Shrimpin’ ain’t easy on these sensitive animals or the ocean. But vegan shrimp is delicious, environmentally sustainable, and animal-free.
While shrimp look different from humans, we’re alike in the ways that matter most. Studies have shown that crustaceans have central nervous systems that enable them to feel pain and emotional stress. Shrimp are social beings who use sound or polarized light to communicate. And with more than 2,500 species of shrimp out there, we’ve only scratched the surface of the behavioral characteristics of these fascinating animals. (But we do know that eating shrimp means you’re also consuming the unappetizing parasites that make up their diet.) Meanwhile, the methods used to catch shrimp are taking a toll on other aquatic beings, including dolphins. Nets don’t discriminate.
There’s no need to eat shrimp when you can catch these tasty vegan options online or in grocery stores across the country today. Here are just a few of our favorites.
Ride the wave of sustainably sourced plant-based seafood. This woman-powered brand produces two mouthwatering varieties of vegan shrimp: crispy and “raw.”
These vegan shrimp are sourced from the highest-quality ingredients. They’ll have your mouth watering—and thankfully, be ready in less than seven minutes.
The May Wah line of products also includes vegan shrimp balls, vegan red spot prawns, and a host of other delectable items, proving that compassionate eating doesn’t require sacrificing taste.
Whether you’re looking for vegan bacon or nondairy ice cream, we’ve got the inside information on all the best vegan brands and products. So grab your grocery list, stroll down the aisles of your local supermarket or health-food store, and add tasty vegan items to your shopping cart instead of animals’ body parts.
If you’re tired of buying different alt-milks for different purposes and dealing with all that packaging, or just feel like experimenting with plant-based milks that don’t yet exist, you could do with a nut milk maker. Here are some of the best.
According to industry think tank the Good Food Institute, Americans bought 2% fewer plant-based milks in 2022, but spent 9% more. There has long been a premium on vegan alternatives to conventional protein products like dairy, meat and eggs, and this is no different for alt-milk in the US, which exceeds traditional milk prices by 87%.
Food magazine Bon Appétit found that the cheapest whole milk in major US supermarkets came to two cents per ounce, compared to four and six cents for almond and oat milk, respectively. In fact, the overall cost of plant-based milk is 13-14% higher, according to the Guardian.
This is all to say that as people consumers are hit by inflation and price hikes, and become more conscious about ingredient and packaging waste, some might want to take matters into their own hands.
Courtesy Open Funk
One way to do so is by using a blender and some form of filtration. If you’re like me, you have a billion jars lying around from your nut butter purchases, zero-waste store visits, or chilli oil experiments. For people like us, products like Open Funk’s Re:Mix, which is a ‘circular blender’, are perfect – it provides you with a lid that fits any 125ml to 1.2 litre jar, no matter the shape. It’s a wonderful way to use what you have and cut down on waste.
Meanwhile, dedicated home machines to make your own alt-milk provide a great solution – and they come in various price ranges to suit your needs. Here are some the best nut milk makers you can buy right now:
ChefWave Milkmade Non-Dairy Milk Maker
Courtesy: ChefWave
Packed with six programmes – almond, soy, cashew, oat, macadamia and coconut milk – the ChefWave Milkmade is one of the most highly rated plant-based milk makers out there. You can choose to make either 10oz or 20oz of milk, and each cycle only takes 10 minutes from start to finish.
There is barely any residue (and any minor grit can be filtered away), which reduces waste and eschews the need to figure out what to do with the leftover pulp from the processed ingredients. The machine does use steam while grinding and blending the ingredients to improve the texture, so the milk comes out warm. And while this can then be chilled in the fridge, you won’t get cold milk ready to use straight away.
But you don’t need to pre-soak ingredients (though rice and unprocessed oats could do with that), nor do you need a nut milk bag. As a bonus, the machine – which comes with a glass pitcher for easy storage – has a self-cleaning feature for the grinding jar. However, it isn’t cheap, landing in what you’d call a mid-range value for a nut milk maker.
You can buy the ChefWave Milkmade Non-Dairy Milk Maker online for $249.95.
Almond Cow
Courtesy: Almond Cow
Almond Cow is one of the most well-known nut milk brands. It’s probably the fastest as well (reviews have said it can make milk within 15 seconds to a minute). But don’t believe its name – it can make produce than just almond milk.
It has a built-in strainer that automatically filters the liquid from the nuts, seeds and grains you use to make plant-based milk, with a capacity of 48oz (about six cups). But it does require a higher ratio of dry ingredients to water, and hence produces a lot of leftover pulp, which it recommends repurposing in recipes like dips, soups, beverages, etc.
Cleaning has also been mentioned as a potential issue, with the blade attached to the top that contains all the electric components. And like the ChefWave Milkmade, its mid-range cost means it isn’t inexpensive.
On a slightly lower end of the price spectrum is the Nutr Machine, which is essentially a blender equipped with heating functions. It has three heat settings – room temp, warm (60°C) and boiling (100°C), with the latter used for milks that require cooking, such as soy and rice.
There is no filter involved, but usually, there isn’t a lot of sediment left over. You can process it twice to smoothen things out. There’s also a feature that can keep your milk warm after the processing. But there is a capacity issue – the Nutr Machine is designed to make single servings of milk, between 8oz and 13oz.
The boiling function takes about 20 minutes, and if you want to make larger batches, you’ll need to split it into multiple attempts and wait for the machine to cool down as it can overheat. But it does have a self-cleaning function and its compact size means it is easy to store.
Also in the lower tier of the pricing pyramid, Tribest’s Soyabella is quite similar to the Almond Cow, with the exception of an added heating setting. While the machine does filter out the pulp, the resulting milk can often be grainy – so running the cycle another time or using an additional filter helps create a smoother texture.
Its build can be tricky, as when the basket is filled with nuts, the attachment isn’t always the most intuitive to put in place. The hot function on the Soyabella – which has a capacity of about 44oz – does take 20 minutes to finish, and cleaning can be tedious as all components need to be hand-washed, and that’s after you’ve fished out the okara or nut pulp.
Tribest also offers a Soyabella model with a tofu kit for those who’d like to make homemade tofu, which includes a mould/press and cheesecloth. (You do need your own coagulant.)
You can buy the Tribest Soyabella online for $109.95.
NutraMilk Nut Processor
Courtesy: Bonavita
The clue is in the name. The NutraMilk Nut Processor is at the very high end of the price spectrum and takes a two-step approach to making plant-based milk. It’s essentially a premium food processor with a spigot, with the machine processing unroasted nuts into nut butter, before asking you to add milk and blending it all together.
It can also produce two litres of milk, which is the highest on this list. You also don’t need to soak any nuts or seeds – in fact, if you do choose to soak them, they’ll need to be dry before you can use them in the NutraMilk Nut Processor. There’s also a stainless steel filter to help remove any residual pulp and pour a smoother plant-based milk through the tap.
Cleaning is easy too as all parts are dishwasher-friendly, but the multistep process does mean there is a longer wait time to make room-temperature alt milk. Oat milk can take up to five minutes, while almond milk might need 11 minutes. But there is a great multi-utility factor if you’re into oat and seed flours or unroasted nut butters.
You can buy the NutraMilk Nut Processor online for $499.95.
Because Starbucks admits that animal-friendly vegan milks are better for the planet but insists on charging extra for them, PETA supporters will gather outside the chain’s KeyBank location on N. Summit Street on Thursday to intercept would-be customers with free RISE Brewing Co. oat milk lattes. The push for passersby to avoid the coffee chain comes after nearly 150,000 PETA supporters asked the company to end its vegan milk upcharge.
A PETA supporter hands out free vegan lattes outside a Starbucks location.
When: Thursday, September 7, 11 a.m.
Where: Outside the exterior entrance to the KeyBank Starbucks store, 303 N. Summit St., Toledo (See the Google Maps link here.)
“Starbucks is counting its beans when it should be counting the number of customers it will lose if it doesn’t end the vegan milk upcharge,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “People who choose to drink responsibly for the sake of animals or their own health or because they know that dairy farming is fueling the climate catastrophe are angry with the company for placing profits above ethics.”
PETA has held vegan coffee drink giveaways outside Starbucks locations in Boston; Cincinnati; New York City; Philadelphia; Sacramento, California; and numerous other cities. The group also hit Chicago’s Starbucks Reserve Roastery with a sit-in on its opening day and held a glue-in at another location in Chicago, during which a Buddhist monk superglued his hand to the café counter.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and offers a free vegan starter kit on its website.
What is vegan wine, and why isn’t all wine vegan? How is it made, and how many wines are vegan? Do people actually want it? We answer all these questions and more.
It may seem silly, but if you’re vegan, you may need to ask some questions about that glass of wine you’re sipping. It’s a well-documented topic, and for good reason. A survey by UK online retailer Virgin Wines earlier this year found that 39% of Brits didn’t know that all wines are not vegan.
But what really is it that makes many wines not suitable for vegans, and do people want such wines? Here’s all you need to know.
What is vegan wine, and how is it made?
Courtesy: Canva
Don’t worry, grapes are vegan – there is no twisted tale about grape production. It’s not the fruit that’s the issue – it’s the process of turning it into wine.
Traditionally, many winemakers use animal byproducts during the clarifying process, to get rid of any sediment filtration couldn’t remove (such as grape skins, proteins, yeast and undesirable flavours). These include egg whites, blood and bone marrow, fish oil, chitin, gelatin, casein and isinglass. While none of these ingredients make it into the wine, of course, the resulting alcohol is still not vegan as the production process involves animal products.
So how can you filter wine in a vegan-friendly manner? There are several fining agents that help winemakers clarify the alcohol without an animal product. The most common is bentonite clay, while other substances include kaolin, limestone, silica gel, seaweed and even plant casein. Some companies, like Bordeaux-based Laffort and California’s Enartis, have also introduced vegetable-based fining products.
The other way to produce wine that is vegan-friendly is to bypass the filtration process altogether. Some winemakers believe clarifying the liquid removes desirable flavours and aromas, and so let the sediments settle naturally (though this is a time-consuming process).
Another filtration technique is called racking, where wine is transferred from one barrel to another during the fermentation process to partially remove any unwanted particles.
Apart from fining, other elements that could make wine non-vegan are bottle sealing (which can be done via beeswax) and the cork (which can use milk-based glues). So, if you were to define vegan wine, it would be one that hasn’t been filtered or doesn’t come into contact with any animal products during both the production and packaging stages.
How to check if wine is vegan?
Courtesy: Canva
While some manufacturers helpfully tell you if their wine is vegan why the product labels, there are no labelling regulations requiring winemakers to do so, which makes it hard to tell if a wine is vegan or not.
There is no dedicated certification label that would ensure the wine you’re drinking is vegan-friendly. But Miami-based BeVeg is an ISO-accredited body that deals with vegan alcohol certifications, including beer and wine. The organisation says that alcohol labelling laws in the US, which are regulated by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), are very deficient, as there are no requirements for the disclosure of ingredients or production processes.
According to the TTB, there are nearly 70 ingredients that can be added to wine without disclosure (which includes fining agents) on product labels. In fact, there’s a lot of red tape to even mandate the labelling of allergens. The TTB allows voluntary labelling of allergens in alcohol and, in 2006, proposed rules to make it mandatory for manufacturers to do so. But it has been a long-drawn process – only last year did the TTB confirm its decision to issue the ruling.
So while there’s no way to check via the product label if a wine (that doesn’t have a specific ‘vegan’ claim) is vegan-friendly, it’s not an entirely lost cause. Most natural wines, which eschew fertilisers and pesticides, use few to no additives and are essentially unadulterated and unfiltered, are vegan.
Meanwhile, BeVeg’s BevVeg! app has a database of over one million alcoholic drinks that tells you if a certain product is vegan or not – anything that is, can be bought through the app. Online guide Barnivore provides a similar service. It has over 5,400 vegan wines listed on the website, so all you need to do is search for the label, and voila! And to make things even easier, you can also shop from exclusively vegan websites like Vegan Wines.
How much wine is vegan, and is there consumer demand?
Courtesy: Avaline
While there are no exact numbers about the percentage of wine that is vegan – an untenable prospect given the loose regulations over labelling – there are estimates that outline the movement’s popularity across different nations. In 2021, wine journalist James Suckling published a report rating 463 vegan wines. He found that France – home to global wine capital Bordeaux – was the origin of only four of all the wines on the list.
