Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers two new dairy-free coffee creamers, Hellmann’s social media prank, and Oato’s launch of fresh oat milks at Sainsbury’s.
New products and launches
Alt-dairy giant Violife has made a foray into coffee creamers, which use lentils as their base and don’t separate or curdle, according to the brand. They’re available in Tempting Vanilla, Seductive Caramel, and Boldly Original flavours at Walmart stores nationwide for $4.88.
Courtesy: Heura
More news from the coffee creamer space: Organic Valley has introduced its oat-based lineup, with flavours like vanilla, caramel, oatmeal cookie, and cinnamon spice.
A week after partnering with Moonburger, vegan cultured Cheddar maker Stockled Dreamery will now be the “headline cheese” at all 13 locations of plant-based fast-food chain PLNT Burger.
Unilever-owned Hellmann’s has launched a new social-media-led campaign for its Plant-Based Mayo, which sees chef Matthew Ravenscroft trick his friends into making dishes with the product to prove there’s no difference in taste compared to the original version.
At the Scientific Kick-off Event for Bezos Earth Fund‘s Centre for Sustainable Protein at Imperial College London last week, Californian precision-fermented fat startup Yali Bioshowcased its designer cocoa butter alternative.
Fellow Californian company Beyond Meat has brought its vegan steak and chicken ranges to foodservice operators in France via Metro, Costco, Creta Gel, SDV, and other distributors.
Germany’s GoodMills Innovation has launchedGoWell Tasty Protein, a new plant protein blend for baked goods, made from faba beans, yellow peas, sunflower seeds and wheat. It has a protein content of 60% and a well-rounded amino acid profile.
British fresh oat milk maker Oato has gained a listing at Sainsbury’s. Its one-litre and one-pint bottles – which are non-UHT – will be available in the chilled aisle at over 370 stores nationwide.
Speaking of plant-based milk, fellow UK startup MYOM has launched its powdered oat milk at Whole Foods Market stores, one of “many grocery listings” planned for 2025.
Company and finance updates
US precision fermentation startup The Every Company has named Evan Geisert as its new CFO. He was formerly the finance chief at Smart Wires and Kairos Aerospace.
Spanish plant-based meat startup Heura was present at the Faculty of Medicine in Barcelona during the country’s Medical Residency Entrance Exam to spread awareness about the health benefits of a vegan diet to the doctors of the future.
Courtesy: Heura
French hemp fermentation startup Auralip has raised €500,000 ($521,000) from Business Angels Grandes Ecoles, Femmes BA, Yes Invest, and others, which could be matched by a loan from state investor Bpifrance.
Czechia’s Ministry of Agriculture has decided against introducing stricter labelling regulations for plant-based meat and dairy after considering the feedback to the proposal, a big win for the vegan sector.
Courtesy: Arla
Danish dairy giant Arla has withdrawn its Jörd plant-based milk brand from UK supermarkets, with the range already unavailable at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Asda.
Research and policy developments
In the UK, the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, the Microbial Food Hub, the Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub, and the National Alternative Protein Centre (NAPIC) have signed an MoU to work together and address alternative protein challenges like cost reduction, scalability, and consumer acceptance.
NAPIC has also opened applications for five fully funded PhD studentships for alternative proteins, covering subjects like allergenicity and processing, the gut-brain axis, colloidal performance, nutritional equivalence, and microbubble stabilisation.
Courtesy: NAPIC
Across the Atlantic, anti-cultivated meat legislation remains popular. In South Carolina, SB 103 aims to restrict “misleading or deceptive” labelling of these foods.
US-cultivated meat startup Orbillion Bio has won the Salesforce DreamPitch event at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Chicago Med star Torrey DeVitto is swapping her scrubs for a cozy vegan sweater in a new PETA campaign! The actor, new mom, and rescued goat guardian is urging everyone never to wear cashmere and to leave goats in peace—not pieces.
In PETA’s video filmed at Barn Sanctuary, DeVitto—who was pregnant at the time of the shoot and just welcomed her daughter into the world—shares how compassion and kindness are the most important values she hopes to instill in her child.
I want her to grow up around animals and have that respect for them and just be mindful of what she chooses to eat and wear.”
As a guardian to two rescued goats, Pip and Squeak, on her Michigan farm, DeVitto reveals that goats suffer when their hair is torn out to make sweaters and scarves and encourages fans to choose cruelty-free options instead.
DeVitto says that pregnancy reinforced her empathy for all mothers—who “should get the same respect that a human mama gets.” Mother goats form strong bonds with their young, and both mother and baby recognize each other’s distinct calls—or “bleats”—shortly after birth. Like all mothers, goats want to nurture and protect their precious babies.
“This kid,” says DeVitto, gesturing to her baby bump, “will never hurt those kids.”
The Big Ugly Truth About Cashmere
PETA Asia investigations into cashmere operations in China and Mongolia—where nearly all of the world’s cashmere comes from—revealed goats screaming in pain as workers pin them down, twist their legs, and tear out their hair with sharp, rake-like metal combs, even tearing off pieces of their skin and leaving some with bleeding wounds. When goats are deemed no longer profitable, workers violently slaughter them.
Angora goats, the most commonly abused and killed animals in the cashmere industry, have interests, feelings, and unique personalities—just like Pip and Squeak.
Let Goats Keep Their Coats, Cows Keep Their Skin, and Birds Keep Their Feathers
No one wants to be abused and killed for fashion. Consumers can speak up against the fashion industry’s use of cashmere, leather, feathers, and fur by always choosing vegan materials. PETA’s shopping guide to vegan knitwear can help everyone cozy up this cold season and beyond with luxurious, animal-friendly fabrics.
In a blow for the vegan chocolate industry, Nestlé has taken its KitKat V off shelves in all markets except the UK.
Nearly four years after it was first introduced, the vegan KitKat is going off the market amid poor sales, a setback for both the plant-based industry and Nestlé’s climate goals.
The dairy-free chocolate had reportedly not been available in stores or online for some time, and Nestlé has now confirmed that the KitKat V has been discontinued in all countries barring the UK.
“We know that KitKat vegan was popular amongst those looking for dairy or vegan alternatives. Unfortunately, the sales were reducing to the point where production was adding significant complexity to our manufacturing operations, which could not be sustained,” a Nestlé spokesperson told Green Queen.
“We have therefore made the difficult decision to discontinue KitKat Vegan. The vegan chocolate segment is still a niche market. Classic chocolate products continue to dominate the confectionery category and contribute to the vast majority of sales,” they added.
“Our emphasis with the KitKat brand for the foreseeable future will be on classic chocolate variants, as they continue to be the preferred choice among consumers.”
The company couldn’t confirm whether the continued availability in the UK was a case of backstock, or if it would continue to produce the vegan KitKat for this market.
For the plant-based chocolate segment, though, the withdrawal of a flagship product from the world’s largest food company is a major blow.
Vegan KitKat withdrawal a setback for Nestlé’s climate goals
Courtesy: Nestlé
KitKat V burst onto the scene in summer 2021, and was born out of consumer demand. “One of the most common requests we see on social media is for a vegan KitKat,” Alexander von Maillot, then head of confectionery at Nestlé, said at the time.
The rice-based bar contains ingredients like cocoa butter, wheat flour, corn fibre, and vegetable fats, and was an instant hit when it was first piloted in the UK and several other countries. This success led to a wider rollout in 2022, with 800,000 bars set to be produced every day.
It was a sign of confidence in the vegan industry, with Nestlé bringing out a non-dairy version of one of the CGG world’s most popular, hardest-to-replicate food products. Every second, the equivalent of 560 bars of KitKat are eaten around the world.
Many brands have tried coming up with copycat versions of the KitKat, including German retailer Aldi and startups like vegan producer Trupo Treats – but these products have either failed during development, or been discontinued soon after launch.
The innovation was also slated to help Nestlé’s Net Zero plans for 2050. KitKat V has an 18% smaller carbon footprint than the original, so if it could take even a small chunk of the market share, the climate dividends would have been significant for the company.
But it seems that, almost four years down the line, sales haven’t picked up as much as Nestlé would have liked, and the vegan KitKat faces an uncertain future.
High prices and climate change keep chocolatiers innovating
Courtesy: Nestlé
KitKat turns 90 this year, but it leads an industry faced with historical supply chain and cost challenges, thanks to the climate crisis. The global demand for chocolate has wiped out large swathes of land in Ghana and Ivory Coast, the two largest producers of cocoa. And in a business-as-usual scenario, only a third of cocoa trees will die out by 2050.
That has translated into high prices, with cocoa futures shooting up three- to fourfold last year to reach all-time highs. In New York, this peaked at $12,931 per tonne in mid-December, following weather-induced low supplies for the fourth successive season in West Africa.
Nestlé’s KitKat V was always more expensive than its classic counterpart, but more sustainable too. The bar’s individual climate reduction journey is now in limbo – especially since its maker abandoned the pledge to make the product carbon-neutral by this year after facing allegations of greenwashing.
Confectionery, meanwhile, is the company’s second-smallest business segment, making up only 9% of its total revenue. But while it is divesting from plant-based chocolate, its European competitors are going all-in. Lindt already has several dairy-free chocolates, including its oat milk bars, Lindor truffles, and offerings under its Hello! brand. Ritter Sport and Cadbury have had vegan options for a while now too.
And Ferrero released vegan Nutella last year to similar fanfare, after years of demand and countless replicas that didn’t quite hit the spot. It has also just begun rolling out a plant-based version of its Hanuta wafers.
Meanwhile, Nestlé and other chocolate producers are in a legal dispute with German confectioner Katjes, whose patent for oat milk chocolate is being challenged – a sign that vegan products remain desirable in the industry. And with cocoa-free chocolate becoming a hot commodity too, the future for climate-friendly treats seems exciting, Nestlé’s KitKat decision notwithstanding.
The Humane Society of the United States, American Society for the Prevent of Cruelty to Animals (ASCPA), and Compassion in World Farming are failing to prevent cruelty to animals—by sitting on the board of directors for the humane-washing scheme Global Animal Partnership (GAP), they have become apologists for factory farms.
The Humane Society of the U.S., ASPCA, and Others Are Betraying Animals Through GAP Support
GAP uses misleading “animal welfare certified” labels to convince consumers that they’re buying the flesh and secretions of animals who were treated better than those on other factory farms, butmarketing buzzwords mean nothing for animals raised and killed for food. PETA investigators documented systemic cruelty and suffering at 12 Global Animal Partnership-certified facilities.
