
“We want to let you know that we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue the Yves Brand. This wasn’t a decision we made lightly – it was made after careful consideration of how we can best focus our efforts to ensure long-term growth across our brand portfolio,” the Yves Veggie Cuisine account said on the social media platform.
“We understand your disappointment, and we truly appreciate your loyalty over the years. While we currently do not offer a comparable meat-free brand, we invite you to explore the wide variety of our other trusted better-for-you products available – you may discover something new that meets your needs and preferences.”
How Yves Veggie Cuisine went from industry leader to discontinuation
Courtesy: Yves Veggie Cuisine
Yves Veggie Cuisine was established in 1985 by plant-based industry pioneer Yves Potvin, who envisioned its products as healthy alternatives to meaty fast food, starting with a vegetarian hot dog.
It was one of the first commercially available plant-based meat brands available in North America, and achieved mainstream success quickly. At the turn of the century, its annual revenue reached $35M, and a year later, Potvin secured an exit via a sale to Hain Celestial (reportedly for $54M).
The entrepreneur then went on to found another seminal meat-free brand, Gardein, which he sold to Pinnacle Foods in 2014 (which itself became a Conagra subsidiary in 2018). In his third act, Potvin is innovating in the world of alternative seafood with Konscious Foods, which makes frozen vegan sushi, onigiri and poke bowls.
Meanwhile, as part of Hain Celestial, Yves Veggie Cuisine began supplying its soy-based burgers to McDonald’s in a test run for a McVeggie Burger in hundreds of Southern California stores.
Its current lineup includes a range of vegan nuggets and tenders, a range of burgers and minced meat, hot dogs and sausages, and deli slices like bologna, ham, turkey, salami and pepperoni.
Until 2023, things were going well for Yves Veggie Cuisine financially. Its market share in Canada rose by 2.7% in the frozen category and 0.7% in the fresh department in the first quarter of the financial year, despite what Hain Celestial described as “softness” in the category.
“As we see consolidation in this category, consumers are returning to leading brands in this space,” former CEO Wendy Davidson said at the time. “We continue to believe in the long-term growth potential of the global meat-free category as consumers are seeking veg-forward, flexitarian and vegetarian options that deliver on taste and convenience.”
But as witnessed across the meatless sector, the tides turned quickly in 2024, with Hain Celestial ascribing the 5% year-on-year decline in net sales for its Meal Prep division in Q4 to “softness in meat-free”, across both Yves Veggie Cuisine in North America and its Linda McCartney brand in the UK.
Fans make anger clear over Hain Celestial decision
Courtesy: Yves Veggie Cuisine
Yves Veggie Cuisine has been revered by consumers for its cultural impact on plant-based eating, with many noting that it was Yves Veggie Cuisine that introduced them to the vegan diet. Meanwhile, as one of the longest-standing meat-free businesses, it has been a symbol of the industry’s success.
Now, the brand is being taken off the market. It revealed the development on its most recent Instagram post, which was met with frustration and disappointment. Many commenters asked Hain Celestial to reconsider, noting that their families relied on its range, and a few suggested a boycott against the company.
“I have been buying Yves for well over 20 years, and to discontinue Yves to strengthen your ‘portfolio’ while encouraging vegans and vegetarians to consume your other products that contradict their beliefs is tone deaf,” one user wrote.
Another said: “Unfortunately, with this choice, you are instead damaging your brand reputation and consumer trust. You are leaving a huge gap in the market, and making it much harder for vegetarians and vegans to access affordable meat alternatives, especially in rural areas. I hope that you enable someone else to purchase the rights and continue to make some of these products.”
But for anyone following the market recently, the news should come as little surprise. Several companies have scaled back their plant-based meat offerings, including the largest in the sector, Nestlé. Many others have run out of road and ceased trading, or have been acquired (often out of bankruptcy) by another firm.
Yves Veggie Cuisine is also not the only legacy producer to suffer this fate. Atlantic Natural Foods, the 135-year-old company behind the Loma Linda and Tuno brands, recently filed for bankruptcy, before selling those brands to Filipino giant Century Pacific Food for less than $10M. It has closed its US facility, and the products will now target Seventh-day Adventists in the Philippines.
These challenges have come as sales of plant-based meat contract in North America – revenues were down by 9.5% from 2023 to 2024, reaching $1.9B. Overall, the market for vegan meat and dairy alternatives declined by 7.6% to $7.3B in the region last year.
But despite the downturn, the plant-based sector in Canada has been recognised as “central to the country’s broader food tech ecosystem”, representing a quarter of all domestic food tech companies and garnering 12% of the industry’s total funding.
Will Yves Veggie Cuisine continue to lead that ecosystem through a sale, or is this the end of the line for the meat-free pioneer?
With interest in plant-based eating heightening in the Philippines, a wave of hospitality groups has committed to increasing meat-free options.
In the Philippines, the hotel industry is increasingly aligning its food policies with the public’s wishes.
Over the last few months, a host of hospitality operators have pledged to increase the share of plant-based food on their menus. It’s a direct response to the four in five Filipinos who say they’re more likely to eat at restaurants and hotels that set such policy goals.
The shift was led by Ascott Limited, which in May became the first company to introduce a plant-based target in the Philippines. It worked with sustainability NGO Lever Foundation to commit to making 20% of its menu plant-based by this year, rising to 30% in 2027, across its 17 properties in the country.
Since then, at least four other companies have followed with their own ‘protein split’ commitments to increase the uptake of plant-based foods and lower their food-based climate impact.
From hotels to casinos, Philippines puts plants on the menu
Courtesy: Okada Manila
A month after Ascott’s announcement, IHG Hotels & Resorts and Eco Hotels Philippines went one better, committing to 30% plant-based menus by this year itself.
The initiative includes the restaurants, room service and banquet menus at IHG’s six Philippine properties, including Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria, Holiday Inn & Suites Makati, and Holiday Inn Cebu City. “It reflects our determination to reduce our environmental footprint while meeting the evolving preferences of today’s conscious travellers,” said Patria Puyat, cluster general manager at Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria.
Eco Hotels, meanwhile, was the first homegrown hospitality group to make such a pledge, building on its existing sustainability framework (including green design and supply chains). “By committing to more sustainable food choices, we’re not only meeting the growing demand for healthier and eco-friendly options, but also reinforcing our long-standing dedication to responsible tourism,” said president and CEO Alessandra Atienza.
And last week, two more companies joined this list. Winford Resort & Casino Manila became the first gaming complex in the country to commit to a plant-based target, transforming 30% of the menu by early 2026. It aligns with its wider goal to reduce emissions, water use, and food waste, and provide healthier dining options.
Finally, Okada Manila is the first integrated resort in the Philippines to make such a commitment, aiming for 30% plant-based options by 2028. The move is set to impact 20,000 daily guests and 10,000 employees across its 30-hectare property.
Marielle Lagulay, sustainability programme manager at the Lever Foundation, noted that the leadership from such an iconic property provided real inspiration for the industry.
Industry responds to Filipinos’ appetite for plant-based food
Courtesy: Okada Manila
The food system is at risk of collapse as things stand. Producing a kg of meat is linked with 50 times higher emissions and water use than vegetables. And even with its outsized land use, livestock agriculture only provides 37% of the world’s protein and 18% of its calories.
Initiatives that make more plant-based options available and accessible make it easier for consumers to adopt meat-free eating. It is one of the most effective ways for foodservice operators to promote dietary shifts, according to the World Resources Institute.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, 24% of consumers were looking to reduce their meat intake in 2024. And this year, one poll found that 83% of Filipinos are looking to increase their consumption of plant-based food, with 91% aware that it is healthier and more sustainable than conventional meat.
In fact, 93% agree that hotels, restaurants and retailers have a responsibility to manage the sustainability and health of their food supply chains, and 85% believe they should sell more plant-based food to support their planetary and public health goals.
The announcements in the last few months mirror a shift in China’s hotel sector too, where 11 companies (including IHG) have committed to making a significant portion of their menus plant-based. Accor Group and Langham Hospitality have both pledged to make half their menus meat-free by 2030.
In fact, Accor Group has made the 50% by 2030 pledge for all its hotels globally, as part of its Good Food Feels Great policy. These include Novotel, Raffles, Pullman, Sofitel, Fairmont, Ibis, and more.
Additionally, over 175 businesses have committed to improving their sourcing policies in light of sustainability and animal welfare since 2022 in Asia.
And in the Philippines, 7-Eleven has rolled out plant-based meat and fish products in collaboration with Green Rebel Foods in more than 2,000 stores. This month, Pasig-based Century Pacific Food acquired the assets of legacy vegan meat company Atlantic Natural Foods, including the Loma Linda and Tuno brands, from bankruptcy, making the Philippines’s Seventh-day Adventists the primary target market for the shelf-stable products.
Scottish startup Beastly Brews, which produced the oat milk liqueur Panther M*lk, has ceased trading after two supermarket listings fell through.
Three years after appearing on Dragons’ Den, the Glasgow-based producer of Panther M*lk, a line of oat milk liqueurs, has fallen into liquidation.
Beastly Brews has appointed Donald McKinnon accountancy firm WBG as its provisional liquidator last month, while all seven staff members have been made redundant.
“It is sad to see the demise of such an innovative drinks company with such great potential,” said McKinnon. “The company still holds stock, amounting to around 17,400 of bottles of varying flavours, and we are currently exploring opportunities to dispose of this stock to interested parties.”
How Panther M*lk achieved major growth
Courtesy: BBC
The brainchild of Paul Crawford, Beastly Brews revived a Spanish dive bar classic with a plant-based twist. It was inspired by the founder’s trip to a hidden bar in Barcelona in the mid-2010s, where he first sampled Leche de Pantera, a cocktail comprising gin, condensed milk and cinnamon that dated back to the 1920s.
Crawford opened the Panther Milk Bar in Glasgow in 2015, but what was initially meant to be a pop-up turned into a permanent weekend fixture for four-and-a-half years. It closed in 2020 after the main bar it was housed in changed hands, but the success of the Spanish-inspired tipple convinced him to bottle it up.
He launched Panth*r Milk under his Beastly Brews company in 2020, with one key recipe change: the sweetened condensed milk was out, oat milk was in. The change was made to appeal to a wider range of consumers.
To secure some capital, Crawford went on Dragons’ Den in 2022, asking for £50,000 in exchange for 7.5% of his company. He ended up with a deal with Deborah Meaden (who follows a vegan diet) – she initially asked for 30% of the business, but agreed on 25%. However, as is common with many deals on the show, the investment promise fell through.