But other countries were rushing to meet consumer demand. Vineyards from Spain accounted for nearly one-third (148) of the vegan wines being rated, while Argentina (80) and Chile (65) made up another third. He added that the highest-quality vegan winemaking region could be Germany, which was the source of nine of the top 10 best vegan wines on his list.
A report by Transparency Market Research revealed that the organic wine market is set to reach $30B by 2030, aided by a “surge in demand for preservative-free, vegan-friendly, carbon-neutral, certified, and biodynamic organic wines”. An analyst from the research firm said: “The market growth can be primarily attributed to the soaring demand from health-conscious consumers, high demand for organic and natural products, focus on improving soil health, rise in the number of wine exhibitions, and growing vegan trends.:
And there is certainly a lot of demand. Virgin Wines reported a 51% rise in sales of vegan wines from 2019-21 in the UK, climbing from 1.1 million to 1.7 million bottles – despite its consumer poll finding that 28% of consumers would knowingly serve non-vegan wine to vegan guests at a dinner party. Overall, the survey found that 36% of Brits now choose to buy vegan wines, citing environmental (29%), animal welfare (30%) and health (25%) reasons.
Meanwhile, in 2021, vegan wine accounted for 2.2% of all wine sales in Italy, the world’s third-largest consumer of wine. But this followed a 24.8% rise in purchases from 2020-21. And meeting this demand (both in Italy and internationally) are vegan wine brands like Querciabella, Avaline, Tinto Amorio, Eva Fricke and Slimline Wine – to name just a few.
Vegan wine is undoubtedly on the rise. Let’s hope this sentence ages the same way.
Over 650 academics and campaigners have written an open letter to UK universities calling for a switch to a 100% vegan catering menu to fight the climate crisis. Coordinated by student-led campaign Plant-Based Universities, the letter compares this shift to the fossil fuel divestment committed by 101 universities.
Founded in 2021 by British activism group Animal Rising, the Plant-Based Universities initiative is calling on university vice-chancellors, catering managers and student union presidents to commit to sustainable, 100% plant-based catering. The letter argues that most universities have already declared a climate emergency, and shifting to a vegan menu is a natural step to take next.
Veganism has been found to reduce climate emissions, water pollution and land use by 75% compared to a meat-rich diet. The letter cites Joseph Poore and Thomas Nemecek’s landmark 2018 study about the impact of food production on climate change. The researchers found that cutting meat and dairy from your diet is the single biggest way to reduce a person’s environmental impact.
The co-signees also point to Harvard University’s 2019 analysis that suggested the UK could be carbon-negative if it combined the switch to plant-based production with rewilding the land freed up by this change.
Plant-based catering menus at universities
Courtesy: Compass Group/UKVI
“We are in a crucial period for the future of all life on Earth, the decisions we make now will shape the future of humanity and the natural world,” the letter reads. “Our young people, many of whom study at your institutions, deserve to know that their universities are actively working to create a future for them to graduate into.”
The campaigners stress that they’re not trying to force people to be plant-based: “Not vegan? That’s okay. We are not asking for individual dietary changes. Students and staff can still bring whatever food they like onto campus. What we are asking for is institutional divestment within procurement in the same way that universities are boycotting fossil fuel companies.”
The letter adds: “We are calling on you to use your positions to speak up and begin the transition to 100% just and sustainable plant-based catering at your own institutions… We truly believe in the power of people to come together and make positive change and we are asking you to step up and be part of building a better, kinder, and safer world.”
Many UK universities have already voted to introduce a fully plant-based menu at their eateries. These include the Universities of Stirling, Birmingham, Queen Mary, London Metropolitan, Kent, University College London and Cambridge – the latter had already removed beef and lamb from its catering menus in 2016. But similar votes in the Universities of Edinburgh and Warwick didn’t pass.
Olympic canoeist Etienne Stott, one of the signatories, said: “The need for universities to act on their own climate research could not be more pressing. The support of academics from over 90 institutions is incredibly powerful and I urge universities to listen to their calls for change.”
Vega catering in the UK
Courtesy: Compass Group/UKVI
The UK is the second-largest market for plant-based food in Europe, according to industry think tank the Good Food Institute Europe. And London is said to be one of the vegan capitals of the world. In 2019, The Vegan Society estimated that there were 600,000 vegans in the UK – about 0.9% of the total population at the time. A December 2022 survey by YouGov found that 2% of Brits identified as vegan (about 1.35 million). And earlier this year, Kantar found that the number of UK adults who prefer vegan food and drink has remained relatively static at 11% across the past three years.
French catering giant Sodexo, which operates at 476 British and Irish sites, found that 10% of all meals sold in 2022 were vegan or vegetarian – up from 8% in 2021. While the healthcare sector accounted for the largest share (17%), schools and universities remained lower at 5%, a surprising figure given younger demographics‘ demand for plant-based food. The company has pledged to increase the number of plant-based options to 33% by 2025 – but it could do with some inspiration from its plan across the Atlantic and introduce a higher share to entice more universities to transition to vegan menus.
Similarly, British caterer Compass Group, which caters to universities and schools (among other institutions), said in 2021 that it plans to replace 40% of the animal proteins throughout its supply chain with alternative sources like plant-based meat to reduce its carbon footprint.
And within the UK, public sector caterers introduced the 20 Percent Less Meat campaign in January 2020, vowing to cut the amount of meat they serve in their billions of meals in schools, universities, hospitals and care homes each year. It’s in line with the country’s National Food Strategy unveiled a year later, which suggests cutting meat consumption by a third.
Earlier this month, GFI Europe suggested that the UK must invest £370M in alt-protein by 2030 to boost its food security. While there have been promising signs for cultivated meat, government funding and public research in plant-based meat has lagged behind. The think tank says more research is needed to help drive down costs and elevate vegan meat’s sensory properties – the two biggest barriers to consumer uptake of plant-based food.
Speaking to Green Queen, GFI Europe’s UK policy manager Linus Pardoe said: “While the UK has many of the right ingredients to play a key role in advancing research to make plant-based foods tastier, healthier and more affordable for consumers, most of the expertise in important fields like crop breeding and food science tends to be funded in a way that focuses on other, more established areas of research.”
In the latest episode of a long-drawn saga, France’s agriculture ministry has drafted a new proposal to ban 21 terms like ‘steak’, ‘beef’, ‘ham’ and ‘grilled’ from plant-based meat labelling. The government has also listed over 120 meat-related terms that can be used only if products have a maximum share of vegan proteins between 0.5% to 6%.
With the proposed decree, France becomes the first EU country to attempt such a ban. But it isn’t the first time it’s tried to impose this. In June 2022, France decided to ban the use of meat-like terms in plant-based products, except for ‘burger’. “It will not be possible to use sector-specific terminology traditionally associated with meat and fish to designate products that do not belong to the animal world and which, in essence, are not comparable,” the decree read.
The proposed ban attracted controversy and criticism from meat-free groups. The European Vegetarian Union and the Association Végetarienne de France filed a complaint against the proposal, which was suspended by the Conseil d’État, the country’s highest administrative court, which argued the timeline was too short and the wording too vague.
Taking matters to the EU
Now, France’s agriculture ministry says it has taken the court’s complaints into account to prepare a new language decree, despite the court itself waiting for guidance from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) before making its final ruling. The ECJ has already protected dairy-related terms like ‘milk’, ‘cheese’ and ‘butter’ since 2017, preventing vegan brands from using them on their product labelling.
The new proposal, which is co-signed by French prime minister Elisabeth Borne, economy and finance minister Bruno Le Maire and agriculture minister Marc Fesneau, only applies to products made and sold in France. The draft has been submitted to the EU Commission for checking against its food labelling regulations. In 2020, the EU parliament voted against a proposed labelling ban on plant-based meat products, allowing vegan companies to market their alternatives as ‘burgers’ and ‘sausages’.
The decree has a list of over 120 meat-related terms like ‘bacon’, ‘sausage’, ‘cooked fillet’, ‘poultry’ and ‘nuggets’ (plus non-meat terms such as ‘liquid whole egg’) that companies can use, as long as the amount of plant protein in these products doesn’t exceed a maximum limit, which ranges from 0.5% to 6%. It essentially means vegan alternatives to such products won’t be able to be labelled this way, as all will contain 100% plant proteins.
“This new draft decree reflects our desire to put an end to misleading claims… by using names relating to meat products for foodstuffs that do not contain them,” Fesneau said. “It’s an issue of transparency and loyalty which meets a legitimate expectation of consumers and producers.”
Courtesy: Magic Bean
Breaching EU regulation
Guillaume Hannotin, lawyer for the Proteines France organisation, which represents makers of vegan and vegetarian alternatives, said “the term ‘plant-based steak’ has been in use for more than 40 years”. He argued that the new decree still breaches EU regulation on labelling for products that – unlike milk – lack a strict legal definition and can be referred to by terms in popular use.
He added that the French government’s move “torpedoes the proceedings in progress before the ECJ”, which were triggered by a complaint from Proteines France itself.
France’s initial proposal last year came the same month South Africa’s agriculture department introduced strict labelling rules for plant-based food, banning all references to ‘meat’ and threatening to seize any products that fail to comply.
A report by ProVeg International last year found that there is no basis for claims of consumer confusion from the labelling of vegan products. 80% of respondents said that it was obvious that products labelled as ‘vegan’, ‘vegetarian’ and ‘plant-based’ don’t contain meat, while 76% actually found these labels helpful to understand and identify the nature of the product.
Consumer preferences are becoming clearer when it comes to plant-based foods – people are drawing a line at genetically modified (GM) ingredients (also known as GMO), even as many vegan products have increased shelf space. This is according to non-profit the Non-GMO Project, which says the biotech industry isn’t getting the message.
When it comes to genetic engineering, shoppers’ preference for non-GM plant-based foods is “only getting stronger”. The organisation says that Non-GMO Project Verified products make up 57% of total plant-based food sales in the US, while those without the certification lag behind. Overall, the demand for Non-GMO Project Verified products has grown by 9% year-on-year.
The non-profit notes that consumer behaviour suggests that not all plant-based products are created equal, with a growing awareness that some may not offer any real benefits over their conventional counterparts in meat, eggs and dairy. This means a GM ingredient may offset a plant-based offering’s perceived benefits.
To illustrate its point, the Non-GMO Project points to data revealing that while 55% of Americans and Canadians believe plant-based foods are better for the planet, 50% think GMO agriculture is detrimental to the environment. It adds that “natural shoppers” are even more committed to this thinking, with 82% finding vegan food eco-friendlier, and 90% preferring non-GM options.
It further infers SPINS data that shows sales of Non-GMO Project Verified frozen plant-based meats and cheeses grew by 71% and 99% from 2019-21, respectively, compared to just 10% and 17% for non-certified counterparts.
“Shoppers are making their desires known by voting with their dollars, and it shows up every time a new food category or trend grows. In the innovative plant-based space, they are again saying that GMOs are not wanted or needed,” said Megan Westgate, executive director of the Non-GMO Project. “We believe products should be labelled so that consumers have the freedom to choose non-GMO in every aisle of the grocery store. If GMOs aren’t going to be labelled, then we’re here to ensure eaters still have the right to avoid GMOs on their whole shopping list.”
Alt-protein’s battle with the GM lobby
Courtesy: New Culture/Instagram
The non-profit says despite these numbers, biotech companies are rapidly accelerating alt-protein development. Perhaps the most famous example of a GM plant-based meat is Impossible Foods, which uses heme, a genetically engineered yeast ingredient that helps burgers ‘bleed’. Such an ingredient is also used by Boston-based Motif FoodWorks in its alt-meat products (the two companies, in fact, are having a patent battle over this).
The Non-GMO Project’s release comes a year after it targeted precision fermentation technology, in support of the dairy industry. Precision fermentation involves genetically modifying microorganisms to produce specific functional ingredients. But the tech has long been in use by multiple industries – it’s used to make things like insulin for type 1 diabetics, vitamins to fortify food products, ‘natural’ flavourings like vanilla extract, and rennet for cheese.