A PETA investigation into Sweet Stem Farm—which was certified by GAP at the time—revealed that pigs were crammed into severely crowded sheds and had painful, bloody rectal prolapses.
Another PETA investigation into Plainville Farms—which also was, at the time, GAP certified—documented that workers there kicked, beat, and threw turkeys and left ailing birds to suffer without treatment. PETA’s investigation resulted in former Plainville Farms workers being charged with six felonies and a total of 141 counts of cruelty to animals—the largest number in any factory-farmed animal case in U.S. history. Ten former workers have been convicted so far.
Specific investigations aside, animals on GAP-certified farms can still be routinely mutilated without any painkillers, forcibly manually impregnated, and kept in factoary farm sheds that are virtually indistinquishable from oprtations that aren’t “animal welfare certified”. GAP does not prohibit companies from sending pigs into C02 gas chambers at slaughterhouses, where they convulse and slowly suffocate for up to several minutes.
When GAP was founded, a fundamental principle was that its board would be split between animal organizations and the animal-farming industry, but now it’s made up of seven factory farm industry leaders and only three animal “welfare” groups.
This makes it completely imbalanced: GAP has become little more than a humane-washing and marketing arm for the meat industry. For them to claim that they still have a voice at that table is highly suspect.
GAP is controlled by the meat, dairy, and egg industries—and that’s why PETA and other animal protection groups, like Farm Forward, dropped their support of GAP—and why we are urging the Humane Society of the U.S., ASPCA, and Compassion in World Farming to do the same.
“The demands for accommodations became bolder and bolder until calls were made to eliminate even the fundamental principle of having a balanced board comprising half animal groups and half industry. I left the board when this shift away from the core principles upon which GAP was founded became inevitable.” Aaron Gross, Farm Forward
By Supporting GAP, These Organizations Are Promoting Animal Suffering and Death
In late 2024, GAP announced that it is phasing in the requirement that all producers follow the abysmally low standards of the “Better Chicken Commitment,” a humane-washing sham that allows chickens to continue to suffer mightily in vile, filthy, factory-farm conditions so the meat industry can profit.
Over 8 billion chickens are killed for their flesh in the U.S. each year. Almost all of these chickens, called “broilers” by the speciesist chicken industry, spend their entire lives confined in dirty sheds with tens of thousands of other birds, even when their flesh is labeled “Animal Welfare Certified” in grocery stores like Whole Foods. The intense crowding and confinement by the meat, egg, and dairy industries often lead to outbreaks of disease, such as bird flu. When the birds are only 6 or 7 weeks old, workers cram them into overcrowded crates and truck them to slaughter.
Supporting GAP Is Supporting Factory Farms
The Humane Society of the U.S., ASPCA and Compassion In World Farming can work with the meat dairy and egg industries to create “imperfect change” to the factory farm industry, but they shouldn’t be promoting misleading labels that serve to give the public the false notion that “humane meat” is anything more than a myth.
Join PETA in urging the Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, and CIWF to stop supporting factory farms and humane washing and start telling consumers the truth: eating animals is never humane. Go vegan—it’s easy.
Over 130 organisations have written an open letter to the EU agrifood commissioner, imploring him to develop a plant-based action plan by next year.
“The time for change is now.” That was the consensus of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture last year, which recommended that policymakers create a bloc-wide action plan for plant-based foods by 2026.
It’s a sentiment now being reiterated by more than 130 climate advocacy organisations, animal rights activists, doctors, and consumer groups, who have written to ag commissioner Christophe Hansen to ensure the strategy is included in the region’s vision for agriculture and food, which is expected to be released next month.
“A shift to healthier, more sustainable, affordable and balanced diets is essential for a successful transition to a more sustainable food system – and plant-based foods are part of the solution,” the letter reads.
“Such an action plan should be accompanied by appropriate funding that boosts the production and consumption of plant-based foods, with a focus on organic and agroecological products.”
Why the EU needs a plant-based action plan
Courtesy: Dimarik/Getty Image, Alessandro0770/Getty Images, Canva AI | Composite by Green Queen
The letter’s signatories include the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), the European Public Health Alliance, Greenpeace, Compassion in World Farming, and Four Paws, among others.
These organisations argue that current policies don’t ensure that healthy, sustainable and balanced diets are the affordable choice, and new measures are sorely needed to ramp up plant-based production and consumption.
An EU-wide action plan, they suggest, would help boost the bloc’s strategic autonomy. Currently, it relies on imports for two-thirds of its high-protein feed, exposing farmers and consumers to supply chain issues and price fluctuations. Increasing plant protein production for direct human consumption can assist in closing the protein gap and bolster self-sufficiency by “doing better with less”.
At the same time, it would create new business opportunities for farmers, who can diversify their production and income sources by introducing new crops. This will increase profit margins and cut costs as there would be less reliance on inputs by integrating nitrogen-fixing legumes.
The economic costs of animal protein production and consumption in the EU amounted to €3T in 2022, but a scenario with healthier and more plant-forward diets could save 43% of these externalities (or about €1.3T annually).
All EU member states have dietary guidelines recommending a higher consumption of whole plant foods, and some are implementing strategies to promote a shift to plant-rich diets. “To ensure policy consistency and support from both farmers and consumers, a coherent EU-wide policy is needed to drive alignment with dietary guidelines across all parts of the value chain,” the letter reads.
Then there are the public and planetary health benefits. Four in five Europeans aren’t eating enough produces, legumes, or whole grain, leading to chronic diseases and avoidable deaths. And climate change, soil degradation, and declining soil fertility are all threatening Europe’s long-term food security, but a plant-based action plan can create a more resilient agriculture system.
Growing calls for food systems transformation in the EU
Courtesy: V-Label
The EU’s Common Agriculture Policy, which provides farmers with financial support, is heavily skewed towards livestock farming. The sector receives around 82% of its subsidies from this instrument, four times higher than plant-based agriculture. This is despite meat and dairy accounting for 84% of EU agriculture emissions and 71% of its farmland, and providing only 35% of calories and 65% of proteins in the region.
The idea to create an action plan for plant-based food was floated by climate advocates and lobby groups representing farmers in September, with the goal to “strengthen the plant-based agrifood chains from farmers all the way to consumers”. The report acknowledged that EU citizens were eating too much meat, noting: “The sustainable choice needs to become the choice by default.”
EU commissioner Ursula Von der Leyen had said this advice would feed into the Commission’s agrifood vision, to be unveiled within the first 100 days of her second term.
But in his confirmation hearing, Hansen poured cold water on the Strategic Dialogue’s advice, calling it “rather a vague formulation” and suggesting more detailed discourse was needed. That said, he indicated that it was important for the EU to update its protein strategy from 2018 to include plant protein needs more prominently.
The open letter states that both the EU Commission and its member states should embrace and support this transition on the supply and demand side to position the region as a “global leader in competitive, resilient, and sustainable agrifood systems’.
One of those member states could serve as inspiration. Denmark was the first country to unveil a national plant-based action plan last year, and the organisations suggest that such a plan would put plant-based food on more of an equal footing with livestock farming.
This is not the first open letter Hansen or his colleagues have received over sustainable food systems. Health organisations have urged lawmakers to prioritise preventative policies and promote healthy and sustainable diets in the region’s food and farming vision. And food giants including Unilever, Danone and Oatly have asked Hansen to deliver an agriculture vision rooted in sustainability to ensure long-term competitiveness.
“The Commission’s upcoming Vision for the Future of Agriculture and Food needs to be bold on the demand side and pave the ground for an EU Action Plan for Plant-Based Foods. It is the missing puzzle piece to make progress towards diets that will benefit people and the planet,” said BEUC director general Agustín Reyna.
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Lidl’s new plant-based range, a vegan workplace canteen, and the UK House of Lords’s nod to cultivated meat.
New products and launches
Discount retailer Lidl has unveiled 28 new affordable plant-based products in the UK, which include Meat Free Cordon Bleu, Barista Oat Milk, and Smoked Tofu. The range starts from £1.09.
Courtesy: Lidl
Also in the UK, plant-based milk brand Mighty has added caramel and chocolate flavours to its oat milk powder range.
British foodservice wholesaler Brakes has extended its plant-based range with nearly 40 new products and created a Vegan Hub for Veganuary.
London-based Tofu Vegan, a popular Chinese restaurant chain, has opened its fifth location on Gloucester Road.
Across the Atlantic, tofu maker Hodo has announced a retail expansion into Meijer, Harris Teeter, and Giant Martin’s.
New York-based Edenesque has launched a barista edition of its pistachio milk, which is available at Whole Foods Market, on its webstore, and at Joe Coffee for $7.99 per carton.
AI-led ingredient discovery company Shiru has put out a partnership call to beverage manufacturers for the development and scale-up of a natural sugar replacer.
Popular fast-food chain Slutty Vegan has opened a new Bar Vegan location in Baltimore’s Rye Street Market, which is part of the Baltimore Peninsula District development.
Ingredients giant Griffith Foods has launched an Alternative Proteins Portfolio to complement its range of plant-based seasonings, sauces, dressings, binders, coatings, and all-in-one mixes.
Dutch vegan food distributor GreenPro International has rebranded to Plantitude to solidify its role as the “connecting factor in the protein transition”.
Crafty Counter has introducedEggless Salad under its vegan Wundereggs brand, which is available at all Safeway and Albertsons stores across Idaho and Washington state.
Meanwhile, Emirates Airlines has introduced a range of vegan meals for children, including pizza, vegetable fajitas, cauliflower bites and strawberry crumble. It adds to the carrier’s 300-plus plant-based options.
Aussie plant-based player v2food has unveiled a new identity for Soulara, the ready meal brand it acquired in January.
Courtesy: Soulara
And in India, vegan startup Blue Tribe Foods – backed by cricketer Virat Kohli and actor Anushka Sharma – has rolled out sweet potato fries, which are available at online retailers like Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, and Blinkit.
Company and finance updates
Belgian agrifood company Arvesta has opened Nuverta, a plant-based protein facility in Mettet, which will initially produce pea protein concentrate.
British green energy innovator Ecotricity, owned by Dale Vince, has opened what it says is the country’s first fully vegan workplace canteen.
The University of Nottingham has partnered with UK plant-based food company Jampa’s and Canadian manufacturer Tartistes to develop next-gen vegan products, receiving funding from the UK-Canada Innovate UK scheme.