Still, the Dragons’ Den appearance gave Panther M*lk national recognition, and the company gradually expanded its operations. It sold the oat milk liqueur online on its website and Amazon, and at Asda and the Co-op. It also appeared at a number of festivals across the UK.
The firm’s flavour offerings evolved over the years, with the latest lineup including Crema, Rosa, Café and Menta. It additionally launched a Dirty Banana hard milkshake. And last year, it refreshed its packaging from clear glass bottles to matte black ones, while also giving its logo a makeover.
In fact, the company experienced significant growth, increasing its on- and off-trade distribution points from 100 to 600 in 2024. It teased major expansion plans for 2025, with sights set on more UK retailers and an entry into Germany and Spain. And between October last year and this May, it generated a turnover of around £175,000.
Abandoned supermarket deals drove the firm’s liquidation
Courtesy: Beastly Brews
Now, it seems the expansion strategy is why Beastly Brews ran into trouble. “We had invested in the production of stock in advance with the intention of supplying to Tesco and Sainsbury’s, but both arrangements fell through, leaving us with too much stock, the cost of production to account for, and, ultimately, cashflow difficulties as we sought to offset the stock, resulting in this unfortunate liquidation,” Crawford said.
Its website was exhibiting problems in July, and an automated email at the time said: “It is with a heavy heart that Panther M*lk has ceased trading on Friday 18th July due to financial difficulties.”
Sales of plant-based milk and drinks in the UK dipped by 2% in 2024. That said, they were bought by a third of households. And oat milk continues to remain popular: its volumes remained steady between 2023 and 2024, and it accounted for half of the segment’s sales last year.
At the same time, Brits are drinking less, with one in five saying they don’t partake at all. Over a third (38%) are now consuming low- or no-alcohol drinks at least occasionally, and they’re more popular among young generations.
These trends highlight the opportunity for brands like Panther M*lk, and Crawford himself has alluded to this. “The landscape of the drinks industry has evolved significantly since we started. Consumers are more health-conscious and environmentally aware, and Panther M*lk sits comfortably within these trends as a lower ABV, plant-based option,” he said last year.
It’s an unfortunate and unexpected end for Crawford and Beastly Brews, but it’s a fate that has befallen many of his plant-based counterparts recently. In the UK alone, pea milk brand Mighty Drinks fell into administration this summer, before being rescued by Cypriot firm The Mighty Kitchen. Meanwhile, ready meal startup Allplants went bankrupt last year, with Plants and Grubby buying off its assets.
Spanish firm Novameat has expanded its line of pulled plant-based meats with clean-label pork and lamb alternatives for foodservice.
A year after securing $19.2M in Series A funding, Novameat has introduced two new meat alternatives that meet consumer demand for clean-label formulations and improved texture.
The Barcelona-based startup has added lamb and pork to its signature pulled meat lineup, joining beef and chicken to round out the range. They will be available to foodservice partners, distributors and manufacturers from September 1.
The launch comes just as Spanish consumers actively look to cut back on animal proteins. But at the same time, vegan alternatives face a threat from the ultra-processed food (UPF) discourse, a fact Novameat looks to address with its recipes.
Courtesy: Novameat
Pulled pork and lamb nail texture with minimal ingredients
The Pulled Lamb Style product is designed to take aim at a market with few competitors, but with a clean-label twist. It contains just six ingredients: water, pea protein, sunflower oil, seaweed extract, vinegar, and a plant-derived flavouring blend.
The startup said the lamb represents a “significant R&D breakthrough”, as its distinct flavour and delicate mouthfeel are hard to replicate. It can be used in traditional applications like slow-roasted dishes, tagine, and gyros, and contains 19g of protein and 3.5g of fibre per 100g.
The plant-based pulled pork, meanwhile, enters a much more crowded market. But Novameat is looking to differentiate itself with the shredded format, which helps mimic the “juicy, fibrous texture” of the meat. It works as a star ingredient in a range of dishes, from barbecues and burritos to bowls and baos.
This alternative is made from the same base of water, pea protein, sunflower oil, seaweed extract and vinegar, with added natural aromas, carrot and radish concentrates, and malted barley extract. It boasts 19.4g of protein and 3.3g of fibre per 100g.
Both products are free from soy and gluten and require “no complex additives”, the company said, positioning each innovation as an “inclusive protein source for everyone”.
They also key into a major consumer pain point. Globally, the texture of plant-based meats is as important as their conventional counterparts for 75% of consumers, but only about 60% are actually satisfied with it.
This is thanks to Novameat’s MicroForce technology, which uses standard food industry equipment with some patented tweaks to achieve the same fibrous texture as 3D printing, but on a much bigger scale.
“Our proprietary technology allows us to avoid complex additives like methylcellulose and carrageenan, which manufacturers commonly use for texture,” Novameat founder and CEO Giuseppe Scionti told Green Queen. “This is a major breakthrough, as consumers are now more conscious than ever about what they’re eating and are looking for a short list of natural, recognisable ingredients.”
Courtesy: Novameat
Novameat bets on Spain’s shifting protein preferences
“By expanding our pulled category with two new, less common plant-based meats, we are providing a toolkit for chefs to explore a lot further than before,” said Scionti. “These products are a testament to our commitment to relentless innovation and a promise that the plant-based future doesn’t have to compromise on taste, texture, or culinary experience.”
Novameat’s pulled meat alternatives will appeal to Europeans deterred by the UPF tag, which has led many to think that plant-based meat is unhealthy, despite experts warning that the level of processing doesn’t define a food’s nutritional credentials. In fact, leading health organisations have suggested that vegan meat analogues are part of the good-for-you UPF subset.
Still, two in five Europeans are actively avoiding processed foods, and 60% would like to do so in the future, according to a survey of nearly 20,000 consumers this year.
For many consumers, the ingredient list is an indicator of a product’s processing level, although there is no defined definition of ‘clean label’. Research shows that two in three Europeans reconsider their purchases based on ingredient lists, with 60% of Spaniards finding it important to understand the origin of the ingredients.
Novameat will benefit from the relatively short and clean ingredient labels of its pulled pork and lamb, aided by Spain’s waning appetite for meat. A recent poll suggested that four in five consumers have either cut their meat consumption, thought about doing so, or are willing to consider it.
This is despite two in five Spaniards (39%) increasing their protein intake last year. Encouragingly for plant-based companies, 35% of them upped their consumption of protein through vegan food.
The main driver of meat reduction is health, as cited by 42% of people who have already cut back, and 41% who are mulling the change. Meanwhile, nearly half of the respondents believe vegan diets are better for the planet and their wallets, and 43% find them healthier.
Courtesy: Novameat
These findings chime with another poll conducted by the country’s plant-based meat leader, Heura, last year, where 86% of Spaniards said they’d eat more plant-based meat if it offered nutritional and taste parity to animal proteins, alongside a lower environmental impact.
Novameat, which also sells products in the UK and the Netherlands, has been scaling up production both at its Barcelona facility and through manufacturing partnerships. Its products have appeared at Disfrutar, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant voted the world’s best last year. It will hope to impress more foodservice operators and consumers with the latest innovations.
“The fantastic feedback we have received on our new product range in the UK, Spain and the Netherlands has given us the confidence to roll out our launch into new regions in Europe, including France, Italy, and Germany,” chief commercial officer John Gray told Green Queen. “Our goal is to build solid foundations in these markets, collaborating to grow sales in both the foodservice and retail trade channels.”
Like, the plant protein brand owned by Livekindly Collective, is returning to UK shelves with three SKUs across all major supermarkets.
Livekindly Collective is bringing back its Like brand of plant-based meat to the UK, around three years after it quietly exited the market.
The German brand’s vegan chicken nuggets, popcorn chicken, and hot dogs will debut at Tesco on September 8, followed by a wider rollout at Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Asda and Iceland.
Its products were previously available in the UK, through retailers including Tesco and Iceland, but had been discontinued around 2022. While there was no official explanation, the move was likely due to post-Brexit import and shipping costs.
Now, Like is targeting young Brits who are looking to reduce their meat intake, but will face challenges in a market that has altered significantly since it was last there.
High in protein, low in saturated fat
Courtesy: Like
Like was co-founded in 2013 by Robert Haub and Timo Recker (the latter went on to co-found fellow plant protein startup Tindle Foods). The firm was acquired by Livekindly Collective, a roll-up company owned by investment firm Blue Horizon, in 2020.
According to the company, it is the second-largest plant-based food brand in Germany. With products also available in the Nordics, the Netherlands, and the US, it is now moving to the second-largest market for vegan food in Europe.
Like offers frozen products that can be cooked and eaten on their own as snacks, but also work as ingredients in protein bowls, salads, pastas and wraps. All the SKUs are priced at £2.75.
The hot dogs are made from wheat gluten, textured soy protein, soy protein isolate and sunflower oil, alongside starches, seasonings, and methylcellulose. Each 360g pack contains eight links, which have 7g of protein and 4.5g of fat (with only 0.6g of saturated fat).
The chicken burger also contains textured soy protein and wheat gluten, alongside more than 30 other ingredients. Each 80g patty has 9.6g of protein, 4.7g of fibre, and 3.2g of fat (of which only 0.3g is saturated). They come in 320g packs of four.
Finally, the nuggets also have a rather long ingredient list, and comprise textured soy protein, textured soy protein concentrate, soy protein isolate, and sunflower oil. They come in 300g packs, with 11g of protein, 4.5g of fibre and 9g of fat (1.2g saturated) per 100g.
“Like recipes are HFSS-compliant, high in protein, low in saturated fat and a source of fibre. With sustainability KPIs, the retailers also welcomed the news that all Like packaging is fully recyclable,” said Emma Herring, Livekindly Collective’s UK marketing manager.
Like takes on UK’s conflicted appetite for plant-based meat
Courtesy: Like
Moving into the UK market in 2025 brings about both opportunities and obstacles for plant-based meat producers. Meat purchases fell by 13% between 2018-19 and 2022-23, leading some to suggest that the country has reached “peak meat”. But it’s unclear whether this is a temporary response to the cost-of-living crisis or the beginning of a longer-term trend.
And while 47% of Brits believe eating less meat and dairy would help reduce climate harm, only 27% are consuming fewer animal proteins to benefit the planet. Similarly, despite three in five consumers being willing to cut back on meat, the share of those who eat it at least five times a week rose from 43% in 2022 to 50% in 2024.