It’s also being used to make plant-based meat. Swedish startup Melt&Marble is tapping the tech to make animal-free fats, while Belgium’s Paleo is using it to make myoglobin for alt-meat. Overall, there are at least 136 companies working in precision fermentation around the world, according to industry think tank the Good Food Institute.
The Non-GMO Project says GM alt-protein is “largely unregulated and unlabeled in the US and Canada” – but animal-free dairy made via precision fermentation has already been regulated by the US FDA. This is why brands have been able to sell alt-dairy products made from this tech. Perfect Day uses precision fermented whey in products made by both other manufacturers and its (soon-to-be former) consumer-facing brands like Brave Robot and Coolhaus. And New Culture makes precision-fermented casein to develop its vegan mozzarella.
Speaking to CNN in 2020, Rachel Konrad, then chief communications officer of Impossible Foods, said the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, and the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine all agree that GMOs are safe for human consumption.
The plant-based meat train in the US may not be on the backfoot the way some have predicted, with dollar sales reaching $2.2B across retail, foodservice and e-commerce, according to a report by industry think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI). The foodservice sector saw an all-time high of $730M in sales, while the retail industry flatlined at $1.4B.
While the total sales revenue increased by 2% year-over-year, pound sales for plant-based meat in the US declined – this is due to inflation-induced price increases. Vegan protein products in the US saw a price hike of 9% per pound from 2019-22, with a 4% year-on-year rise in wholesale prices in broadline distribution (across multiple product categories). The report also found that plant-based meat consumers make over 30 more foodservice visits per year than the average buyer, spending around $400 more annually.
However, these rates are still lower than conventional meat, which saw a 26% cost increase from 2019-22, and 8% year-on-year for wholesale prices in broadline distribution.
Courtesy: The Good Food Institute
Meat analogues vs traditional plant-based protein
In fact, prices per pound for plant-based beef have come down by 11% from 2019, as more companies achieve scale and favourable distribution agreements. It remains the most popular alt-protein, accounting for 33% of the market. It’s followed by tofu (28%), grains/nuts/vegetable-based products (18%), chicken (11%) and pork (8%). Amid formats, patties dominate sales with a 43% share.
Notably, there has been a shift in consumer preference in the type of plant-based protein. In 2019, traditional plant proteins like tofu, tempeh, and grains, nuts and vegetables captured 60% of pound sales, while analogues like vegan chicken, beef, seafood, etc. made up 39%. Now, that share has flipped, with meat analogues commanding 53% of the market, compared to 46% for non-analogues. (The remaining 1% share is unspecified.)
It points to the increased popularity of plant-based meat in the US, with consumers preferring vegan products aiming to match the taste and texture of conventional meat. The shift in market share is being occupied by vegan chicken (a 123% rise from 2019-22), pork (+57%) and seafood (+149%).
“The growing availability of plant-based products across product and protein types means that operators can increasingly offer plant-based versions of existing menu items across cuisines and formats and appeal to a wider range of customers,” says GFI.
Courtesy: The Good Food Institute
In terms of foodservice locations, quick-service restaurants (QSRs) rule the roost, with 39% of plant-based protein pound sales happening here in 2022. Meanwhile, 19% of sales took place in full-service restaurants (FSRs). These numbers suggest the hospitality industry is still catching up to pre-pandemic levels, with the pound sales for alt-protein down by 1% for QSRs and 5% for FSRs compared to 2019.
And while educational institutions saw a steep fall in alt-protein sales in 2020 due to lockdowns, this figure has rebounded and surpassed 2019 levels by 25%. It’s supported by initiatives like US foodservice provider Aramark promising that 44% of its residential dining menus at 250+ colleges and universities will be plant-based by 2025, and Sodexo’s commitment to making 50% of its college campus menus plant-based by 2025.
Purchase frequency and increased menu options
Looking at demographics, younger (18-24), male, and Black, Hispanic and Asian consumers are more likely to purchase plant-based meat in foodservice operations, which is similar to retail trends. And when it comes to frequency, nearly 10% of Americans purchased vegan alternatives to meat in foodservice in 2022 – the majority (63%) being single-time purchasers.
Only 15% of buyers repeated their purchase twice, and 7% thrice. However, 15% repeated it more than four times, reflecting an eagerness on consumers’ part for more alt-protein options. A 2022 Mintel report found that five in 10 omnivores and eight in 10 flexitarians say that more restaurants should serve plant-based meat alternatives.
Courtesy: The Good Food Institute
GFI’s report underscores the findings another US foodservice-focused report earlier this month by the Plant Based Foods Association, which found that 95% of foodservice operators expect increased or stable sales of vegan food and beverages in the next year, with 76% aiming to continue or increase the number of plant-based meat options. It added that nearly half (48.4%) of all US restaurants currently offer plant-based options on their menus, with a 62% increase in plant-based menu items over the past decade.
GFI says making further progress on taste and price will be key to reaching more meat-eaters and expanding the market, and reiterates that the US plant-based sector is returning to pre-pandemic levels: “The long-term performance of plant-based proteins in foodservice indicates that the plant-based category is continuing to mature.”
UK plant-based startup The Pack has launched what it claims is Europe’s first nutritionally complete oven-baked vegan dried dog food. The brand is championing the new kibble’s palatability over conventional extruded dog food, following a home-feeding trial, and confirms its expansion plans into Europe.
Touted as the first of its kind in Europe, The Pack’s Oven Baked Crunchy Feast is its first foray into dried dog food. Leveraging rice, pea and potato proteins, the kibble is packed with fruits and vegetables, alongside algae, oats, chicory and linseed to deliver both nutritional and flavour components. The brand has used a new strain of fermented rye in the product, which has the potential to improve the health of dogs’ microbiomes.
Peanut butter plays a big part in the product too, complemented by olive and rapeseed oils, and hydrolysed yeast. The 2021-launched brand says the latter is “far more nutritious than any meat-based ‘secret sauce’, containing the “antioxidants and B vitamins needed to maintain healthy skin and coat”. The flavours are further boosted by a range of herbs and spices.
Vegan dog food wins in feeding trials
Courtesy: The Pack
Ahead of its launch this week, The Pack conducted home feeding trials to see how its new vegan dog food fared compared to meat-based market leaders. The independent volunteer trial saw 10 dogs being fed The Pack’s oven-baked dried dog food and Lily’s Kitchen‘s organic chicken and vegetable dried food for two days.
The total amount of the Oven Baked Crunchy Feast eaten by the dogs was 78%, compared to 28% of the chicken kibble placed side-by-side. In fact, 10% of dogs exclusively chose to eat the plant-based dried food. And despite only 40% of dogs choosing to eat The Pack’s product on the first bite, 60% ended up preferring it, according to the researchers.
“Our goal is to make food so good that dogs will happily switch their meat-based kibble for our plant-based formulation,” The Pack co-founder Damien Clarkson told Green Queen. “We believe that The Pack’s oven-baked formulation will offer pet parents an opportunity to give dogs a healthy product they love.”
Oven-baked advantages and expansion plans
The Pack’s co-founders Judy Nadel and Damien Clarkson
Clarkson says The Pack’s oven-baked pet food have benefits over conventional alternatives: “Oven-baked food is cooked in smaller batches and at a lower temperature than extruded kibble. By doing this, the nutrients in the food are better protected and the food is more palatable.”
He added: “The food has been formulated with leading pet nutrition experts to offer a complete nutritional profile, meaning your dog can get everything they need to thrive on our oven-baked dried food.” In a press release, he said that 95% of consumers who were sent samples of the product said they’d be buying it.
The London-based startup, which closed an £835,000 seed funding round last December to bring its total funding to over £1M, says the new oven-baked dog food’s packaging is designed to be recycled and its paper-based bags use renewable materials like FSC-certified paper.
Asked about further scaling, Clarkson confirmed the British brand’s expansion plans. While the new dried vegan dog food will be available online and at independent UK retailers initially, the startup will be launching into Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg in Q3.
He also hinted at future developments for The Pack, explaining: “We’ve already developed an exciting range of treats and are working on several top-secret projects with a massive focus on achieving outstanding palatability and functional health benefits for our dogs.”
Leading US plant-based food companies are reportedly considering forming a coalition similar to groups behind ultra-successful marketing campaigns like Got Milk? and The Incredible Edible Egg, according to Adweek. Earmarked for a 2024 launch, it’s touted as a response to negative media coverage and targeted ads by Big Ag.
It’s been a rocky couple of years for the plant-based industry. Attacks on sales, attacks by the media, attacks through ads coordinated by the meat and dairy lobby…The sector has taken a hit – and now, it’s looking to fight back.
While there has been no formal formation, Adweek reports that discussions have intensified over the last six months about the coalition, which involves both small startups and larger corporations. Some of the reasons cited for this include the infamous Bloomberg story calling plant-based meat “just another fad”, as well as the Center for Consumer Freedom’s (CCF) repeated targeting of these products’ extra-long ingredient lists.
Adweek reports that the coalition was initially supposed to form this year with a handful of vegan companies (not limited to alt-meat), but complications like “inflation-driven setbacks” have led to a delay. People involved in the coalition say the group will launch next year.
There are no requests for proposals or active searches for an ad agency, but insiders believe it will be a multifaceted national marketing campaign. The coalition is likely to approach creatives with experience in the plant-based category, but it may be asking for pro-bono or discounted work.
Fighting back against Big Ag
The CCF’s smear campaign against alt-meat involved print ads, newspaper op-eds, video features and target websites like Clean Food Facts – with the biggest attack coming during the 2020 Super Bowl, featuring Spelling Bee participants struggling with words like methylcellulose and propylene glycol (which it claimed were “chemicals” used for “synthetic meats”). “If you can’t spell it or pronounce it,” concluded the ad, “maybe you shouldn’t be eating it.”
In response, Beyond Meat debuted an ad earlier this month that spotlit its farmers and subtly tackled misinformation about alt-protein. This was in contrast to Impossible Foods’ more on-the-nose musical commercial. Its CEO Peter McGuinness has previously said that vegan food marketers (including Impossible) haven’t sold themselves well enough to consumers.
Speaking on the UN’s climate change podcast in March, he said: “Now, the meat industry does quite a good job against us, and they’re highly coordinated, they’re well funded, and they’re pretty loud. “So I think we can borrow a page of that book and do it as a coalition, as plant-based companies, and we need to do that very soon.”
It’s also worth noting that Beyond CEO Ethan Brown mentioned “bringing together industry coalitions” during a recent earnings call. The idea has gained widespread support by the sector, according to Adweek. “We believe this is the true catalyst needed to push the category forward,” Daring Foods CEO Ross Mackay told the publication. “A unified approach would simplify the narrative, making it more compelling.”
Courtesy: Beyond Meat
Finding a suitable approach
But some are unsure about the coalition’s potential. Rachel Konrad, the former head of communications at Impossible who is now chief brand officer at VC firm The Production Board, told Adweek: “I’m 100% skeptical that a group would get much of anything accomplished, especially in the short term. And the bigger the group got, the harder it would be to do an edgy, breakthrough, memorable campaign.”
In a separate piece, Adweek also compared different approaches the campaign could take. One executive told the reporter they imagined an ad influenced by the anti-tobacco Truth campaign, honing in on factory farming, slaughterhouse conditions and food safety issues. But there may be a hesitancy to support such an aggressive approach, with some leaders preferring a more educational, ‘myth-busting’ tone.
There is also a list outlining what to avoid. This includes making customers feel guilty about not eating vegetables, demonising cows for their climate footprint, and continuing to push Silicon Valley startups as food tech (because “nobody wants to eat technology”, as one insider puts it).
“The narrative shouldn’t insist on adopting a stringent vegetarian or vegan lifestyle,” Mackay was quoted as saying. “Instead, it should underscore the significant impact that small, everyday changes can help.”
Konrad suggested that while action is critical given the industry is “under siege’, a crisis PR campaign would at best be on the news cycle for 24 hours, and at worst be “some shitty PSA that nobody will give a crap about”. A professional consortium would also not work, she said, because “the game is rigged” against the plant-based sector.
Instead, companies should go hyperactive and be “speaking out whenever there’s an attack ad from animal agriculture and refuting everything, commenting all the time for news stories, putting out massive amounts of thought leadership, being at the UN, at Davos, Ted Talks, creating viral videos and contests for fans, picking up user-generated content, using AI to generate ads for virtually nothing”.