Courtesy: Heura
Spanish vegan meat startup Heura has opened a new innovation lab in Barcelona’s 22@ tech district, and plans to register six more patents over the next nine months, adding to the innovations it announced late last year.
Slovenian plant-based food producer Narayan Group is set to be acquired by Edible Garden AG Incorporated, having signed a letter of intent to enter a share purchase agreement.
In the US, animal-free component producer Nexture Bio has acquiredMatrix Food Technologies, which makes plant-based, edible nanofibre scaffolds and microbeads for cultivated meat.
Courtesy: Tender Food
Boston-based Tender Food‘s co-founder Christophe Chantre has announced that he stepped down from his role as CEO last fall.
Tender Food also received $5.1M as part of the US Department of Energy‘s Technologies for Industrial Emissions Reduction Development (TIEReD) Program, while fellow Boston company Ginkgo Bioworks earned $2.4M.
Superlatus, the parent company of The Urgent Company, has been sued by Eat Well Investment Group, which has accused the former of fraudulently selling its plant-based food tech platform to avoid contractual obligations and cheating it out of $10M.
Research and policy developments
In the UK, the House of Lords has recognised cultivated meat as a key engineering biology opportunity and is calling for improved regulation of these products in a report published by its Science and Technology Committee.
Vegan seafood startup BettaF!sh and upcycled apricot kernel company Kern Tec have each won a €5,000 award as part of EIT Food’s Marketed Innovation Prize.
Courtesy: Kern Tec
The University of Galway in Ireland has introduced a 12-week course on Animal Law for undergraduate law students, which starts this month.
In their attempt to bring vegan cheese closer to what consumers expect, researchers from the University of Guelph and Canadian Light Source have found that blending coconut oil with pea protein provides better melting and stretching, and mixing it with sunflowerr oil lowers the saturated fat content without compromising functionality.
Finally, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a motion to ramp up the procurement of plant-based foods to lower emissions and improve public health, with county food services now encouraged to adopt a 2:1 ratio of plant- to animal-based mains.
German startup Project Eaden has secured €15M ($15.6M) in a Series A funding round to launch its fibre-spun whole-cut in retail, starting with REWE supermarkets nationwide.
Using textile technology to modernise and futureproof the $35B ham market, Berlin-based Project Eaden has raised €15M ($15.6M) in an oversubscribed Series A fundraiser.
The startup, which makes whole-cut plant-based meat with fibre-spinning tech, secured lead investors Planet A Ventures and REWE Group, with support from DeepTech & Climate Fonds, Happiness Capital, AgriFoodTech Venture Alliance, and existing backers Creandum and FoodLabs. This takes Project Eaden’s total funding to date to €27M ($28M), just three years since being established.
Christoph Gras, General Partner of Planet A, said: “Research suggests that plant-based products could replace 11–22% of global meat consumption by 2035—but only if improvements are made in taste and texture. Project Eaden is leading this shift with its new fiber technology, which delivers a meat alternative that will appeal even to the most skeptical consumers. This first-of-a-kind approach is a crucial step toward decarbonizing the food sector.”
The fresh capital will support scale-up efforts and a European retail launch. Its ham products will debut at 3,800 REWE supermarkets across Germany in early 2025, providing an alternative to the country’s favourite meat (pork). The company will follow this with entry into several other EU markets by the middle of the year.
According to the company, the retailer was won over by Eaden’s ultra-realistic texture and taste. “Project Eaden is setting a new standard in alternative meat by delivering the meat-like experience that today’s consumers crave. As a launch partner, we’re excited to bring their innovative products to our stores,” said Hans-Jürgen Moog, chief procurement officer of REWE Group.
Modern meat inspired by the textile industry
Courtesy: Project Eaden
Founded by Dr David Schmelzeisen, Jan Wilmking and Hubertus Bessau in 2022, Project Eaden went viral on the internet when it unveiled its whole-muscle steak and placed it next to conventional beef, with online commentators wondering if the image was doctored.
The Berlin-based company has since expanded its portfolio to create whole-cut sausages, pork loin and, of course, ham. These meat alternatives are derived from an age-old fibre-spinning technology employed by the textile industry. This allows Project Eaden to meet technical requirements like elasticity, water-binding ability and strength to closely mimic animal muscle fibres.
To get here, plant proteins are bundled into strands, and then unfolded in a solution to create a homogenous liquid. This is spun to form ultra-thin fibres, which get integrated into a compound to replicate the collagen-based connective tissues found in animals.
Wilmking, the firm’s managing director, has previously explained that the tech uses two types of fibres. “First, we use strong and thin fibres for connective tissue, which don’t stick together much, but help make the meat structure and bite experience feel real,” he told Green Queen in July.
“Then, a large part of our product is made from a cheaper, juicier fibre that sticks together just enough to hold meat juice in small spaces, making it taste tender and yummy, like real meat,” he added.
Project Eaden’s ultra-realistic Serrano ham. Courtesy: Project Eaden
The resulting products have been endorsed by butchers, Michelin-starred chefs, and retail buyers. “Our proprietary tech is versatile across meat types, cheap and highly scalable,” said Schmelzeisen, who has a PhD in textile engineering and is also a managing director at the company.
The funding round comes at a challenging time for alternative protein startups, which have suffered from a lack of investor interest. Financing for plant-based companies fell by 24% in 2023, reaching $908M. The fall was even sharper in the first nine months of 2024, when the sector raised a mere $194M.
That said, investors have shown they’re willing to back challenger brands with well-executed products in niche, underserved categories. Paris-based La Vie, for example, closed a €25M ($27.4M) round in October, while Spain’s Heura brought in €40M ($43M) – and both only launched their pork-free ham products in the last 18 monts.
Alongside Project Eaden, these brands also benefit from what is a relatively competition-free space, with only Prime Roots, Squeaky Bean and Quorn the other prominent players making vegan ham.
Germans turn away from meat amid health concerns
Source: Pig Progress
Much has been said about the slow sales of meat alternatives globally, but Germany has remained a high-performing outlier. It is the largest market for plant-based meat outside the US, and accounted for 46% of meat alternative sales in Europe’s biggest regions in 2023. These products witnessed a 6% hike in sales to reach €990M and entered over 37% of households.
At the same time, 46% of Germans are cutting back on meat, particularly pork, just as plant-based meat production rises and the new national dietary guidelines recommend a shift away from animal proteins and towards plant-based foods. This is being driven by younger cohorts like Gen Zers, who have been found to be more receptive to meat alternatives than older demographics.
Health is another key factor challenging pork consumption. Processed deli meats such as ham are often packed with nitrates, and the World Health Organization classifies such foods as Type 1 carcinogens. Eaden’s ham products are nitrate-free, as well as free of antibiotics and hormones.
Still, several barriers remain, chief among them palatability. More than 60% of Gen Z consumers in Germany are unsatisfied with the taste and texture of plant-based meat, a number that rises to 80% for Gen Xers and 88% for those aged 69 and above.
Wilmking believes Project Eaden’s whole cuts are solving that: “We are here to make the switch away from animal meat consumption a no-brainer. Our products deliver on taste, texture and nutrition.”
Tackling climate narratives
Courtesy: Project Eaden
The other issue is climate. Nearly two in five Germans think the country eats too much meat, and 30% want to increase their plant-based meat intake, though more than half don’t believe meat is a major problem for the climate – despite animal proteins being responsible for 57% of food system emissions (twice as high as plant-based foods).
Project Eaden hopes to change this narrative – each kg of its products reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20kg of CO2e, cuts water use by as much as 56 cubic metres, and lowers land use by up to 20 sq m.
The company will now expand its team across sales, marketing, operations and engineering, and is also working on broadening its range to more cuts, including Serrano and cooked ham, bratwurst, bacon, chicken breast, pastrami, and beef and pork flank steaks.
Another startup making fibre-spun meat analogues is Massachusetts-based Tender Foods, which likens its production process to spinning cotton candy. The company has raised $23M since it launched in 2020, and its fried chicken and pork are on the menu at meat-free chain Clover Food Lab.
Willicroft, a plant-based startup that evolved from a decades-old dairy company, has shut down after failing to meet its fundraising goals.
Dutch company Willicroft, famous for its bean-based vegan butter and cheese range, has wound down due to funding difficulties, co-founder Brad Vanstone has announced.
The startup, whose roots go back to the 1950s, had raised €2M from investors in 2022, and had opened a €350,000 crowdfunding round a year later.
“2024 was a tough year for Willicroft. After failing to meet our fundraising goals, we made the difficult decision to sell the company,” Vanstone wrote on LinkedIn.
“I said goodbye to this chapter of Willicroft by burying a small plaque in the Scottish Highlands – my grandparents’ and my favourite place on this planet,” he continued. “Willicroft, in its current form, was meant to last far longer. Nonetheless, it has been an experience I will never forget – one I feel privileged to have lived and one that has filled me with tremendous energy to build upon.”
Courtesy: Willicroft
2024 a ‘sobering reality check’ on the protein transition
Willicroft was founded in 2018 as an evolution of the dairy company founded by Vanstone’s father in 1957. With an ethos rooted in sustainability – the company’s CEO was Mother Nature – the brand’s products were available at retailers in three countries, and restaurants in several more.
The B Corp-certified startup’s latest product lineup featured Greek White, Italian Aged, Young Dutch, and Original Fondue cheeses, as well as a hard butter called Better – all made from ingredients like cashews, soybeans and white beans via fermentation.
“We came close to creating a self-sufficient business that balanced profitability with a positive impact but ultimately fell short. I take a great amount of heart in knowing that our recipes have found happy and trusted homes,” wrote Vanstone.
“Last year, in particular, was a sobering reality check on the pace at which our food industry is transitioning,” he added.
“A certificate my grandparents (a dairy farmer) received from the UK milk board illustrates this vividly: one of the Holstein Friesian cows on the farm produced 100 tonnes of milk across its lifetime. This is a staggering output for a single animal. By contrast, Willicroft, in its reimagined form, produced a little under 100 tonnes in total over our six-year existence.”
The company also had a wine and cheese store in Amsterdam called Kelder, which closed its doors in May 2023. Following Vanstone’s announcement about the business’s closure, its website has now gone offline too.
Vegan cheese was the fastest-growing plant-based product in Spain, France and Italy, and saw sales hike by 48% between 2022 and 2023 in Europe’s six largest markets. At the same time, this is a very small category within the plant-based sector, taking up just a 3.6% market share.
