Turkeys gone wild! On Wednesday, a flock of PETA “showgirl chicks” holding signs saying, “Turkeys Go Wild for Tofurky,” will gather at Philadelphia City Hall in the “birthplace of America” to pass out free delicious vegan Tofurky roasts and bottles of Wild Turkey bourbon to passersby—everything they’ll need to kick-start a “ThanksVegan” celebration that leaves turkeys in peace and in one piece.
When: Wednesday, November 8, 12 noon
Where: Outside Philadelphia City Hall, Market and 15th streets, Philadelphia
“Turkeys are individuals who feel pain and fear, experience joy, value their lives, and don’t want to be carved up and stuffed any more than we do,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA will help everyone show a little mercy, keep turkeys off the table, and tuck into savory and satisfying vegan roasts that give everyone something to be thankful for.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers a “ThanksVegan” recipe guide.
During the “Mayor’s Reports” portion of tomorrow’s city council meeting, PETA will present Eureka with a first-of-its-kind Fish Empathy Quilt and deliver a brief presentation on the importance of respecting fish and other marine life and leaving aquatic animals in the ocean, where they belong. Three of the enormous quilt’s panels will be displayed outside the Council Chambers at Eureka City Hall for one month. The presentation follows positive communication between the group and Mayor Kim Bergel about promoting compassion toward fish and other animals.
When: Tuesday, November 7, 6 p.m.
Where: Council Chambers, Eureka City Hall, 531 K St., Eureka
Panels from PETA’s Fish Empathy Quilt. Photo: PETA
“Fish are intelligent, empathetic, and playful beings who deserve the same consideration and compassion as humans, dogs, and every other animal,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA thanks Eureka for helping to pay tribute to the billions of aquatic animals killed each year in the fishing industry and tip the scales toward humane vegan meals.”
The quilt measures more than 300 square feet and is composed of more than 100 unique, handcrafted squares from PETA members and supporters, including cartoonist Harry Bliss and oceanographic explorer and film producer Jean-Michel Cousteau.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website.
In honor of former University of Maryland professor Karen Davis, Ph.D., founder of United Poultry Concerns (UPC) and the University of Maryland Animal Rights Coalition, who passed away on Saturday morning, PETA supporters will gather outside the school’s Adele H. Stamp Student Union on Thursday to give away 1,000 pieces of delicious vegan chicken from HipCityVeg.
When: Thursday, November 9, 12 noon
Where: Outside the Student Union, 3972 Campus Dr., College Park
Karen Davis with Rainbow. Photo: Unparalleled Suffering Photography
Davis’ life’s work for birds began when she discovered a small, lame chicken abandoned in a shed on the property she was renting back in 1985. Davis named her Viva because she was the only survivor of a small flock the property owner had sent to slaughter. Moved by Viva’s spirit and the plight of her siblings, Davis went on to found the UPC in 1990—and she never looked back.
At a time when most people didn’t give a second thought to chickens, turkeys, and other poultry, the UPC hosted conferences on farmed animal advocacy issues and collaborated with PETA on many campaigns, challenging live turkey drops from airplanes, school chick-hatching projects, and more, thereby offering food for thought about the animal welfare issues inherent in food systems.
“Karen Davis was a champion for chickens, and she leaves behind a legacy of kindness, sensitivity to the suffering of winged individuals used for food, and many a converted vegan,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA encourages everyone to emulate her kind deeds by letting chickens and other animals live in peace and in one piece—and PETA offers a free, downloadable vegan starter kit to help.”
Chickens remain arguably the most abused animals on the planet. In the meat industry, they’re crammed into filthy sheds and bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs become crippled under the weight. Those used for egg production are confined to cramped barns, where each bird has no more than a square foot of space. At slaughterhouses, their throats are cut, often while they’re still conscious, and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
When Karen Davis founded United Poultry Concerns in 1990, most people didn’t give a second thought to chickens, turkeys, and other poultry. The nonprofit organization advocated for domestic fowl, including the more than 1 million chickens who find themselves in slaughterhouses across the U.S. every hour.
Karen’s journey began when she found a small white chicken who was lame and abandoned in a shed on the property she was renting. Karen named her Viva because she was the only survivor of a small flock the property owner had sent to slaughter.
Karen was a prolific writer and founded the Animal Rights Coalition at the University of Maryland in 1989. She campaigned against dropping turkeys from planes, chick-hatching projects in schools, egg factory farms, the disingenuity of “free-range” labeling, and other matters.
“I believe we change hearts and minds by helping people to perceive chickens and relate to them as individuals who, when they are not mistreated, are full of observable vitality, desires, and interests in their own right.”
—Karen Davis
Karen leaves a gap in the world of chicken advocacy that each of us can help fill.
Please continue her advocacy to protect birds by hosting a vegan chicken dinner for meat-eating friends, neighbors, coworkers, or relatives; distributing leaflets about who chickens really are; posting a video about chickens on social media; and sending PETA’s chicken comic books to school libraries and students. Birds need us now more than ever, and Karen would appreciate the tribute.
Today marks the 29th World Vegan Day, and the start of World Vegan Month. We’ll see a host of announcements, launches, and releases, especially leading up to Veganuary – but how far has veganism come, and how far does it have to go? Here are some stats that illustrate the progress and potential.
1. 70% of Gen Zers want to go vegan but for health rather than climate
A survey by the Medical Inspiration Daily For Stronger Society, which polled over 2,000 vegans and 1,100 non-vegan Gen Zers, found that 70% of these consumers plan to go vegan in the next five years, but only 17% said they follow a plant-based diet for environmental reasons. In fact, 51% choose to eat vegan for health reasons, highlighting a wider consumer focus on health post-pandemic.
2. Plant-based foods grew by 22% in Europe
Despite all the grim sales and even grimmer headlines, the plant-based market in Europe actually saw sales hit a record €5.7B in 2022, with a 22% increase from 2022, according to the Good Food Institute’s (GFI) analysis of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.
Courtesy: Meati
3. The number of American vegans hit a 10-year-low
In the US, though, the number of vegans is the lowest it has been for 10 years, according to a Gallup poll, with only 1% identifying as such. This is down from 3% in 2018 and 2% in 2012. The number of vegetarians also dropped from 5% in 2018 to 4% in 2023.
4. Veganism can cut emissions, land use and water pollution by 75%
A landmark study earlier this year – one we’ve quoted quite often – found that vegan diets can cut greenhouse gas emissions, land use and water pollution by 75% compared to meat- and dairy-rich diets. Another major study found that replacing 50% of our meat and dairy intake with plant-based alternatives could halt deforestation, reduce agricultural and land-use emissions by 31%, and double climate benefits.
5. 74% of Americans don’t link meat and dairy to climate change
Despite all this evidence, though, 74% of Americans don’t believe eating meat has any impact on the environment, a number that rises to 77% for dairy consumption. One possible reason is the underreporting of animal agriculture’s impact on the environment, with only 7% of all climate media coverage mentioning livestock farming, despite meat and dairy production accounting for 11-19% of global emissions.
6. Plant-based companies raised $1.2B in 2022, but are being overtaken by fermentation startups
According to GFI analysis, the plant-based industry raised $1.2B in 2022 – and while that seems like a big number, this was actually a decline from the $2B raised in 2021. And in the first half of 2023, this sector has only reeled in $124M, compared to $273M by fermentation-based alt-protein startups.
7. Meat and dairy farmers receive 1,000 times more public funding than plant-based companies
A study by Stanford University found that meat and dairy farmers receive 1,200 and 800 times more funding than meat alternative companies in the EU and the US, respectively. Public sector investment in plant-based meat was at $42M between 2014-20 – just 0.1% of the $35B spent on meat and dairy.
Courtesy: La Vie
8. For consumers, taste and health are top plant-based priorities
Multiple studies have shown that consumers are placing more emphasis on the flavour and health aspects of plant-based food. In the UK, a 1,000-person survey revealed that 66% feel plant-based alternatives taste worse than conventional meat, with 51% saying taste/texture is the biggest reason for reducing alt-meat consumption. Similarly in Australia, taste was the top factor influencing people from all diets in their food choices. In the US, health benefits, animal welfare aspects and taste are the biggest drivers of plant-based food, while texture, price and processing are the biggest detractors.
9. 28% of Veganuary participants continue to be vegan
Veganuary’s half-year survey has revealed that 28% of the participants who responded stuck to a plant-based diet post-January, while 52% claimed to have reduced animal product consumption by 50% or higher. The campaign saw a record 700,000 people sign up to be vegan at the start of the year, a number that’s only expected to increase.
Courtesy: Oatly
10. Almond milk is still king in the US, but oat is catching up
Almond milk is the darling of the alt-milk American consumer, with 70% of 1,328 survey respondents choosing it as their top preference. But while that number has been steady since 2021, oat milk has seen the biggest rise in popularity post-pandemic, going from 19% to 31% in terms of being consumers’ favourite alt-milk. This trend is reflected in the sales data: GFI revealed that while almond leads the charts, accounting for 57% of plant-based milk dollar sales, oat milk was the fastest-growing segment – it made up 4% of US alt-milk sales in 2019, and 22% last year/
Nestlé has announced the launch of three new vegan white fish SKUs in Europe and Asia, as it becomes the latest brand to release a plant-based seafood product to cater to the growing demand for seafood and sustainable proteins.
Nestlé will debu1 marine-style crispy fillets and nuggets in Europe under its Garden Gourmet brand, which are made with wheat and pea protein. The products will be available online and in-store in European countries including Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This follows the company’s launch of crispy fish-free fingers (made from soy and wheat) under its Harvest Gourmet brand in Malaysia and Singapore.
“These new fish alternatives are the result of our deep expertise in plant-based proteins and our strong commitment to continue delivering exciting innovations that meet consumers’ expectations,” said Torsten Pohl, global food R&D head at Nestlé. “During consumer testing, our products received high praise for the great taste and texture that is close to white fish.”
Honing in on health and Nutri-score labels
Courtesy: Nestlé
Pohl added that the products “come with strong nutritional credentials, making them competitive in the marketplace”. It’s a reference to consumers’ increased focus on health in their food choices post-pandemic. Nestlé’s announcement makes a point to highlight the nutritional aspects of the new products, highlighting the high protein and low saturated fat content, as well as the fact that they’re rich in fibre.
The company points out that the products in Europe have an A Nutri-score rating, which will be reflected on-pack in the countries that use this labelling system (France, Germany and Spain). These labels have a definite impact on consumers. A French study of 1,201 adolescents aged 11-17 last year revealed that 54% had already been impacted by Nutri-Score labels during food purchases, for example.
Health is a growing driver of consumers’ food choices. Last year, an 8,000-person McKinsey survey covering the US, UK, France and Germany revealed that between 37-52% of people have cut their meat consumption in the last year out of health concerns. Similarly, another 2022 survey of 3,700 respondents in seven countries showed having a healthier diet is the primary motivator for 75% of consumers to begin consuming alternative proteins.
It’s a focus mirrored by other recent plant-based meat launches and marketing campaigns too. US vegan giant Beyond Meat, for example, is spotlighting health on its latest TV ad, honing in on the heart-healthy attributes of its steak alternative. Similarly, in the UK, plant-based leader THIS is also putting nutrition at the forefront of its first TV commercial. In Spain, Heura is doing the same with its new alternative to York-style ham.
Adding to a burgeoning category
Courtesy: Nestlé
The fact that Nestlé – a giant of the food industry – is launching vegan seafood is a marker for things to come for the niche. The plant-based seafood category has seen a flurry of developments this year on the back of encouraging sales growth. According to the Good Food Institute, plant-based meat unit sales dropped by 8%, but vegan seafood saw a 40% year-on-year growth in pound sales last year.
Startups that raised funding include Konscious Foods and Hooked Foods, and two European brands received a €1.5M grant to create 3D-printed mycoprotein to replace seafood, which debuted in September. Meanwhile, eight months after securing vegan seafood brand Good Catch, Wicked Kitchen acquired alt-seafood startup Current Foods in May,
Other product launches include South Korean startup Unlimeat‘s upcycled vegan tuna, Singapore-based HAPPIEE‘s vegan shrimp and squid in the UK, and Canadian brand Seed to Surf‘s plant-based whole-food white fish and snow crab. As of 2021, there were already at least 90 companies working with plant-based seafood.
Along with Nestlé’s Garden Gourmet and Harvest Gourmet SKU expansion, these new products serve an increasing demand for seafood, which is expected to grow by 14% from 2020-30. But this ballooning demand has led to higher greenhouse gas emissions, while the heavy fuel use by ocean fishery vessels contributes to the climate crisis. Overfishing operations receive $22B in capacity-enhancing subsidies every year, a figure the UN special envoy Peter Thomson has called “madness”.