Courtesy: Pleese Foods
Funding could be a challenge
While industry advocacy groups and think tanks like the Plant Based Foods Association and the Good Food Institute exist, their work is much more focused on research than consumer outreach. So a marketing coalition such as this one could represent a turning point for an industry whose fortunes have fluctuated lately.
But one problem is money. Unlike Big Beef and its Beef Checkoff marketing program, which is funded by cattle producers and importers who pay a $1 levy for every live animal sold, there is no such system for the plant-based industry. Food industry veteran and Wicked Kitchen CEO Pete Sparanza admitted as much, telling Adweek that funding for the coalition and its broad-based advertising would be a significant challenge, “because there aren’t a lot of profitable stories right now in the plant-based space”.
Despite that, he did reiterate the need for the industry to stick together as advocates, not competitors. “If we’re going to change the food system for the long haul, we’ll need to cooperate.”
Ahead of Labor Day weekend, people flocking to the Oregon State Fair will see a sky-high message, courtesy of PETA, pointing out that there’s never a day off for the billions of chickens who are slaughtered each year for their flesh or exploited for their eggs while being confined to filthy, cramped enclosures, where viruses and bacteria thrive.
“Chickens don’t get a sick day, let alone a holiday, to rest, recover, or do anything that comes naturally to them, like taking a dust bath or stretching their wings,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA urges everyone to see chickens as the living, feeling beings they are and keep them out of state fairs, sandwiches, and salads.”
PETA points out that chicken and egg farms, as well as state fairs, are ideal breeding grounds for the spread of bacteria and disease, such as E. coli, salmonella, and avian flu. A current outbreak of HPAI—a highly contagious and deadly disease among birds, including chickens—has already shut down one of this year’s exhibits at the Oregon State Fair, which warned that further outbreaks of bird flu could lead to more closures.
In the meat industry, chickens are bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight. Those used for eggs are either confined to cramped wire cages, where they don’t even have enough room to spread their wings, or crammed into sheds by the thousands, leaving each bird barely more than one square foot of space. After their bodies are exhausted and their egg production drops, they’re sent to slaughterhouses, where their throats are cut, often while they’re still conscious, and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks.
Each person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals every year, dramatically shrinks their carbon footprint, and reduces their own risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and obesity.
The billboard is located at 2611 Hawthorne Ave. N.E., Salem. This ad will also run in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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 on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Ahead of Labor Day weekend, people flocking to restaurants near Coldwater Road and Coliseum Boulevard will see a sky-high message courtesy of PETA, pointing out that there are some individuals who never get a day off: the billions of chickens who are slaughtered for their flesh or exploited for their eggs while being confined to filthy, cramped enclosures.
“Chickens don’t get even one sick day, let alone a holiday to rest or do anything they enjoy, like taking a dust bath or stretching their wings,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA urges everyone to see chickens as the living, feeling beings they are and choose to keep them off their plates.”
In the meat industry, chickens are bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under the weight. Those used for eggs are either confined to cramped wire cages, in which they don’t even have enough room to spread their wings, or crammed into sheds by the thousands, where each bird has barely more than a square foot of space. After their bodies are exhausted and their egg production drops, they are shipped to slaughterhouses, where their throats are cut, often while they’re still conscious, and many are scalded to death in defeathering tanks.
Each person who goes vegan spares nearly 200 animals every year, dramatically shrinks their carbon footprint, and reduces their own risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and obesity.
The billboard is located at 4403 Coldwater Rd., Fort Wayne, in the parking lot in front of the IHOP. This ad will also run in Salem, Oregon.
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 on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
There are umpteen brands making plant-based cheese, but they don’t cater to everyone’s tastes. Some prefer an elevated, luxurious, high-end, gastronomic cheese-eating experience. And in an increasingly crowded, there are a handful of companies that deliver just that. Here are some artisanal vegan cheese brands that are truly a cut above the rest.
A lot of us have eaten the blocks masquerading as plant-based cheese that don’t melt, and taste like no cheese ever has. And that’s okay – there’s a place for those alternatives in a vegan cheese market that’s set to reach $4.4B in 2027.
But there’s also a place for the ultra-cheese fans – the camembert dippers, the burrata savourists, the mozzarella melters and blue cheese aficionados – and these brands are catering to this space with premium, artisanal and mind-bendingly good vegan cheese offerings. Below, we roundup some of the best.
Julienne Bruno (UK)
Courtesy: Julienne Bruno
London-based Julienne Bruno is up there with the very best. Founded in 2020, the brand has three Italian cheeses in its portfolio: a vegan ricotta called Crematta, a stracciatella alternative called Superstraccia, and its flagship burrata substitute, Burrella.
The latter was a winner at the 2023 World Dairy Innovation Awards. All the cheeses are made with soy milk and coconut oil, and naturally fermented through a bespoke system. They also have vegetable fibres and vegan cultures. The company, which raised £5M last November, says this is Collection 01 – so it stands to reason that we can come to expect more premium Italian cheeses.
You can find Julienne Bruno’s plant-based cheeses online, as well as at various health food stores and restaurants in the UK.
I Am Nut OK (UK)
Founded in 2017 by an American-Italian couple living in east London, I Am Nut OK produces artisanal nut-based cheeses. It has a vast portfolio of Italian dairy-free delights, including a buffalo mozzarella, parmesan, stracciatella and herb-infused wedge.
The brand also sells aged cheeses like those infused with black truffle, paprika, smoky charcoal, and Cabarnet Sauvignon, alongside an extra mature C’é Dairy? version. Additionally, I Am Nut OK makes a black pepper log, smoky vegan melted cheese, and a plant-based feta. All cheeses are made using a base of cashews and coconut oil.
You can find I Am Nut OK’s dairy-free cheeses online and at various retailers and restaurants in the UK.
MozzaRisella (Italy)
Courtesy: MozzaRisella/Ooni
Speaking of Italy, organic brown-rice-based cheese maker MozzaRisella hails from Veneto. Since launching in 2017, it has expanded to retail and foodservice both domestically and in the UK. Its flagship product is a mozzarella alternative, which is shaped like a cylindrical log, so you can cut circular slices reminiscent of mozzarella in Caprese salads.
Now, its product portfolio is vast, with vegan smoked, spreadable and medium-hard mozzarella alternatives, as well as blue cheese, ricotta and mascarpone substitutes. MozzaRisella also sells Cheddar and basil-infused mozzarella slices, and has a range of ready meals as well as a basil pesto made with its cheeses.
You can find MozzaRisella online, as well as pizza and fast-food chains across Italy and the UK.
Vertage (US)
Co-founded by award-winning chef Margaux Riccio – who developed a dairy allergy in childhood –Vertage is another US brand making artisanal vegan cheese, but solely for foodservice (as of now). The main ingredients for most of its cheeses is fermented cashews and coconut oil, and the cheeses leverage mycelium fermentation and microbial bio-design.
Vertage’s lineup includes a sliceable mozzarella log (which also contains aquafaba and coconut oil), American Cheddar and Pepper Jack slices (both without cashews, but using shiitake-fermented pea protein), and classic and Everything But the Bagel cream cheeses.
You can find Vertage’s cheeses at various restaurants across the US.
Miyoko’s Creamery (US)
Courtesy: Miyoko’s Creamery
One of the pioneers of the alt-dairy movement, Miyoko’s Creamery has been around for a long time (at least for the artisanal vegan cheese world). While its namesake founder, Miyoko Schinner, is no longer at the brand, the 2014-launched company is still going strong with its range of vegan dairy products.
In terms of cheese, Miyoko’s makes a host of cashew- and coconut-based cultured alternatives. This includes chive, sundried tomato, garlic and herb, European truffle, smoked English farmhouse, black ash, herbs de Provence, and smoked Gouda flavours.
Miyoko’s also makes three mozzarella varieties (classic, smoked and liquid), as well as four cream cheeses, in classic, scallion, cinnamon-raisin and everything seasoning flavours.
Back to the UK, Kinda Co. is an award-winning plant-based cheese brand from Somerset. Also championing cashews, its ingredient lists are as limited as its cheese lineup is vast and varying.
Kinda Co.’s dairy-free cheeses can be divided into blocks and jars. The former comprises smoked (with smoked water), summer truffle, farmhouse, garlic and herb, chilli, blue and feta varieties, while the latter includes a grated parmesan, a nacho dip, and cream cheeses in lemon and dill, farmhouse and sour cream and chive flavours.
The brand also sells limited-edition flavours (the latest was a sundried tomato block), and is very transparent with its consumers. It currently sells an alternative farmhouse block made with a different culture than its regular counterpart – the cheesemonger says it isn’t as happy with its flavour, but to avoid waste, it is selling the cheese at a cheaper markup.
You can find Kinda Co’s cheeses online, and at health food stores and retailers across the UK.
Palace Culture (UK)
Courtesy: Palace Culture
A fully organic vegan cheese brand based in south London, Palace Culture was launched to battle the dairy intolerance of the founder’s son and the conception that plant-based cheese is bland.
Palace Culture makes dairy-free cheese wheels, creamy cheeses and feta from cashews, coconut milk and/or almonds. The wheels contain the former two, with flavours ranging from the European-inspired Sácre Bleu, Ubriaco, truffled camembert, herbs de Provence and mouldy goat’s cheese, to the Korean-influenced Kimcheeze and a minced truffle ash and black pepper variant.
The brand also makes a feta with all three aforementioned base ingredients, alongside a cashew- and miso-based range of cream cheeses in smoked, chives and shallots, truffle and black pepper flavours. On top of that, it offers a ricotta made with just almonds, live cultures, water and sea salt.
You can find Palace Culture’s range of plant-based cheeses online, at various UK retailers, and at London’s Borough Market on weekends.
Umami United, the Tokyo-based startup that makes plant-based egg products, has closed a pre-Series A funding round with an injection of ¥240M ($1.64M). The company plans to use the funds to develop a vegan egg white alternative and enter the US and European markets.
Led by Beyond Next Ventures, the investment round saw participation from Genesia Ventures. Umami United, which was launched in 2022, wants to make an egg white substitute due to a growing demand for complex egg-like functionalities by bakery and confectionery companies. It aims to strengthen its R&D and business development efforts to deliver plant-based food “inspired by wisdom and technology from Japan’s rich food history”.
“This is in addition to our expansion outside of our home market in Japan, into Europe and the United States,” Umami United CEO Hiroto Yamazaki told Green Queen. Within Europe, the brand is looking to enter the UK and Germany first. “We are in the midst of discussions with big players in both the UK and Germany to incorporate our egg replacer products into their plant-based food products. They have tested our products and initial responses are positive.”
He added: “As for the US, we are also in late-stage talks with universities in Southern California to incorporate our products in their vegan menus.”
Yamazaki confirmed that some “big plant-based meat players” are testing Umami United’s clean products to be used as a binding agent. And the new funding will help it find suitable partners to further ramp up expansion.
Made for the consumer
Courtesy: Umami United
Umami United’s egg powder uses wood ear mushrooms to extract an umami taste profile. It does so via a proprietary food processing technique that applies enzymes based on fermentation tech to elevate the richness of egg flavours. The resulting egg powder is said to replicate both the functionality and sensory attributes of conventional eggs.
The company, which is planning a Series A fundraiser for December 2024, uses konjac flour and bittern as the main ingredients for its plant-based egg powder, and achieves the elastic texture of eggs through konjac and tofu. In addition, it makes a vegan egg flavouring powder and pudding mix.
According to Umami United, Japan’s per capita consumption of eggs is 337 annually, making it the second largest egg-consuming country in the world. The company adds that only half of Japan’s eggs are sold directly to consumers, with the rest going to foodservice and manufacturers. And while there are several consumer-facing companies making vegan eggs in Japan – like Ever Egg and Hobotoma – Umami United focuses on B2B operations.
Yamazaki said consumer reception to the vegan egg products has been very positive: “Furthermore, we are seeing more and more Japanese consumers with changing tastes and preferences and heightened health awareness, and this has also motivated these local food manufacturers to prioritise and launch plant-based food.”