Broadly, non-dairy cheese is a tough space. This is the one category perceived as most far away in taste and texture from its dairy-based counterparts, a challenge that has bred lots of competition among brands vying to fill this gap.
Large and established brands like Violife, Sheese and Bel Group’s Nurishh dominate the market, but consumers remain unconvinced by the current options on the market. Three in 10 Europeans aren’t familiar with fermented vegan cheese products like Willicroft’s, according to a 2024 survey of over 7,800 people. And 22% of those who’ve tasted them don’t consume them, highlighting a major gap in satisfaction.
Courtesy: Willicroft
While Willicroft was making strong inroads with its butter alternative, made from shea and coconut oil and fermented soybeans, its progress was likely impeded by the overarching financial challenges.
And these challenges are only compounded by pressure from the dairy lobby, which holds a sizeable influence over EU policy. Livestock production has received the bulk of the money available under the Common Agriculture Policy, despite animal proteins generating 84% of the EU’s farm emissions and 72% of its land, while providing only 35% of calories and 65% of proteins.
The contrast between the output of a single cow versus Willicroft’s entire existence “highlights the challenges we faced in scaling, the immense size and efficiency of the dairy industry, and the strain it places on animals within that system”, noted Vanstone.
“It remains far too difficult for companies driving positive change in the food industry to thrive. My next steps are uncertain, but I am determined to confront this challenge head-on in the coming years.”
Willicroft’s closure comes at a challenging time for Europe’s alternative protein industry. UK ready meal maker Allplants shut down in late 2024, while Swedish mycoprotein specialist Mycorena was rescued from the brink by Naplasol months before. Speaking of mycoprotein, industry leader Quorn posted pre-tax losses of £63M in 2023, a fourfold increase from the £15M it lost the year before.
The French government’s proposed labelling ban on plant-based meat products has been cancelled by its top court, echoing a similar decision by its EU counterpart.
Veggie burgers are here to stay – yet again.
A long-running saga in Europe’s food tech industry, the war on plant-based meat labels has taken another turn in favour of vegan producers, as France’s Conseil d’État has rejected two decrees proposing a ban on terms like ‘plant-based bacon’ on, well, plant-based bacon.
In a ruling yesterday, the country’s top court called the decrees “illegal and contrary to European regulation”, noting that EU member states cannot independently regulate food labelling.
The decision comes just over a week after the court held its final hearing on the matter, where its advocate-general – who assists the court and presents opinions on cases with full impartiality and independence – recommended cancelling both decrees.
The advice argued that the decrees are not fit for purpose and that the government should pay legal costs to the plaintiffs, namely the European Vegetarian Association (EVU), the Association Végétarienne de France (AVF), and industry giant Beyond Meat.
By throwing out the attempt to prohibit meat-like phrases on vegan products, the Conseil d’État has delivered a landslide victory for the plant-based industry, and agreed with a similar ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) last year.
A swing of victories for plant-based meat labels
Courtesy: La Vie
France’s first attempt to ban meaty terms on plant-based products came in 2022, when it issued a decree to prohibit all such descriptors except ‘burger’. The Conseil d’État suspended the decree after complaints from meat-free companies and associations, calling the wording too vague.
The second decree – proposed in September 2023 – was nearly identical, co-signed by then Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne. It aimed to outlaw 21 terms like ‘steak’, ‘ham’ and even ‘grilled’, threatening a non-compliance fine of up to €1,500 for individuals and €7,500 for companies.
This second decree listed a further 120 more phrases – like ‘bacon’, ‘sausage’, and ‘nuggets’ – that companies could use only if the amount of plant protein didn’t exceed a maximum limit ranging from 0.5% to 6%. This, of course, meant that no fully plant-based products could use these terms.
The Conseil d’État suspended this too, following the complaint from the EVU, AVF and Beyond Meat. It referred parts of the case to the ECJ, which also rejected the ban and returned the case to the French court for a final decision.
The EU’s highest court ruled that the only way a member state can implement such a ban is to legally define meat products and descriptive terms first, and even then, such a ban would only apply to products manufactured within that country (creating an unfair environment for local companies). It also said countries can’t adopt national measures that determine minimum inclusion levels of plant proteins for labelling purposes.
It’s not the first time the EU has ruled in favour of plant-based companies on this issue – the parliament voted to reject such a ban in 2021 as well, though choosing to enforce it on non-dairy products.
Lawmakers should stop politicising ‘non-issue’
Courtesy: Beyond Meat/Green Queen
France is far from the only country targeting vegan product labels. These legislative proposals are common across the world – as recently as last month, the Czech government was floating a similar move.
The major argument behind these proposed bans is that consumers are confused when they see a product labelled ‘veggie burger’ or ‘vegan chicken’. But this has been dispelled by numerous studies, with most consumers knowing the difference between plant- and animal-derived proteins.
Rafael Pinto, senior policy manager at the EVU, argued that these attempts “do nothing but confuse consumers”, hindering the region’s shift to a more sustainable food system. “The data is clear, consumers are not confused by the use of traditional denominations for plant-based products,” he said.
“Policymakers should be focused on promoting better conditions for farmers, citizens and innovation, instead of politicising a non-issue,” he added.
In a positive sign, these efforts are increasingly being thwarted. Italy is reconsidering its ban after pushback from the country’s leading union of food manufacturers. A South African court ruled against upholding a ban last year too. And Turkey’s latest labelling laws allow companies to use such terms on packaging.
Plant-based companies like Tofurky, Miyoko’s Creamery, Planted, Oatly and NotCo have all won legal battles over product labels – and Beyond Meat has now joined them.
This story was updated on January 29 to reflect the French court’s final decision.
Dr Michael Greger, founder of NutritionFacts.org and author of How Not to Die, spoke to the Good Food Institute about misinformation and the link between ultra-processed foods and plant-based meat.
Perhaps the most pertinent public debate around plant-based meat today concerns ultra-processing, a topic that has prompted a shift to more whole foods, pushing industry leaders to reformulate products and talk more about nutrition on-pack.
Ultra-processed food (UPF), a subset of the Nova classification, was never meant to be about health – it simply was a reference to how much processing a product has undergone. But the confluence of processing and ill health has strengthened over recent years, thanks to a host of studies.
It has dissuaded people from buying meat alternatives, with a 10,000-person survey from 2024 suggesting that more than half of Europeans avoid these products because they’re ultra-processed.
Nutrition experts have been fighting back, highlighting the distinction between food processing and human health, and reiterating the benefits of meat analogues – especially over their animal-derived counterparts.
NutritionFacts.org founder and How Not to Die author Dr Michael Greger, a leading health expert, is one of these voices. He plans to write a book dedicated to the subject, and hit back at the misinformation surrounding meat alternatives in the Good Food Institute’s latest Science of Alt-Protein seminar.
Here are 10 takeaways from the event.
1) UPF effects can be independent of dietary quality
Studies involving nearly 10 million people have linked greater exposure to UPFs to a higher risk of chronic health conditions and premature death. But this association was found after controlling for dietary quality, so it wasn’t just that people were eating “junkier diets”.
“At least some of the adverse consequences of ultra-processed foods may be independent of dietary quality. This could involve things like harmful additives, heat-induced contaminants or packaging chemicals,” said Greger.
2) Plant-based meats are the UPF exception
While there are several factors that could explain the connection between UPFs and ill health. Normally, when you compare ultra-processed products (like Kool-Aid or fruit candy) with the foods they were designed to replace (in this case, water or fruits), the former category tends to perform worse on the health scale.
“However, plant-based meats appear to be the exception – better in most ways compared to the foods they were designed to replace,” said Greger. He cited a 2024 systemic review of nine studies comparing plant-based with conventional meat, and found that the former scored better based on every nutrient scoring system tested. And a 10th study rated plant-based meat three times healthier than animal-derived meat.
Courtesy: Dr Michael Greger/GFI
3) Are additives like methylcellulose a concern?
There is growing evidence suggesting toxicity from several artificial food additives, like synthetic dyes and emulsifiers. One of the most commonly used additives in plant-based meat is methylcellulose, known for its binding, gelling and thermoreversible properties. It’s also often used in laxatives.
But while there has been some potential harm found with methylcellulose use in mice, this is at 10 times higher concentrations than what’s found in plant-based meat.
“Reassuringly, vegetarians who eat plant-based meat may actually have lower rates of irritable bowel syndrome than those who don’t consume plant-based meat, suggesting that at least from that standpoint, plant-based meat emulsifiers are not a problem,” said Greger.
4) The sodium comparisons are misleading
Despite plant-based meat having more fibre, lower saturated fat, zero cholesterol and oftentimes comparable protein levels, one area they face scrutiny over is the sodium content. “The most harmful additive currently in use is ironically the most traditional of all, and that’s salt. The number one dietary risk factor for death on planet Earth [is] excessive sodium consumption,” Greger noted.
One study found vegan burgers to have 10 times as much sodium as beef. “But that’s because they were comparing raw beef with pre-seasoned plant-based meats. Now, they could have compared [cooked] burgers to burgers, but intentionally excluded them from the study, skewing the results,” he explained.
When comparing like-for-like, the nutrition expert said the saltiest plant-based meatballs have been found to be lower in sodium than the least salty conventional meatballs.
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
5) Plant-based meat can provide GLP-1 boost
Nearly three-quarters of Americans over 20 are overweight or obese, which leads to a host of other life-threatening conditions. This has also given rise to GLP-1 agonist drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. Greger cited research showing that a plant-based burger boosts the GLP-1 receptor about 40% higher than a beef burger.
Additionally, even when people swap only a single serving of meat a day with vegan alternatives, they lose significantly more weight. This could be due to fewer branch-chain amino acids, which improves metabolic health, or because the resting metabolic rate in vegetarians has been found to be 20% higher than meat-eaters.
6) Meat analogues enhance diabetes management
Nearly 15% of American adults have diabetes (mostly type 2), while almost two in five American children and teenagers are prediabetic. Greger highlighted the potential of vegan meat products in reducing insulin resistance and managing blood glucose levels in diabetics.
A four-year interventional trial shows that diabetics who replaced animal protein with TVP – a processed meat alternative – find significant improvements in blood sugar. Swapping a single serving of red meat with TVP vastly enhanced insulin resistance, though resting blood glucose levels were only significantly better through a shift to whole soybeans.
In another study, pregnant women with gestational diabetes who swapped half their animal protein for TVP not only saw improvements in insulin resistance and blood sugar control, but also found newborn hospitalisations lowered by 85%.