Speaking to Green Queen last year, Lily Ng, owner of US vegan seafood company Lily’s Vegan Pantry, said: “Overfishing disrupts the food chain. And when populations are diminished, other species will overpopulate, destroying biodiversity and making changes to the entire ecosystem. In the end, our consumption of fish still destroys our planet.” The 2021 documentary Seaspiracy details the endemic issues attached to this sector.
“People continue to seek out plant-based options for their favourite dishes,” said Massimo Zucchero, global category lead for plant-based meals at Nestlé. “These new alternatives… are tasty, nutritious and can also help to reduce overfishing and protect the biodiversity of our oceans.”
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers an upcycled pasta partnership at Cambridge, the UK getting into Christmas mode, and anti-dairy advertising that’s sure to ruffle some feathers.
New products and launches
Happy World Vegan Day (and Month)! To kick it off, upcycled food producerThe Supplant Company is putting its Grain & Stalk Flour pasta on the catering menus of the University of Cambridge – a sweet homecoming for the brand that has its roots in the Department of Biochemistry, where founder Tom Simmons was a research scientist. Magdalene College will be subbing regular pasta for Supplant’s in a vegetarian mac and cheese and a meat-based carbonara, starting tomorrow.
Speaking of carbonara, Finnish ready meals brand REBL Eats has partnered with French vegan bacon brand La Vie to launch a ready-to-eat plant-based carbonara featuring the latter’s lardons at Kesko K-Group stores in Finland.
In more bacon news, Spanish companies Foodys and Cocuus have launched a 3D-printed vegan bacon SKU. It will be available in 120g packs at Carrefour fridges in the country starting this month.
Fellow Spanish brand NuVeg, meanwhile, is marking World Vegan Day by officially launching today with a range of dehydrated vegan dishes. Think vegan eggs, chicken curry, crepes, protein broth and bolognese.
In the US, meanwhile, New York-based vegan Italian restaurant Coletta is now servingOshi‘s 3D-printed salmon in a limited-edition Seared Balsamic Salmon dish with vegan parmesan, chive polenta, thyme-roasted broccoli and lemon.
Courtesy: Daiya
Also in New York’s plant-based Italian scene, Daiyaopened the Slice Club, a vegan pizza slice pop-up at the Two Boots in the West Village last Friday, serving free pizza to 500 customers. It will bring the concept to other US cities in the future.
If you’re looking got more vegan fast food, Canada’s Odd Burger has entered retail with a line of burgers, sausages and fillets featuring beef, pork and chicken analogues. They can be found at all Odd Burger locations, as well as stores in Toronto, London (Ontario), Hamilton and Kitchener.
Elsewhere, in Malaysia, retail and foodservice operator Berjaya Food has announced an expansion of its vegan offering across its sites. The company operates all Starbucks stores in the country, as well as a vegan Latin American restaurant and two alt-dairy brands.
If you’re in the UK, you might be familiar with the immediate post-Halloween Christmas craze. It has already begun, starting with its largest supermarket Tescounveiling its Christmas 2023 range, which features a bunch of vegan products. There’s Butternut Wellington, Battered Bangers with Curry Sauce, Mushroom and Chestnut Festive Wreath, Stem Ginger Tiffin Crackers and two roast turkey SKUs.
Courtesy: Tesco
Then there’s the Upfield-owned cream brand Elmlea, which has launched a brandy-flavoured vegan cream made from lentil protein and vegetable oils. But it doesn’t contain any booze, so anyone can have it.
And vegan deli meat maker Shocken Foods will release its plant-based foie gras, ‘nduja and meatballs in time for Christmas. The brand was co-founded by Emma Bowe, a former chef at Heston Blumenthal’s Mandarin Oriental restaurant.
Funding, manufacturing and finance news
German vegan seafood maker Happy Ocean Foods, which makes products like plant-based tuna, seafood and shrimp, has raised €1.5M in a seed funding round from Companisto.
WebrestaurantStore, an online foodservice retailer in the US, has reported a 110% year-on-year growth ($3B) in revenue in 2022, with plant-based consumables a key growth factor.
Cellular agriculture as a category has raised double the investments of Q3 2023 within the first few weeks of Q4. While a total of $40.2M was raised in Q3, five fundings disclosed this quarter have amounted to $81.5M, including Eden Brew, Bon Vivant and BlueNalu.
Meanwhile, the chicken nugget market is expected to grow by 12% annually by 2029, and the snack bars segment is set to surpass $16.5B by 2032. And the global plant-based milk sector is anticipated to expand annually by 6.38% to 2028.
Courtesy: Jumbo
In the Netherlands, supermarket chain Jumbo has committed to make 60% of all its protein offerings plant-based by 2030, with plans to expand its Lekker Veggie vegan brand in 2024.
Former Impossible Foods executive Don DiMasi has joined Californian food tech company Yali Bio as a senior VP for engineering and biomanufacturing. The company engineers precision-fermented lipids and fats for the plant-based industry.
Aussie startup Nourish Ingredients, meanwhile, which creates animal-like fats for plant proteins, has expanded its manufacturing processes to Singapore, joining hands with ScaleUp Bio, a joint venture between Temasek-owned Nurasa and ingredients giant ADM.
However, ADM has “re-scoped” its plant protein investment in its Decatur, Illinois facility in the US to “better match” the weakening demand for meat alternatives and an explosion at its West plant.
Also in Illinois, the Illinois Fermentation and Agriculture Biomanufacturing Hub, which works on precision fermentation crops like soy and corn, was named as one of 31 new Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs by the Biden-Harris administration.
Courtesy: Illinois Fermentation and Agriculture Biomanufacturing Hub
Elsewhere, German equipment manufacturer Bühler says it will open five application and training centres in Switzerland, two of which will complement its plant-based protein processing infrastructure.
In the US, two women-owned startups, Taimat Scienses and Biomilq, have collaborated on a project to show how a plant-based recombinant protein can be just as effective as its commercially available alternative, and 10 times more affordable.
Policy, research and events
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has updated its labelling policies on meat alternatives, clarifying that substitutes that don’t have the appearance of conventional meat don’t need to be labelled as ‘simulated’, and terms like ‘veggie burger’ and ‘soy sausage’ are fair game.
In the UK, Adfree Cities – a group challenging corporate outdoor advertising – is calling for a ban on meat advertising in the UK, arguing that it should be prohibited just as tobacco commercials were for their detrimental effects. The campaign is called The Cows Aren’t Laughing.
Courtesy: Switch4Good
The US is seeing a similar rhetoric played out. Switch4Good, the dairy-free advocacy group founded by Olympian Dotsie Bausch, has launched a Killer Milk billboard ad campaign, citing a 2021 study revealing that cow’s milk is the “leading cause of fatal anaphylaxis among school children”.
Along the same lines, Bausch joined two other women – Marielle Williamson and Yen Ang – to support the ADD SOY Act (Addressing Digestive Distress in Stomachs of our Youth) proposed by four senators to give schoolchildren a dairy-free snack choice.
In Germany, Europe’s leading vegan market, a study by sustainable food advocacy group ProVeg International has revealed that plant-based food is approaching price parity, with the cost difference between vegan and conventional products dropping from 53% to 25% in one year. Recently, supermarkets Lidl and Kaufland announced they were matching the cost of plant-based alternatives to their animal-derived counterparts.
New research by Burger King and The Vegetarian Butcher has found that 73% of Brits would choose meat over plant-based options if given the choice, with 48% citing taste as the major reason. Nearly three in 10 (30%) say they want to live a flexitarian lifestyle.
Courtesy: Burger King
In event news, VegFest UK is taking place this month in London (November 18-19). The conference will play host to Vegan Business Tribe Live, which will see speakers from leading plant-based brands in the UK, including THIS, One Planet Pizza, and Better Nature.
Finally, with another round of Veganuary fast approaching, a six-month survey found that 28% of the participants who responded stuck to a plant-based diet post-January, while 52% claimed to have reduced animal product consumption by 50% or higher. It comes a week after the campaign launched a trailer for its upcoming documentary.
Following a just-released U.S. Department of Agriculture report documenting that four cows died of apparent suffocation after the ventilation system malfunctioned in a barn at New Angus LLC near Aberdeen, PETA sent a letter to Brown County State’s Attorney Karly Winter calling on her to investigate and file appropriate criminal charges against those responsible.
According to the report, on April 3 an inspector found three dead cows in a barn on the property, which was “excessively foggy, humid, and hot with elevated ammonia.” Shortly thereafter, a second inspector found another dead cow and reported that “cattle throughout the barn were open mouth breathing, indicating respiratory distress.” A New Angus director said that the fans and ventilation system had malfunctioned several hours earlier, leading to the spike in temperature, humidity, and ammonia levels and the lack of fresh air in the barn, which confined 750 cows. The second inspector concluded that the malfunction was the cause of the cows’ deaths.
“These cows were kept in such severely crowded, disgusting conditions that just a few stifling hours there was evidently enough to kill them,” says PETA Vice President of Evidence Analysis Daniel Paden. “PETA is calling for a criminal investigation on behalf of the victims and urges everyone to go vegan to prevent such cruelty.”
The group is pursuing charges under state law because federal officials haven’t prosecuted any inspected slaughterhouses for acts of abuse since at least 2007.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to Winter follows.
October 31, 2023
The Honorable Karly Winter
Brown County State’s Attorney
Dear Ms. Winter:
I’m writing to request that your office (and a law-enforcement agency, as necessary) investigate and file applicable criminal charges against the individual(s) responsible for the deaths of four cows by apparent suffocation at New Angus LLC, located at 13 135th St. S.W. near Aberdeen. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) documented the incident in a report that the agency recently made available to the public. (See the attached table.)
According to the report, on April 3 an inspector discovered three dead cows in a barn on the property, which was “excessively foggy, humid, and hot with elevated ammonia.” Shortly thereafter, a second inspector found “an additional dead steer” and noted that “cattle throughout the barn were open mouth breathing, indicating respiratory distress.” A New Angus director apparently told the second inspector that the barn’s fans and ventilation system had malfunctioned several hours earlier—while 750 cows were inside—leading to the spike in temperature, humidity, and ammonia levels and the lack of fresh air. On further investigation, the second inspector concluded, “[M]y observations of respiratory distress indicate that the increase in dead animals was caused by the failure of the … air management system.”
These conditions do not represent an otherwise-exempt usual and customary practice of the livestock industry or the slaughter of animals for food. This incident thus appears to violate SDCL § 40-1-2.3, which bars anyone responsible for the care of animals from failing to provide them with “adequate facilities, or care generally considered to be standard and accepted for an animal’s health and well-being.” Please note that the FSIS’ report carries no criminal or civil penalties and does not preempt criminal liability under state law for acts of cruelty to animals. Given that the FSIS hasn’t initiated a criminal prosecution of a licensed slaughterhouse for inhumane handling since at least 2007, charges under state law are these victims’ only chance at a measure of justice.
Molecular gastronomy is great and all that, but if you’re looking for minimum fuss, some brands are making vegan caviar that will have your dinner guests doubting you.
Caviar isn’t something that most of us eat on the regular – and neither should we, given that these fish eggs carry a huge cost for both our wallets and the planet. One highly prized variety is said to be the most expensive food in the world, but these salted roe are acquired from slaughtered fish at a demand that is far outpacing their numbers. Sturgeons – the primary species associated with caviar – are the most endangered species on Earth today, according to the WWF.
So in a bid to offer products that are better for the environment and more wealth- and diet-inclusive, companies are making alternatives to caviar in multiple ways. Some – like Magiccaviar, CellMEAT and Marinas Bio – are opting to use cell cultures to make cultivated caviar, while others are developing plant-based versions.
There are countless recipes online to make the latter, using a molecular gastronomy technique called spherification that involves submerging droplets of a sodium alginate solution in chilled oil to make little pearls that resemble caviar. But these don’t really taste much like the real thing – and can also lead to a lot of waste and fuss.
To feed caviar-hungry vegans, plant-based caviar provides the satisfying textural, visual and taste attributes associated with conventional caviar, but without the animal cruelty, environmental damage and ridiculously high prices. Here are five of the best vegan caviar brands.
Cavi-art
Courtesy: Cavi-art
It’s perhaps fitting that a country associated with high-end Michelin-starred cuisine is home to one of the best-known plant-based caviar companies, Cavi-art. The brand makes three types of fish egg alternatives using kelp seaweed, primarily for foodservice and other food brands.
The eponymous Cavi-art – a winner of PETA’s Best Vegan Luxury Food Item award – are designed as substitutes for lumpfish, cod and trout roe (among others) in colours like black, red, orange, yellow, wasabi green, pink and more.
Meanwhile, the Tosago range contains alternatives for masago (smelt fish eggs) and tobiko (flying fish roe), which are used in sushi. These are available in orange, yellow, black and green shades. And the Food-art lineup contains what Cavi-art describes as flavoured seaweed pearls in lemon, balsamic vinegar, apple, strawberry and grape variants, which can be used for desserts too. All of Cavi-art’s products are produced locally in Denmark.