Battling egg supply issues
Courtesy: Umami United
Japan has seen egg prices rise recently due to an avian flu outbreak last year, which led to an increase in chicken culling and, subsequently, a shortage of eggs. Products like Umami United – which help bypass a major allergen in eggs – cater to consumers with safer, healthier food options.
“The crisis from the avian flu has led to many big food manufacturers [realising] the negative impacts of their reliance on chicken eggs. Even McDonald’s had to pull their Teritama (teriyaki patty with egg) burgers off their menu due to the egg shortage,” said Yamazaki.
The brand says the shortages and price hikes have triggered co-development projects with Japanese food manufacturers that use its plant-based products as key ingredients. “Even though the situation around the shortage of eggs has been alleviated to some extent, big food manufacturers are turning to alternative eggs or egg replacers as a risk hedge, especially when avian flu is seasonal,” Yamazaki explained. These products are expected to launch in Japanese supermarkets and convenience stores starting this autumn and winter.
Japan, which Forbes just described as having a “thriving” food tech sector, is seeing an uptick in plant-based food sales, with alt-meat purchases set to rise by 5% annually until 2026. In a 2019 survey, meanwhile, 60% of Japanese consumers said they were open to trying more sustainable food options that had additional health benefits.
Moreover, a poll earlier this year found that 5.9% of Japan’s population identifies as vegan or vegetarian, with 26.1% of consumers reporting a reduction in animal product intake (an uptick of 7.1% year-on-year). And in terms of egg substitutes, 1.2% have tried these – that’s about 1.5 million people.
A national messaging blitz from PETA is washing up along the historic Whale Trail to ask why so many people accept cruelty to cows on dairy farms but would never reconsider whaling, even though the two mammals are the same in all the ways that matter. Both nurse their young, bond tightly with their calves, interact in socially complex ways, and mourn when they’re separated from those they love.
Instead of being allowed to explore, play, and be with their families, cows in the dairy industry are torn away from their mothers within a day of birth so that the milk meant to nourish them can be stolen and sold in supermarkets. It’s standard industry practice to forcibly inseminate cows—workers insert an arm into the animals’ rectum and a metal rod to deliver semen into their vagina—and both cow and calf are sent to slaughter once their bodies wear out.
“A cow produces milk for her calf, just as a whale does for her calf and a human does for her baby,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA reminds everyone how easy it is to show compassion and understanding by choosing milks made from soy, oats, almonds, or other plants.”
In addition to breaking up families and causing mother cows to grieve, crying out for days, the dairy industry is a major contributor to the climate catastrophe. In the U.S., emissions from cows are the primary source of the greenhouse gas methane, which is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the atmosphere.
The billboard is located at 706 Acushnet Ave. in New Bedford and can be seen by traffic headed north on Route 18 toward I-95. The ad is also running in Atlanta; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Baltimore; Boston; and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any 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 Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Ahead of peak whale-watching season and in the heart of Restaurant Row, PETA has placed a sky-high appeal that asks why so many people accept the separation of cows from their calves on dairy factory farms but would be outraged if this happened to whales and their calves, even though the two mammals are the same in all the ways that matter. Both nurse their young, bond tightly with their calves, interact in socially complex ways, and mourn when they’re separated from those they love.
Instead of being allowed to explore, play, and be with their families, cows in the dairy industry are torn away from their mothers within a day of birth so that the milk meant to nourish them can be stolen and sold in supermarkets. It’s standard industry practice to forcibly inseminate cows—workers insert an arm into the animals’ rectum and a metal rod to deliver semen into their vagina—and both cow and calf are sent to slaughter once their bodies wear out.
“A cow produces milk for her calf, just as a whale does for her calf and a human does for her baby,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA reminds everyone how easy it is to show compassion and understanding by choosing milks made from soy, oats, almonds, or other plants.”
In addition to breaking up families and causing mother cows to grieve, crying out for days, the dairy industry is a major contributor to the climate catastrophe. In the U.S., emissions from cows are the primary source of the greenhouse gas methane, which is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the atmosphere.
The billboard is located near 9597 N. Kings Hwy. in Myrtle Beach, on the way to Kroger (500 feet away) and near a number of eateries. This ad is also running in Atlanta; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Baltimore; Boston; and New Bedford, Massachusetts.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any 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 Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Did you know that mother whales are called “cows” and their babies are “calves”? Have you ever thought about how similar these animals are? To make a compassionate splash by encouraging people to do just that, PETA has launched a nationwide blitz with a brand-new ad that reads, “If we were whales, would you still tear us apart? All cows and calves share loving bonds. Ditch dairy.” This message bridges the gap between the species, showing a mother bovine and her baby swimming underwater to make the point.
The Ad Blitz Comparing Cows to Whales: Swimming Across the Country
Fittingly, PETA placed these digital ads in some cities where tourists flock to take whale-watching cruises or observe marine animals in aquariums and in other coastal towns.
Although Atlanta is nowhere near the ocean, PETA’s ad fittingly makes a splash there, just across from the Georgia Aquarium’s parking garage, where it will be for a month.
Along the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, many massive digital screens are displaying the ad for three weeks. A popular hub for whale-watching tours, the busy beachside location is crowded with stores selling ice cream in the summer. The mooving ad also coincided with and commemorated World Plant Milk Day (August 22), an international holiday created to celebrate vegan milks.
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is spouted as a top spot for whale watching, so it aptly boasts PETA’s call to add more compassion to the heart of its Restaurant Row.
The history of New Bedford, Massachusetts, is horrific when it comes to whales, so PETA’s ad gains extra resonance there. This former whaling town on the Massachusetts Whale Trail has a whaling museum and historical park, high school teams named the Whalers, and a notable literary reputation since author Herman Melville spent time there, which partly inspired his novel Moby-Dick. We placed our ad on the JFK Memorial Highway, only a mile from harbor cruise launch sites and the whaling museum.
In central Boston, a short walk away from the waterfront where whale-watching tours take place in Boston Harbor, PETA has drenched a bunch of digital screens with the new ad. At Haymarket Station and Government Station, the ad is appearing for a month.
Bursting into Baltimore for October, our ad appropriately navigates its way onto a digital billboard near the National Aquarium, Crepe Lena Ice Cream & Funnel Cake, The Cheesecake Factory, and Lucky’s ice cream shop.
What Do Whales Share With Cows, and Why Ditch Dairy?
Like whales and all other mammals, cows only produce milk to feed their babies—not to feed already-weaned humans misled by speciesism. Bovine mammary secretions are unhealthy and unnecessary for humans, who can meet all their nutritional needs by eating vegan.
Each year, millions of cows suffer and are killed in the dairy industry. They endure painful dehorning procedures and live short lives on cramped, filthy feedlots, often standing on concrete in their own feces. Their bodies quickly break down from the stress of being kept almost constantly pregnant, and their natural life expectancy of 20 years is slashed to about 4. When they can no longer walk, stand, or produce enough milk, they’re sent to an agonizing and violent death at a slaughterhouse, often remaining conscious during much of the gruesome slaughter.
When people choose to consume dairy products, they’re also harming the planet by doing the following:
Supporting the dairy industry, which generates about three times more greenhouse gas emissions—and uses nine times more land—than plant-based milks do
Ignoring the fact that it takes 628 quarts of water to create 1 quart of cow’s milk, while producing oat or soy milk requires up to 90% less water
Contributing to the pollution of land and water surrounding dairy industry operations, which can cause major health defects in humans who are stuck living nearby
Take Action to Help Spare Cows’ Suffering
Stealing a mother cow’s milk is not only cruel but also unhealthy. Bovine milk contains no fiber and is full of saturated animal fat and cholesterol. PETA encourages everyone to reject the horrific animal abuse and protect their health by ditching dairy and choosing plant-based milks instead. Go vegan and encourage everyone in your life to do the same:
Around three-quarters of Americans don’t think eating meat and dairy would have any impact on climate change, according to a new survey, compared to 6 out of 10 who believed recycling is a key climate action. This is despite multiple studies proving otherwise.
Conducted by the Washington Post and the University of Maryland last month, the poll found that only a small majority of Americans believe their individual actions can reduce their impact on climate change, with most highly uninformed about which actions are the most impactful.
The poll highlights a gap in American public thinking about the impact of their actions on climate change, and proven climate science that says otherwise. For instance, 74% of consumers believe cutting out meat won’t alter their impact on climate change, and 77% feel the same about dairy consumption. This thinking is in line with a Newsweek poll that showed 40% of Americans don’t believe eating less red meat would reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
But all this is in contrast with numerous reports that show that we can avoid 100 gigatons of emissions if three-quarters of people adopt plant-rich diets by 2050, and that veganism can reduce emissions by 75% compared to meat- and dairy-heavy diets.
American perceptions on meat, dairy and climate change
This knowledge gap can be explained by the underreporting of animal agriculture’s impact on the environment. A study by Faunalytics and Sentient Media found that 93% of all climate media coverage doesn’t mention animal agriculture, despite meat and dairy production accounting for about 11-19% of global emissions.
This is exacerbated by the amount of funding received by the animal agriculture sector. A recent study found that livestock farming in the US gets 800 times more investment than plant-based and cultivated proteins. Meanwhile, 95% of all research and innovation spending went to animal farmers, aimed at improving production.
In addition, the poll results underscore a troubling reality in US politics, particularly amongst Conservatives: at last week’s primary debate, not a single one of the eight Republican presidential candidates present said yes to a question asking whether they believed humans contributed to the climate crisis, and one called climate change a hoax.
This is despite US government data showing that humans have increased atmospheric carbon by 50% since 1750, and 97% of actively publishing scientists saying that climate change is happening and caused by humans. According to NASA, there’s “unequivocal evidence” that global heating is real, and that human activity is the “principal cause”.
Source: Canva
Separating fact from fiction
Americans similarly overestimate the impact of recycling on the environment. 59% believe recycling has an effect on climate change, but one study placed the act as the penultimate on a list of 50 actions people can take to reduce their carbon footprint. Moreover, one estimate says only 35% of all waste is actually recycled, with that number dropping to just 9% for plastic waste.
Experts say flying less could majorly help cut down carbon emissions, something that most Americans polled don’t realise, with 51% saying it would make a little or no difference.
However, there are certain actions where consumer thinking conforms to scientific opinion. 62% of Americans say installing solar panels would reduce their environmental impact, and experts agree Likewise, 51% of people believe driving electric vehicles would help reduce emissions.
“People are interested in taking action,” Ann Bostrom, an environmental policy professor at the University of Washington, told the Washington Post. “But if they don’t know what’s most effective, then they don’t know what they’re accomplishing.”
Moreover, the poll found that the number of Americans who feel they can personally make a difference when it comes to climate change has reduced, from 66% in 2019 to 52% this year. Chris Field, the director of Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, said governmental action is key: “The most important thing anybody can do is to vote for a climate-friendly government agenda.”
Are animal-flesh dealers Tyson and Perdue finally starting to pay the price for their cruelty? Companies are closing multiple slaughterhouses in an effort to cut costs, and these plants join Smithfield-owned murder plant Farmer John in Vernon, California, which shut down in early 2023 following years of pressure from PETA and other animal advocates.
Perdue Shuts Down Slaughterhouse in Michigan
Perdue will be closing its Michigan plant, which it owned for just a few years, within four months. PETA has been exposing the suffering at Perdue’s “processing plants” across the country for years, and the horror is seemingly endless, from chickens drowning in electrified water during a line stoppage to live chickens left to die among rotting corpses.
Tyson Takes a Hit and Shuts Down Multiple Slaughterhouses
Tyson has a dark and dirty history of welfare and safety violations, which PETA has uncovered. This company synonymous with chicken slaughter is closing a number of “processing plants” by 2024 to cut costs. And the abuse it perpetrates isn’t limited to chickens. Federal officials have documented several violations at its pig-killing operations as well.
Farmer John Slaughterhouse in Vernon Gets the Axe
The Vernon murder factory known as Farmer John shut down its slaughterhouse and ceased pig killing in early 2023 after years of pressure from PETA. The facility killed around 6,000 pigs per day—each a living, feeling individual—so it’s a huge win that this location is closed. The hellhole tried to hide its true nature by covering its death factory with idyllic scenes of happy pigs, but PETA knew better and shared the truth with the world.