Sales of meat alternatives, meanwhile, fell by 7% last year, as Brits opted for traditional plant proteins like tofu and beans, leading even meat alternative makers to develop whole-food options. At the same time, 9% of Brits are either vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian, and another 31% identify as flexitarians. And half of them want to further change their diets by either eating less meat and dairy (33%) and/or more plant-based foods (38%).
“Gen Z flexitarians are an important consumer segment in the meat-free category, and with its bold, impactful look, feel and appetite appeal, combined with our exciting marketing plans, [the] Like brand is well placed to engage this audience,” argued Herring.
But Like’s appeal to younger generations may prove to be tricky, especially when it comes to Gen Z men. In the UK, men aged 16-24 are twice as likely to have increased their annual meat intake as men of all other ages, and 17% of young men feel uncomfortable eating plant-based food in public (versus 11% of all men).
In fact, this demographic has the lowest percentage of people who have reduced their meat intake in the last year (16%) and the highest of those who have been eating more (19%), according to the Food Foundation.
However, Like’s frozen-only approach could pay off. The freezer accounts for 57% of plant-based meat volume sales in the UK, where it is 40% cheaper per kg than the fridge. “We believe we have found a sweet spot in this category, ticking taste and health credentials, two key drivers for attracting a younger audience, but at a more accessible price point than other taste-led brands in the category,” said Herring.
The LiveKindly Collective-owned brand will hope that these enable it to compete with established breaded vegan chicken players like Quorn, Bird’s Eye, Moving Mountains, and VFC, as well as hot dog alternative makers like Fry’s Family Foods.
As Ozempic pushes food companies to reformulate their products, scientists have developed fat-trapping plant-based microbeads that could rival weight-loss drugs.
While weight-loss medications like Ozempic and Wegovy continue to take hold of America’s food and health systems, demand for ‘natural’ drug-free alternatives is on the up too.
These drugs work by replicating GLP-1, an incretin hormone naturally released in the gut, which reduces appetite and prolongs the feeling of being full, and helps regulate blood sugar levels and manage weight.
However, they come with a host of side effects, including gastrointestinal issues such as nausea and vomiting, mental health problems like anxiety and irritability, and a phenomenon dubbed ‘Ozempic tongue’ (when people’s taste receptors react differently to foods than they did before GLP-1 use). They’re also costly. A month’s supply of Ozempic will run you around $1,000 in the US.
It has spurred startups and scientists to find cheaper, drug-free alternatives sans the side effects. In a new project, scientists at China’s Sichuan University have developed edible microbeads that bind to fats in the gastrointestinal tracts upon consumption. In preliminary trials with rats, they found that this weight-loss approach may be safer and more accessible than surgery or pharmaceuticals.
How the Ozempic-targeting microbeads were created
Made from green tea polyphenols, vitamin E and seaweed, the solution works similarly to orlistat, a weight-loss drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Orlistat inhibits certain gastric enzymes from breaking down dietary fats, leading to less fat being absorbed by the body, the researchers note. But for some people, it can cause serious side effects, including liver and kidney damage.
The Chinese researchers, therefore, sought to target the fat absorption process without side effects. “We want to develop something that works with how people normally eat and live,” said Yue Wu, a graduate student at Sichuan University.
She and her team created tiny plant-based beads that spontaneously form through a series of chemical bonds between the green tea polyphenols and vitamin E. These structures can form chemical tethers to fat droplets and serve as the fat-binding core of the microbeads.
Then, the researchers coated the spheres with a seaweed-derived polymer to protect them from the acidic environment in the stomach. Once consumed, this coating expands in response to the acidic pH, and the green tea polyphenols and vitamin E compounds bind to and trap partially digested fats in the intestine.
“Losing weight can help some people prevent long-term health issues like diabetes and heart disease,” said Wu. “Our microbeads work directly in the gut to block fat absorption in a non-invasive and gentle way.”
Plant-based beads could be used as boba pearls
Courtesy: Yue Wu/American Chemical Society
To examine the beads’ efficacy as a weight-loss treatment, the researchers conducted a month-long trial on rats. Those who ate a high-fat diet (comprising 60% fats) and microbeads lost 17% of their body weight, whereas rats who consumed the same diet without the microbeads did not lose any weight. Even those fed a normal diet (10% fats) didn’t lose weight.
In addition, the microbead-consuming rats had reduced adipose tissue and less liver damage compared to the others, and excreted more fat in their faeces (which had no apparent ill effects on their health). Moreover, the high-fat, microbead-eating rats showed similar intestinal fat excretion as a fourth group of rats treated with orlistat, without the gastrointestinal side effects.
The authors have now begun a human clinical trial with 26 participants in collaboration with Sichuan University’s West China Hospital, whose preliminary data is expected within the next year.
Since the microbeads are “nearly flavourless”, the researchers said they can easily be integrated into people’s diets – for example, they could be made into small tapioca- or boba-like balls and added to desserts and bubble teas.
Wu and her colleagues are already working with a biotech company to manufacture the plant-based microbeads. “All the ingredients are food grade and FDA-approved, and their production can be easily scaled up,” said co-author Yunxiang He, an associate professor at Sichuan University.
The beads are the latest example of food-based alternatives to GLP-1 drugs. Scientists in Spain last year discovered two plant extracts that could be used as weight-loss pills without the side effects. Meanwhile, Chilean startup NotCo has teased a botanical-based GLP-1 Booster that can be added to any food to help you feel satiated and eat less.
Likewise, Israel’s Lembas has created a bioactive peptide to activate the body’s GLP-1 hormone. It can be used in bars, snacks, shakes, beverages, supplements, and more. And brands like Supergut are using probiotic fibre and resistant starches to create GLP-1 boosters.
Just $1 can help avert a decade of animal suffering in factory farms. One podcast episode helped raise over $2M for some of the world’s leading non-profits advocating for better diets.
Most of the world’s meat and seafood comes from factory farms. According to one estimate, 94% of our animal protein supply is sourced from these concentrated feeding operations globally. In the US, this jumps to 99%.
Research has found factory farming to be the worst form of protein production across a number of environmental, social, and health metrics. It’s what spurs animal rights and future food charities to fight these systems, but they face a critical bottleneck: money.
Last year, this movement spent $260M to help shift our food systems away from industrial livestock farming. In contrast, the global meat market was worth $1.4T last year – if you take the 94% statistic, factory-farmed meat generated over $1.3T in revenue.
So $260M is a 0.02% drop in the bucket to combat the industrial meat machine. It’s why efforts to get people to reduce meat have largely gone in vain.
But this month, one fundraiser displayed the strength of the animal rights movement, stemming from an episode of tech podcaster Dwarkesh Patel’s show. With Lewis Bollard, farm animal welfare director at Open Philanthropy, as his guest, Patel announced that if his listeners donated $250,000 in total to FarmKind, a non-profit that distributes donations to charities fighting factory farming, he would match that.
“The welfare of animals on factory farms is so systemically neglected that just $1 can help avert 10 years of animal suffering,” he wrote.
That target was met within two days, after going a bit viral. And two weeks later, the fundraiser blew past its organisers’ expectations, having raised $2M (close to 1% of the total annual budget of the anti-factory-farming movement).
Who invested in FarmKind’s anti-factory-farming fundraiser?
“As Dwarkesh explains in the podcast, this cause is one he’d known was important, but had dropped off his radar for a while,” Aidan Alexander, co-founder and director of platform and charity recommendations at FarmKind, tells Green Queen.
“When he booked Lewis as a podcast guest, he saw it as an opportunity to try and raise some funds, but they needed an appropriate home for the fundraiser with a warm, welcoming brand for the general population – this is where FarmKind came in,” he says.
Alexander explains that Dwarkesh’s promise to match $250,000 in donations was redeemed within 48 hours. But that sent the ball rolling.
“Next, Patrick Collison, Stripe co-founder and CEO, added a further $250,000 in match funding,” explains Alexander. “When it became clear that the $500,000 total would also be fully redeemed, several prominent figures in the tech and finance world chipped in, adding an additional $500,000 to the matching fund, taking it to $1M.”
These included Arcadia Science co-founder and CEO Seemay Chou, Stellar Development Foundation’s Jed McCaleb (each of whom committed up to $250,000), XN founder and CEO Gaurav Kapadia (up to $100,000), Mobius founder Ariel Nessel, Lantern Ventures’s Tyler Maule and the Dahna Foundation (up to $50,000 each).
Overall, Alexander says hundreds of people made their first-ever donations to help farmed animals, reaching the $2M total 11 days after the fundraiser began.
Courtesy: FarmKind
Which charities do the funds go to?
“The money goes to whichever of our charities the donor selects, but the default option that almost all donors choose is our Impact Fund, which is made up of our six recommended charities,” says Alexander.
These are the Humane League, the Fish Welfare Initiative, the Shrimp Welfare Project, Sinergia Animal, the Good Food Institute, and the Danish Vegetarian Association. The latter three also form FarmKind’s Climate Fund. They’re chosen by the organisation after rigorous assessment and in tandem with expert grantmakers to “maximise the difference” the donations make.
“The Impact Fund is currently divided roughly six ways (with the proportions each organisation gets ranging from 14-17%),” notes Alexander “The funds will be used to scale their programmes that fight factory farming.
“Some of the main types of programmes are persuading governments to support the move to a fairer, kinder and more sustainable food system, helping companies to produce food without factory farming (making cruelty-free options better and more available), and winning corporate commitments to phase out cruel practices (like ‘battery cages’ for hens and confining mother pigs).”
Courtesy: FarmKind
Are dietary offsets better than advocating for veganism?
According to FarmKind’s impact calculator, the money raised from Patel’s podcast can reduce the suffering of around 26,000 cows, 835,000 pigs, 2.2 million chickens, 780,000 fish, and 420 million shrimp.
So far, FarmKind has raised $2.4M (or close to $3M when including the expected value of its 450 monthly donors) for its dietary offsets approach. The non-profit argues that this may be a better way to end factory farming than asking people to go vegan.
“Writing a check is a much easier ask than changing your entire diet, which means more people will actually help. The numbers bear this out: about 14% of Americans already donate to animal causes each year, almost three times as many people as identify as vegetarian or vegan,” co-founder and outreach director Thom Norman wrote in an op-ed for Green Queen in March.
“Our experience running FarmKind has been that almost everyone loves animals and thinks factory farming is a bad system. People are willing and excited to help if you make it easy for them to do so. So we weren’t surprised by donors’ willingness,” says Alexander. “However, we didn’t anticipate just how much funding would be raised so quickly. It’s very heartening to see so many new supporters take their first action for farmed animals.”