You can find Cavi-Art’s vegan caviar products online and in various restaurants and retail stores.
Zeroe Vegan Caviar
Courtesy: Zeroe Vegan Caviar
Another Danish vegan caviar producer, Zeroe uses seaweed “grown naturally off the coast of France”. The shelf-stable caviar has received rave reviews from influencers and celebrities online, with its signature black hue providing a striking visual edge to dishes.
Zeroe’s plant-based caviar is made by suspending seaweed in clean water, before extracting and forming it into spheres. To boost the flavour, it’s complemented with ingredients like cayenne, black pepper, turmeric, laurel, leek, dill and tarragon, which are sourced from across Europe. While it is shelf-stable, the brand recommends serving the fish egg substitutes chilled for the best experience.
You can find Zeroe Vegan Caviar online starting at $27 for a 55g jar.
Cavinoir
Courtesy: Cavinoir
While not an exclusively vegan brand, Dutch producer Cavinoir (formerly Tzar Caviar) has two plant-based roe products: a shiny black-coloured variety and a lox-style roe (keta caviar) with a reddish-orange hue.
Both products have what the company describes as a “subtle sea flavour”, boasting “salty, fishy, umami, complex” notes that melt in the mouth. These gourmet seaweed pearls are a commercial iteration of the spherification method, using sodium alginate, agar agar, sunflower oil, spices, lactic acid and a stabiliser.
You can find Cavinoir’s vegan range online for €9.95 per 110g jar.
Albert Heijn
Courtesy: Albert Heijn
Another Dutch entry on this list – and a surprising one at that – is Albert Heijn, the supermarket chain. You don’t usually stroll around looking for caviar in your weekly shop now, do you? But you could if you wanted inexpensive vegan caviar in the Netherlands.
Albert Heijn’s own-label Vegan Kaviaar is also a seaweed-based spherification alternative that comes in a black hue. The company uses seaweed and cayenne extract alongside rapeseed oil, citric acid, spices, herbs, colourings, stabilisers and preservatives.
You can find Albert Heijn’s vegan caviar online or in-store for €1.99 per 50g jar.
Deli-Caviar
Courtesy: Deli-Caviar
In Germany, Berlin-based Deli-Caviar makes flavoured agar-agar-based vegan roe, with a colourful lineup bare striking visuals. Its most popular offering is the rosewater caviar, which uses Damask rose oil and stevia as the main flavouring agents.
In addition, there are two balsamic varieties in black and white (with balsamic vinegar, grape must and olive oil), an aqua-coloured blue gin caviar version, a deep red cherry flavour, and an orange blossom water one. Additionally, Deli-Caviar makes whiskey-honey flavoured caviar too – but these are vegetarian, not vegan.
You can find Deli-Caviar’s vegan caviar online for €13.99 per 110g jar.
Bonus: Wanna Greens
Courtesy: GreenOnyx
Not exactly a caviar replica per se, but Israeli company GreenOnyx’s ready-to-eat duckweed brandWanna Greens makes mini green pearls made from these water lentils and marketed as green caviar. These are grown on an urban farm and can be used in both sweet and savoury applications, and have made it onto trial menus of some Michelin-starred restaurants.
You can join Wanna Greens’ waitlist for the green duckweed, which is expected to sell at $30 per kg.
A whole latte love is heading to one airline. Delta Air Lines is the winner of PETA’s Compassion on Board Award for being the first major airline to offer oat milk creamer on all its flights departing the U.S. PETA pushed for this move, as it will help spare cows, whose calves are stolen from them in the dairy industry.
We’re celebrating Delta’s compassionate move and calling on other airlines, including Southwest and American, to follow its example.
Arrival of Vegan Creamer on Delta Flights Is a First-Class Upgrade for the Airline
By offering oat milk creamer on its flights, Delta is making the skies kinder to cows and more welcoming to the millions of Americans who don’t drink dairy for ethical, environmental, or health reasons.
The demand for vegan milks has skyrocketed, while the consumption of dairy milk has declined by 40% over the past 50 years. Millions of Americans—including an estimated 95% of Asian Americans and 80% of Indigenous and Black Americans—are lactose intolerant.
Cows on farms are forcibly inseminated, their beloved calves are torn away from them so that the milk meant to nourish those babies can be used by humans, and they’re slaughtered once their bodies wear out. In addition, animal agriculture is a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions, species extinction, deforestation, and other environmental disasters.
Ask Other Airlines to Add Vegan Options
Buckle up and join tens of thousands of PETA supporters in urging Southwest and American Airlines to follow in Delta’s flight path toward compassion and sustainability by offering dairy-free creamer:
Inspired by the Greek myth of Sisyphus, who was condemned to roll a stone up a mountain only to have it roll back down to the bottom every time, PETA’s very own Sisyphus—dressed in a loincloth circa 1 million B.C.—will set out to push a giant vegan cheese wheel up a hill on Wednesday, which is World Vegan Day.
When: Wednesday, November 1, 12 noon
Where: In front of Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge (near the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue), Nashville
The prehistoric display aims to call in the people—many of them men—who are dedicated to healthy and humane eating yet say they “just can’t give up” dairy cheese. To prove how easy this is, everyone who shows up to witness PETA’s feat will be treated to complimentary creamy, dairy-free cheese wheels from Babybel, just one of the many tasty vegan cheeses on the market in 2023.
“Unlike the original Sisyphus, who was forced to work futilely for all eternity, animal rights advocates are succeeding in drawing even the most stubborn, cheese-addicted men into the world of delicious vegan cheese,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s World Vegan Day display aims to remind everyone that kicking cruel and unhealthy dairy cheese to the curb is not a Sisyphean task.”
In the dairy industry, calves are torn away from their mothers, often within a day of birth, so that the milk meant to nourish them can be stolen and sold to humans. PETA’s investigations into dairy facilities have found workers electroshocking cows in the face, hitting them with poles and a cane, and abusing them in other ways. Once their bodies wear out from repeated pregnancies, they’re sent to slaughter.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website.
A whole latte love is heading to Delta Air Lines, winner of PETA’s Compassion on Board Award for being the first airline to add vegan creamer on all its flights departing the U.S.—a move the group had pushed for, as it will help spare cows whose calves are stolen from them in the dairy industry. In thanks, Delta will receive a framed certificate.
“By adding oat milk to its flights, Delta is making the skies kinder to cows and more welcoming to the millions of Americans who don’t drink dairy for ethical, environmental, or health reasons,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is celebrating Delta’s compassionate move and calling on other airlines, including Southwest and American, to follow its example.”
PETA points out that the demand for plant-based milks has skyrocketed while the consumption of dairy milk has declined by 40% over the past 50 years as consumers make the switch once they learn that in the dairy industry cows are forcibly inseminated, their beloved calves are torn away from them so that the milk meant to nourish their babies can be used by humans, and they’re slaughtered once their bodies wear out. In addition, animal agriculture is a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions, species extinction, deforestation, and other environmental disasters, and millions of Americans—including an estimated 95% of Asian Americans and 80% of Indigenous and Black Americans—are lactose intolerant.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
Hurricane Ham and Tropical Storm Salami could be on your local Doppler radar sometime soon. Following the devastation and deaths caused by Hurricane Otis, PETA is calling for a new policy to name tropical storms and hurricanes after beef, butter, cheese, and other animal-derived foods, as the production of these cruel items contributes greatly to the climate catastrophe.
PETA rushed a letter to Abdulla Al Mandous, president at the World Meteorological Organization, urging him to enact the new policy to highlight the fact that animal-abusing industries are making cyclones, hurricanes, and tropical storms ever more devastating and frequent.
How Animal Agriculture Is Linked to the Climate Catastrophe
The United Nations states that about a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are linked to food production—with the largest percentage of these gases, particularly methane, coming from the meat and dairy industries—and reports that a global shift toward vegan eating is vital in order to combat the worst effects of the climate catastrophe.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the waste from just 200 cows produces as much nitrogen as the sewage from a community of up to 10,000 humans. Rainforests, prairies, and wetlands are systematically destroyed and converted to farmland in order to grow the enormous number of crops needed to feed cows. A typical cow produces 120 pounds of waste each day—and when this manure is used as fertilizer, it can contaminate streams and lakes, destroy entire ecosystems, poison food products, and pollute the atmosphere with ammonia and methane. None of this is the cows’ fault—they don’t want to be exploited any more than we want the environment to be destroyed.
Cows are social animals who form complex relationships with others in their herd. They love their calves and enjoy frolicking with friends in green pastures at sanctuaries. However, more than 29 million cows suffer and die in the meat and dairy industries every year in the U.S. alone.
Storm the Vegan Aisle Instead: Go Vegan Today
Vegan foods—such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, peas, nuts, and lentils—require less land, energy, and water to produce. Plus, eating vegan foods means you aren’t contributing to the exploitation and cruelty of the meat and dairy industries. Storm the vegan aisle next time you go shopping!
Will a climate report ranking from the CDP—a trusted environmental group that discloses companies’ environmental footprint—finally push Starbucks to stop charging as much as 90 cents more for vegan milks? We sure hope so!
Starbucks needs to be taken to task for its unjust and unethical vegan milk upcharge, and it’s the responsibility of third-party environmental reporting organizations like the CDP to call out companies and point out where they can do better.
These environmental reports are also presented to Starbucks’ shareholders, who deserve to be informed that it’s bad business for the company to support an industry that harms the environment and cows while discriminating against customers who can’t consume dairy.
So PETA wrote to the CDP urging it to downgrade Starbucks’ climate change score, given that the company still charges extra for vegan milks that are better for the environment.
What Is the True Cost of Cow’s Milk?
It’s widely recognized that the production of dairy products contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, land use, deforestation, and water scarcity. And considering that each cow produces an amount of methane equivalent to burning 125 gallons of diesel fuel annually, Starbucks is likely responsible for a huge methane footprint since it purchases tens of millions of gallons of dairy milk every year. By the company’s own measurements, supplying its customers with dairy produces 1.56 million metric tons more greenhouse gas emissions than supplying coffee.
Starbucks has even admitted that cow’s milk is the biggest contributor to its carbon footprint and that vegan milks are a “big part of the solution” in reducing its environmental impact. The company’s decision to penalize customers who prefer vegan milks discourages them from choosing sustainable, animal-friendly options.
PETA also reminded the CDP that the upcharge promotes dietary racism by penalizing the approximately 80% of Black and Indigenous Americans and the more than 90% of Asian Americans who are lactose intolerant.
Wake Up and Smell the Cruelty
In addition, the vegan upcharge supports the dairy industry’s immense cruelty to animals. Dairy farms forcibly impregnate cows, take calves away from their loving mothers, and send mother cows to slaughter when they can no longer be exploited for milk. Cows are fiercely protective of their loved ones and form lifelong friendships. No one needs to drink cow’s milk, and we can all spare them immense suffering by choosing vegan milk options.
Vegan, environmentally conscious, and lactose intolerant customers all want the same thing: to stop paying extra for making better choices. If Starbucks really cared about sustainability as it claims to, it would prove it by dropping the vegan upcharge.
Tell Starbucks to Do the Right Thing
Remind Starbucks that soy, oat, coconut, and almond milk shouldn’t cost a cent more than their dairy counterpart, which is cruel to cows, contributes to the climate catastrophe, and is indigestible by many humans:
Months after confirming that this year’s UN climate summit will have a “mostly vegan” menu, the COP28 Presidency has announced that two-thirds of the 250,000 meals served daily will be vegan and vegetarian. The move comes as experts describe the Dubai-hosted event as the first food-focused COP.
The COP28 catering team has confirmed that two-thirds of all food at the summit will be plant-based or vegetarian, in a menu described as “1.5°C aligned”. It comes after an open letter and months of campaigning by the Youth and Children Constituency of the UNFCCC (YOUNGO) and over 140 youth and civil society groups led to UAE’s COP28 President-Designate Dr Sultan Al Jaber guaranteeing that the conference will have a plant-forward menu.
Besides the high amount of meat-free food, the Sustainable Catering Strategy at COP28 will centre on inclusivity, waste, packaging, emissions labelling and carbon budgets. Last year’s annual summit in Egypt hosted its first-ever pavilions dedicated to food system changes, and Glasgow’s COP26 in 2021 added climate levels to the meat-heavy food menu but failed to add food and livestock farming to the agenda.
Climate activists win the fight for sustainable catering
Courtesy: Food4Climate Pavilion
The impact of livestock farming has been increasingly under the spotlight recently, given multiple studies that show how replacing half of our meat and dairy intake with plant-based alternatives can double climate benefits, and veganism can cut emissions, land use and water pollution by 75% compared to meat-rich diets. And a recent investigation into the UN FAO’s censoring of the link between animal agriculture and climate change due to lobbying pressure has amplified the scrutiny.