Chickens are intelligent and social animals who enjoy spending time with their flocks, scratching in the dirt for food, taking dust baths, and sunning themselves. But the meat industry slaughters them by the billions every year. With these closures, it’s clear that the demand for more compassionate and sustainable food options is on the rise, and companies that make their money slaughtering animals are starting to feel the sting.
Take Action for Animals
We look forward to seeing more slaughterhouses shut down as more people realize that animals are not food. You can help put more killing operations out of business by going vegan and encouraging others to do the same. Order a free starter kit to begin saving animals:
As a company, Oatly isn’t a stranger to controversy. It’s had its fair share of ups and downs – and each of these has been well-documented. However, in the last year or so, there has been a steady drip of downs rather than ups, which has left the world’s biggest alt-milk company struggling, and we outline the biggest ones.
In recent times, Oatly has been a company making waves in the business and food industries, but it’s not all smooth sailing. The story behind Oatly’s journey has taken some unexpected twists and turns, leaving many curious minds to wonder, “What’s going on with Oatly?”
Oat milk has been the darling of the alt-milk world for some time now and for good reason. You could argue the Malmö-headquartered Swedish company, which was founded over 25 years ago by food scientist Rickard Öste and his brother Björn Öste, put oat milk on the map. The company was the first to do many things, including publishing its greenhouse gas emissions on its product labels, targeting coffee shop baristas as brand ambassadors, and using cheeky marketing campaigns to gain global attention.
In recent years, the plant-based milk sector, and oat milk specifically, has witnessed explosive growth, especially in the US, where it surpassed soy to be the second-most popular plant-based milk (behind only almond). Visit any coffee chain anywhere in the world, and chances are, they can make your latte with oat milk. Oatly is undoubtedly responsible for a large part of this.
However, the cost-of-living crisis has punctured the oat milk balloon. SPINS data reveals that retail sales of oat milk began to show year-on-year declines in the latest quarter in the US. This will hit oat milk brands hard, and not least Oatly, which has had a very rocky few years.
One of the key aspects that have sparked interest is Oatly’s rapid rise to fame. The company’s innovative branding and marketing strategies have catapulted it into the spotlight, attracting both loyal consumers and investors. But with this rapid growth comes scrutiny. Some experts have raised questions about the sustainability claims Oatly makes and whether the company’s production methods truly align with its eco-friendly image.
Controversies have also arisen around Oatly’s financial decisions and partnerships. As the company secured high-profile investments and partnerships, it has faced criticism for potential conflicts between its mission and its financial backers’ interests. This has led to debates about the balance between profitability and ethical considerations, leaving observers to ponder the path Oatly is taking.
Furthermore, Oatly’s expansion into international markets has encountered its fair share of challenges. Cultural differences and regulatory landscapes vary greatly from region to region, and Oatly has faced obstacles in maintaining a consistent image and message across different markets. This has triggered discussions about the complexities of global expansion for a brand rooted in specific values and messaging.
In the last 18 months or so, the world’s premier oat milk company has faced lawsuits, recalled and withdrawn products, seen sales and stocks plummet, and supplies hit – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Below, we take a closer look at what’s gone down in the Swedish plant-based giant’s backyard.
1. The stock crash
Courtesy: Oatly
Oatly made a ton of waves leading up to its US IPO in May 2021, setting a mammoth $10B valuation after warding off the backlash from its Blackstone deal. Its first public trading day ended at $22, even though its stock was priced at $17. It was an incredible milestone for one of the plant-based industry’s giants.
But since then, its stock has crashed by as much as 94%, according to financial research company The Motley Fool, hovering at just under $3 in the past month. If the stock trades below $1 for over 30 days, it’s in danger of being delisted by the NYSE. So, what gives? A combination of the post-pandemic supply chain issues and the cost-of-living crisis have hit OTLY hard. While the company saw a 10% year-on-year revenue growth in Q2 2023, it has slashed its sales forecast for the year to less than half, down from 23-28% to 7-12% and investors can’t seem to rally behind it.
2. The supply chain issues
Oatly’s supply issues have been hit by a range of different events. For one, extreme heat led to severe droughts that ravaged oat crops in Canada and the US. The former saw oat production fall to an 11-year low, while the latter had its lowest oat yield ever.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – a major oat exporter – further exacerbated the shortage, as Ukraine placed an export ban on oats and wheat. Another contributing factor to raw material shortages was the rail shipping delays, brought upon by difficult weather conditions.
All this led to Oatly looking outside of its regular oat suppliers, pushing the cost of supply chain turbulence toward the consumer. It meant the world’s most famous oat milk became more expensive. The brand also announced three new global production facilities to address raw material shortages, but those plans are reported to have been shelved or put on hold due to high construction costs and supply chain issues.
3. The restructuring of manufacturing operations
Courtesy: Oatly
In November last year, Oatly posted below-expectation Q3 earnings, “largely driven by Covid-19 restrictions in Asia, production challenges in the Americas, and continued foreign exchange headwinds”. To address its supply chain issues and overhead costs, it announced plans to restructure its manufacturing operations and reduce headcount by 25% across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
Calling it a “reset plan”, the business stated its intention to shift to a hybrid manufacturing model to reduce production costs across EMEA. “This move towards a more hybrid network is expected to significantly reduce our future capital expenditures and have a positive effect on our cash flow outlook,” then-CEO Toni Petersson explained. The company also looked to address issues at the Utah manufacturing plant that reduced its production.
4. The leadership changes
Speaking of CEOs and restructuring, Oatly has undergone major leadership changes in the last year. It tapped former Mars executive Jean-Christophe Flatin to replace the outgoing Petersson. This represents a significant change, given Petersson’s decade-long stint overseeing Oatly’s rise from niche fledgling to industry leader.
In June, Petersson stepped into the role of co-chair of the board as Flatin sought to turn the business’s fortunes around. The former played a key role in building Oatly’s brand, and this move was described as a shift from a marketing-focused CEO to an operations-led leader.
5. The product recall
Courtesy: Oatly
While Oatly has suffered multiple drops in its stock over the last 18 months, in November 2021, it saw a 20% fall in shares directly due to a warning about its products’ quality, as well as delivery delays.
The Swedish brand said it was “investigating a quality issue”, which later turned out to be a problem with one of its North American manufacturers, Lyons Magnus. Five of Oatly’s products were voluntarily recalled in August 2022, including two sizes of its specifically slim-packaged Barista oat milk, and three 11oz offerings comprising its original, Barista and chocolate milks.
The FDA warned people not to consume such products because they may be contaminated withcronobacter sakazakii and clostridium botulinum, which can lead to a host of health issues including food poisoning, UTIs, vision problems, and worst case, respiratory paralysis.
These contaminated packs of Oatly appeared on the shelves of Target and Starbucks, and both companies faced a subsequent class-action lawsuit by a customer who fell ill after consuming the oat milk. The entire ordeal also hit the alt-dairy giant’s reputation in an increasingly post-Covid health-conscious world.
6. The product withdrawal
In the UK, Oatly pulled back its range of vegan ice-cream tubs earlier this year. “We launched an ice-cream tub which has been successful, was on sale in many markets, and does very well for Oatly,” a spokesperson told FoodNavigator. “But it didn’t hit the milestones we expected from a UK perspective… Like most businesses, we’re always looking to review our ranges, working out what’s working …and we decided that the ice cream tubs weren’t working well enough for us.”
Explaining the decision to the Guardian, the company hinted at a struggle with increased competition: “Given a number of our plant-based friends are doing great work on this shelf already, we made the decision to move away from ice-cream tubs in the UK for now.”
With a growing number of competitors in the global alt-dairy space, Oatly no longer has the market dominance it once enjoyed, as it faces off against legacy, novel and private-label brands, especially as consumers have their wallets squeezed.
The alt-dairy aisle is a crowded space. Just in the UK, where it withdrew its ice-cream tubs, oat milk brands include the likes of Alpro Oat, Califia Farms, Mighty, Innocent, Minor Figures, Rude Health and Oaty Bruce – to name just a few. And this is before we start accounting for supermarket own-label milks – all of the UK’s biggest grocers have introduced their own oat drink at similar or lower price points, with many even launching barista editions.
7. The ad ban
Courtesy: Oatly
In January 2022, Oatly was hit by an ad ban by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), following 109 consumer complaints. For a brand that prides itself on its marketing prowess, this was a big blow.
The ASA argued that one of Oatly’s ad campaigns contained unsubstantiated environmental claims in its comparison of oat milk with conventional dairy. For example, one commercial – with the tagline “Need help talking to dad about milk?” – stated that Oatly generates 73% fewer carbon emissions than milk. The comparison was between Oatly Barista and full-cream milk, but the ASA said consumers would understand it to mean all of Oatly’s products.
In two newspaper ads, the oat milk giant stated that more than a quarter of global emissions come from the food industry, with meat and dairy accounting for half of that. The ASA called the ad “misleading”, saying that Oatly had included fish and eggs as part of meat and dairy, but people may assume it has a narrower definition.
It affected an already-hit reputation, with the brand facing three lawsuits in New York after being accused of greenwashing by investors in 2021. Oatly also had to pause promotional activities in the last two years due to supply chain problems – and promised to go on the offensive this year with its promotions, despite marketing guru Peterson’s shift to a board position.
8. The risky PR campaign
Last October, the company took its bold and wacky brand image to a new level with F*ck Oatly, a website listing all the various controversies the brand has faced in recent years. Oatly calls it a “site devoted to helping our fans – and the thousands of people who hate us – better understand everything that’s ‘wrong’ with our company”, adding that “it’s super convenient to have the latest boycotts and criticisms all in one place”.
It recounts the Blackstone controversy, its Glebe Farm lawsuit, and the TikTok outroar about its ingredients list, among others. The website has also spawned four sister sites (Fckfckoatly.com, Fckfckfckoatly.com, and so on), where you can register your hate with a click. Thousands have already done so (of course, that is part of the fun).
While it’s an exercise in transparency – “we’re not the type of company to hide from moments like these” – it’s also a risky PR strategy. Data journalist Clara Murray argues that wanting to “have the last word in an Instagram comment war” is petty, and criticised Oatly for showing “no empathy” for Glebe Farm, who was hit with a £300,000 legal bill.
Murray also points out that the website excludes the UK ad ban. She concludes: “The biggest problem I have with F*ck Oatly might be the most obvious one: it neatly compiles a host of negatives that most consumers have probably long forgotten.”
9. The Asian decline
Oatly’s China factory | Courtesy: Oatly
When Oatly cut its revenue forecast this year, the market that saw the biggest fall was Asia, with a near 15% drop in quarterly sales. The brand had been expanding in Asia, with a new factory opening in China and a joint facility in Singapore – when Oatly launched in the Lion City in 2020, its own survey found that a third of Singaporeans hadn’t heard of plant-based milk.
Oatly planned to change that and increase awareness, but it seems it hasn’t worked out that way. Domestic competitors have encroached on market share and the company blames its decline in Asia, which represents 19% of its market revenue, on “a slower-than-expected post-Covid-19 recovery in China”. This is despite a rise in plant-based milk adoption in the continent, where soy (understandably) reigns supreme.
The brand’s COO Daniel Ordonez said it can’t continue to justify “significant investments with uncertain payoffs”: “We will be therefore slowing down on SKU expansion and eliminating many unnecessary SKUs… and migrating to a more simplified cost structure.”
Flatin added: “We are refocusing on our core business, which means food service and very few key retail partners only in key cities.”
Going forward, can the once-pioneering company turn things around? The jury’s still out, but given the brand’s track record, it would be foolish to discount it.
Plant-based meat may be getting caught in the culture wars, and US brands that emphasize climate and environmental concerns may be putting off conservative consumers who are reluctant to try such products, according to new research.
By Jennifer Yule, Lecturer in Marketing, The University of Edinburgh
It’s difficult to tell if the recent wave of anti-vegan sentiment has affected the plant-based meat market, but denigrating the image of vegans has certainly gone mainstream.
Alongside negative comments about people who don’t eat meat by figures like Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson, anti-vegan rhetoric has even slipped into political discourse: Suella Braverman recently referred to supporters of Just Stop Oil campaigners as “Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati”. It seems our protein choices have become a surprisingly loaded issue.