Food companies in the UK must accelerate a switch to plant-based diets to fight climate change and lower the risk of biodiversity extinction, according to a new report.
Global wildlife populations have shrunk by 73% in the last 50 years, primarily due to human activity. Without urgent reforms to the food system, the world’s journey towards a sixth mass extinction event will only accelerate, a report by the UK’s Food Foundation shows.
“Food production and diets – particularly those high in animal-source foods – play a critical role in driving this catastrophic loss of biodiversity and nature,” it stated. Agriculture contributes heavily to greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, and exerts pressure on ecosystems in several ways.
Food production damages biodiversity, but at the same time, a loss of biodiversity can harm food production. “Rethinking what we eat and how we produce food has the potential to mitigate the harm current food systems are having on nature and the environment, as well as unlocking significant benefits for public health and the economy,” the report said.
“Changing how we produce food and shifting diets towards more healthy and sustainable plant-rich patterns ought to be a key strategy for ensuring the sustainability of our food supply and safeguarding our future.”
How meat production is driving biodiversity loss
Courtesy: Food Foundation
The report warned that the UK government’s failure to address biodiversity loss in the agrifood industry right now will lead to much greater economic costs down the line. Nature loss is set to reduce the country’s growth by 6-12% in the 2030s, exceeding the impacts of the 2008 financial crash or Covid-19.
Acting swiftly to protect nature and biodiversity could generate $10T in economic value and nearly 400 million jobs globally by the end of the decade, but postponing action by just 10 years could double today’s intervention costs.
Agriculture is the primary driver of nature and biodiversity loss, and the current system of subsidies reinforces harmful production and consumption practices, causing $4-6T in climate damages every year. There are plenty of opportunities to transform the food system, though, with a shift to plant-rich diets among the most viable and effective.
“Diversifying consumption patterns away from high intakes of less healthy foods and animal-source products, and increasing intakes of plant-rich foods, has climate, nature and health benefits,” the report said. The net benefits of transforming food systems to be healthier and more sustainable while providing decent livelihoods have been estimated at $4.5-10B annually.
“Current UK dietary patterns, especially the consumption of red or ruminant meats like beef and lamb, are directly linked to increased extinction risks for numerous species,” the organisation wrote. On average, Brits consume twice as much meat as the global average. But “shifting to plant-based diets could reduce the projected number of extinctions linked to current dietary habits by 58%” over the next 100 years.
The Food Foundation noted that while meat can be part of a balanced diet, consumers in affluent countries need to eat much less meat than they do right now. In 2021, the UK’s independent National Food Strategy recommended a 30% reduction in meat consumption by 2032, while this year, the Climate Change Committee called for a 25% decrease by 2040 and 35% by 2050.
“These data show that eating less meat is also necessary to minimise the impact of our diets on species extinction and protect our planet’s biodiversity,” the report said.
Less intensive, regenerative meat ‘not a realistic solution’
Courtesy: Food Foundation
According to the Food Foundation, there is “significant scope” for reducing the harm to nature by shifting to plant-forward diets. In recent decades, 65% of agricultural expansion has been linked to increased animal-based food production, while land use change associated with livestock farming has accounted for 30% of global biodiversity loss.
Some have advocated for a less intensive, more regenerative approach to animal agriculture. However, the report said that although these strategies are important, they’re “not a realistic solution with current levels of livestock and meat consumption”.
“It is true that certain grazing methods on pasture can deliver environmental benefits, including improvements in soil health and biodiversity,” it stated. “However, there is simply not enough land available globally to farm the current livestock population in this way. The evidence shows that it will not be possible to reach climate and nature targets without producing and consuming less meat and reducing livestock numbers.”
The Food Foundation is calling on businesses and investors to support climate- and nature-friendly solutions, such as shifting to portfolios promoting plant-rich diets and investing in more sustainable farming practices. Only 5% of companies assess nature-related impacts, and less than 1% understand their dependency on nature. Meanwhile, only 2% of businesses have board-level expertise on biodiversity or climate. These gaps must be addressed too.
One major opportunity for the food industry could lie in a traditional plant protein category: beans. The Food Foundation last year found that beans and grains are, on average, the strongest-performing foods on sustainability, nutrition and price fronts. And in May, it urged policymakers and businesses to take action to boost the uptake of plant-rich diets in the UK, with a focus on whole-food sources like beans.
“The Food Foundation is calling on the government to deliver an ambitious edible horticulture growth plan for British farmers and growers across all of the devolved nations for an expanded, vibrant, and thriving horticulture sector,” it said in the biodiversity report. “This would support the production and increased consumption of plant foods, including beans as well as fruit and vegetables, that can be grown in the UK, and ensure the UK is not unsustainably reliant on imports.”
Baroness (Joan) Walmsley said the report exhibited the importance of government action on transitioning towards plant-forward diets. “If we are to have a healthy population who can help grow our economy, we need access to healthy and sustainable foods, especially from fruit, veg, beans and other plant-rich sources,” she stated.
“Rethinking what we eat and how we produce food has the potential to mitigate the harm current food systems are having on the environment, as well as unlocking significant benefits for public health and the economy.”
British vegan meal kit startup Grubby has introduced its debut frozen ready meal range, bringing back the Allplants recipes it acquired earlier this year.
The line of nine products marks Grubby’s first foray into the frozen meal space, and is a recreation of the original Allplants recipes, with a clean and bold packaging refresh. Each of the meals is high in protein, fibre and plant diversity, aligning with the UK’s appetite for whole-food options and the ‘30 plants a week‘ movement.
“We promised to bring the much-loved allplants products back to life for customers and, after months of hard work, we are delighted to deliver on our commitment,” said Grubby founder and CEO Martin Holden-White.
Courtesy: Grubby/Green Queen
Grubby goes big on protein, fibre, and plant points
Allplants had raised £67M, amassed nearly 200,000 Instagram followers, and sold six million meals within the first three months of its retail debut in November 2022. But losses mounted for the firm due to inflation, supply chain disruptions, and rising interest rates, forcing it into administration last November.
In February, Ella and Matthew Mills – who sold their Deliciously Ella brand to Hero Group in 2024 – took over Allplants’s brand assets and merged it with their Plants label. But the deal did not include Allplants’s products, recipes or manufacturing methods, which were bought by Grubby shortly after.
“The incredible work [Allplants co-founder] Jonathan Petrides and his team did in developing these dishes was a true asset of the brand, and we’re delighted that they will live on, with a refreshed Grubby spin as part of our exciting expansion into ready meals,” said Holden-White.
Courtesy: Allplants/Grubby/Green Queen
Five of the relaunched meals – cashew mac and greens, Tex Mex protein bowl, tofu saag curry, miso-tamari Buddha bowl, and spicy Szechuan noodles – have been soft-launched on Grubby’s website this week. The other four include a harissa cauliflower grain bowl, chickpea apricot tagine, tempeh rainbow buddha bowl, and creamy ‘nduja rigatoni.
The meals can be cooked in the microwave, oven or pan in minutes, and are targeted towards “busy, health-conscious urban professionals”. They have an average of 23g of protein, 13 plant points, and 10g of fibre (though the protein content ranges from 18g all the way up to 33g).
They can be added to existing Grubby meal kit subscriptions as extras, or purchased as a standalone frozen meal subscription. They start from £4.84 per serving for 15–16 meals, with 25% off for new subscribers, and will begin shipping on August 22.
Grubby competes with Plants on Allplants revival
Courtesy: Grubby
“This launch represents an exciting evolution for Grubby,” said Holden-White. “We’ve always believed eating more plants should be effortless, delicious, and genuinely impactful. With our new ready meals, we’re making it easier than ever for people to enjoy exceptional plant-powered food without compromising on taste or convenience.”
The 2019-founded startup has sold over 100,000 meal kits. In March, it reported year-to-date revenue growth of 21%, thanks mainly to improved customer retention, with one-year retention up by 140% in the previous 12 months. Grubby’s EBITDA – revenue excluding all non-operational expenses – also improved by 56% year-on-year.
The company is set to expand to 15 frozen meal products by the end of the year, and also has plans for a retail launch in motion. These moves are intended to bring Grubby closer to its goal of breaking even in 2026.
Allplants’s revival is in full flow, with Plants also announcing a frozen meal range with a new-look Allplants logo, which will be available from August 26. The 10-strong lineup includes aubergine parmigiana, canellini bean mac and greens, and a spicy harissa and chickpea stew, with each product priced between £4.50 and £6.
“You’ll be able to get them from some of your favourite retailers, as well as coming straight to your door, and we have been cooking, tasting, testing, experimenting with all sorts of amazing flavours to get a range that really is so delicious,” Mills said on Instagram earlier this month. “But we’ve also been working on our branding as well, and how we bring Plants and Allplants together.”
Grubby and Allplants have unique strategies to build on Allplants’s success, but will there be space for both brands? It remains to be seen, but with veg-based ready meals being the most frequently consumed plant-based products in the UK, the tide is in their favour.
“A bit of healthy competition is great for the category,” Holden-White said. “And ultimately, it just means more plant-based options on more plates. I’m looking forward to the friendly fight.”
SuperYou, the Indian protein startup co-owned by Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh, has launched a yeast protein powder big on gut health and sustainability.
Depending on who you ask, India may or may not have a protein deficiency problem. Regardless, people in the world’s most populous nation are consuming more protein than ever before.
The issue is, animal-based sources are growing at a faster rate, a blight on the country’s climate ambitions. Agriculture accounts for 15% of India’s emissions, but two-thirds of this comes from livestock farming.
Responding to India’s protein demand, Mumbai-based SuperYou is bypassing both plants and animals, and betting big on yeast.
Co-founded by Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh, the startup has unveiled SuperYou Pro, a vegan protein powder made from biofermented brewer’s yeast, with added probiotics for gut wellness.
“When we learnt about it, the innovative bio-fermented yeast protein, we knew we had something revolutionary on our hands,” he said. Singh called SuperYou Pro “a breakthrough” that outperforms plant-based proteins and whey. “It’s a great gut-loving, clean and complete protein powder; it’s the love your muscles deserve.”
How SuperYou’s yeast protein powder is made
Courtesy: SuperYou
Founded in 2023 by Singh and co-founder Nikunj Biyani, SuperYou has previously launched chips with plant proteins and a wafer line blending milk protein with its fermented yeast protein. Now, it’s spotlighting the latter in protein powder form.
To make the ingredient, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewer’s yeast) is mixed with molasses, then fermented in bioreactors to produce proteins and other nutrients. The yeast protein is then separated and purified, before being shipped to SuperYou’s facilities in India. The waste from this process is used as bio-organic fertiliser.