YOUNGO’s Food@COP initiative, which aims to ensure that the UN’s annual climate summit has climate-friendly catering, was supported by sustainable food advocacy organisation ProVeg International in its efforts. Its open letter from April, which also demanded locally sourced (where possible) and culturally inclusive food, read: “Progress on climate-friendly catering has already been made at previous COPs and major climate events in Bonn, Glasgow, and Stockholm. Yet, despite persistent demands from attendees, especially youth, the food on offer at these events has been out of step with the climate emergency.”
In response, Al Jaber said: “The COP28 Presidency has a firm focus on transformational action on food systems within the wider global climate change agenda. As part of this, we intend to demonstrate sustainable food systems in action at COP28 itself. My team has been working to ensure the availability of plant-based food options that are affordable, nutritious, and locally and regionally sourced, with clear emissions labelling.”
“The Catering Letter Steering Committee has worked very hard with the COP28 Presidency to ensure that the food is predominantly plant-based at this all-important summit,” said ProVeg campaigns and policy officer Lana Weidgenant. “By committing to plant-rich, affordable catering, the COP28 Presidency is showing leadership and acknowledging the impact of diets high in animal-sourced foods. It is really fantastic to see this happening.”
Gloria Agyare, a member of Food@COP and the YOUNGO Food and Agriculture Working Group, added: “In this moment, hearing young voices and seeing their ideas come to life fills me with immense joy. As a young advocate from the Global South, it gives me great hope that youth are playing a vital role in shaping our future. I can’t wait to taste the food, knowing it’s a delicious symbol of our dedication to a climate-friendly tomorrow.”
COP28 Presidency’s problems
COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber | Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons/CC
An estimated 250,000 meals are expected to be served to over 60,000 visitors daily across nearly 80 outlets at COP28, which include food halls, grab-and-go stations and food trucks. Making two-thirds of it vegan and vegetarian is “excellent progress”, as Raphaël Podselver, director of UN Affairs at food advocacy non-profit ProVeg International, said last month.
His statement came after it emerged that this year’s conference will have an increased focus on food systems. COP28 – to be held from November 30 to December 12 – will spotlight food with policy announcements, a food pavilion, and a dedicated Food, Agriculture and Water Day on December 10. Podselver said it’s the “first time we are having real discussions on food and agriculture at a COP summit”, and is expecting policy shifts to advance plant-rich diets and protein diversification, improve food security and reduce agrifood emissions.
Additionally, the COP28 Presidency is also calling on governments to sign a Leaders Declaration on Food Systems, Agriculture and Climate Action and incorporate food systems and agriculture into national climate agendas.
However, the Presidency itself has some issues to contend with. According to the Guardian, the UAE has the world’s third-largest net-zero-busting plans for oil and gas expansion, and its new fossil fuel developments are incompatible with the 2050 net-zero goals. Additionally, the global organisation Climate Action Tracker rates the UAE’s environmental plans as “insufficient”.
Moreover, Al Jaber is the CEO of Adnoc, the UAE national oil company. A leaked document has revealed that the firm hasn’t disclosed its emissions or published a sustainability report since 2016, though it adds that the company is “currently conducting necessary studies”. “Climate ambition” is another issue listed, with the UAE increasing its pledges’ ambition recently. But even then, its pledge would allow the country’s carbon emissions to increase until 2030.
This is why Podselver pointed out that on a global scale, there’s still work to do to raise awareness among UN nations about food’s impact on the climate, and solutions to cut emissions. But nevertheless, he hailed the decision to reduce meat from the world’s preeminent climate policy event. “We expect to see plant-based catering as well as emissions labelling on food embraced by other summits going forward. We certainly do not see this as a one-off, but rather another stage in a journey towards raising awareness of how to make our diets more climate-friendly.”
Nusantara, an Indonesian eatery by the world-renowned Locavore restaurant group in Bali, celebrates the indigenous dishes from around the archipelago in a spectacular vegan tasting menu that is not to be missed.
Locavore – which is about to open a new vegetarian restaurant and the second iteration of its flagship eatery (called Locavore NXT) in December – prides itself on sustainability, championing regional ingredients and local producers. It has regularly appeared on Asia’s Best 50 Restaurants List, winning the Sustainable Restaurant Award in 2019.
Nusantara is Locavore’s ode to Indonesia. Located in the centre of Ubud – the town on the foothills of rice fields, coffee plantations and all the greenery Bali has to offer – the restaurant is hard to miss. ‘Nusantara’ is Bahasa Indonesian for “archipelago”, signifying how the restaurant encompasses the flavours, atmosphere and culture of all the different islands and regions of Indonesia. The menu – dotted with dishes from across the country – emphasises this ethos.
Atmosphere and tailoring to vegans
Courtesy: Anay Mridul for Green Queen
The devil really is in the details with the eatery. They follow up on your booking to confirm your dietary preferences, while a second confirmation email is necessary to finalise your reservation. You can go à la carte or opt for the set menu – I did the latter. While it contains meat, the menu can be tailored to a vegan or vegetarian diet, with certain dishes that don’t appear on the full menu otherwise.
There’s a grill station at the entrance, where coconut husks are used as briquettes, with smoke providing a theatrical entrance experience. There are also whole coconut shells placed atop, which I later found out are used as soup bowls. There’s a red brick wall on the opposite side, and inside, wood is the name of the game. Even the lights are fitted in wooden blocks hanging from the ceiling. You can see parts of the kitchen while seated, and the atmosphere is lively and bustling – though (crucially) not so loud that you can’t hear yourself.
Like many fine-dining establishments on the island, you’ll need to get bottled still or sparkling water at Nusantara – no option for plain tap water. As part of the tasting menu, all dishes come together as it’s a family-style concept.
Courtesy: Anay Mridul for Green Queen
But to my very pleasant surprise, it starts with a bunch of little tasters to get you going. It comes with a wonderfully illustrated info card explaining what each snack is. There are nine items here. The sambal teri kacang (which contains fish) is subbed for a crispy potato option, the telor balado (a chicken egg) makes way for young papaya, the tahu (the local word for ‘tofu’) petis contains fish too and is swapped for a banana curry, while the shrimp paste is removed from the cemcem leaves (a local plant).
A delightfully diverse snack tray
Courtesy: Anay Mridul for Green Queen
The potatoes are moreish – think garlicky ultra-thin shoestring fries, paired with a sticky sauce that has a hint of a kick rounded out with a delicate sweetness. The cassava crackers have a sweet and spicy combination that really works with the lemongrass and lime leaves.
Next comes the deep-fried tapioca, one of the best parts of the entire meal. It’s doused in spicy kecap manis (Indonesia’s famed sweet soy sauce) that offers a wonderful contrast to the crispy root. From the outside, it’s gooey and sticky, but there’s a delectable crunch and a melt-in-your-mouth texture when you bite in. It reminds me of a very soft tapioca pearl bursting in your mouth, albeit with South Indian flavours.
The thinly shaved papaya layered on a skewer makes for a striking presentation. Its sweet background note balances out the chilli from the tapioca. The sauce itself is very light and complex. The tempeh feels like it has a base of tamarind (though there isn’t any) – continuing the sweet theme, elevated with strong earthy flavours from the salam leaves (Indonesian bay leaves).
Courtesy: Anay Mridul for Green Queen
The marinated pineapple is just that – sweet, pickled, a little spicy and simple. The banana curry, however, is magical – the banana isn’t sweet at all, and it’s braised in a gravy reminiscent of an oily North Indian dish heavy on garam masala. The cemcem leaves, meanwhile, are absolutely packed with flavour – pleasantly acidic, slightly sweet and powerfully floral (though I’m not a big fan of the chewy texture).
Emping are crackers made from the seeds of a local plant called melinjo. They aren’t as crunchy as you’d expect, but that’s how they’re supposed to be. The curry sauce really is packed with spices and complements the pleasantly bitter aftertaste of the crackers. However, don’t wait too long to eat these, as the sauce softens the emping rather quickly.
The snacks were a nice touch that prepped my palate for the Indonesian flavours that would continue with the mains.
The rice and sambal
Courtesy: Green Queen
The set menu comprises six mains, a side of rice, two sambals and dessert. The rice itself is maddeningly good. The grains are perfectly cooked and possess a nice bite, and while a delicate background of coconut and pandan helps (along with a whole dried chilli to boot), it’s the flavour of the rice that absolutely shines. I could eat it plain on its own.
Both sambals – Indonesian chilli pastes – are raw (as confirmed by the charming host) and have a base of shallots, garlic, chillies and candlenuts. The greenish-yellow sambal rapah, which hails from West Nusa Tengarra, is heavy on turmeric (both the root and leaves) and salt. In terms of the mouthfeel, this almost feels like a curry paste. It’s not too spicy, but definitely feels like something you need to complement other dishes with.
The Sumatran red sambal tuktuk, on the other hand, is much spicier, and comprises tomatoes, Sumatran Andaliman peppers, tomatoes and torch ginger. The texture is coarser and more palatable than the green sambal, as you can almost pick out the chilli skins. It’s also slightly astringent and not unlike a few other sambals I’ve tried, but I much prefer this one over the green.
Tempeh, tofu and all the vegetables in between
Balinese moringa soup served in a burnt whole coconut | Courtesy: Green Queen
Next up: a local delicacy: moringa leaf soup, which is a standout both visually and flavour-wise. It’s served in those burnt whole coconuts I mentioned above – the soup is poured into these and reheated before being served. There’s such a brilliant contrast of textures at play here, with chunks of both young and aged coconut floating around. The longer the soup sits, the more coconutty it gets – and that can only ever be a good thing.
Oseng jantung pisang – the banana blossom dish – is loud. It’s heavy on soy and garlic, and all the better for it. It evokes memories of addictive takeaway stir-fries, with a fleeting sweetness at the back end. The leeks prove to be an excellent addition, and the sambals are not needed here– it works best on its own, with some rice.
Like the above, the water spinach dish – kangkung bunga pepaya – comes from Sulawesi and is soy-forward too, but with the garlic toned down and some added bitterness thanks to the papaya blossom and turmeric leaves. This dish is really pleasant and even better with rice and a dollop of the green sambal.
Clockwise, from top left: Stir-fried banana blossom, stir-fried water spinach with papaya blossom, braised tempeh curry, and stir-fried tofu with lemon basil | Courtesy: Anay Mridul for Green Queen
On to the tofu stir-fry, then. You know when you can taste a food’s freshness? Yeah, this tofu is spongy with a melt-in-your-mouth texture – but unlike silken tofu, which collapses – and has a light soy and chilli dressing to help it along. The true star, however, is the lemon basil, which amp up the refreshing quality of the dish. Have it with the red sambal to make it all the more worthwhile.
The tempeh feels like it’s braised in the same fat-forward and warmly spiced sauce the banana curry was cooked in. It’s quite heavy on its own, but the rice balances out the richness. This is one dish that works well with both sambals, but the green one takes the (soybean) cake – though I do have to say the portion felt almost excessive for a tasting menu. Just this tempeh and a side of rice could make for a light dinner.
Finally, there’s a jackfruit dish, gudek nangka, inspired by the Javanese city of Yogyakarta. Purely by appearance, you can tell it’s a complex dish. It’s young jackfruit braised with shallots, galangal, coriander seeds, salam leaves, palm sugar, coconut water and more salam leaves. It’s topped with a slab of fried tofu stewed in coconut milk. This dish has deep flavours and a hint of sweetness; the restaurant recommends that you eat it with one of the sambals, and it works fantastically with the green one.
Courtesy: Anay Mridul for Green Queen
A glorious dessert
I’m not a big fan of liquid desserts, but Nusantara’s take on the street food classic, Es Cendol, blew me away. It features a base of pandan-infused coconut milk sweetened with palm sugar, with floating bits of green rice flour jelly and ripe jackfruit. There’s something about the combination of pandan and coconut milk that makes this taste like kheer, which is a (usually) dairy-based Indian rice pudding that is typically cooked for a long time.
The jelly itself is pretty neutral in flavour; it’s present more for the texture. The mature yellow jackfruit is such a nice surprise – it’s sweet and chewy and succulent with notes of fermented apple and banana, reminiscent of the red papaya that comes in canned fruit cocktail (I mean this in the best way). Together, the brightness of the jackfruit, the creamy nuttiness of the coconut milk, and the texture of the grass really meld together so well. This is a marvellous dessert – which you might be able to tell by the fact I’ve used up two whole paragraphs to describe this.
Nusantara’s es cendol is a marvellous tribute to the Indonesian dessert | Courtesy: Anay Mridul for Green Queen
Final thoughts on Nusantara
Nusantara is a special place to go for an area of Bali where you’re spoilt for choice. Of course, it’s upscale fine dining, and you’ll spend 10 times more than you would at a warung (the small family-owned eateries that dot Indonesian towns), but for 450,000 IDR (about $28) plus taxes, the quality, range and sheer amount of food is an absolute bargain anywhere and well worth the detour.