Courtesy: LaylaBird/Getty Images
7) Plant-based meat is good for the gut
The GLP-1 boom has also put gut health in sharp focus, and meat alternatives can bring major benefits here. They can promote positive changes in the microbiome, helping feed beneficial gut microbes, for example, which produce anti-inflammatory short-chain fatty acids.
Replacing a few servings of meat a day with Quorn’s mycoprotein alternatives has been found to increase the abundance of good gut bacteria and reduce the amount of DNA damage caused by faecal matter.
“According to the latest data, about 85% of ground beef and turkey are contaminated with faecal bacteria at a retail level. And about half a chicken, and a third of pork,” said Greger. “But you don’t have to cook the crap out of plant-based meat because there shouldn’t be any crap to begin with.”
8) Vegan products can reduce healthcare costs
“These days, most of us are dying from diseases of excess, not deficiency,” Greger remarked. Too much salt, too much sugar, too much saturated fat, too many calories. “Higher intake of meat in general – red meat, white meat, processed, unprocessed – [is] also associated with increased risk of death from all causes put together,” he added.
“If people swapped out about 75% of their meat, up to 50,000 lives can be saved every year in high-income countries potentially saving billions of dollars of healthcare costs,” he continued.
9) On-pack labelling requirements can help plant-based food
It was only last week that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed the rollout of a front-of-pack label that scored the saturated fat, sodium and sugar content of a processed food product from low to high. Greger praised on-pack labelling strategies, drawing a parallel with how the fight against trans fats was won when the food industry was forced to list them on their ingredient labels.
He argued that these policies – unwelcome as they might be for many food producers – have forced their hand. They now “actually have to care about sodium”, for example. “It would be nice if companies were like: ‘Maybe we should care about sodium because we don’t like killing people,” Greger said, acknowledging that it’s not something shareholders will ask about.
But front-of-pack labelling means companies can’t “hide behind some health halo”, such as “plant-based” or “natural”.
10) Whole-food plant-based meat is the way to go
Asked what his dream meat alternative would be, Greger said this already existed in the form of plant proteins “made by Mother Nature”, like kidney beans. But he painted a bigger picture.
“Can we make something healthier than a kidney bean?” he said. The way you make something healthier than a lentil is to do something to it that makes people eat more lentils. “Add some potassium chloride to lentils – all of a sudden tastes better you’re eating more lentils,” Greger suggested.
This could be complemented with some healthy fat, like a nut butter, and added fibre – or at least a mechanism that strips less fibre away. “Just more whole healthy foods in people’s bodies would be ideal,” he said.
With hopes of a European launch growing, Californian plant-based meat leader Impossible Foods has had a patent for its heme protein reinstated in the EU.
Two years after the European Patent Office (EPO) revoked a key patent it granted to Impossible Foods, the decision has been overturned by the agency’s Board of Appeals.
A culmination of a protracted process that faced significant opposition, the patent concerned the plant-based company’s use of heme protein and flavour precursors in its flagship burger, which allow it to ‘bleed’, smell and taste like conventional beef.
The heme ingredient – derived from soy and genetically engineered yeast – has been at the centre of a legal dispute in its home country, where the Californian firm triumphed over a long-running legal battle with Motif Foodworks, taking over its heme business. The latter ceased operations soon after the case came to an end.
Why Impossible Foods’s EU patent was reinstated
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
The EU patent was first granted in 2017, covering a meat alternative compromising heme proteins and “at least two flavour precursor molecules”. Impossible Foods inserts the DNA from soy plants into a genetically engineered yeast strain called Komagataella phaffii to produce soy leghemoglobin via a process similar to how Belgian beer is brewed.
But it was challenged by a straw man (or anonymous) opponent a year later, which argued that the patent was invalid due to a lack of novelty or an inventive step (when an invention is not obvious to a person skilled in the field), and insufficient disclosure.
The EPO’s Opposition Division agreed that the patent was invalid for the latter reason. And while it believed that Impossible Foods’s heme protein was a novel invention, it lacked an inventive step.
In its decision on December 20, the Board of Appeals said it was “readily apparent” the case was complex. “The proprietor had to address numerous and increasingly expanded attacks raised by the opponent and third parties during the opposition proceedings. More than 100 documents were filed, most of them after the filing of the notice of opposition,” it stated.
The appeals body found that the requirement that the heme-containing protein be ‘isolated; was directly and unambiguously disclosed in the patent application, as were the combinations of three flavour precursors.
Impossible Foods had also communicated how the heme protein and flavour molecules give its plant-based analogues the taste and smell of meat during the cooking process, the Board of Appeals noted. It additionally found that the company had made sufficient disclosures about its invention, which it said contained an inventive step.
Impossible Burger inching closer to European plates
Courtesy: Impossible Foods
The EPO Board of Appeals’s decision ended a year of significant regulatory progress for Impossible Foods in Europe. The company already sells its beef in the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, the UAE, Australia, and New Zealand – but has faced several hurdles in the EU and the UK for its precision fermentation process.
But in June, the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) food additives panel issued a positive safety assessment of LegH Prep, a liquid preparation containing the company’s soy leghemoglobin and other ingredients. This was provisional, as it was subject to an assessment from the regulator’s GMO panel.
That came months later in November, when the GMO body ruled that the ingredient was “safe for human consumption with regard to the effects of the genetic modification”. It ended a Clock Stop – a period when evaluation is officially stopped pending further information from the company – that had hampered the process since December 2021.
This then followed a 30-day consultation period, allowing the submission of purely scientific comments and questions to be addressed by the EFSA and the EU Commission. Following that, the Commission will draft approval decisions to be brought to the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed, which will discuss and then vote on them.
“The agency’s comprehensive, scientific assessment of the safety of soy Leghemoglobin (heme) across two applications reinforces the overall quality and safety of our food, echoing similar approvals from regulators in the United States, Canada, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand,” an Impossible Foods spokesperson told Green Queen in November.
They noted that the GMO approval was “an important step toward bringing Impossible products to Europe”, adding: “We’re excited to continue our work with EU decision-makers to bring Impossible Foods products to European consumers.”
Impossible Foods’s patent victory comes at a testy time for plant-based meat in Europe, where it has faced renewed attacks over the use of meat-related terms on product labels. But in a positive sign for the industry, the EU’s top court rejected the French government’s attempt to instate a labelling ban, a decision that is set to be finalised by France’s top court.
Sustained high meat prices on both sides of the pond are changing the burger business – for the benefit of people and the planet. But McDonald’s may be too centralised to adapt quickly enough to the changing times.
The world’s largest burger restaurant chain, McDonald’s, has posted the biggest fall in global sales since 2020. It’s the second consecutive quarter of contraction since the height of the Covid crisis. International markets outside the US were hit particularly badly, with sales down by 2.1%, led by France and the UK.
One of the key triggers for such poor performance is meal prices. Customers walk in McDonald’s stores looking for tasty AND cheap meals served fast. That’s the unique selling proposition of fast food chains. The problem is that McDonald’s meals are not so cheap anymore.
In May, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, said in an open letter that the average price of McDonald’s menu items was up around 40% since 2019. Overall, the prices of McDonald’s food have risen an average of 100% in the last decade, which is about three times the general inflation rate, according to CPI Data.
Courtesy: Statista
Food inflation is to be blamed. Certainly, food prices have increased across all food categories in the past five years, but quite significantly in the meat category. For instance, the price of ground beef in the US has increased by 35% since the pandemic.
The average EU meat price has also gone up since the pandemic: the cost of pork to consumers has increased by 42% since the pandemic; chicken 35%; and beef 30%. This is quite a blow for the operations of the Golden Arches brand because it is primarily an animal product business (beef, chicken, fish and dairy).
Courtesy: Eurostat
McDonald’s US reaction to plummeting sales has been to introduce a ‘$5 Meal Deal’ earlier in June for one month to attract lower-income customers back. It has been extended in the summer and again in November. Obviously, this move has squeezed profit margins. Even though the super cheap meal deal has helped increase sales in the US, net profits have fallen 3%.
McDonald’s outside the US is trying out a different approach. Around the same time McDonald’s US extended the $5 Meal Deal until December, McDonald’s France launched a plant-based alternative to its Chicken McNuggets. Crucially, the plant-based version is sold at the same price as the regular nuggets, giving customers a clear choice (no price premium attached), while keeping the profit margin higher than with regular chicken.
Why this could be a turning point for the vegan fast food sector
Courtesy: McDonald’s
While the US is responding to the ever-increasing meat price pressure with super deals that are unsustainable in the medium run, McDonald’s in France is trying other avenues. This is important for three reasons.
First, the size of the market. France is the Golden Arches’ largest market outside the US. The fast food giant clearly sees a growing demand for plant-based products, especially in Europe. Indeed, McDonald’s France’s chief marketing officer made that very point in the media surrounding the launch.
Second, the product. Chicken McNuggets are a flagship product. After the failure of the launch of the McPlant burger in the US, it’s telling that the company is piloting the plant-based chicken nuggets in such a key market for the company.
Third, the marketing strategy. All the market research and the latest successes in fast food with Burger King and in retail with Lidl shows that selling plant-based alternatives at the same price as conventional meat products boosts sales significantly.
All that glitters is not gold
Courtesy: McDonald’s
However, McDonald’s is a laggard in the sector. Rival Burger King is leading the plant-based race by a mile (or two), at least in Europe.
Burger King claims to have the largest plant-based range in the fast food sector in Germany, with a meatless version of almost every product since 2022. Their plant-based sales are beyond niche: One in five (20%) Whoppers sold in Germany are now plant-based, as well as one in four (25%) Long Chicken sandwiches. Similar sales performance has been registered in neighbouring Belgium and Austria.
The main driver of such success for the plant-based category is price parity. When Burger King Germany announced the full range of veggie options for each of their beef and chicken products, it did so by offering it at the same price as the regular animal products.
The bet paid off. And as meat prices have kept rising and the cost of veggie burgers have decreased thanks to economies of scale, in March Burger King Germany offered all their plant-based products at a lower price than meat.
German supermarkets are witnessing the same downward trend: plant-based meat alternatives cost less and less every year, and in Lidl, Germany’s largest discount supermarket, veggie products today are cheaper for consumers than meat.
Veggie burgers: good for people, animals and planet
Courtesy: Profundo/Madre Brava
The benefits of McDonald’s diversifying their protein offering are not only monetary. Selling more veggie burgers and plant-based nuggets is also a great deal for the climate, nature and animals.