SuperYou Pro is available in four variants: chocolate, coffee, masala chai, and unflavoured. Each contains a base of fermented yeast protein, chicory root fibre, monkfruit powder (for sweetening), bromelain and papain for enhanced digestion and anti-inflammation benefits, and a probiotic for gut wellbeing.
It’s free from soy, dairy and gluten, and contains 24-27g of protein per 36g serving. SuperYou Pro is a complete protein with all nine amino acids and a PDCAAS score of 1.0 (the same as whey, casein, and egg whites). The product is designed to enhance absorption and digestibility, and aid gut health and muscle recovery.
“When I discovered biofermented protein technology, the most advanced and gut-friendly protein innovation, I knew we had to bring it to India,” said Biyani. “We wanted to create a protein powder that delivers clean nutrition, tastes great and performs even better. SuperYou Pro is exactly that.”
The protein is verified by India’s National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, with quality backing from agencies in China and Australia. It’s manufactured in a GMP-accredited facility certified by the US Food and Drug Administration, and is available online, on grocery delivery apps, and in retail stores across India for ₹3,000 ($34.34) per kg.
SuperYou looks to lead India’s protein race
Courtesy: SuperYou
SuperYou is targeting India’s growing performance nutrition market with the new protein powder, suggesting that it is suitable for gym-goers, athletes chasing their personal best, post-run recovery, or even for those simply looking to keep active.
“It performs like whey, tastes great, but without any of the gut discomfort. Our goal with Pro is to make high-performance protein inclusive, clean, and easy to consume without the fuss,” said Biyani.
SuperYou also claims the new product has sensory benefits. “It’s got none of that grainy, chalky texture that we’re used to when we’re drinking protein. It’s just a smooth, flavourful protein that you will actually enjoy,” said Singh.
Plus, it requires much less land and water than animal protein, while generating far fewer greenhouse gas emissions. With the new product, SuperYou is aiming to capture 10% of India’s $1.5B protein market within the next 12 months.
Fellow protein firm Cosmix also sells a range of protein powders blending yeast protein isolate with pea protein, and Soulfuel also sells a protein powder made from brewer’s yeast. Meanwhile, sports nutrition brand Unived has also teased a yeast protein product launch.
According to Ipsos, India’s alternative protein ecosystem is “on the brink of transformation”, complemented by more awareness around lactose intolerance (which 60% of Indians suffer from) and a concerted effort to eat more protein.
It’s not just brands looking for a slice of India’s protein pie – restaurants are getting in the act too. Last month, McDonald’s launched vegetarian slices (made from soy, pea and whey) to add 5g of protein each to any burger at all its stores in West and South India.
Barcelona-based Väcka has unveiled a fresh identity with a foray into functional health, starting with four nutrition-packed plant-based dairy offerings.
Spanish plant-based startup Väcka is diving headfirst into consumers’ demand for products that support functional health and gut wellness with a new non-dairy portfolio and brand refresh.
While it has made its name on fermented vegan cheese, the company is evolving into a nutrition-focused business with its revamped identity. It has launched a Functional Series of products packed with protein and fibre, two key macronutrients in today’s CPG landscape.
“This range of products was born from the blends we made ourselves to consume in our daily lives, as we play sports and take care of our health,” co-founders Ana Luz and Maxime Boniface said in a joint statement. “For us, it is key to maintain a healthy microbiota and consume products that help us improve our performance.”
Why Vãcka is leaning into a health-first philosophy
Courtesy: Väcka
According to Väcka, being plant-based is no longer enough – consumers want clean-label, natural formulations that offer “real health benefits”.
Indeed, a large EU-wide survey earlier this year revealed that people are prioritising health over sustainability in their food choices, with more than half (51%) of Europeans wanting to eat healthier food (compared to just 9% who want to eat in an eco-friendly manner).
Only 15% of consumers said they’d like to make changes to their current diets, and of those, 65% mentioned healthier eating as the priority improvement. At the same time, less than one in five (18%) of Europeans avoid animal-based foods like meat or dairy.
Globally, too, flexitarians place an equal emphasis on taste and nutrition, with 63% calling them a joint top driver for plant protein consumption. But health continues to be their main reason for choosing a flexitarian lifestyle, with 86% feeling it’s healthier to get protein from a wider variety of sources.
Another EU-based poll, meanwhile, revealed that dairy is the most frequently consumed food group: 46% of respondents ate these products daily, and 77% don’t intend to cut back on them. And for over four in five Europeans, it’s important that the food they eat on a typical day is healthy.
In Spain, where Väcka operates, 88% of nutritional professionals agree that plant-based dairy products can be part of a healthy diet. Around half of them also said vegan alternatives are nutritionally equivalent to dairy, with 15% finding them superior.
New products include creamer, functional topping, and protein powder
Courtesy: Väcka
It’s these insights that form the backbone of Väcka’s foray into functional health. Its new Digestive Creamer is a powdered version to mix into coffee, smoothies and other plant-based drinks. It’s made from a base of rice, whole oats and coconut MCT, and contains probiotics and prebiotic fibres. Each 10g serving provides the daily recommended intake of Lactospore, and supports balanced bowel movements, relieves bloating, improves digestion, and boosts intestinal health.
The second product in Väcka’s Functional Series is a savoury Functional Topping comprising almonds, nutritional yeast, cashews, hemp protein, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and lion’s mane mushroom. It’s designed to add flavour, texture and nutritional value to a range of dishes, and contains 32g of protein and 9g of fibre per jar. It supports cognitive function and boosts the immune system, while also being a source of calcium, omega-3 and omega-6.
Väcka has additionally introduced a three-ingredient Protein Cream made from cashew butter, hemp protein, and salt. It can be spread on toast or mixed with water to form a creamy base for dishes, and contains 60g of protein and 8g of fibre per container.
Finally, it has launched a Power Blend protein powder with a base of rice, hemp and pea proteins. It’s nearly 70% protein, has a complete amino acid profile, and can be blended with fruits, water, or plant-based milk.
Aside from the new line, Väcka has reformulated two of its existing products. Its paprika-rind Vera cheese now contains hemp protein, boasting 19g of protein per serving, as well as a better texture and flavour. Its brie alternative, called Vrie, now has no coconut oil, instead relying on sunflower oil. The latter is also said to be more stable and have a superior texture.
It’s the biggest shift in the company’s 10-year history, with new packaging that highlights the nutritional credentials on the front label. Separately, it is part of the EU’s €5M Delicious programme, which is focused on creating better-tasting, more nutritious fermented vegan cheeses.
“We will focus on semi-hard cheeses (Gruyère, manchego, comté, etc.) as there is a gap in this category regarding plant-based alternatives,” Boniface told Green Queen in January. “The idea is to be able to mimic the texture, behaviour and flavours of that category.”
Rumours suggest that Beyond Meat is considering a bankruptcy filing amid falling sales, but the plant-based giant has vehemently denied the claim.
Beyond Meat, the company that put plant-based meat as we know it today on the map, has come out strongly against media reports alleging that it has filed for bankruptcy.
The Californian vegan pioneer has had a tough couple of years, with sales falling further this year and its stock price at a fraction of its IPO value six years ago. Its year-on-year revenue slimmed by 20% in Q2 2025, prompting the company to announce a new round of layoffs and appoint John Boken, managing director of corporate restructuring consultancy AlixPartners, as its interim chief transformation officer.
But the latter development has led some media outlets to speculate (or declare) that the company is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Financial news site The Street‘s headline states Beyond Meat “is headed” towards bankruptcy, while UK newspaper The Independent also nodded to the rumour in its URL.
Indian publications The Economic Times and Hindustan Times also reported on the claim. They based their reporting on lawyer John T Orcutt’s blog, which said “reports confirmed” the news, but did not post a source. A host of other outlets have disseminated the rumour, including a vegan news publication.
But before the story spiralled, Beyond Meat came out with a strong statement refuting the reports. “Recent media stories suggesting that Beyond Meat filed for bankruptcy are unequivocally false,” the company tweeted.
“We have not filed nor are we planning to file for bankruptcy. Go Beyond.”
Recent media stories suggesting that Beyond Meat filed for bankruptcy are unequivocally false. We have not filed nor are we planning to file for bankruptcy.
In 2024, Beyond Meat recorded its lowest revenue in five years, reaching just $326M. But in the first six months of 2025, it has posted just $144M in sales, a near-15% drop from the same period a year ago.
The company’s continued struggles have forced it to cut back its workforce. In February, it announced that it would lay off 9% of its global workforce, or 64 employees, which included all its staff in China, where it has suspended operations.
And this month, it said it would let go of 44 employees in North America, though it isn’t clear if this is part of the same job cuts as above, or an additional round of layoffs.
Beyond Meat blamed its poor sales performance on softening demand and reduced distribution in US retail, and low sales of its burger products to restaurants internationally. It also hired Boken to drive its operational footprint into the current revenue environment and accelerate margin improvements, with the goal of becoming EBITDA-positive within the second half of 2026.
“It’s a pretty broadly skilled position. I can’t comment on how much time he has. We’re really enjoying him being here. So hopefully, we’ll get some good work done together,” founder and CEO Ethan Brown said in an earnings call.
Courtesy: Beyond Meat
Could going beyond meat mimics help pay off its debt by 2027?
Beyond Meat has an outstanding debt of $1.1B, owing to convertible notes (a type of investment that begins as a loan and turns into equity) that are due to be paid back in 2027.
The company has been working on several solutions to address the debt. It was reportedly in talks with bondholders to restructure its debt in 2024. And this year, it secured a $100M debt financing facility to enhance its liquidity from Unprocessed Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ahimsa Foundation, a non-profit advancing plant-based diets.
So you’d think Beyond Meat has at least until 2027 to pay off its debt and avoid bankruptcy. The firm has made a radical move to turn its fortunes around: it’s dropping the word ‘Meat’ from its name to focus on traditional plant proteins.
Its next product, Beyond Ground, features just four ingredients – fava bean protein, potato protein, water and psyllium husk – and isn’t intended to mimic meat. “Going forward, we intend to increasingly use ‘Beyond’ as the primary brand,” Brown confirmed in the Q2 earnings call.
Courtesy: Beyond Meat/Green Queen
“We have been formally using the shortened mark in certain instances for some time now, and believe it provides for reduced emphasis on facsimile, a now-complicated frame that overshadows the real high-quality protein offerings we provide to consumers, and a widening of our aperture beyond animal protein replicates,” he said.