For me, the moringa soup, the banana blossom stir-fry, the braised tempeh, and dessert were the standouts. Note: if you’re not going for the set menu and have a sweet tooth, I would recommend trying Dadar Gulung, which are pandan-infused rice flour crepes filled with sweetened desiccated coconut.
I have to be honest: this was a lot of food for one person and I was almost uncomfortably (yet happily) full. These are very generous portions, so show up hungry! That said, Nusantara has a very diverse range of flavours and offers something for everyone – bar maybe the pineapple, everything is super inventive and nothing feels boring.
If you don’t have the time to visit the over 17,500 islands in Indonesia (and who does?), Nusantara is the ideal place to sample their diverse culinary identity (especially since the namesake city is the country’s would-be capital).
Nusantara by Locavore is located at Jl Dewisita No 09C, Ubud, Kabupaten Gianyar, Bali 80571. It’s open noon to 2:30pm and 6pm to 9:30pm on most days, and noon to 9:30pm on Mondays and Thursdays. Reservations are recommended.
London-based WNWN Food Labs is releasing three vegan cocoa-free chocolate products inspired by British favourites from Cadbury, Tony’s Chocolonely and Terry’s – in strikingly similar packaging that’s as cheeky as it’s risky.
A year after launching a limited-edition cocoa-free version of the famous Daim chocolate bar, WNWN is unveiling three more products for the UK market that take on established classics. The brand’s new cocoa- and palm-oil-free chocolates riff on the popular Cadbury Wholenut, Terry’s Orange and Tony’s Chocolonely.
The new alt-chocolates use WNWN’s base of carob and barley and are made with a traditional fermentation process. Moreover, the company employs sustainable vegetable fats (including shea butter, which balances chemical requirements with eco-ethical credentials) and oat milk, which means the chocolates are vegan, though not gluten-free.
Asked why the company chose to mimic these specific chocolate brands, WNWN co-founder Johnny Drain told Green Queen: “Our choices were based on a list of the bestselling and most-loved British chocolate bars, and we also did an Instagram poll to understand which bars people would like to see given the ‘win-win’ treatment. Those three emerged as our win-winners.”
Chocolate lawsuit incoming?
Spot the difference | Courtesy: WNWN Food Labs/Cadbury/Tony’s Chocolonely/Terry’s
The Tony’s Chocolonely alternative acts as plain milk chocolate, while the Terry’s substitute contains the same base, with added orange and grapefruit oils. The Cadbury Wholenut lookalike has the same ingredient base but slightly lower sugar content, with extra hazelnut paste.
While WNWN did a similar thing with Daim last year, it has gone a step further in its mimicking process. All the chocolates have packaging that’s eerily similar to their original counterparts. The Cocoa-Free Choc Nut has a purple background with similar font colours as Cadbury’s, the Vegan M•lk Choc is bright red with identical fonts and placements as Tony’s, and the Cocoa-Free Orange takes inspiration from Terry’s blue hues and orange peel-like fonts.
It feels primed for lawsuits – something even the brand acknowledges. “I think the food and beverage world has seen it all in its time, so it’s safer to not rule anything out,” said Drain. “We chose this approach to draw attention to the fact that while we know the British public loves these bar flavours, they are largely not aware of what underpins much of the chocolate industry.
“And yet those issues are hiding in plain sight: they are in the news (sometimes), easily searchable online, and even big chocolate companies now speak more openly about them. It’s same-same, but different: we’re offering an alternative route to forms of deliciousness that people are very familiar with.”
Big Chocolate problems
WNWN’s Waim! bar – a take on the Daim bar | Courtesy: WNWN
While Cadbury and Terry’s are British favourites, both use palm oil in their chocolates, which is a major driver of deforestation and linked to human rights violations, with Indigenous communities losing their lands and workers exploited with poor conditions and pay.
Tony’s Chocolonely, meanwhile, doesn’t use palm oil and is known as an ethical brand. It has topped the Sustainable Brand Index for five out of the last six years, but it’s still a chocolate maker, which comes with its own issues. The cocoa industry is linked to deforestation and human rights abuses, and chocolate is a huge greenhouse gas emitter.
In fact, the only food worse than dark chocolate when it comes to supply chain emissions is beef. In addition, cocoa beans have one of the highest carbon opportunity costs, which is the amount of carbon lost from native vegetation and soils to produce food – if a specific food was not produced on a given plot of land, this land could be used to restore native vegetation and sequester carbon.
The EU actually banned cocoa and chocolate linked to deforestation in June, with companies needing to prove that their products haven’t contributed to deforestation since 2021. In the US, the Biden administration was sued in August to block imports of cocoa harvested by children in West Africa, which has been linked to the chocolate used by brands like Hershey’s, Mars and Nestlé.
Additionally, scientists have warned that cocoa trees are threatened – and a third of them could die out by 2050 – which could lead to a global chocolate shortage. It’s for these reasons that WNWN is banking on convincing consumers to try its eco-friendly alternatives: the brand claims its dark chocolate emits 90% fewer greenhouse gasses than conventional chocolate, after conducting an internal life-cycle analysis.
Spenny chocolate
WNWN Founders Johnny Drain & Ahrum Pak | Courtesy: WNWN Food Labs
Drain hinted at this launch in an interview with Green Queen in August when he confirmed the brand had a few ongoing B2B pilots too. This is WNWN’s third launch, after limited-edition runs of dark chocolate thins and the Waim! bars. The company also trialled an alt-chocolate ice cream bar at the Häagen-Dazs Start-Up Innovation Challenge and featured at Fortum & Mason’s Harvest Week last month.
“We’ve reimagined classic chocolate bars by giving them an ethical, sustainable, and cocoa-free twist,” said WNWN co-founder and CEO Ahrum Pak. “While they have a far smaller environmental impact, and they don’t rely on unfair labour practices like the originals they were inspired by, they are every bit as delicious. With these products, we’re showing the world how our cocoa-free chocolate can power the future of sustainable snacking.”
The new chocolates by WNWN, which raised $5.6M in a Series A round earlier this year, are available for pre-order now. But with each 48g bar setting you back £5, it is a steep price. However, as the brand points out, the cost of chocolate is skyrocketing. In London, chocolate is 66% more expensive than it was a year ago, while New York has a 46% higher markup.
After decades of cheap labour and environmental damage, there is a price to pay, in more ways than one.
Attendees and passersby at the local Mac and Cheese Festival will get a tasty vegan treat courtesy of PETA on Saturday, when supporters armed with signs that read, “Not Your Mom, Not Your Milk,” will hand out free Babybel Plant-Based cheese snacks and remind people that loving milk, cheese, and yogurt—and dishes like mac and cheese—can go hand in hand with being kind to cows.
When: Saturday, October 28, 12 noon
Where: Outside the Mac and Cheese Festival, Mississauga Celebration Square, 300 City Centre Dr., Mississauga
PETA supporters at a previous vegan cheese giveaway. Photo: PETA
“Cows love their calves and produce milk to nourish them, not so humans can munch on mac and cheese made with dairy-derived cheese,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA urges everyone to leave cows in peace by loading their macaroni with the many delicious plant-based milks and cheeses available.”
In the dairy industry, calves are torn away from their mothers within a day of birth so that the milk meant for them can be stolen and sold to humans. PETA’s investigations into dairy facilities have found workers electroshocking cows in the face, hitting them with poles and a cane, and abusing them in other ways. Once their bodies wear out from repeated pregnancies, they’re sent to slaughter.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers free vegan starter kits to help anyone make the switch.
Following a recently obtained federal report revealing that a truck driver hit a pig in the face with a paddle at least five times at Calihan Pork Processors in Peoria, PETA fired off a letter this afternoon to Peoria County State’s Attorney Jodi M. Hoos calling on her to investigate and file applicable criminal charges against the person responsible.
According to the report, on June 27 a federal agent observed that a pig’s right hind leg became stuck as she and others were being unloaded off a truck at the slaughterhouse. As she was “hunched over,” “squealing,” and desperately trying to free her leg, the driver approached her and hit her violently and repeatedly on the side of her face, causing her to scream even more loudly.
“This terrified pig was viciously beaten by a driver who made the last moments of her life even more agonizing,” says PETA Vice President of Evidence Analysis Daniel Paden. “PETA is calling on the state’s attorney to step in and prevent more illegal suffering by bringing appropriate charges—and reminds everyone that the only humane meal is a vegan one.”
PETA points out that pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, and other animals feel pain and fear and value their lives, just as humans do. The group is pursuing charges under state law because federal officials haven’t prosecuted any inspected slaughterhouses for acts of abuse such as the one at Calihan Pork Processors since at least 2007.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to Hoos follows.
October 26, 2023
The Honorable Jodi M. Hoos
Peoria County State’s Attorney
Dear Ms. Hoos:
I’m writing to request that your office (and a law-enforcement agency, as necessary) investigate and file applicable criminal charges against the individual responsible for beating a trapped pig on the face at Calihan Pork Processors LLC, located at 1 South St. in Peoria. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) documented the incident in a report that the agency recently made available to the public. (See the attached table.)
According to the report, on June 27 an inspector saw a sow become trapped by her right hind leg as a truck driver was unloading her and others at the slaughterhouse. According to the report, the “sow was squealing and hunched over trying to get her leg free,” prompting the inspector to yell, “Her leg is stuck,” at the driver and a Calihan Pork employee. “The driver then proceeded to hit the sow at least 5 times on the side of the face with [a] rattle paddle,” according to the report. The inspector added, “The truck driver hit her with enough force that she started vocalizing louder than she had been while still trying to get her leg unstuck.”
This conduct appears to violate 510 ILCS § 70/3.01(a), which prohibits the beating of animals. Please note that the FSIS’ report carries no criminal or civil penalties and does not preempt criminal liability under state law for acts of cruelty to animals. Given that the FSIS hasn’t initiated a criminal prosecution of a licensed slaughterhouse for inhumane handling since at least 2007, charges under state law are this victim’s only chance at a measure of justice.
Starbucks has admitted that cow’s milk is a major contributor to the company’s carbon footprint, yet it continues to charge up to 90 cents more for the vegan milks it acknowledges are better for the planet. In response, PETA is urging Paul Dickinson, founder and chair of the CDP—an organization that scores companies on their response to the climate catastrophe—to factor Starbucks’ vegan milk upcharge into its 2023 climate grade, which is currently under review.
In a letter to Dickinson, PETA points out that the production of cow’s milk causes nearly three times more greenhouse gas emissions than that of vegan milk and uses nine times as much land and that according to the president of California Bioenergy, every cow produces methane equivalent to burning 125 gallons of diesel fuel annually. The upcharge also disproportionately affects people of color, the majority of whom have some form of lactose intolerance. Competitors including Caribou Coffee have stopped charging extra for animal-free milks.
“Starbucks’ upcharge discourages customers from choosing animal- and planet-friendly vegan milks and proves that the company is more concerned about its bottom line than its role in the climate catastrophe,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on the CDP to account for the damage Starbucks does by putting profits before the planet when scoring the company’s climate response.”
In the dairy industry, calves are torn away from their mothers within a day of birth so the milk meant to nourish them can be stolen and sold to humans. PETA’s investigations into dairy facilities have revealed that cows were denied care for painful grapefruit-size masses that ooze blood and pus, struck over and over on their sensitive udders, and abused in other ways. Once their bodies wear out from repeated pregnancies, they’re sent to slaughter.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to Dickinson follows.
October 26, 2023
Paul Dickinson
Founder and Chair
CDP
Dear Mr. Dickinson:
I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Since the CDP is currently scoring Starbucks’ Climate Change 2023 report, we urge you to factor in the company’s unethical practice of charging as much as 90 cents more for vegan milks to be used in beverages, even though it has acknowledged that cow’s milk is the main reason why its carbon footprint is so large.
The production of dairy milk causes nearly three times more greenhouse gas emissions than vegan milk and uses nine times as much land, mostly for pasture and to grow the animals’ feed. According to the president of California Bioenergy, each cow produces an amount of methane equivalent to what’s released by burning 125 gallons of diesel fuel annually. That’s a lot of methane, considering that Starbucks purchases tens of millions of gallons of dairy milk every year.
In addition, the dairy industry Starbucks is propping up is responsible for immense cruelty to animals. Cows are confined and forcibly impregnated, and their babies are taken from them soon after they’re born, causing trauma to both the babies and the mothers, who are known to wail for days. Cows are considered worthless to the dairy industry when they’re no longer able to produce much milk, usually when they’re 4 or 5 years old. Then they’re sent to slaughter.
If Starbucks were truly concerned about the environment—and animals—it would stop charging extra for vegan milks, as one of its competitors, Caribou Coffee, recently did. Starbucks’ decision to impose an upcharge on vegan milks discourages consumers from making humane, environmentally friendly choices. And the vegan upcharge negatively affects individuals who are lactose intolerant. Considering that up to 80% of Black and Latine people, 95% of Asian Americans, and more than 80% of Indigenous Americans are unable to digest cow’s milk adequately, it’s discriminatory for Starbucks to charge extra for vegan milk.