These days, consumers are faced with a dizzying array of choices when it comes to protein, particularly since US plant-based producer Beyond Meat started its quest to disrupt the market in 2012. Since then, its innovative take on the veggie burger, made from pea protein to mimic the taste and texture of meat, has helped the company become a runaway success.
But despite sustained growth for several years, sales of plant-based meat products are now stagnating. Even market leaders like Beyond Meat are hitting significant lows.
The environmental benefits of adopting a diet that is less reliant on meat have been well-established. As UK nature presenter David Attenborough has pointed out: “We must change our diet. The planet can’t support billions of meat-eaters.”
So, working out why consumers are cooling towards this once-hot product is crucial, not only from a business point of view but to support the environmental benefits of low- or no-meat diets.
Price and healthiness are important. However, a growing ideological divide over the environment means traditional ways of encouraging people to eat plant-based meat – promoting its green credentials – could be harming sales, according to research.
Criticism of plant-based meat
The plant-based meat market has certainly been criticised for high prices compared with animal meat. It also tends to be more expensive than traditional vegan protein sources, such as beans, lentils and tofu. Given the cost of living crisis, consumers are forced to make frugal choices when it comes to their shopping baskets, and may reject what could be seen as a premium product.
Others have questioned the healthiness of meat substitutes. As plant-based meat is a relatively new product, the long-term health implications of directly replacing animal meat with it are unknown. Research also warns against assuming that plant-based meat is nutritionally equivalent to animal meat.
But alongside price and healthiness, image also plays an important role in the success of plant-based brands, according to my research with Krista Hill Cummings of Babson College, Massachusetts. In particular, how brands present the environmental benefits of plant-based meat can have a significant impact on the kinds of consumers that buy this type of food.
The issue of climate change and environmental concern is politically polarising, however. Since the 1990s, environmentalism has been depicted as a left-wing ideological issue, particularly in the US. So, our study sought to examine the role of political beliefs in driving sales of plant-based meat by, first, establishing a link between a person’s ideology (either conservative or liberal) and their desire to engage with the plant-based meat market. This means everything from becoming aware of the product and developing opinions on it, right through to buying and eating plant-based meats.
A different survey shows that more than half (53%) of US consumers who have not bought or tried plant-based meat may be reluctant to buy a product they view as “woke”. Our study further highlights the political divide in views about plant-based meat, with the conservative consumers we polled less likely than liberals to try it, and generally less interested in even considering it.
We analysed press releases from Beyond Meat to understand how the benefits of plant-based meat are being communicated to consumers, to see if this could be a driver of the ideological divide over plant-based meat. We found that taste, health and the environment are the main messages used by the firm.
Taste and health are product benefits that appeal to both liberal and conservative consumers, according to otherresearch. However, the environment emerged as a more controversial topic. This issue polarised liberal and conservative consumers when it came to perceiving climate change as a problem that could or should be addressed by eating plant-based meat.
Testing ads about the environment
To further test the idea that the environment could cause problems when advertising to conservative consumers, we created different messages, varying the environmental content. We developed mock Facebook ads that described either the health and environmental benefits of plant-based meat, or just the health benefits. We found that advertising content based on the environment turned off the conservative consumers involved in our study.
Of course, our study was carried out among US consumers. But the trend of political polarisation seen across Europe, and recent comments about the vegan “wokerati” lifestyle from UK public figures, means we could see similar results in other countries.
Shoppers have a growing choice of non-meat protein products but not everyone is keen to try them. www.hollandfoto.net/Shutterstock
For an advertising message to successfully resonate and change either a consumer’s attitude or behaviour, “congruence” is required. This is when the message content aligns with the characteristics of its recipient. We found that environmental messaging is incongruent to conservative consumers, meaning these ads don’t spark either their curiosity or interest. Without that spark, you can’t engage consumers.
More research into, and development of, alternative meats could no doubt improve the nutritional profile, taste and texture of these products, but the environmental case for reducing meat consumption in our diets is clear. Plant-based brands need to change the way they speak to consumers about this issue to better engage steadfast meat-eaters.
PETA has just named its starting lineup of vegan-friendly NFL stadiums, and Lucas OilStadium has scored a spot in the top five with its wide and wonderful variety of animal-friendly options, including vegan twists on traditional game day classics.
Guests at the “House That Peyton Built” can find plant-based versions of tasty tailgater treats, including the vegan Lightlife Indiana Burger and “chicken” tenders and fajitas available in the clubs and suites—or they can opt for lighter fare, such as a Veggie Hummus Wrap or a delicious rice bowl with black beans.
“From juicy plant-based burgers to tasty vegan chicken fajitas, Lucas Oil Stadium’s vegan offerings are so delicious that Colts fans will want to go for two every time,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “All the stadiums on PETA’s list are proving that cruelty-free food is a winning game plan.”
Rounding out PETA’s top five are the Las Vegas Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium, the Seattle Seahawks’ Lumen Field, the Atlanta Falcons’ Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and the Detroit Lions’ Ford Field.
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 Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
PETA has just named its starting lineup of vegan-friendly NFL stadiums, and Mercedes-BenzStadium has scored a spot in the top five with its wide and wonderful variety of animal-friendly options at several locations inside the venue.
Guests at the home of the “Dirty Birds” can find mouthwatering Beyond vegan cheeseburgers and sausages as well as curry wraps at the Meatless Grill Carts—or they can head to field level to indulge in a Yard Dog Garden Dog with baked beans and vegan cheese sauce. The Mac Shac Carts offer dairy-free vegan mac and cheese with a variety of toppings, and Moe’s Southwest Grill makes vegan burritos, nachos, and burrito bowls (hold the cheese).
“From plant-based juicy burgers to spicy nachos, Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s vegan offerings are so delicious that Falcons fans will want to go for two every time,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “All the stadiums on PETA’s list are proving that cruelty-free food is a winning game plan.”
Rounding out PETA’s top five are the Las Vegas Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium, the Seattle Seahawks’ Lumen Field, the Indianapolis Colts’ Lucas Oil Stadium, and the Detroit Lions’ Ford Field.
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 Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Let’s dive fork first into the “girl dinner” trend. The idea behind it is to whip up a quick and easy meal that’s more like a spread of appetizers than a traditional hearty dinner. Picture no-fuss finger foods bursting with flavor—perfect for a light yet satisfying meal.
But this trend deserves a compassionate makeover. Enter vegan “girl dinner”—the ultimate fusion of convenience, compassion, and tastiness. Some of these meals can have beautiful presentations, while others just involve putting together handfuls of things from the pantry. Vegetables in every color? “Girl dinner.” Beans on a taco shell? “Girl dinner.”
The ‘Why’ Behind Vegan ‘Girl Dinners’
Besides being delicious and easy, vegan “girl dinners” are a fantastic opportunity to reduce your carbon footprint. By some estimates, animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all the world’s transportation systems combined. Plus, raising animals for food requires massive amounts of land, food, energy, and water and causes animals immense suffering. By going vegan, you’ll be supporting sustainable farming practices and reducing the demand for animal-based ingredients.
We’ve compiled a list of ideas to inspire your own vegan “girl dinner.” But don’t let the name fool you—these meals are for anyone at any time.
Chickpea ‘Tuna’ Salad on Crackers
Get ready for a taste sensation with this Vegan Chickpea Tuna recipe. Try making a batch on your meal prep day to enjoy throughout the week.
Choosing chickpeas over tuna shows respects for intelligent animals and helps fight the environmental havoc caused by fishing. Plus, you’re safeguarding your health from heavy metals and food poisoning.
Get ready to create a Mediterranean masterpiece! Arrange a colorful array of olives, cherry tomatoes, crunchy cucumber slices, creamy hummus, vegan feta, and whole wheat pita on your plate. It’s like a mini vacation for your taste buds.
When you buy vegan feta, you’re being kind to sheep. These sensitive animals exploited for their milk endure pain, stress, and confinement. Farmers separate mothers and lambs shortly after birth. Sheep are slaughtered when they stop making them money.
Isn’t eating food on a stick more fun? Load up skewers with a vibrant array of your favorite raw vegetables. Try red onions, bell pepper slices, cucumber rounds, and even precooked marinated tofu cubes. There are tons of dips to try with these skewers.
When you choose to leave meat and cheese off your skewers, you’re helping animals. In the U.S., a staggering 99% of animals used for food endure life on cramped, dismal farms. Workers cram animals into cages, crates, and sheds, robbing them of the opportunity to engage in natural behavior and to satisfy their needs. Many animals never experience the warmth of the sun or fresh air until they’re packed on trucks destined for slaughterhouses.
Hummus Trio
On meal prep night, whip up a trio of creamy hummus flavors: classic, roasted red pepper, and spinach artichoke, and enjoy them all week long. Or even easier, purchase ready-made hummus from the store. Then, pair the hummus with veggie sticks and pita triangles for a dippable delight.
Avocado toast is one of the easiest things to make. If you’re feeling extra, take your avocado game to the next level by arranging slices in the shape of a rose on a slice of whole-grain toast. Sprinkle them with nutritional yeast, black sesame seeds, and a pinch of red pepper flakes for some extra flair.
Fill red cabbage cups with zesty quinoa salad featuring diced veggies, fresh herbs, and tangy vinaigrette. These adorable cups are as delightful to look at as they are to devour. This is another recipe that’s easy to make in advance and eat all week.
Feeling fancy? Check out our guide to creating a vegan charcuterie board in order to make an appetizing spread for “girl dinner” that will be perfect for sharing with friends.
Feeling less fancy? Here’s a list of foods to inspire you. By mixing and matching these vegan snacks, you’ll not only be satisfying your taste buds but also sparing the lives of countless animals—while ensuring that you’re getting plenty of vitamins and minerals. Let your imagination run wild—you might just stumble upon your next favorite flavor combination. Try a mix of the following animal-free foods:
Need more help going vegan? We’d love to send you our free vegan starter kit, and you can order one for a friend. And don’t forget to show #PETA your #VeganGirlDinner masterpieces. Let’s inspire people around the world to live with compassion. Happy eating!
Only 1% of Americans say they are vegan – down from 3% in 2018 and 2% in 2012 – according to a new Gallup poll. The number of vegetarians, meanwhile, has also dropped from 5% in 2018 to 4% in 2023.
The Gallup survey, conducted with 1,015 Americans in July, found that political liberals adults were among the demographics most likely to be vegetarian. 9% of liberals identify as vegetarian, three times as high as political moderates or conservatives.
Lower-income Americans were around twice as likely as middle- (4%) and upper-income (3%) consumers to be vegetarian. The same goes for vegans, with lower-income individuals (3%) thrice as likely than the rest (1%) to identify this way. This is surprising, especially in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis – given one common criticism about veganism is the higher costs associated with it.
At 6%, women, meanwhile, are more likely to be vegetarian than men (2%). But in terms of vegans, more men (2%) said they identify that way than women (1%). People of colour (5% vegetarian, 2% vegan) are more likely to be meat-free than non-Hispanic white consumers (4% vegetarian, 1% vegan).
Counterintuitive consumer data
Courtesy: Gallup
In terms of age, the poll found that all subgroups had the same percentage of people identifying as vegetarian, but more people aged 55 and over (2%) said they were vegan, compared to 1% for 18-34 and 35-54. It seems counterintuitive, given that 76% of Gen Zers say climate change is one of their biggest concerns, and recent research showing that veganism can cut emissions by 75% compared to meat-rich diets. Seperate data also shows that 60% of American Gen Zers are open to a tax on meat.
Additionally, a January 2020 poll by Gallup found that 70% of Americans cited concerns about the environment as a reason for reducing their meat intake.
These demographic differences, however, aren’t as pronounced as previous Gallup polls about the topic. And conflicting data shows that plant-based foods are in demand. The Plant Based Foods Association found that vegan food sales hit $8B in the US in 2022.
Gallup itself says that alt-meat products are “becoming more commonplace in grocery stores and restaurants”, with four in 10 Americans having tried them. Complementing these findings, research by alt-protein think tank the Good Food Institute has found that 93% of Americans who buy plant-based meat alternatives are neither vegetarian nor vegan.
But the pollsters argue that “these changes have not been met with an increase in Americans’ adoption of vegetarian or vegan diets, as less than 5% of US adults follow either eating approach”. Recent revenue drops for the likes of industry giants Beyond Meat and Oatly – combined with plant-based brands ceasing operations or coming close to it reflect the challenges facing the sector and the Gallup data certainly offers additional context.