There have been several bankruptcies and acquisitions in the plant-based industry over the last 18 months, and more consolidation is expected. Aside from low sales, a lack of investment is also to blame. In Q2, plant-based companies only raised $127M, and this included the $100M secured by Beyond Meat.
That deal shows that the company still has some clout amid a dire investment landscape, and it will hope to use this to return to success before it’s too late.
Green Queen has contacted Beyond Meat for comment on the bankruptcy rumours.
In a country where veganism is confined to health stores and imported products, Ghaas Phoos is spearheading the fledgling plant-based movement in Pakistan.
Ailya Khan grew up on kebabs and tikkas, and hated vegetables. But her love for animals made her give up meat eventually.
The vegetarian samosas didn’t satisfy the strong cravings for the meat-rich dishes she was familiar with in Pakistan. There were barely any plant-based alternatives, and nothing satisfied her from a cultural, sensory, or emotional perspective.
“I struggled a lot to find affordable vegan food and realised that here in Pakistan, even people who want to go vegan, eat plant-based, or host plant-based events often can’t find ready-to-go vegan options or accessible plant-based catering services,” she says.
“It really hit me that most Pakistanis – and many people around the world – don’t have access to plant-based options that connect with our culture.”
That’s when she decided to take things into her own hands. In 2022, Khan founded Ghaas Phoos Plant-Based Foods, Pakistan’s first vegan meat startup. “The whole idea behind Ghaas Phoos (which literally means grass) was to reclaim the phrase, to make ‘grass’ common and even celebrated,” she explains.
In the subcontinent, ‘ghaas phoos’ is often used as a derogatory term for vegetarian food – it’s the South Asian equivalent of rabbit food, or the narrative that vegan food is just salads. “We take a fun and proud approach: feeding everyone ‘grass’, showing how creative and joyful plant-based food can be,” says Khan.
Ghaas Phoos has retail and foodservice expansion in sight
Courtesy: Ghaas Phoos Foods
Ghaas Phoos, though, is much more than grass. The startup’s offerings include soy-based kebabs and patties, mushroom biryani, and green pea kebabs, all infused with familiar Pakistani spices.
“We’ve also experimented with over 50 versions of local dishes behind the scenes, things like kulfi (a local ice cream), gulab jamun (milk-based doughballs in rose-cardamom syrup), haleem (a thick, low-cooked stew), dum kebab, makhni kebab, and more,” says Khan.
The startup operates a meal delivery model and is still in its beta-tasting phase, currently operating two to three days a week, based on pre-booked orders. Currently, it’s a team of three, with Khan joined by her sister and a cook.
“We personally handle deliveries within a 20km radius in Karachi, but we’re hoping to expand soon. Our meals are pre-cooked and served hot, and another revenue stream we’re developing is consulting for restaurants that want to add plant-based items to their menus,” she says.
“The response has been overwhelmingly positive. We have had organic reach on digital. We’ve had a lot of organic reviews – customers have been posting on their own accord on different food groups,” she says. “People have been very supportive of us with regard to a new, budding business.”
Phase two of its expansion plan concerns retail, with Ghaas Phoos aiming to start with frozen products within Karachi. “But for that, we’ll need a larger kitchen,” she notes.
Over the next 12 months, the startup is planning to open a small-scale café/kitchen to facilitate grab-n-go and in-house meals. “We’re not trying to compete with meat,” says Khan. “We’re here to showcase what kind of food innovation is possible with local ingredients and plants.”
Khan dismisses the idea that Pakistan is a meat-rich country, except for the three major cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. “Most local dishes are plant-based or vegetarian, due to the country’s agricultural nature,” she explains.
“In the last decade, we’ve seen a surge in the meatification of recipes and heavy dairy infiltration in the market. Even though most menus are now filled with meat and dairy items, people do want to try plant alternatives,” she adds.
To create demand, Khan says you have to help people find the right food: “We did one soft launch in 2022, and we’ve done R&D for two years. With our final launch in 2025, what we’ve seen is that people do show interest and buy the food, and most of our clients are consistent and repeat customers. This shows people are open to trying different cuisines, whether they are vegan or not.
“Pakistan has a very rich and diverse food landscape. Luckily, we are still connected to our traditions through food. Every celebration, every tradition revolves around food. If you give us a well-curated meal with the right spices, honesty, and tradition, it will be loved.”
She reiterates that the business isn’t mimicking meat, but instead banking on unique flavours, textures, and natural colours as its selling point: “We also like calling our products what they are, which has been received positively. We say mushroom biryani, mushroom qeema (mince), pea cutlets, plant-based kebabs, soy patties, egg-inspired plant-based eggs, and so on.”
Ghaas Phoos seeks investors as plant-based awareness grows
Courtesy: Ghaas Phoos Foods
Pakistan, for now, has few plant-based protein options. Some companies import international brands of non-dairy milk, while a few independent stores make their own. Accessibility is a major barrier to vegan eating in the country, according to Khan.
“Tofu and soy are not easily available. I only know five vegans, who make their own seitan. Beans are accessible, but turning them into plant-based meats like the ones available in the Middle East requires awareness, both in the investor community and among restaurants,” she explains.
“Mushrooms are accessible to a certain class or those with access to land and wild areas,” she adds. “The pre-conceived notion that meat sells creates a sense of risk around plant-based food innovation. I believe there’s limited food knowledge around plant-based foods. I’ve trained three cooks so far, all of whom have been surprised by how much we can experiment with different plants, their textures, and their flavours.”
But awareness is growing. “We haven’t been met with any hostility so far. In fact, we’ve seen some restaurants add plant-based items to their menus. Pakistani people have been very open to exploring different taste palettes,” she says.
And a few weeks ago, Jacked Nutrition introduced a vegan brown rice protein powder range with 24g of protein and 2g of fibre per 30g scoop, indicating the burgeoning demand for plant-based options.
To deliver on its expansion plans, Ghaas Phoos is looking for support from a range of parties. “Finance is definitely important, but we’re also open to support in alternative protein food knowledge, training, and partnerships with international brands who want to explore the Pakistan market through us,” says Khan. “We are also looking for funders and investors who believe in a plant-based future and will help keep the business sustainable for the long term.
“Ghaas Phoos is here to open people’s minds to what we can do with plants, and challenge the existing limitations of culinary arts. You don’t always need meat to enjoy desi flavours.”
Nearly half of all dogs in the UK are overweight. To improve canine health, pet food startup Omni has introduced a vegan weight-loss supplement inspired by Ozempic.
UK climate-smart dog food brand Omni Pet has announced LeanPaws, an animal-free weight-loss supplement to tackle canine obesity.
The product is designed to mimic the effects of the GLP-1 hormone, the same peptide targeted by human weight-loss medications like Ozempic and Wegovy. Produced in the gut, GLP-1 regulates blood sugar, fulfils the appetite, and manages weight by reducing the pleasure response to fatty foods.
LeanPaws is described as a “natural”, drug-free supplement designed for dogs. In the UK, 46% of canines are overweight, raising the risk of arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Omni’s solution leverages a patent-pending blend of amino acids and probiotics to replicate the impact of Ozempic, but without the prescriptions, side effects, or diet compatibility issues.
The product is set to launch in 2026, and with results backed by scientific research, it is already attracting interest from veterinary retailers, according to Omni.
Omni’s LeanPaws lowers weight in 77% of dogs analysed
Courtesy: Omni Pet
Excess weight can cause a range of ailments in dogs, from joint pain to reduced energy. These pets often suffer from lower mobility and poorer quality of life, and can be at greater risk of premature death.
It’s why pet expenditure is rising in the UK. One estimate suggests that Brits spent 76% more on pets last year compared to 2019.
“Obesity in pets not only predisposes to painful chronic disease like arthritis and diabetes, but like in humans, extra weight can also curtail lifespans,” said Guy Sandelowsky, a veterinarian and co-founder of Omni.
“As a vet, I saw thousands of obese dogs, the solution should have been simple – more exercise, and less food, right? The reality is that many people struggle to feed their pets less, as this is how they bond with them, and extra steps for heavy pets with joint pain [are] often not a viable option,” he explained.
This is where LeanPaws comes in. It has been under development for two years now, and contains fibres and resistant starches that mirror GLP-1 effects, as well as prebiotics and probiotics for optimal fat metabolism.
To prove the efficacy of the supplement, Omni conducted a placebo-controlled trial with vets in Norway. To ensure unbiased reporting, owners were not told whether their dogs were given the supplement or the placebo.
In the trial, 77% of overweight dogs who took LeanPaws shed some pounds with virtually no side effects. Additionally, 63% saw reductions in clinically assessed body fat composition, and 42% expressed fewer begging behaviours (in other words, they felt more satiated).
Dragons’ Den success propels Omni sales in big year for alternative pet food
Courtesy: BBC
According to Sandelowsky, the dogs were a “broad mix of ages, breeds and sex” and ate various commonly fed diets. “Crucially, other than adding the powder supplement to their usual meals, owners were not required to make any major changes to their feeding and exercise regimes to achieve these results,” he said.
Now, Omni is working with the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Nottingham to co-author a scientific paper, whose findings will be presented at a major veterinary conference later this year. Ahead of next year’s launch, it’s considering a waitlist-style business model for LeanPaws, inspired by premium human supplements like Lyma.
It comes as pet nutrition becomes an increasingly lucrative market, with research forecasting a near-125% increase in this market’s value over the next decade. For six in 10 Brits, their pets’ wellbeing is more important than their own.
LeanPaws touches on pet owners’ three biggest concerns about their furry friends: longevity (31%), joint health or mobility (19%), and gut health (18%). While these findings were from a US-based survey, they underscore the need for fibre-packed weight-loss supplements for dogs.
The launch was first teased during Sandelowsky and co-founder Shiv Sivakumar’s appearance on UK TV show Dragons’ Den, where they earned a £75,000 investment from Deborah Meaden and Steven Bartlett. Following the episode’s airing in February, Omni saw sales shoot up by 130% with 20,000 new customers in the ensuing three months.
The founders are targeting an exit in the next three to five years, with the hope of being acquired by a bigger pet food company for around £150M, they said on the show.
The news follows a recent study by Bond Pet Foods, which found that its precision-fermented chicken protein benefitted digestion, the intestine and gut microbiome, and faecal metabolites in dogs.
Filipino giant Century Pacific Food has acquired the assets of plant-based meat company Atlantic Natural Foods for less than $10M.
Atlantic Natural Foods, a 135-year-old company behind plant-based brands like Loma Linda and Tuno, has sold off its assets to a Filipino food conglomerate for under $10M.