McDonald’s is the world’s biggest fast-food chain with over 40,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. McDonald’s alone is responsible for around 1.5% of global beef consumption.
Analysis by research consultancy Profundo for Madre Brava shows that if McDonald’s replaced half of its beef burgers with plant-based patties globally, it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15.6 million tonnes. This is equivalent to taking 12 million new petrol cars off EU roads. Moreover, the 50% plant-based meat replacement could free up an area of land the size of Austria (84,000 sq km). Last but not least, it could save as much fresh water as 84,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Rebalancing protein sales to offer as many beef burgers as veggie burgers is not only good for the health of our planet, but it is also for our own health and nutrition. According to the latest peer-reviewed multicriteria analysis, processed plant-based products such as veggie burgers offer substantial health and nutritional benefits compared to regular animal counterparts.
US vs EU?
Courtesy: McDonald’s Netherlands
Sustained high meat prices are here to stay, while plant-based products get tastier and cheaper due to economies of scale. Unless the US and EU pour even more polluting subsidies into the industrial meat complex to artificially lower animal product prices, this is not going to change. Thus, the burger business is demanding a new strategy that can succeed in the new normal of high meat prices while addressing ESG challenges.
Two diverging business strategies seem to be competing within the Golden Arches global family. A US approach laser-focused on luring customers back with $5 meal deals, betting on regenerative agriculture and a shift from ‘beef to chicken’ to ‘solve’ their health and sustainability challenges.
And a European way, led by McDonald’s France, Germany and the Netherlands, that shows how plant-based patties and nuggets can help retain more and more flexitarian customers who want to cut down on meat and bring in new, vegetarian/vegan customers – all while increasing profit margins and slashing climate emissions.
Because the Golden Arches company is a top-down business where menu decisions and corporate strategies are made in Chicago and rolled out globally, it is quite easy to predict that the American approach will prevail for the time being.
But McDonald’s has always prospered through innovation. What is happening in Europe is a far more innovative way of approaching the new challenges facing the business than doubling down on a tired model which is proving increasingly unprofitable and unsustainable.
McDonald’s cannot afford to be left behind by more agile competitors. Its current problems have opened up a big opportunity. It should seize it.
Californian plant-based food maker Misha’s Inc has acquired New York-based Vertage, a fellow vegan cheese producer, for an undisclosed sum.
In a bicoastal deal, cashew cheese maker Misha’s has extended its dairy-free portfolio to include sliced and shredded offerings through an acquisition of Vertage, which uses mushroom fermentation to produce Cheddar, Pepper Jack, and mozzarella.
Based in Los Angeles, Misha’s takeover seeks to leverage Vertage’s ongoing collaboration with Fresh Del Monte Produce, a distributor of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables. Running since May 2023, the partnership gives Vertage access to the latter’s production facility, tech, and distribution and transportation networks.
Through the acquisition – supported by investors including QVT Financial LP, Composite Capital Partners LLC, Gaingels, as well as Fresh Del Monte – Misha’s will now gain access to Fresh Del Monte’s infrastructure and logistics, which is managed by its Tricont Trucking and Logistics arm. The vegan brand will also expand its product lineup beyond its spreadable cheeses.
“By integrating Vertage’s expertise and leveraging Fresh Del Monte’s infrastructure, we’re not only scaling our operations, but also evolving our product offerings to meet consumer demand,” said Misha’s co-founder and CEO Aaron Bullock. “The introduction of shredded cheeses and slices is just the beginning – we’re excited to unveil even more categories in 2025.”
An artisanal vegan cheese marriage
Courtesy: Vertage
Misha’s was founded by Bullock and Aaron Miller in 2018, homing in on the clean-label trend with nut-based cheese spreads free from coconut or palm oil, soy, gluten, and even nutritional yeast. In 2021, the startup raised $3M in a seed funding round that included Marcy Ventures Partners (co-founded by Jay-Z) and NBA great Chris Paul (also known as CP3).
It currently has a six-strong lineup of cheeses, including Sari (featuring sundried tomatoes, roasted garlic and cilantro), Seven Point Five (jalapeño, habanero and strawberries), and Black Truffle (black truffle, shallots). They’re available in over 1,100 retail stores, including Walmart, Whole Foods Market, Kroger, and Erewhon.
Vertage, meanwhile, is the brainchild of award-winning chef Margaux Riccio, who set up the business after developing a dairy allergy as an adult. The artisanal brand uses traditional cheesemaking techniques and patent-pending fermentation processes to make products like a sliceable mozzarella, Cheddar and Pepper Jack slices, and classic and Everything But the Bagel cream cheeses.
The cream cheeses and mozzarella are made from fermented cashews – but the latter also contains shiitake-mushroom-fermented pea protein, as do the potato- and coconut-based sliced cheeses.
Following the acquisition, Vertage CEO Tim Wildin will transition into the role of chief marketing officer at Misha’s, bringing his years of experience as brand director of Chipotle.
“Misha’s and Vertage share a mission to reimagine the future of food. This acquisition allows us to bring our innovations to more consumers while staying true to our commitment to taste, quality, and sustainability,” Wildin said.
“I’m thrilled to see Misha’s leverage our technology to expand the product line and redefine how delicious dairy-free cheese can be.”
Courtesy: Vertage
Dairy-free cheese has it tough – but opportunities abound
The two companies are operating in a crowded category with a host of challenges – there’s no shortage of spreadable cashew cheese options in the US, and brands like Miyoko’s Creamery, Daiya, Climax Foods and Stockeld Dreamery are all using centuries-old fermentation processes to make vegan cheese.
Then there are the financials. Vegan cheese isn’t making a lot of Cheddar – it was one of the only four plant-based categories that witnessed a dip in sales stateside between 2021 and 2023, falling by 5.4%.
These products have also only penetrated 7% of American homes, with less than half (49%) buying them more than once in 2023 (down from 56% in 2020). Non-dairy alternatives’ dollar share in the overall cheese market has also remained constant at 1%.
Courtesy: PBFA
Conventional cheese is a huge market, present in 97% of US households. But with at least 12% of Americans suffering lactose intolerance – and over 5% (15 million) having a milk or dairy allergy – there is a major opportunity for plant-based brands, if they can meet taste expectations. And polling shows that 18% of US consumers are actively replacing animal-derived cheese with dairy-free versions.
The acquisition allows Misha’s and Vertage to consolidate their operations and streamline their supply chains, with the Fresh Del Monte deal enabling them to expand into new regions.
“This partnership reflects exactly why we opened our robust logistics network to other businesses,” said Ziad Nabulsi, senior VP of North American operations at Fresh Del Monte. “It enables other companies to leverage a well-established, efficient system to expand their footprint and reach a broader audience.”
Green Queen has contacted Vertage for further details on the deal.
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Burger King Germany’s new vegan option, a cured root vegetable bagel at Deutsche Bahn, and the UK parliament’s cultivated meat research.
New products and launches
Burger King has released a new plant-based King Rib sandwich in Germany. The limited-edition menu item uses plant-based meat from The Vegetarian Butcher, which may be in the process of being sold by its parent company, Unilever.
Courtesy: Verrano
Also in Germany, national rail operator Deutsche Bahn is offering a bagel with cured, smoked rutabaga (or swede) from Verrano, which makes whole-food-based alternatives to meat. It’s available at its on-board restaurants and bistros.
German chemicals and ingredients specialist Brenntag has collaborated with Berlin-based biotech firm Cambrium to launch NovaColl, a skin-identical vegan collagen for the personal care industry in the UK and Ireland, France, Italy, and Iberia.
Fellow Berlin-based company BettaF!sh has linked up with Austrian supermarket chain Billa to introduce a co-branded vegan Tu-Nah Sandwich in the latter’s stores.
Courtesy: White Owl Group
In Hong Kong, White Owl Group has launched a joint location for its plant-forward F&B brands The Cakery and Maya Bakery at K11 Musea, with new menu additions including vegan pistachio croissants and cotton cake inspired by the famous Dubai chocolate.
Ikea has teamed up with UK plant-based meat leader THIS to put its vegan pork sausages on the menu for its £4.95 Veggie Sausage & Mash meal at 19 locations.
Courtesy: This/Ikea
Aussie startup Fascin8foods, which makes mushroom-based burgers, mince and meatballs under its Froom label, has released a 24-recipe cookbook for Veganuary.
Are you struggling to keep up with all the new launches and announcements for Veganuary 2025 in the US? Hear about them from the horse’s mouth.
Courtesy: Rebellyous Foods
Vegan chicken startup Rebellyous Foods has partnered with Great State Burger, a Pacific Northwest restaurant chain, for a new crispy chicken burger menu addition.
Company and finance updates
Rebellyous Foods has also raised $2.4M in an extension of its $9.4M Series B funding in 2023. It will use the fresh capital to expand sales of its new Mock 2 production platform.
Courtesy: Tribe
Across the Atlantic, UK plant-based energy bar brand Tribe has secured £2.4M ($2.9M) to support the launch of a new adaptogen-centric ‘Protein + Focus’ range.
The Grocer has uncovered that London-based vegan ready-meal startup Allplantsowed creditors £13M ($15.8M) when it fell into administration last year.
In yet another move linked to protein transition, discount retailer Lidl has become the first major supermarket to use The Vegetarian Society‘s Plant-Based Trademark, which will appear on its own-label Vemondo Plant! range.
Courtesy: Plantible Foods
Israeli minerals company ICL Food Specialties has announced a follow-on investment in duckweed protein player Plantible Foods‘s Series B round, which netted the startup $30M in November. The two firms launched a Rovitaris Binding Solution using the latter’s Rubi Protein in October.
Swedish energy and tech giant Alfa Laval is building a Food Innovation Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark to support sustainable food production. It’s scheduled to be completed in 2027, and will initially focus on proteins, including plant-based and fermentation-derived ingredients.
European fermentation association Food Fermentation Europe has appointed Sebastien Louvion – chief regulatory officer at animal-free casein startup Standing Ovation – as its new president.
Israeli molecular farming startup Plantopia has switched from lettuce to sprouted oats to produce casein protein for animal-free dairy products.
Research and policy developments
Latin America now has 22% more vegan-friendly restaurants than it did in 2023, numbering over 10,000, according to research by Veganuary and HappyCow.