New York-based biotech company Pureture has formulated vegan casein using yeast-based traditional fermentation. The company tells Green Queen that its tasteless and odourless plant-based milk protein – designed for alt-dairy products – can be supplied at a lower price than its conventional counterpart.
Founded in October 2022, Pureture (formerly Armored Fresh Technologies) was rebranded in May this year to separate it from the South Korean plant-based dairy brand Armored Fresh (both companies were founded by Rudy Yoo).
Pureture, a portmanteau of ‘pure’ and ‘future’, has developed a plant-based casein formulation via a traditional liquid fermentation process – which means it doesn’t have to pass any regulatory steps to enter the market. It emulsifies yeast and blends it with vegan ingredients (avoiding any GMOs) to manufacture the protein.
How Pureture makes its vegan casein
Casein is a key component in conventional dairy products, creating a stable emulsion and preventing fat and water from separating to give milk its smooth texture. These binding elements are also responsible for the meltability and stretchability of cheese, which are often missing in vegan cheese. Pureture says its plant-based casein replicates all these functions, calling it cleaner than other alternatives as it eliminates the need for starches, gums, and emulsifiers.
Speaking to Green Queen, a spokesperson for the brand explained that the casein undergoes a six-step process. It begins with the cultivation of a yeast strain, which then goes through an enrichment stage. This is followed by a separation of the protein, and a test of the emulsification functionality. Then, the protein is sterilised, before finally being dried to get it ready for use.
For the seed cultivation, Pureture has one 50-litre fermentation tank, while the first cultivation has three 500-litre tanks. For the second cultivation process, the company has three 30,000-litre tanks, and it explains that these make it possible to produce 200 tons of protein per month. This maxes out to 2,400 tons of vegan casein annually.
Courtesy: Pureture
A plant-based protein cheaper than conventional casein
Pureture also says its proprietary tech and manufacturing process has allowed it to price the casein at a lower rate than the market average. “The biggest factor is that the yeast protein we developed uses a self-selected yeast strain,” the brand’s spokesperson told Green Queen. “In addition, the yeast strain is very advantageous in terms of production costs due to its high efficiency in producing proteins, because it has a high protein production ability and has very good growth and development.”
They added: “The second reason is that the entire process of yeast fermentation, protein recovery and emulsification is carried out continuously – so it can be supplied at a price between 20% and 30% lower than the existing dairy ingredients in terms of production costs.”
Pureture is aiming to collaborate with major dairy companies to co-brand its plant-based casein, and with global ingredients vendors to expand its use. Helping businesses transition to vegan casein includes “revolutionising label transparency,” the brand says, stressing that clean labels with unadulterated plant proteins are the future of food.
“We are on a mission to build a [purer] world and safer future for all consumers and environment,” the spokesperson said. This was reiterated by founder Yoo: “At Pureture, we’re laser-focused on developing materials and technologies for essential food changes that will provide us with a richer and long-lasting food culture.
“With this new innovation, we’re thrilled to introduce a product that ensures the joy of dairy flavour and texture remains, while delivering a cleaner label and contributing to a more sustainable future,” he adds. Pureture confirmed that it has already collaborated with Yoo’s aforementioned Armored Fresh brand.
Vegan casein developments
Photo: Kelvin T/Unsplash
This news follows the announcement earlier this month by fellow US brand New Culture that it has successfully scaled up its precision-fermented casein to produce 25,000 pizzas’ worth of cheese per batch. And in June, another US company, Climax Foods, debuted what it claimed to be the world’s first plant-based casein protein.
While many producers focus on whey protein, it has its limitations. New Culture co-founder Matt Gibson told FoodNavigator in 2021 that whey “only makes limited cheeses” like ricotta and cream cheese, while casein allows you to make any kind of cheese with traditional cheesemaking processes.
Recreating animal muscle tissues from plants is like climbing a mountain – and this is why whole cuts have been referred to as the ‘holy grail’ of plant-based meat. While most vegan meat companies stick to mince, these six startups are succeeding in replicating conventional whole-cut beef without any animal ingredients.
Plant-based companies have mastered the burger. Even the chicken nugget. But it’s the next step that’s proved the most challenging – and exciting. Whole cuts have their own charm and there’s no substitute for the textural complexities they present to the eater. So why should non-meat-eaters miss out?
These are a few companies that ensure they don’t.
Juicy Marbles, Slovenia
Courtesy: Juicy Marbles
First off, what a name! The Slovenian food tech brand takes the crown in my super-important (to me) plant-based meat nomenclature rating list.
Launched in 2021, Juicy Marbles (which has raised $4.5M in total funding so far) makes an “ultra-tender” plant-based whole-cut filet mignon using its patent-pending ‘reverse grinder’ tech that mimics the muscle texture and marbling of conventional steak. It does so with soy and wheat proteins infused with beetroot powder, yeast extract and other natural flavours. There’s also sunflower oil, carrageenan and Big Meat enemy methylcellulose, and it’s fortified with iron and vitamin B12.
One whole tenderloin, which comes in at 756g, sets you back $60. That’s about $10 for six thick-cut steaks. Speaking of, the brand sells thick-cut steaks in addition to the loin, and will soon launch the world’s first plant-based pork ribs with edible bones (yes, you read that right). You can buy its products online in the US, UK and EU, as well as select retailers (including Waitrose in the UK).
In her review for Green Queen, our writer Amy Buxton put it succinctly: “I’ve eaten beef that tasted less like beef than this beetroot-infused soy protein did.” Now that’s a steak that will have you clutching your, erm, juicy marbles.
Chunk Foods, Israel
Courtesy: Chunk Foods
Iron Man loves this meat. What else is there to say?
Robert Downey Jr’s FootPrint Coalition-backed Israeli startup Chunk Foods makes whole ‘chunks’ of vegan steak from cultured soy and wheat. The whole-cut filet mignon is fortified with vitamin B12 and iron too, and undergoes a solid-state fermentation process.
Chunk Foods’ plant-based beef has appeared on the menus of several New York City restaurants, including Coletta, Anixi and The Butcher’s Daughter. And earlier this month, it became the first vegan steak to appear on the menu of a steakhouse chain in the US, after it collaborated with Charley’s Steak House in Orlando.
The whole-cut meat does cost $69 at the Florida eatery, but that’s on par with most of the other steaks on the menu. And it won the ‘Plant Based Meat Product of the Year’ at the fourth annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards this month. Chunk Foods, which has secured $17M in total funding, is also working on pork, lamb and poultry alternatives.
Redefine Meat, Israel
Courtesy: Redefine Meat
With total investment of $180M, Israeli startup Redefine Meat is one of the most well-known whole-cut alt-meat players, using 3D printing to develop fibres that resemble animal muscle tissues. And the 2018-founded company makes whole-cut beef tenderloin and lamb flanks so good that it has the attention of multiple Michelin-starred chefs and restaurants.
Perhaps most notable is Marco Pierre White, whose star gave rise to the celebrity chef genre. The British chef created two recipes with Redefine Meat’s steak and added them to the menu of his 40-strong restaurant estate in the UK. French chef Alexis Gauthier, who famously turned his Michelin-starred Soho flagship in London fully vegan, also put Redefine Meat’s steak on his tasting menu.
Other high-end locations to serve Redefine’s products include Ron Gastrobar locations across Amsterdam, Hotel Montefiore in Tel Aviv, and Burger Bear, Chotto Matte and Selfridges in London. Globally, you can find Redefine Meat’s products in 1,872 locations.
Green Rebel, Indonesia
Courtesy: Green Rebel
Indonesian plant-based giant Green Rebel‘s product portfolio is vast: from whole-food plant-based proteins and vegan cheese to whole-cut meats and vegan fried eggs. It has also collaborated with global brands like Starbucks, IKEA, Nando’s and AirAsia.
In 2021, it unveiled Asia’s first plant-based whole-cut beef and chicken steaks. While the chicken was created with soy protein, the Beefless Steak combines soy protein with shiitake mushrooms. Apart from that, it contains only seaweed flour, coconut oil, natural seasonings and water.
Green Rebel, which is reading for a Serie A after closing an oversubscribed $10M pre-A round, first launched into two of Indonesia’s largest steakhouse chains, ABUBA Steak and Pepper Lunch. Now, its products are available in a wide range of retailers and restaurants across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.
But when it comes to plant-based meat, In 2020, Novameat produced its second version of the whole-cut steak, calling it the “most realistic” alternative yet. It used a combination of tissue engineering and technology that enabled micro-structured tridimensional 3D printing, with pea, rice and algae fibre protein and a combination of fats and colourings.
With all-time funding of over $6M, Novameat’s portfolio includes plant-based shredded beef, chicken fillets, pulled chicken and turkey pastrami, and at this year’s Future Food Tech conference in San Francisco, it showcased its Nova Beef, which resembled conventional short ribs.
Project Eaden, Germany
Courtesy: Project Eaden
Launching into a media maelstrom after some time stealth with a seed funding round that brought in its total investment to €10.1M ($11M) this January, German startup Project Eaden is banking on its technological prowess for its plant-based steak. The company says its novel bio-fibre tech is similar to fibre-spinning for synthetic fibre, which is used across other industries like textiles, aviation and automotive.
Project Eaden is using the same technology for meat – and says it’s highly scalable and affordable, claiming these fibres can be designed with precision to meet technical requirements, including elasticity, water-binding ability and strength. The ultra-thin fibres are bundled into strands mimicking conventional muscle tissues and then blended with vegetable fats for a near-identical vegan marbled steak.
The company says it plans to go to market at the end of the year, According to a January announcement, the company will begin prototype production in a laboratory soon, before moving to a highly automated production facility. Currently, you can sign up to be the first to try its “ultra-realistic” vegan steak.
Football is back, and the days when vegan fans had to satisfy their halftime hunger with a bucket of oversalted popcorn have gone the way of the Houston Oilers—especially for attendees at PETA’s top five vegan-friendly NFL stadiums. With everything from classic plant-based burgers, hot dogs, and nachos to curry and hibachi, these venues have delicious vegan options to please every palate. Here are the winners, in no particular order.
The Las Vegas Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium: Visitors to the “Death Star” can find a unique range of vegan treats both savory and sweet, such as the Beyond Bratwurst at Lucky Link, the Vegan 420 Slice at Evel Pie, the Quinoa Salad Wrap at Our Haus, and the Vegan Funfetti Cake or vegan grilled cheese at Café Lola—plus veggie burgers at multiple locations around the stadium.
The Seattle Seahawks’ Lumen Field: 12s looking for vegan comfort food classics will find them at Cooka T’s Kitchen—including harissa-spiced nachos, jackfruit curry, and vegan mac and cheese. Manu’s Tacos has deliciously authentic black bean nachos and tacos, and vegan burgers and hot dogs can be found throughout the stadium.
The Atlanta Falcons’ Mercedes-Benz Stadium: Guests at the home of the “Dirty Birds” will love the mouthwatering Beyond vegan cheeseburgers and sausages as well as curry wraps at the Meatless Grill Carts—or they can indulge in a Yard Dog Garden Dog with baked beans and vegan cheese sauce. The Mac Shac Carts offer vegan mac and cheese with a variety of toppings, and Moe’s Southwest Grill makes vegan burritos, nachos, and burrito bowls (hold the cheese).
The Indianapolis Colts’ Lucas Oil Stadium: Game day classics get a vegan makeover at the “House That Peyton Built,” where options include the LightLife Indiana Burger, a rice bowl with black beans, and a veggie hummus wrap as well as vegan chicken tenders and fajitas (available in clubs and suites).
The Detroit Lions’ Ford Field: Visitors to the “Lions’ Den” will find a variety of vegan options, including a jackfruit sandwich at Berts BBQ, a veggie wrap at Blitz, and a vegan hibachi bowl at Crack N’ Sizzle. Veggie burgers and snacks, such as hummus and chips and guacamole, are available at locations throughout the stadium.
“From juicy burgers plant-based burgers to spicy jackfruit curry, these vegan stadium offerings are so delicious that fans will want to go for two every time,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “All the stadiums on PETA’s list are proving that cruelty-free food is a winning game plan.”
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 Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
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