PETA hopes CDP’s grade for Starbucks will reflect the company’s contribution to environmental problems, cruelty to animals, and discrimination.
If you’ve ever wondered where you can get raw milk, stop right there. Whether it’s raw or pasteurized, animal-based milk is a product of cruelty, exploitation, and speciesism. Here are answers to some common questions about raw milk.
What is raw milk?
Raw milk is stolen from animals, typically cows, sheep, or goats. It hasn’t been pasteurized to kill harmful bacteria such as Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella, and Salmonella.
Dairy farms are hotbeds for these dangerous germs, as many of these facilities—even ones labeled “organic”—confine cows to filthy, crowded lots, where they’re forced to live amid their own waste.
That’s not mud. #Dairy farms are crowded and filthy, and cows are often forced to stand in their own waste, just moments before being milked. pic.twitter.com/oOpAUwuD08
But the real question is whether any milk from animals is safe for humans to drink. The dairy industry repeatedly artificially impregnates cows to force them to produce milk. They spend much of their lives standing on concrete in cramped milking pens, where they’re hooked up to milking machines, sometimes multiple times a day. Many dairy farms pump cows full of antibiotics and growth hormones, which end up in the milk products sold in supermarkets.
Additionally, up to 50% of cows exploited for milk suffer from mastitis—a painful udder infection resulting from the grueling, abusive milking routines that dairy farms subject them to. Their infected udders produce pus, contaminating their milk. Because mastitis is so common, the dairy industry has pushed to keep allowable pus cells in cow’s milk as high as possible—the U.S. has one of the highest rates in the world.
That’s not even mentioning the general health risks associated with consuming cow’s milk, which has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and many other serious ailments.
Is raw milk better for animal welfare?
Mothers of all species produce milk for their babies. Only humans produce milk for other humans. Using cows, goats, sheep, or any other animal for their milk is speciesist and cruel, no matter what the supposed animal welfare standards are. Mother cows are fiercely protective of their young and often spend days crying out for their babies when dairy farms cruelly tear them apart.
The dairy industry regularly misleads consumers with humane-washing buzzwords—like “organic” or “grass-fed”—to dupe them into thinking that there’s a humane way to exploit sentient beings. Facilities that make these claims still forcibly impregnate cows, take their babies away from them soon after birth, and use them like milk-producing machines. The only milks that are “better for animal welfare” are ones that don’t come from animals.
Are there health benefits of drinking raw milk?
No. There’s no nutritional need for humans to consume any animal-based products. Plenty of vegan milks provide essential nutrients like calcium, B12, and protein, without all the cholesterol found in cow’s milk. In addition, vegan milks are lower in fat and hormone-free.
Where can I get raw milk?
It’s simple: Don’t get it. Consuming cow’s milk fuels the dairy industry’s tremendous cruelty to gentle, sensitive cows who don’t want to be exploited. Vegan milks are healthier, better for the environment, and, most importantly, don’t cause countless animals to suffer. Order a vegan starter kit to get started today:
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers a bunch of vegan steak launches, the EU’s alt-protein commitment, and a new book on cultivated meat.
New products and launches
Apricot kernel cheese for the win! Austrian startup Kern Tec – which upcycles stone fruit pits into ingredients for dairy alternatives – has launched a Kesä vegan cheese line under its consumer-facing brand Wunderkern, available at 500 Blus Plus stores in pesto, tomato-olive and Mountain Fun. It will soon unveil alt-milk too.
Courtesy: Kern Tec
In the US, veteran oil brand Wessondebuted a range of vegan spreadable butters with a base of canola, palm and palm kernel oils. They come in Original and Olive Oil varieties, and will be available starting at Hannaford, Stop & Shop, and retailers in the northeast.
Further north, Canadian plant-based dairy company Bettermoo(d)entered a distribution agreement with United Natural Food Canada to place its functional oat milks in over 5,000 retailers nationwide.
Across the Atlantic, UK oat kefir maker Biotiful Gut Health has launched a line of yoghurts made from gluten-free oats. They will debut at Tesco with 350g pots in Vanilla and Cherry flavours.
Meanwhile, New York-based Culiraw has introduced seven raw vegan cheesecakes, available online and in select stores in NYC, Connecticut and New Jersey, including Green’s Natural Foods, Morton Williams, and Met Fresh Supermarkets.
Elsewhere, German cocoa-free chocolate producer ChoViva has partnered with bakery manufacturer De Beukelaer to release a vegan Cereola cookie, which is stoked at Rewe supermarket. It comes a month after it partnered with Kölln on a cereal range that used its oat- and sunflower-based chocolate alternative.
In the UK, Fruit-tellaannounced it will be launching vegan versions of its popular chewy treats (which contain gelatin) in Strawberry Mix, Duo Stix and Berries & Cherry flavours.
Courtesy: Dawn Foods
Staying in the dessert category, Netherlands-based bakery manufacturer Dawn Foods has unveiled a vegan sponge cake mix for its foodservice clients, which promises to provide the “same functionality, texture and taste experience” as its conventional counterpart.
And in the Netherlands and Belgium, McDonald’s has collaborated with Dutch dairy company FrieslandCampina to reduce GHG emissions from the fast-food giant’s dairy supply chain by 14% by 2025.
In more Dutch news, plant protein company Schouten has launched vegan nuggets for children. The Vegetable Bites contain 46% vegetables and come in kid-friendly shapes, and will be available in retail and foodservice channels.
Swedish furniture giant Ikea, meanwhile, has expanded its plant-based offerings with vegan nuggets too. The frozen wheat-based Slagverk nuggets are available at all Ikea stores in Sweden.
This is part of a wider trend, it would seem, given that the vegan snack category – currently worth 49.5B – is set to grow by 7.9% annually to reach $78B. Meanwhile, another report (using much different metrics, I’m sure) shows that the plant-based steak market was valued at $562.5M last year, and is bound to grow by 6.2% per yet to reach $1.02B in 2032.
Speaking of steak, Chunk Foods is deepening its ties with Lewis Hamilton, it seems. Last month, it established a partnership with Hamilton-backed vegan fast-casual chain Neat Burger. And last weekend, it appeared on the menu at Formula 1 in Austin (as well as the Pro Smoke Show).
Courtesy: Chunk Foods
In Germany, Veganz will begin selling a shelf-stable pea protein beef analogue in December, which can be rehydrated in 10 minutes. The plant-based steak will be priced between €3 and €4 per kg, much cheaper than both conventional and other vegan counterparts.
Meanwhile, Israeli producer Redefine Meat‘s 3D-printed flank steak, beef mince and burgers are now available to foodservice operators in Switzerland, with its pulled meat range and kebab mix to arrive next spring. Its New Meat is also available at vegan butcher shop Butch Bunny in Geneva.
Another Middle Eastern brand, the UAE’s Switch Foods, partnered with Lebanese restaurant chain Al Safadi to offer its plant-based meats on the latter’s menu, which will take shape in the form of fried kibbeh, kabab khashkash, lahem beajine and hummus with meat and fries.
Swedish cultivated meat brand Re:meat has partnered with ICA Gruppen, the largest grocery retailer in the Nordics, to explore consumer attitudes towards the former’s cultured meat.
And now there’s a new book about cultivated meat. Bryant Research founder Chris Bryant, cell ag expert Che Cannon and Mosa Met founder Dr Mark Post co-edited Advances in Cultured Meat Technology, published by Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing.
In the US, comedian and SNL alum Tim Robinson collaborated with Plant Power Fast Food to introduce vegan Coney hotdogs, which – like Robinson – hail from Michigan. These will be available at the latter’s locations through November, until supplies last.
Courtesy: Wagamama
More of a K-dog fan? Wagamama‘s got you covered, with a new Korean-inspired menu unveiled in its UK branches. The restaurant – half of whose menu is vegan – has introduced plant-based K-dogs, king oyster skewers, a tofu hot pot, and a silken tofu gochujang rice bowl, among other items.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s CJ CheilJedang has expanded its ready-to-heat vegan Bibigo dumpling range with Japchae and Green Chilli flavours, starting with the UK, Singapore and Australia.
And in the US, Zenso Labs is making upcycled precision-fermented booze. It reuses spent grains from breweries and distilleries and turns them into ingredients for alcohol and food formulations. It will soon launch a Pear Ginger hard seltzer and a ready-to-drink Moscow Mule SKU.
Funding, M&A and novel tech
In Germany, a three-year research project for cultivated meat has been funded by German cultured fish startup Bluu Seafood and the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). The former has poured in €760,000, and the latter has invested €500,000, bringing the total financing to €1.3M.
Canadian cultivated meat producer Evolved, meanwhile, has published a paper detailing how it created in-vivo-like tissues in vitro, capitalising on scaffold-free cell sheets.
Also in Canada, the Saskatchewan Food Centre is building an Advanced Food Ingredients Centre for precision fermentation and bioengineering R&D, with a potential capacity of 20,000 litres. It’s set to begin operations this quarter.
Courtesy: Daiya
Another fermentation facility that made the rounds recently was the one vegan cheese giant Daiya invested in, as it looks to develop a next-level version of chickpea-, oat- and coconut-based cheeses, slated for a North American launch by the end of this year.
In more cheese news, UK company Compleat Food Group (which was formed out of a merger between Addo Food Group and Winterbotham Darby in 2021) has acquired London-based artisanal vegan cheese maker Palace Culture.
Policy and petitions
Oatly‘s much-hyped Reddit AMA last Friday – where it invited a Big Dairy exec to co-host the session and answer questions about sustainability and carbon labelling alongside its sustainability director Caroline Reid – saw no one answer its call. But a Scottish dairy farmer did!
The European Parliament last week voted in favour of the Plant Protein Strategy, which calls on the EU – which has had a rocky week as some members have been found in cohorts with Big Ag to suppress green reforms – to boost the production and consumption of sustainable protein crops.
And its former member, the UK, saw a fourth borough endorse calls for a Plant-Based Treaty. London’s Lambeth council will join Haywards Heath, Norwich and Edinburgh in calculating and reducing food emissions and promoting plant-based food accessibility.
Awards, events and platforms
In Australia, SneakQIK, a shopping deals website, has relaunched as a vegan discounts platform, with expansions planned for India, the US, the UK and eventually globally.
Meanwhile, plant-based organisations have joined as strategic partners for a new event called Veg-net, whose first edition will be held on June 5 next year in London. The organisers hope to connect began brands with buyers and industry experts.
If you’ve had too much news and would rather just take a break, there are vegan-friendly rooms waiting for you at the NH Collection hotel in Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah archipelago. Animal-free bedding, plant-based snacks, compostable shower caps and sanitary bags, plastic-free packaging? Sign me up.
Elsewhere, Californian vegan seafood brand Impact Food has been nominated as one of 22 finalists for the 2023 Neptune Award by Ocean Exchange, which recognises sustainable solutions addressing ocean pollution and degradation.
Speaking of awards, TIME magazine has announced its annual Best Innovations list, which includes GOOD Meat‘s cultured chicken, which is one of only two companies to have received regulatory approval for sale in the US. There was also a special mention for Green Wolf‘s Vegami, which is a whole-foods plant-based salami sausage.
And PETA UK has also announced the winners for its 2023 Vegan Food Awards. Winners include M&S, THIS, VFC, Redefine Meat, Honestly Tasty, Sacred Grounds, Greggs, Asda and Flora.
And finally, another famous vegan organisation, Veganuary, has released the trailer for a documentary celebrating 10 years of the movement. It will premiere on November 17.
Want more roundups of alt-protein, plant-based and sustainable food? Stay tuned for next week’s Future Food Quick Bites, published every Wednesday, or get it in your mailbox by signing up for our Alt Protein Weekly newsletter.
Following U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports revealing that a worker beat a calf in the face, animals were denied water, and a pair of newborn calves remained conscious after being shot in the head at the Ohio Farms Packing slaughterhouse in Canaan Township, PETA sent a letter to Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney Angela Wypasek calling on her to investigate and file appropriate criminal charges against those responsible.
According to the reports, on June 9 a USDA inspector witnessed a worker repeatedly striking a calf in the face with a paddle before the animal became “visibly distressed” and ran away. On January 6, multiple animals were found confined without water. Additionally, in separate incidents in November 2022, two newborn calves were shot with a captive-bolt gun near their left eye and a second shot was needed to end their suffering. One of the calves fell to the ground, stood up, and walked a few steps before the second shot, while the other remained standing before the second blast rendered him unconscious. The USDA reports listed the two as “bob veal” calves, which is a meat industry term for calves who are less than 3 weeks old and sometimes have their umbilical cords still attached when they’re slaughtered.