The number of care home residents in the UK who are vegan or vegetarian will continue to rise over the next five years, doubling by 2031, according to a study by Swansea University’s OMNIPlaNT research group for Vegetarian For Life.
Courtesy: Ivy Farm Technologies
In its latest move to advance novel foods, the British parliament has commissioned a new research project to consider the opportunities and challenges of cultivated meat production. It’s expected to be published in May.
Speaking of cultivated meat research, this was a hot topic in 2024, and Trove Biosciences founder Tarika Vijayaraghavan has laid out five takeaways after closely monitoring this space.
Courtesy: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, engineers have devised a way to leverage metamaterials to create whole cuts of plant-based meat that offer a more scalable and cost-effective solution to 3D printing.
Researchers at the Beijing Institute of Technology have developed a method to use autoclaved vegetables as scaffolds for muscle and adipose cell growth for cultivated meat.
The Good Food Institute has selected 14 researchers for its 2025 Research Grant Programme to accelerate alternative protein innovation.
Courtesy: Omni
Finally, plant-based granola maker Bio&Me and vegan pet food startup Omni have been named in the UK’s 2025 Startups 100 Index.
A major survey by The Vegan Society shows that 3% of people in the UK now follow a plant-forward diet, and one in 10 are cutting back on meat and dairy.
As the British government gears up to become a policy and research leader in the alternative protein space, its public is seemingly embracing these future-facing foods too.
According to a 10,200-person survey conducted by Ipsos Mori for The Vegan Society, 1% of Brits say they follow a vegan diet, while another 2% eat in a plant-forward manner (with only occasional instances of meat or dairy consumption).
Collectively, this represents around two million Brits. On top of that, 4% of respondents identify as vegetarians, and 3% as pescetarians, meaning that one in 10 consumers are either cutting back their meat intake or have eliminated it altogether.
Women, youngsters, and Londoners lead the way
Courtesy: The Vegan Society
Contrary to other research pinpointing the taste and health aspects as the major drivers of plant-based consumption, The Vegan Society’s poll reveals that animal welfare is the leading factor behind UK consumers choosing to go vegan, with 57% identifying it as a primary motivator. This was followed closely by concerns around health (52%) and the environment (48%).
But some trends align with previously published research, with younger generations – particularly those aged 16-44 – driving the shift towards plant-forward eating. These Brits are twice as likely as older generations to embrace such diets, as are women (3.6% of whom identify as plant-forward) versus men (1.98%).
Unsurprisingly, London has the highest share of people following plant-rich diets (4%), alongside Northeast and Southwest England. Scotland, Wales and the East Midlands, however, have the lowest rates of meat-free consumers (2%).
“These results reveal a remarkable transformation in attitudes toward veganism and plant-based living across Britain,” said Claire Ogley, head of campaigns, policy and research at The Vegan Society.
“It’s inspiring to see younger generations leading the way, with a growing number of people adopting more sustainable and compassionate lifestyles for a variety of reasons, from health to the environment to animal welfare.”
It follows a survey by Finder.com last year, which suggested that the UK’s vegan population grew by 78% from 2023-24, reaching 2.5 million. In fact, a total of 6.4 million people said they intended to adopt a meat-free diet in 2024.
UK makes play for plant-based
Courtesy: GFI Europe
The survey was carried out between August and December 2024 and is being released to coincide with Veganuary, the month-long challenge where people attempt to adhere to a vegan diet for January. Last year’s campaign already broke participation records (with an estimated 25 million people signing up), and the organizers expect the 2025 edition to be even bigger.
The shift towards plant-forward eating is yet to be matched by companies’ balance sheets. Sales of vegan products fell by 2.8% in the UK between 2022 and 2023, with volumes dropping by 10% – although signs from early 2024 pointed to a slight rebound.
Meanwhile, UK policymakers are getting in on the act. The government has contributed £15M to a National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre, for example, to ramp up the R&D and commercialisation of novel foods, including plant- and fermentation-derived proteins.
The Plant-Based Food Alliance has called on Keir Starmer’s government to adopt several policies to make the food system more sustainable, including developing a national action plan for vegan food. Further, the Climate Change Committee has said meat and dairy consumption should be halved and replaced with plant proteins by 2050 to meet the UK’s climate goals.
Research shows that vegan diets can cut emissions, water pollution and land use by 75%, given that plant-based foods produce half as much greenhouse gases as meat and dairy. And even a 50% swap of the latter with vegan alternatives would bring double the climate benefits, halting deforestation and cutting farm and land use emissions by 12%.
This burp machine, sent to the media by PETA, is the perfect gadget with which to tease friends and family members—and it also happens to come with a serious message. Cows’ burps fuel the climate crisis, and the lifesaving solution is for everyone to ditch dairy, forego flesh, and go vegan.
This playful little package is tied to PETA’s investigation of Oakridge Dairy, which exposed the largest dairy in Connecticut duping consumers with bogus welfare claims about the cows it confines for a sham “clean energy” scheme. At Oakridge, suffering cows are confined indoors and on concrete floors their entire lives so that their manure can be collected and tossed into a “methane digester” machine and converted into natural gas for sale. PETA is calling foul, pointing out that the process fails to address the largest source of methane emissions from cows—it’s their burps, not their manure, that contributes most to the climate crisis.
The only truly effective solution to the climate crisis is a global prioritization of dairy-free, vegan food, which would eliminate methane emissions from cows and spare these gentle animals severe suffering. Please go vegan today.
At least 10 humans have died, thousands of homes have been burnt to rubble, and hundreds of thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate amid the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles’ history. Scores of firefighter crews are struggling to contain the massive inferno—in large part due to the tremendous pressure on the city’s water supply. Reportedly, water pressure to fire hydrants has diminished across the city—and many have run completely dry.
Why Is California Out of Water to Fight Fires?
Los Angeles’ water system is buckling under the pressure of these ongoing fires, which are mostly uncontained as of January 10. This unprecedented catastrophe begs the question: Where did all the water go?
The Link Between Animal Agriculture and Diminished Water Supply
We can’t talk about California’s water crisis without looking at animal agriculture’s tremendous use of water. According to some reports, the meat and dairy industries account for an estimated 47% of California’s water footprint. Up to 15% of California’s water is used to grow crops to feed livestock on farms. According to Food & Water Watch, California’s mega-dairies use an estimated 152 million gallons of water each day—more than enough to meet the indoor water needs for every resident of San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose combined.
In Southern California, residents are encouraged to limit their water use to 500 to 600 gallons a week—approximately the same amount of water that it takes to produce a single hamburger. You need 2,400 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef, 477 gallons of water for 1 pound of eggs, 900 gallons for 1 pound of cheese, and 1,000 gallons for 1 gallon of cow’s milk. One pound of tofu, on the other hand, requires only 244 gallons of water.
Water is used for all parts of animal agriculture—from growing feed crops and managing animal waste to cleaning massive, filthy farms and slaughterhouses and filling scalding-hot tanks used to remove animals’ hair or feathers after workers slaughter them.
This isn’t just an issue in California—animal agriculture’s egregious waste of water is occurring all over the world, accounting for an estimated 20% of freshwater use globally. In the U.S. alone, animal agriculture guzzles 36 to 74 trillion gallons of water per year.
Farming animals not only consumes massive amounts of freshwater but also pollutes it with tons and tons of animal waste. According to a report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, about 68% of lakes, reservoirs, and ponds in the U.S. and more than half of the nation’s rivers and streams are considered too polluted to use—and a main culprit is animal agriculture.
Is the Climate Catastrophe Making Wildfires Worse?
Research shows that the climate catastrophe contributes to the frequency—and severity—of natural disasters like the current Los Angeles wildfires. Additionally, the drastic changes between wet and dry years in California—which scientists say is exacerbated by climate change—are amplifying wildfire risks. In other words, the vegetation that grows abundantly during “wet” seasons becomes easily flammable—and vulnerable to ignition—during subsequent “dry” seasons.
This, too, is linked to animal agriculture, which scientists agree is a leading cause of the climate catastrophe. By some estimates, animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all the world’s transportation systems combined. Animal agriculture is also the single largest source of methane emissions. Methane is far more potent in terms of trapping heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide. It has been estimated that more than 90% of all Amazon rainforest land cleared since 1970 is used for grazing livestock and that animal agriculture is responsible for the loss of over 16.4 million trees each day.
California is on fire and the meat and dairy industries are helping light the match We’re sending @GavinNewsom a “Strike Out Meat” match box as the Los Angeles wildfires continue to rage — it's past time to promote a vegan lifestyle! pic.twitter.com/PKHUL3tYOK
PETA points out that the meat and dairy industries are causing the climate crisis and the natural disasters—including these wildfires—that come with it, yet in California alone, they have collected more than $1.112 billion in taxpayer dollars from government subsidies in the last 30 years.
“While people lose their homes, you’re propping up the very well-financed industries that are killing our precious state,” said PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in a letter to Los Angeles Gov. Gavin Newsom. “Animal agriculture may be gasoline, but you are holding the match as long as California has dairy and meat subsidies.”
How YOU Can Do Your Part
The single most effective thing you can do to reduce your environmental footprint is to go vegan. Every individual who is vegan saves 1,100 gallons of water, nearly 40 pounds of grain, and 30 square feet of forested land each day—while sparing nearly 200 animals every year. Don’t wait until a devastating disaster is in your own backyard—do your part to protect the planet today. Order PETA’s free vegan starter kit to make the compassionate switch now:
Note: PETA supports animal rights and opposes all forms of animal exploitation and educates the public on those issues. PETA does not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office or any political party.
It’s not a (humane) wash—it’s a win! Following a cease-and-desist letter from PETA’s attorneys and an eyewitness investigation into Oakridge Dairy LLC, the largest dairy in Connecticut, the company has removed several humane-washing, misleading, and false claims from its advertising language.
After PETA’s Push, Oakridge Dairy Removes Multiple Humane-Washing Claims From Its Advertising
Oakridge Dairy’s website used to claim that cows had an “optimal living habitat” and “plenty of elbow room” and that they “spend their days relaxing among their peers”—but after hearing from PETA’s attorneys, it removed the misleading language and took down a YouTube video that claimed that Oakridge “ensures the [cows’] well-being” and creates a “haven” for them. All the removed claims are examples of humane washing, a marketing ploy that misleads consumers into believing that they’re making kind choices when they’re actually not. In reality, the only kind choice is vegan. Oakridge confines approximately 2,600 cows inside a concrete-floored mega-shed so that their manure can be collected by a “methane digester” as part of a dubious “clean energy” scheme.