The deal is the latest example of consolidation in the vegan category, and comes weeks after the firm signed an asset purchase agreement with Century Pacific Food’s North American arm (CPNA).
Owned by the Philippines’s Po family, Century Pacific was first founded as a food canning company in 1978, and is now a global processor of meat, seafood, dairy, pet food, and plant-based products.
“The acquisition reflects CPNA’s measured and profitable growth strategy: tapping into established markets while accelerating momentum for plant-based food adoption across diverse geographies,” said Century Pacific COO Greg Banzon.
Loma Linda, Tuno and other brands to bring immediate benefits
Courtesy: Atlantic Natural Foods
Atlantic Natural Foods was founded in 2008, but its portfolio brand Loma Linda has been around since 1890, when it was established by John Harvey Kellogg, the creator of corn flakes and brother of Kellanova founder WK Kellogg.
In 2014, the firm bought Loma Linda from what was then called Kellogg’s, and has since expanded its brands’ presence to over 25,000 stores in the US, plus 30 other countries.
However, the sales and investment challenges facing the plant-based industry, combined with Covid-19 disruptions, supply chain volatility and rising inflation, hit Atlantic Natural Foods hard. It shut its US manufacturing site in March and began shifting production to Century Pacific, months after withdrawing from an acquisition deal with Above Food, which had been in the works for three years.
Then, in May, Atlantic Natural Foods filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing $10-50M in assets and $1-10M in liabilities, with 100 to 199 creditors. “The restructuring of government tariffs, inflation, price pressures from government and others, labour, insurance – coupled with cybersecurity attacks which have created IT cost to increase three times – showed no relief on the near horizon,” explained chairman Doug Hines.
It entered a purchase agreement with Century Pacific shortly after, and has now sold off its entire portfolio of brands to the Filipino company. These include Loma Linda, Tuno, Neat, and Kaffree Roma.
Banzon suggested that the acquisition would bring immediate financial benefits to the business, with operational integration expected to be a seamless, bolt-on match to CPNA’s existing plant-based business, allowing it to scale up without disruption.
It aligns with the acquisition strategy outlined by CEO Teodoro Po. “There are a few bolt-ons, so those are of smaller sizes that we can just bolt on to our existing platforms,” he told the Philippine Star last month.
With the transaction, Atlantic Natural Foods’s brands join CNPA’s Unmeat brand of plant proteins. The latter offers shelf-stable products in over 13,000 stores globally, including Walmart, Albertsons, HEB, and Meijer in the US.
In a press release, Century Pacific said its advanced R&D capabilities and world-class manufacturing attracted Atlantic Natural Foods as a supply partner, which eventually led to the acquisition.
“This is a strategic and synergistic move for CPNA. We are bringing together a trusted heritage brand and a disruptor brand under one roof, leveraging decades of consumer trust with bold innovation,” said Banzon. “This allows us to serve both loyal customers and new generations seeking accessible, nutritious, and sustainable food choices.”
The initial move to shift production to Century Pacific positioned the Philippines as the primary supply location for Loma Linda’s shelf-stable products, targeting Seventh-day Adventists in the country.
The company has a long history with the church. Kellogg was brought up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which was the owner of the Loma Linda brand until 1990. Its products are considered a staple for those transitioning to a meat-free diet when joining the church.
The takeover seeks to reinforce CNPA’s “broader mission of building a healthier, more sustainable portfolio that provides affordable nutrition to the consumers we serve”, Banzon said.
It is the latest in a long list of M&A deals in the plant-based sector. Vegan pet food maker Wild Earth was recently acquired by InvenTel after filing for bankruptcy, while Daring Foods was bought by Australia’s v2food last week. Also in the US, Wicked Kitchen, Simulate, and Blackbird Foods have all been taken over by Ahimsa Companies in the last year or so, while dairy-free cheesemaker Vertage was snapped up by Misha’s Inc in January.
There are a lot of foods Americans don’t like, with tofu fourth on the list. Proteins, especially seafood, make up a majority of the top 10.
Americans love their eggs and bananas, but despise tofu, seafood, and bitter vegetables.
That’s according to a new YouGov poll, which surveyed nearly 2,250 US consumers last month about their food habits.
The market research firm asked people to reveal which foods they despise, developing a list of 40 foods with a good chunk of haters based on the responses. It then asked them about their feelings on each of the foods.
The results offer an insight into why certain food products don’t sell as well as others, and what brands need to keep in mind when developing new products.
Courtesy: YouGov
Gen Z and rich households most receptive to tofu
The three products most hated or disliked in the US are anchovies (cited by 56%), liver (54%), and sardines (52%). These animal-based sources are followed by a plant protein, tofu, which is detested by 46% of Americans.
The dislike for tofu is consistent across genders, affecting 45% of men and 47% of women. But there is a discrepancy depending on how old the respondent is. Younger Americans are much less likely to hate tofu than older consumers.
According to the survey, 60% of people aged 45-64 aren’t fans of tofu, with over-65s showing similar contempt (53%). In comparison, only a third of Gen Zers hate tofu, while nearly half (49%) like or love the protein.
The hatred for tofu also differs based on race, income and political alignment. Half of white Americans don’t like tofu, falling to two in five Black Americans and 38% of Hispanic respondents.
And tofu seems to be less popular among low-income households, 50% of which dislike this food, versus 38% of those earning $100,000 or more. The trend is clear: the richer the household, the more likely its inhabitants are to like tofu.
Interestingly, 36% of Democrats hate the soy product, rising to 41% of independents and 62% of Republicans. And among 2024 presidential voters, two in five people who voted for Kamala Harris hate tofu, much lower than the 55% who helped put Donald Trump into the White House.
Overall, only 6% of Americans say they love tofu, and another 15% like it. More of them (22%) have a neutral stance, while just 12% remain unsure about their feelings.
Courtesy: YouGov
Brands should focus on the vegetables Americans love
The survey shows that Americans don’t care for a lot of seafood, with five of the 10 most hated foods coming from the ocean. This explains why seafood sales declined slightly last year, and why alternatives like plant-based seafood continue to struggle.
Aside from seafood, many fruits and vegetables also appear in YouGov’s list. Beets are hated by 35% of Americans, while 31% either hate or have a neutral stance towards kale. Other items from the produce category in the list include okra, Brussels sprouts (each hated by 29%), eggplant (28%) and olives (27%).
Conversely, bananas (82%), green beans (78%), onions, broccoli (both 77%), tomatoes and beans (both 75%) are the most liked plant-based foods in the US.
As plant-based meat leaves Americans unimpressed, companies offering whole-food innovations – from bean burgers to veg-led meals – stand to gain a lot more. But the trick is to focus on the produce that people love, like beans, broccoli and tomatoes, and avoid the vegetables they hate (such as beets, kale and eggplant).
YouGov noted one interesting finding from the survey. Even though the list included 40 of the most hated foods chosen by people, 31 of them were actually more liked than disliked.
“People really like food, even types of food that have lots of detractors,” the firm noted. “And maybe a food needs enough fans to find its way to the plates of enough people to be widely disliked.”
The YouGov survey came shortly after similar research in the UK found that there are several foods consumers reject without trying them, with vegan cheese, tofu, and plant-based milk all in the top 10.
Conducted by Bel Group-owned Boursin, a subsequent taste test found that over 90% of Brits couldn’t tell the difference between the brand’s non-dairy and conventional cheeses, with over half of consumers having a change of heart about foods they thought they’d hate. Would Americans respond similarly to a taste test?
Bel Group has partnered with First Dates and Million Pound Menu star Fred Sirieix to prove how close vegan cheese is getting to dairy.
Vegan cheese is one of the most common grievances against the plant-based sector, with a perception of legacy products being sticky, tacky or ‘plasticky’ informing consumers’ hesitation to try newer versions too.
Those days may be gone, though, as a new survey of 2,000 British adults aims to prove. It was commissioned by French dairy giant Bel Group – owner of popular cheese brands Babybel, The Laughing Cow, and Boursin – which partnered with TV personality Fred Sirieix to find out if people can tell the difference between dairy cheese and plant-based alternatives.
“Brits claim to eagerly embrace culinary trends and global flavours, but they can be particularly prejudiced when it comes to certain foods, and this is one of the biggest barriers to discovery,” said Sirieix, who is known for shows like Gordon, Gino and Fred’s Road Trip, First Dates and Million Pound Menu.
Less than 10% of Brits can distinguish plant-based from dairy cheese
The survey found that, on average, there are eight foods they refuse to eat (five of which they’ve never tried). Sushi topped the list of things they reject without having tried them, followed by black pudding, kimchi, vegan cheese and anchovies. Tofu and plant-based milk were also part of the top 10.
This is despite 65% of Brits claiming to have adventurous palates, and 74% being open to trying new foods. In fact, three in five Brits dislike food they’ve never tasted.
The poll aimed to uncover how biases inform food choices. For example, two-thirds of survey respondents were confident that they could tell the difference between cheese and a non-dairy alternative.
That prompted Sirieix to team up with Bel Group’s Boursin brand to conduct blind taste tests of its plant-based cheese at British food festivals throughout the summer. The results? Less than 10% of people could tell Boursin’s non-dairy cheese from its conventional version.
“Many ingredients, including plant-based alternatives to cheese, have huge negative preconceptions,” noted Sirieix. “But despite many claiming they’d be able to differentiate plant-based from dairy, even the most discerning foodies were fooled by this plant-based alternative to cheese when we let taste do the talking.”
The research highlights how biases hold people back from trying new foods that they might end up liking. “Food is meant to be an adventure. Often, the things you’re sure you won’t like end up surprising you the most,” said Sirieix.
“People are very clearly confident in their ability to tell dairy from plant-based alternatives, but as we saw from experience, this was not actually the case,” he added. “It just goes to show: there’s a whole world of flavours out there waiting to be explored if you’re brave enough.
“Even ingredients you might dismiss because of previous experiences, judgements, or assumptions can still surprise you if prepared in the right way. So, embrace the challenge and let the taste do the talking.”
Bel Group goes big on taste amid plant-based reset
Courtesy: Boursin
The taste tests revealed that 53% of people had a change of heart about something they thought they wouldn’t enjoy, after having a taste. The best way to be convinced to try new foods is by either participating in flavour-forward blind taste tests, or by learning more about their health benefits, an insight plant-based food makers would do well to adopt.
The partnership with Siriex is part of a “playful” marketing strategy to reinvent Boursin as a “versatile, year-round” source of indulgence. In addition, it aims to tap into the growing trend of at-home supper clubs, as well as casual dinner parties.