“At this hell on Earth for animals, infant calves remained conscious and in agony after they were shot in the head, other animals were parched for lack of water, and another was beaten with a paddle,” says PETA Vice President of Evidence Analysis Daniel Paden. “PETA is urging Wayne County authorities to prosecute those responsible for this abuse and calls on everyone to help prevent animals from suffering in slaughterhouses by going vegan.”
PETA is pursuing charges under state law because federal officials haven’t prosecuted any inspected slaughterhouses for acts of abuse since at least 2007.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to Wypasek follows.
October 24, 2023
The Honorable Angela Wypasek
Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney
Dear Ms. Wypasek:
I’m writing to request that your office (and a law-enforcement agency, as necessary) investigate and file applicable criminal charges against the individuals responsible for beating a calf in the face, repeatedly shooting others in the head, and denying still other animals water at Ohio Farms Packing Co. Ltd., located at 2416 E. West Salem Rd. in Canaan Township. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) documented the incidents in reports that the agency recently made available to the public. (See the attached table.)
According to the reports, on June 9 an inspector saw that an Ohio Farms Packing worker “repeatedly struck [a] veal calf in the face with a paddle and then used the paddle to push the animal[’]s face toward the knocking area. The animal became visibly distressed and ran … away.” On January 6, an inspector found an unspecified number of animals confined without water on the property.
On November 1, 2022, an Ohio Farms Packing employee shot a very young calf near his left eye with a captive-bolt gun. According to the report, the “shot did not render the animal unconscious, and the [calf] remained standing and walked a few steps” until a second shot ended his suffering. Similarly, on November 29, 2022, an Ohio Farms Packing worker shot another young calf near the left eye with a captive-bolt gun, leaving the conscious animal to fall to the ground severely wounded until another shot ended his pain.
This conduct appears to violate Ohio Revised Code § 959.13. Please note that the FSIS’ report carries no criminal or civil penalties and does not preempt criminal liability under state law for acts of cruelty to animals. Given that the FSIS hasn’t initiated a criminal prosecution of a licensed slaughterhouse for inhumane handling since at least 2007, charges under state law are these victims’ only chance at a measure of justice.
Following a just-released U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report revealing that a worker at the Pitman Farms Inc. slaughterhouse near Moroni was caught on video repeatedly striking a live turkey against metal shackles, PETA sent a letter to Sanpete County Attorney Kevin L. Daniels calling on him to investigate and file appropriate criminal charges against those responsible.
According to the report, on April 12 a USDA inspector saw a worker grab a live turkey by her legs and drop her after she flapped her wings “trying to get away.” The worker immediately picked up the bird and “in a sideways swinging motion, forcefully struck the turkey” two times against solid metal shackles, hitting her back, wings, neck, and head before hanging her in shackles and laughing.
Turkeys are confined to cages in a transport truck. Photo: PETA
“At this hell on Earth for animals, a turkey already heading to slaughter endured the extra pain and fear of being violently assaulted,” says PETA Vice President of Evidence Analysis Daniel Paden. “PETA urges anyone who still eats turkeys to spare a thought for the suffering of this vulnerable bird and go vegan.”
This is not the first time Pitman Farms has been cited by the feds. In April 2021, USDA inspectors documented that slaughterhouse workers left severely injured turkeys to languish for hours after they were crushed in an overturned truck.
PETA is pursuing charges under state law because federal officials haven’t prosecuted any inspected slaughterhouses for acts of abuse since at least 2007.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to Daniels follows.
October 24, 2023
The Honorable Kevin L. Daniels
Sanpete County Attorney
Dear Mr. Daniels:
I’m writing to request that your office (and the Sanpete County Sheriff’s Office, as you deem appropriate) investigate and file applicable criminal charges against the individual responsible for repeatedly striking a live turkey against metal shackles on April 12 at the Pitman Farms Inc. (aka “Moroni Turkey Processing”) slaughterhouse located at 350 S. 300 West St. near Moroni. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) documented the incident in the attached report, which the agency just made available to the public.
An inspector saw a slaughterhouse employee drop a live turkey, who had flapped her wings when the worker grabbed her by the legs. According to the report, the worker “immediately picked up the live turkey … and in a sideways swinging motion, forcefully struck the live turkey against the metal shackles two times. … [T]he back, wings, neck, and head of the live turkey struck the solid shackles. The [inspector] observed the turkey to become motionless. … Immediately after hanging the turkey … the employee laugh[ed] out loud.”
Pitman Farms management located video footage of the incident, concurred that it constituted “mistreatment,” and identified the perpetrator.
This conduct appears to violate Utah Code § 76-9-301 (4) (a). Please note that the FSIS’ report carries no criminal or civil penalties and does not preempt criminal liability under state law for acts of cruelty to animals. Given that the FSIS hasn’t initiated a criminal prosecution for inhumane handling at a licensed slaughterhouse since at least 2007, charges under state law are this victim’s only chance at a measure of justice
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Daniel Paden
Vice President of Evidence Analysis
Cruelty Investigations Department
PETA
cc: Sheriff Jared Buchanan, Sanpete County Sheriff’s Office
In the midst of conflict, vegan food companies, chefs and volunteers came together to feed Israeli Defence Force soldiers, their loved ones, and people who have been injured or displaced.
Like the rest of the world, Omer Tal woke up in a state of shock. It was October 7, Hamas had just launched over 5,000 rockets from Gaza on Israeli soil, and it sparked a war that would see over 5,000 killed, 15,000 injured and hundreds of thousands displaced.
Still processing, Tal realised that returning to routine was, unfortunately, a far-fetched fantasy. “I felt a deep-seated need to contribute in a meaningful way,” he recalls. So he called Dor Datner, the owner of 12 eateries in Tel Aviv, and his partner Gilad Harpaz to ask for help.
Israel is a nation known as an alt-protein hub, with investment in this sector accounting for 15% of the global total last year, surpassed only by the US last year. Recognising the food industry’s potential, Tal –the head chef at Redefine Meat, one of the leading vegan meat companies in Israel – wanted to mobilise the sector and feed soldiers on the frontline, their families, those who have been displaced or lie injured in hospital – and anyone without access to nutritious foods during this period.
Fulfilling vegan meals as battle rations in Israel
Tal posted a call for support on Facebook, asking for volunteers to help cook meals and support an army that counts over 10,000 vegans (over 5% of the country’s total population follows a plant-based diet). Within 12 hours, Datner and Harpaz’s central kitchen on Tel Giborim Street (which fittingly translates to ‘hero’s hill’ in Hebrew) saw a flurry of activity being sanitised to kosher and vegan standards.
“I reached out to the army bases via the group Vegan Friendly to find out how many vegan or vegetarian soldiers are in each,” says Liran Cohen, a private chef. As the largest vegan organisation in Israel, it arranges plant-based meals for soldiers with dietary restrictions.
Running over a week, the campaign saw food tech startups, food producers and 100 volunteers and private chefs converge to serve vegan and flexitarian soldiers. “We created meal kits each consisting of 20 portions,” explains Lilach Edman, a vegan pasta chef who managed the kitchen. “Each portion was composed of a 150g protein dish, a portion of carbohydrate and fresh vegetables, plus a plant-based delicious treat. We made sure they contained all the food elements. The typical battle rations that normally come in cans can’t provide vegan soldiers with the sustenance they desperately need.”
Several startups donated raw materials for the plant-based meals, including Redefine Meat, which provided three tons of its 3D-printed beef and lamb analogues. Green Butcher and More Foods also donated plant-based beef products. Meanwhile, YoEgg! Foods contributed with its vegan poached eggs, and Creative Pea offered its pea-based chicken and fish innovations. Plenty 4U, Mama Q and Utopia donated dairy alternatives like vegan cheeses, and E.Y.M. Israeli Tofu donated high-quality tofu.
The kitchen, which ran from October 8-16, produced about 6,000 meals with a diverse selection of protein-rich dishes curated by private chef Noam Carmon. These include vegan schnitzels, spaghetti Bolognese with meatballs, chicken skewers, fish patties, poached eggs in tomato sauce and cheese pastries, among others. Additionally, Ornat donated its dairy- and sugar-free JO-MO chocolates, and Panda Confections contributed its vegan chocolates, and Roy Chocolate provided pralines.
A sense of home and a glimmer of hope
“There were some complex logistics in getting the kits to all the bases and evacuated families,” says Cohen. “But the soldiers’ reactions have been deeply touching – many expressed that the meals provided them with both strength and a comforting sense of home. They were grateful not to have to rely on battle rations. Surprisingly, even some of their carnivorous comrades sampled our vegan dishes and were amazed.”
After a week of tremendous efforts, the kitchen has now closed, but the campaign is still going through smaller private kitchens and restaurants. It’s described as a “first aid ‘food commando’” that supplied meals until other kitchens and organisations were able to properly answer to the needs of soldiers. Now, four different kitchens – including Redefine Meat’s test kitchen – are host to hundreds of volunteers and home cooks serving 2,000 meals a day.
Vegan Friendly arranged an operation room for all the plant-based and vegetarian meals, held a big group of either home cooks or commercial vegetarian kitchens to supply the meals, and took care of the delivery with its own volunteers. Since the attack on October 7, all the kitchens have served a combined 2.5 million meals in Israel, with 250,000 of them being vegan.
Redefine Meat continues to provide raw materials for 70 meals a day. “The other companies and volunteers have pledged to continue their part until the end of the war,” says Tal. “Moreover, some of the kits are also being earmarked for evacuated families and the 5,000 injured survivors in hospitals.”
He adds: “In the midst of the suffering, sadness, anxiety, and pain that continues to affect us, the Israeli community has rallied together to support and strengthen one another. Among the volunteers that turned up were those [who] had just returned from the funeral of a beloved relative, while others were young survivors of the Nova peace festival that was the first line of attack by the terrorists.
“For them, volunteering served as a form of initial compensation for trauma, offering precious moments to breathe and connect back to life. For many, this project has provided a glimmer of light in these dark and challenging times.”
Quality Cheese Inc.—which produces Bella Casara cheese sold at Loblaws and Longo’s—will no longer source milk from Stirling-Rawdon–based Ontario Water Buffalo Company after a damning PETA investigation into the farm revealed long-term neglect and mistreatment of buffaloes who were found confined to fly-ridden pens packed with feces. Loblaws contacted Quality Cheese after hearing from PETA and confirmed the cheesemaker’s decision to the group Friday.
“Soon after learning that neglect and filth run rampant at Ontario Water Buffalo Company, Quality Cheese made the business-savvy decision to cut ties with this filthy farm,” says PETA Vice President of Evidence Analysis Daniel Paden. “PETA urges anyone disgusted by these animals’ abuse to help end the suffering by choosing readily available vegan cheeses instead.”
This photo of a calf covered in waste and mud was given to PETA by a whistleblower and reportedly captured at Ontario Water Buffalo Company.
According to a whistleblower, a blind and immobile calf died after two weeks of neglect, female buffaloes were bred and milked even after suffering from prolapsed uteruses, calves were riddled with parasites, diarrhea was rampant, and many buffaloes were too weak to stand. The whistleblower also stated that one animal who had apparently fallen in the accumulated waste was dragged out of a pen with ropes to be milked and that another’s horn became so overgrown that it cut into her face, prompting a manager to cut it off, causing profuse bleeding. Other animals allegedly were routinely denied adequate veterinary care.
PETA corroborated the whistleblower’s account of filthy conditions by documenting on video farm owners admitting that the prolapsed uterus of a pregnant cow had been stitched back into her body and that a buffalo had lost part of an ear to frostbite in the winter. In September, another eyewitness documented that conditions were much the same as they had been earlier this year, with the summer heat bringing new horrors, including buffaloes—who love immersing themselves in water—having to resort to lying in a pit of fecal soup swarming with flies. This can lead to flystrike, in which flies—which are drawn to the waste—bite the animals and lay eggs in open wounds, leading to hatched maggots feeding on their skin and causing infections.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
Following a just-released U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report revealing that thousands of chickens died en route to the George’s Processing slaughterhouse during extreme heat, PETA sent a letter this morning to Barry County Prosecuting Attorney Amy L. Boxx calling on her to investigate and file appropriate criminal charges against those responsible.
According to the report, the National Weather Service predicted “high heat values and heat indexes between 100°F-109°F beginning in the afternoon” of June 28. Despite this, the birds were loaded onto two trailers and hauled to George’s, where an “alarming” 54% of them were found dead on arrival. The “thousands” of victims’ remains “overwhelmed” George’s staff, who began piling them on the floor “in numbers too numerous to count.” The survivors were “panting and appeared stressed,” and the inspector observed two live chickens buried under piles of dead ones.
Chickens are seen on a crowded trailer. Photo: PETA
“Workers ignored dangerous heat warnings and crammed thousands of chickens onto sweltering, crowded trailers, where they baked to death in agony,” says PETA Vice President of Evidence Analysis Daniel Paden. “PETA is calling for a criminal investigation on behalf of the victims and urges everyone to go vegan to prevent this cruelty.”
The group is pursuing charges under state law because federal officials haven’t prosecuted any inspected slaughterhouses for acts of abuse since at least 2007.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website. For more information, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA’s letter to Boxx follows.
October 23, 2023
The Honorable Amy L. Boxx
Barry County Prosecuting Attorney
Dear Ms. Boxx:
I’m writing to request that your office (and a law-enforcement agency, as necessary) investigate and file applicable criminal charges against the individuals responsible for the suffering of thousands of chickens who died while being hauled in extreme heat on June 28 to George’s Processing Inc., located at 9066 State Hwy. W near Cassville. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) documented the incident in a report that the agency recently made available to the public. (See the attached table.)
According to the report, the National Weather Service—“well in advance of the day in question”—predicted “high heat values and heat indexes between 100°F–109°F beginning in the afternoon” of June 28. Despite this, the birds were loaded onto two trailers and hauled to George’s, where an “alarming” 54% of them were found dead on arrival. The “thousands” of victims’ remains “overwhelmed” George’s staff, as a federal inspector documented “large piles of dead-on arrival … birds on the floor in numbers too numerous to count.” The survivors were “panting and appeared stressed.”
This conduct does not represent the otherwise exempt “normal or accepted practices of animal husbandry” and thus may violate MO Rev Stat § 578.009.1(1), which prohibits failing to provide any animal with “normal and prudent attention to the [animal’s] needs … as necessary to maintain good health.”
Please note that the FSIS’ report carries no criminal or civil penalties and does not preempt criminal liability under state law for acts of cruelty to animals. Given that the FSIS hasn’t initiated a criminal prosecution of a licensed slaughterhouse for inhumane handling since at least 2007, charges under state law are these victims’ only chance at a measure of justice.
Konscious Foods founder and president Yves Potvin talks to Green Queen about microwaving frozen sushi, plant-based meat’s challenges, consumer reception of its rolls, poke bowls and onigiri, and creating new vegan seafood analogues.
People in Vancouver search for sushi more than anyone else in the world, if you’re to go by Google Trends data. In fact, Canadians top the list in terms of the share of the population (5.7%) looking for sushi on Google, followed closely by the US (3.4%) – though the latter has the most searches in absolute numbers. Japan comes third.
Sushi is incredibly popular in North America – and it’s no longer confined to high-end restaurants charging hundreds of dollars. You can get sushi in your grocery store. And why says supermarket sushi is bad? Not Americans, who drove a 72% rise in sushi sales at US retailers over the past year. US retail giant Kroger, which has been selling the dish since 1990, is now the largest sushi seller in the country.
It’s this success that Konscious Foods – the Vancouver-based brand by French chef Yves Potvin – is banking on. Launched in 2021, the company makes frozen vegan sushi, onigiri and poke bowls, using seafood analogues like plant-based tuna, salmon and snow crab.
Courtesy: Konscious Foods
Standing out from the crowd
The meat alternatives sector has undergone a period of turmoil over the last couple of years, with sales falling, workers being laid off, and companies shutting down. Potvin compares this to the proliferation of cars in the early 20th century, and the dot-com bubble in the late 90s “where everyone had an idea”, when the rapid growth of the Internet led to a stock market boom. “Dreaming is important,” he agrees, “but so is the bottom line. At some point, you need to show investors a return on their investment.”
He adds: “At the end of the day, knowing how to run a business and having the know-how in this industry is still very important.” And he certainly does possess the knowledge and experience – Potvin is the man behind established plant-based businesses in Gardein and Yves Veggie Cuisine.
According to the Good Food Institute, plant-based meat unit sales dropped by 8%, but vegan seafood saw a 40% year-on-year growth in pound sales last year. The sector has been a hub of activity recently, with product launches like South Korean startup Unlimeat‘s upcycled tuna analogue, Singapore-based HAPPIEE‘s vegan shrimp and squid in the UK, and Revo Foods‘ 3D-printed whole-cut salmon in Austria.
It’s becoming an increasingly crowded space – how does Konscious Foods plan to stand out? The freezer. Even in the conventional space, frozen sushi is still quite a niche market. In the plant-based sphere, Konscious Foods’ offering is the first of its kind. “Shelf life is very important – sushi and poke bowls otherwise must be eaten pretty immediately upon purchase to ensure safety,” explains Potvin. “Really, frozen food offers convenience.” And convenience is what Americans want, with 61% citing it as a purchase driver in one survey – up from 56% last year.
Courtesy: Konscious Foods
The importance of frozen
So which consumers fit this convenience bill? “Our target consumer is… everyone who loves delicious foods,” says Potvin. “While busy parents and lunchboxes are certainly a perfect fit for our patent-pending ability to thaw or go from frozen to fresh in minutes in the microwave, we are increasingly seeing flexitarian come into the mainstream.”
But it does seem counterintuitive to heat up sushi and poke bowls, I point out. “First of all, since we are plant-based, you can be relieved of any concerns that accompany microwaving traditional fish,” Potvin tells me. “But microwaving isn’t the only way to enjoy Konscious Foods – it can also be thawed at room temperature (this takes about two to three hours).”
He adds: “But whether you choose to let it thaw in your bag during the workday, or decide to zap it in the microwave, we’ve made sure there is absolutely zero sacrifice to taste or texture.” Even when it comes to putting ingredients like cucumber and avocado in the microwave? Yes, Potvin assures me. “There are some secrets a chef will never tell,” he says. “But if you choose to microwave them, eight rolls only go in for one minute.”
If you are still looking for your fresh vegan sushi fix though, all you need to do is head to Whole Foods. Konscious Foods has partnered with the retailer to develop two exclusive ready-to-eat rolls using its seafood analogues, which you can find at all Whole Foods sushi venues across North America. “Frozen will always be important to us, but we’ll absolutely look for additional ways we can meet our busy customers,” explains Potvin.
Courtesy: Konscious Foods
Konscious Foods’ frozen SKUs, meanwhile, will soon be available in the freezer aisles at 4,500 retail locations in Canada and the US, including Wegmans, Sprouts and Albertsons-Safeway, among others. And the brand is present in foodservice too. “We include the retail product in operator-friendly packaging that ensures culinary teams are able to offer on-trend, plant-based solutions to their menus with ease,” says Potvin.
He explains that the company’s lineup is adaptable to multiple foodservice formats, including catering, micro-markets, vending, in-flight service, sushi bars and quick-service restaurants – aided by its konjac-, pea- and rice-based salmon, tuna and ‘sno’ crab. “We also offer foodservice bulk packs of our maki rolls, onigiri stuffed rice snacks and poke bowls that provide ‘thaw and serve’ efficiency, without requiring any additional specialised training,” Potvin says.
Moreover, Konscious Foods is in discussions with foodservice providers across the US and Canada to expand its offering to the catering sector in institutions like schools.
Focusing on health, flavour and the planet
For Potvin, health and taste are equally important – just as they are for American plant-based meat consumers. “To change the way people eat and help people incorporate plant-based into their diets, you can’t just have ‘nutritious’ without ‘taste’, and you can’t just have ‘taste’ without ‘nutritious’ – it won’t work,” he says.
Many of the “high quality, clean” ingredients Konscious Foods uses are grown and processed in Canada, with a focus on non-GMO and organic certifications where possible. Its sushi rice is from California and accredited by the Non-GMO Project, and for its rainbow roll, it uses Organic Latin America rice and Thai Jasberry rice (touted to be one of the world’s healthiest varieties).
Potvin says the company has managed to offer its products at price parity with conventional supermarket sushi: “We know one of the biggest barriers to entry for plant-based food, which is often two or more times more expensive than traditional protein options. By keeping the price on par, we can help bring plant-based products to the masses.”
Courtesy: Konscious Foods
In August, Konscious Foods – which has largely been self-funded, other than receiving government grants – raised $26M in a Series A funding round that included the government-backed Protein Industries Canada, as well as Zynik Capital and Walter Group. The brand has used the cash injection to bolster production, expand its retail and foodservice footprints, and launch marketing initiatives. In addition, Konscious is working on more seafood analogues to expand vertically, with vegan shrimp and smoked salmon top of the list.
Potvin says all three of Konscious Foods’ current product lines have received a great response from consumers with its California roll nabbing the NEXTY Award for Best New Frozen Product at the Expo West trade fair earlier this year. “For me, it has been most rewarding to hear how many people are trying and loving it,” he notes.
Because, as he reiterates: “We are not just about being plant-based – our mission is to make good-for-you, good-for-the-world food that tastes good.”
Global food and drink ingredients giant Ingredion is partnering with its distributor Univar to showcase a range of plant-based, low-sugar, ‘natural’ products at the Gulfood Manufacturing conference this November.
According to Ingredion, 50% of consumers in the UAE are prioritising their food and drink’s nutritional content and naturalness. It adds to other global research done by the company, which has found that 78% of consumers would spend more money on products with ‘natural’ or ‘all-natural’ packaging claims.
To meet these needs, Ingredion will be showcasing a line of healthier and natural products – including plant-based and low-sugar formulations – at the Gulfood Manufacturing conference in Dubai next month (November 7-9).
Ingredion’s plant protein push
Courtesy: InnovoPro
Prepared by its principal culinologist Kevin Alder, the company will host a tasting menu featuring a vegetarian lamb kofta, egg-free tahini mayo (containing NEST, a citrus fibre), sugar-free chilli ketchup, fresh cream cheese with protein crackers, a chocolate dessert with no added sugar, a Crème Brulée, and reduced-sugar non-alcoholic beverages.
“We are thrilled to participate in the Gulfoods Manufacturing event and share our cutting-edge innovations with the world,” said Quentin Labbe, Ingredion’s MENA sales and technical services manager. “Our commitment to plant-based proteins, cost-effective formulations and sugar reduction capabilities reflects our dedication to meeting the evolving needs of consumers while helping manufacturers thrive in a challenging economic climate. We invite everyone to visit our booth to experience the future of food.”
Ingredion has previously launched a pea and rice protein blend for use in extruded snacks and drinks, as well as a low-viscosity pea and rice isolate for ready-to-mix drinks and protein bars with a clearer texture. And earlier this year, it debuted a chickpea protein innovation alongside Israeli startup InnovoPro – which it bought a stake in last year – at Chicago’s IFT First trade show.
The company, which has invested over $200M in plant-based proteins since 2019, saw its sales for these proteins rise by 118% in 2022, reaching $36M. In 2021, it also opened a dedicated facility in Nebraska, becoming the first North American manufacturer to make locally produced plant protein isolate, concentrate, flour and starch products.
Vegan wins in the Gulf
Courtesy: Switch Foods
The Gulfood Manufacturing event is taking place in Dubai, where Thryve opened what was the UAE’s first plant-based meat factory in March. The city’s government is now working with local and international businesses and organisations to clamp down on food loss and waste to boost food security and promote a more sustainable economy.
Months after Thryve’s facility was opened, Switch Foods unveiled its own manufacturing plant in Abu Dhabi to produce vegan kebabs, minced meat and burgers. And this week, the latter announced a partnership with Al Safadi, a Lebanese restaurant chain in Dubai run by a former butcher, which will see four dishes served with Switch Foods’ meat alternatives.
These developments come as the UAE prepared to host COP28 – described as the first food-focused UN climate summit – which will feature a predominantly plant-based menu. The decision to do so coincides with the country’s Year of Sustainability, which includes a push to promote plant-based eating in the country. This is in line with consumer sentiment in the nation – a YouGov poll this week found that more than half (55%) of its citizens identify as flexitarian (including pescetarians), vegetarian or vegan.
Ingredion’s plant-forward launch is the latest example of an international company making a foray into UAE’s vegan sector. In 2021, US giant Impossible Foods made its Middle East debut at Dubai World Expo, while Singapore-based TiNDLE launched in this region for the first time at 20 UAE restaurants. Meanwhile, last year, Aussie-American precision fermentation leader Change Foods signed an agreement to build a first-of-its-kind commercial manufacturing plant in the UAE.
Last month, it announced an agrifood strategy to bolster the sector’s value to $10B and create 20,000 jobs by 2025, with regulatory advancements being one of the key pillars. While fellow Gulf country Israel is home to a host of alt-protein startups, industry think tank the Good Food Institute says the UAE is partnering “with foreign alternative meat startups, primarily US-based companies, to build commercial-scale production facilities and potentially fast-track regulatory approval” for cultivated meat.
In 2021, DisruptAD – the VC arm of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund ADQ – led the $105M Series B fundraising round for Israeli cultured meat leader Aleph Farms. And a 2022 study by PSB Insights – commissioned by US cultured meat pioneer Good Meat – found that while only 34% of people in the Middle East had heard of cell-cultured meat, awareness of the alt-protein was highest in the UAE.
Meanwhile, neighbouring nation Saudi Arabia is also actively promoting more plant-based foods – officials from the Saudi Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture have co-signed deals to develop alt-protein products with locally sourced plants.
© iStock.com/Lilett