It comes as sales of vegan cheese plateau in the UK. In the year to January 2025, sales of these products trimmed by 0.4%, while volumes were down by 2.6%. They make up just 2.5% of the country’s cheese market, and as of the start of this year, branded plant-based cheeses cost 26% more than conventional branded cheese.
Bel Group itself has felt the squeeze. It is withdrawing its Nurishh brand of dairy-free cheese by the end of the year, which will lead to the closure of its Saint-Nazaire factory and impact around 30 jobs. The decision was driven by a failure to attract new consumers and become profitable.
Nurishh only represents 1% of the retail market for vegan cheese, compared to the 22% share of its biggest competitor, Violife. “By arriving second in the market, we have not succeeded in differentiating ourselves enough to secure our clients’ listing and attract new consumers,” Bel Group told Just Food.
Instead, the company is focusing on its core brands, each of which has non-dairy offerings, as part of its goal to generate 50% of sales from plant-based alternatives and fruit-derived offerings by 2030.
It has linked up with agrifood producer Avril, probiotic manufacturer Lallemand, and foodservice consultant Protial on a three-year project to develop better-tasting, more nutritious vegan cheese via fermentation and ageing techniques. The effort is backed by a €9M investment, in part by the French government.
“Our research focuses on alternative ingredients, including plant-based proteins from crops like peas, chickpeas, and fava beans and some others, as well as fermentation-derived proteins, which offer nutritional quality comparable to dairy,” Bel told Green Queen after the announcement.
Tokyo-based startup Kinish has unveiled The Rice Creamery, a new dairy-free ice cream brand that’s available in local retailers and earmarked for a US debut.
Japanese food tech firm Kinish has introduced a new ice cream brand that ditches the dairy to spotlight the unique sensory properties of rice.
The Rice Creamery features three flavours of vegan ice cream made from rice, which are available at Tokyu Store’s Toritsu-Daigaku branch and online on Seijo Ishii. The startup has global ambitions, though, planning a US launch of the range under The Rice Cream brand, starting with Washington, DC, this year.
The products have 60% less sugar than the market standard in Japan, and lower greenhouse gas emissions by 62%, meeting consumer concerns about nutrition and environmental impact.
The launch of the vegan ice cream range comes amid Kinish’s parallel efforts to grow cow-free milk proteins in rice plants via molecular farming.
Courtesy: Kinish
Kinish’s ‘rice cream’ gets rave public reviews
Dairy and rice are two of the largest contributors to the food system’s methane emissions, but the former’s carbon impact is more than twice as high as the latter’s. Moreover, the number of dairy farmers is declining, while milk consumption has been shrinking since the 1990s.
At the same time, 2.4% of Japanese consumers said they were vegan in 2023, up from 1% in 2017. Plus, research suggests that up to 90% of Japan’s population is lactose-intolerant, underlining the importance of alternatives to milk products.
Instead of aiming to replicate the taste of milk, Kinish is betting on the “unique sweetness” of Japanese rice. The naturally sweet varieties are short, plump and sticky, and allow products to deliver sensory qualities that even dairy cannot, according to the startup.
The original flavour of the ice cream is called Honoka, and contains a base of rice syrup and cashew paste, which are combined with sugar, glucose, dietary fibre, salt, an emulsifier and a stabiliser.
The Master’s Uji Matcha variant is the result of a collaboration with tea processor Hotta Katsutaro Shoten, combining the above ingredients with Uji matcha. Finally, Elegant Dutch Chocolate is a nod to Japan’s introduction to chocolate by the Netherlands, and adds Dutch cocoa powder to the initial rice-cashew base.
Courtesy: Kinish
The Rice Creamery’s products are priced at ¥347 ($2.35), and will be gradually expanded to convenience stores and other major cities across Japan.
Ahead of their release, Kinish hosted public taste tests of the ice cream and received glowing feedback. According to the company, comments ranged from “It’s satisfyingly delicious” to “It’s rich and flavorful, yet leaves a pleasant aftertaste”.
Rice-based ice cream alternatives are a niche category. In Asia, Morinaga Company sells two versions under its Okometo brand in Japan, and Singapore’s Smoocht supplies brown-rice-based ice creams.
Kinish is using molecular farming to produce casein in rice
The rollout of its rice-based ice creams opens up a new revenue stream for Kinish, which will help speed up its molecular farming efforts too. The firm raised ¥120M ($800,000) in seed funding this February to support its research.
Climate change is wreaking havoc on Japan’s rice production. Consumption of the staple has more than halved since the 1960s, and a crop shortage has forced the government to release 200,000 tonnes of emergency rice stockpile.
Kinish uses plant molecular farming to grow casein (the main protein found in cow’s milk) in rice grains, and blends the process with vertical farming to use a fraction of the land and water used by both rice and dairy.
Molecular farming is a more viable and affordable way to replicate animal proteins than cell cultivation or precision fermentation. It entails genetically engineering plants to produce proteins, which can then be harvested from leaves or other tissues. This eschews the need for expensive fermentation tanks, since plants themselves act as the bioreactors.
Courtesy: FoodxTech Mercato
Kinish applies the technology to dwarf rice plants, which are just 20cm tall and can be cultivated in large quantities in plant factories. By utilising vertical farming, it can grow the crops in stacked cultivation and harvest them in less than half the time required for traditional rice.
The company has partnered with Shizuoka University to design a plant factory specialising in dwarf rice. And it eventually aims to create an ice cream combining the rice-derived casein with rice starch for sweetness, as well as a variety of cheese products with its milk protein.
“Kinish is working to develop an unprecedented dairy alternative product by maximising the potential of rice and our unique technology,” founder and CEO Hashizume Hiroya said earlier this year.
Eat Just’s market-leading vegan egg, Just Egg, has finally launched in the UK, with the distribution being handled by VFC parent Vegan Food Group.
Just Egg, the mung-bean-based vegan liquid egg from US company Eat Just, has launched into the UK market. Each 340ml carton is priced at £3.99 and equivalent to six eggs.
The rollout marks the product’s European debut, as well as its first foray outside North America. It will be manufactured and distributed by Vegan Food Group (VFG), the holding company behind plant-based brands like VFC and Meatless Farm, as part of an exclusive deal announced in April.
“People have been waiting for so long to bring this to the UK, and me and the team have just had such an incredible journey working with the US team, understanding the brand and… how we bring that to the UK consumer is very different to the US consumer,” says Abigail Nelson-Ehoff, head of marketing at VFG.
“The consumers who have been waiting for this product, a lot of the vegan community, [will go]: ‘Finally, it’s here,’” she adds. “But it’s also as many people, if not more people, who have never heard of the product – this is an amazing product for them. So it’s how we can bring it to both.”
Matthew Glover, co-founder and chairman of VFG, says: “We think there’s a huge pent-up demand for it. There’s not been anything like this on the market so far. So we’re very excited to launch it into the UK.”
Echoing Nelson-Ehoff, he says this product is “really for everybody, not just vegans”: “It’s for anybody that’s plant-curious. There’s a lot of people that are allergic to eggs, so it’s perfect for those individuals.”
How Just Egg made it to the UK
Courtesy: Eat Just
Just Egg is made from a base of mung bean protein and contains nearly 13g of protein per serving (5.9g per egg equivalent, versus 6.3g for a chicken egg). It has less than a third of the saturated fat found in convnetional eggs, as well as zero cholesterol. Producing the vegan liquid egg uses 98% less water and 83% less land, while generating 93% fewer greenhouse gases.
The European launch of Just Egg has been a years-long endeavour. Eat Just had signed several partnerships to bring the product across the Atlantic, while receiving novel food regulatory approval by the European Food Safety Authority and authorisation from the EU Commission.
But the efforts finally came to fruition in April this year, after the Californian food tech unicorn struck a deal with VFG. The latter invested £11.5M ($15.2M) to build a fully automated line to produce Just Egg at its facility in Lüneburg, Germany (Europe’s largest dedicated plant-based factory), enabling it to produce the equivalent of 500 million eggs per year.
“Proprietary mung bean production will be led by Eat Just, supplying this directly to VFG from its Minnesota facility,” Glover told Green Queen at the time. “From that point, VFG is installing a fully automated downstream production system in Lüneburg to produce Just Egg. Other ingredients and packaging will be sourced locally.”
He added: “The brand positioning and proposition sits perfectly alongside the existing VFG portfolio of brands, products and eating occasions. Our strategy is consolidating a portfolio of exciting products and brands, to which Just Egg sits perfectly.”
Through its investment, VFG sought to enhance automation, extend shelf life, cut waste, and improve product quality at its facilities in the UK and Germany. It will also support retailers and foodservice partners with “next-gen innovation and operational excellence”.
“VFG will be making the majority of the upfront investments in capital expenditure and marketing to launch the brand in Europe,” Glover said.
Eat Just and VFG look to build plant-based momentum amid egg crisis
Courtesy: Eat Just
Eat Just’s UK entry comes on the back of skyrocketing success in the US, with 174 million birds culled in the current three-year wave of avian flu. Retail egg prices reached a record high of $6.23 per dozen in March. In some cities, each egg costs $1 now.
The company had already sold the equivalent of 500 million chicken eggs and captured 99% of the market for alternatives in the US. But in January alone, Just Egg’s sales grew five times faster than in the past year, while 56% of shoppers returned to buy more (a three-point increase from 2024). Most shoppers (91%) putting it in their basket, meanwhile, are neither vegan nor vegetarian.
With egg shelves empty, if Americans want eggs, they only have a few choices. “One, don’t eat them. Two, you know, have applesauce. Or three, have Just Egg,” co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick told Green Queen in February. “This is a real moment in time for the plant-based industry to prove that it’s up to the challenge.”
In the UK, it will compete with the Crackd vegan liquid egg, which is made from pea protein. Aquafaba brand Oggs previously marketed a liquid whole egg alternative, though it hasn’t been in stock in supermarkets for several months now. “There are other egg replacements on the market, but quality-wise, there’s nothing that can stack up against Eat Just,” VFG CEO Dave Sparrow said in April.
“The UK and Germany are the immediate priority given our extensive distribution, which is already in place, and then we’ll roll out across other key markets,” Glover said at the time.
“The food system is broken. Most eggs are produced in factory farms. There’s about 37 million eggs currently trapped inside [them], both caged and cage-free. And these are real squalid, overcrowded, unhealthy places to produce food,” he says now.
“So this plant-based egg that we’re producing is much cleaner and healthier, and certainly much better for the environment and the animals and people.”