Oakridge confines approximately 2,600 cows inside a concrete-floored mega-shed so that their manure can be collected by a “methane digester” as part of a dubious “clean energy” scheme.
During the undercover investigation, PETA eyewitnesses documented the following:
Cows with swollen joints and apparent pressure sores on their legs.
Workers admitting that the animals are never allowed outdoors and are forced to use manure left over from the methane digester as “bedding”.
Cows kept in extremely crowded conditions where they appeared unable to move freely or find a comfortable spot to stand or lie down.
Oakridge staff saying they remove newborn calves from their mothers within 20 minutes of birth—so that the company can sell the milk meant to nourish them through the delivery service The Modern Milkman and distribute it through Dairy Farmers of America, which supplies dairy brands nationwide.
Oakridge Dairy Is Another Company Added to PETA’s List of Humane-Washing Wins
The PETA Foundation has been full-steam ahead for years making sure that companies like Oakridge Dairy stop misleading consumers. PETA Foundation attorneys have secured several other wins against food companies that use misleading claims in advertising:
PETA Foundation attorneys filed a lawsuit on behalf of a woman who accused Organic Valley of misleading her into buying its products at premium prices because it falsely claims to treat cows “with love”—when in reality, it separates newborn calves from distraught mothers, who sometimes run aftertrucks taking their babies away and cry for days over the loss. Organic Valley later changed its carton design and removed claims about offering “high” or “highest” standards of animal care, that cows are raised “with love,” and that cows are “happy” or “social”—as well as the word “humane.”
Following PETA’s investigation into a Nellie’s Free Range Eggs supplier, PETA Foundation lawyers filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of consumers who were misled into buying eggs sold under the company’s label. PETA eyewitness video footage of the supplier showed approximately 20,000 hens confined to a single extremely crowded shed with severely restricted access to the outdoors, despite Nellie’s claims that the chickens “roam where they please” and “have easy access to the outdoors.” In February 2020,the Southern District of New York held that a marketing campaign showing hens “frolicking in elysian pastures” could provide “enough specificity to elevate itself beyond puffery.”
Take Action Against Humane-Washing Schemes
As part of our initiative against humane washing, PETA is campaigning against the Global Animal Partnership, “humane” label marketing scheme backed by the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and Compassion in World Farming. As our undercover investigations and wins against misleading claims show, there’s nothing “humane” about factory farming, and these self-described animal welfare groups need to take immediate action in order to cut ties with the Global Animal Partnership. Sign our petition and remind these organizations through polite social media comments that the Global Animal Partnership certification is a misleading sham.
Research exploring the link between depression and different types of milk is doing the rounds, with plant-based alternatives bearing the brunt of the headlines – but they were barely mentioned in the study.
You’ll be miserable if you drink oat milk. Or so they’re saying online.
“Experts issue warning over oat milk – dairy alternative linked to health harm while semi-skimmed cow’s milk boasts surprising benefit,” read a Daily Mail headline.
“Boost for dairy as scientists link plant-based milk with mental health issues,” wrote trade publication Farmers Guardian.
The Times, meanwhile, went a step further: “Vegans are more likely to be depressed, study suggests.”
They all reference a new paper in the Frontiers journal by researchers from the Southern Medical University in China, who analysed the data of over 350,000 people enrolled in a UK Biobank study. Between 2006 and 2010, the participants were asked about their lifestyle, health, and consumption habits – including milk intake – with their mental health being assessed through questionnaires a decade later.
If you believe the headlines and the majority of the coverage, here’s what the study found: semi-skimmed milk lowers the chances of depression by 12%, full-fat milk reduces anxiety risk by 16%, and plant-based milk raises the likelihood of depression by 14%, compared to people who don’t drink milk.
That seems scary if you drink non-dairy milk. In a media landscape that vilifies plant-based products, publications jumped on this, painting the entire category with the same brush and declaring that cow’s milk is king and vegan food is bad for your mental health.
The problem is, this isn’t really what the study concluded – and even then, there were some massive gaps in the research, some of which the authors acknowledged themselves.
“These findings are in no way compelling evidence for the bizarre claim that drinking plant-based milk causes depression,” said Amy Williams, nutrition lead at alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe. Here’s why.
Study classification of ‘other milks’ unclear
Courtesy: Bit245/Getty Images
In the study, the researchers asked participants what type of milk they mainly drank at the start of the study, and what mental health conditions they experienced over the next decade. This wasn’t a controlled trial, but an observational study, and it’s impossible to know whether people exclusively drink a single form of milk.
Most of the participants consumed semi-skimmed milk (65%), while others drank skimmed milk (20%), whole milk (6.5%), and what the researchers termed “other types of milk” (5%). The latter category included soy milk – the only mention of any plant-based milk throughout the study – but it was unclear what else.
“The headlines focus on the findings of this ‘other’ category, on the assumption that it is entirely made up of plant-based milk drinkers, but this assumption was not made in the paper itself,” Williams pointed out.
“All we know is that the ‘other’ group is made up of soy milk drinkers alongside everyone who selected ‘other’, which may include different kinds of animal milk such as lactose-free or sheep milk.”
The researchers also did not measure the quantity of milk consumed, which makes it hard to draw conclusions about any single type of dairy-free milk.
The problem with observational studies
Courtesy: Deniz A/Getty Images
Observational studies don’t demonstrate causation, so to remove some of the uncertainties, the researchers performed a Mendelian Randomisation (MR) analysis, which uses genetic differences to examine the causal effects of an outcome.
But the MR assessment was only performed on semi-skimmed milk, finding a 17% drop in depression risk – this is likely due to the presence of calcium and vitamin D. However, the “other types of milk” used were not fully disclosed, and it’s not known whether the plant milks included were fortified or not. Most such products today are fortified with both calcium and vitamin D too, and they would likely offer similar mental health benefits, based on the scientists’ hypothesis.
Moreover, none of the other forms of dairy and non-dairy options were given the MR treatment. So the rest of the study’s findings were based on correlation, not causation, using self-reported dietary data. They were also “influenced by the extensive duration of the follow-up”, the author said, noting that the results “must be interpreted cautiously”.
Observational studies should “always be taken with a pinch of salt”, according to GFI Europe’s Williams. “They are useful to identify possible directions for further study, but not for drawing firm conclusions about causality,” she told Green Queen.
“To give a simple example, an observational study may find a correlation between people getting sunburnt and eating ice cream. It’s clear that both of these are caused by some other factor – both things happen on sunny days – but to test this, we need different kinds of study.
“Confusing correlation with causation in observational studies is a common problem in health reporting, but is fairly standard – but these headlines have taken this issue one step further.”
I drink plant-based milk – should I be worried?
Courtesy: AI-Generated Image via Canva
Williams noted that the study is based on questionnaires taken between 2006 and 2010, when plant-based milk had a fraction of the drinkers it does today. In the UK, 35% of households purchased non-dairy milk in 2023, and today’s market contains a much wider range of options with better nutritional value than they did two decades ago.
“What’s very curious is that a study which doesn’t even talk about plant-based milk beyond one passing mention and which doesn’t appear to have been press released by its authors managed to generate such widespread and misleading media attention,” said Williams.
Bila Chniouer, a UK-based registered associate nutritionist, told Green Queen: “Some media reports suggest certain plant-based milks, such as soy, may be linked to depression. However, the study did not specifically investigate the impact of the consumption of specific types of plant-based milk on depression, nor did it determine whether participants were vegan, vegetarian, or simply preferred non-dairy options. This could substantially influence the findings.”
It’s worth noting that the study included mostly middle-aged to older adults of European descent – so the impact on younger populations was not covered.
Should they be worried about consuming vegan milk alternatives, especially soy? “No,” said Chniouer. “In fact, we know that soy consumption is associated with a lower risk of depression.”
She explained that soy contains isoflavones – plant-based compounds that mimic the action of oestrogen by binding to oestrogen receptors in the brain – and they help regulate serotonin production in the brain, while having anti-inflammatory and antioxidative effects on the body.
“The study grouped all plant-based milks (such as soy, oat, and almond) into a single, broad category. As a result, it is unclear whether any specific type of plant-based milk has a definite impact on depression,” she added. “Therefore, additional research is needed to thoroughly evaluate the effects of each type of plant-based milk on depression.”
Veganuary timing a coincidence?
Courtesy: Veganuary
The Frontiers study has been circulating everywhere at the same time as another large UK analysis that linked greater calcium consumption to a decreased bowel cancer risk.
The amount of calcium (300mg) that’s important can be found in foods like dark leafy greens, bread, and tofu – but the way it’s framed in the media, all you’ll need is a glass of milk, despite the authors specifying that this intake can also come from non-dairy foods, like plant-based milks.
This is not the first time that studies have been reported on in a misleading manner to unfairly demonise vegan food – and it will likely not be the last.
But they’re in the media during Veganuary, whose 2025 campaign is predicted to be the largest yet. Whether it’s just happenstance that this coincides with a drive to increase meat and milk consumption – backed by the UK government and slammed by medical professionals – can’t be determined for certain.
However, some stories about the Frontiers study do mention the AHDB’s Let’s Eat Balanced campaign for January, and that has raised questions about the influence of the dairy lobby in media coverage around plant-based food.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers a host of launches for Veganuary, several plant-based brand campaigns, and a Bezos Earth Fund Ted Talk.
New products and launches
In time for Veganuary, Starbucks has brought its popular brown sugar oat milk format to the cortado, launching the espresso-based drink alongside a vegan Spicy Falafel Pocket.
Courtesy: Face Plant
With a menu designed by former Bon Appétit Test Kitchen star Molly Baz, Face Plant is an upcoming vegan fast-food drive-thru restaurant set to open later this month at a former McDonald’s location in Portland, Oregon.
Another Portland-based chain, ice cream maker Salt & Straw, has released five new dairy-free flavours for Veganuary, including coconut cake and pineapple jam, bananas foster with candied pecans, and chocolate caramel corn with candied peanuts. It’s also teamed up with pistachio milk brand Táche for vegan milkshakes.
Plant-based chain Next Level Burger is jumping on the superfood demand with a burger and smoothie shake available at all 10 locations for January, while its subsidiary Veggie Grill has debuted a five-strong range of superfood smoothies on its permanent menu across all 16 stores.
Courtesy: TiNDLE Foods/PLNT Burger
TiNDLE Foods has partnered with PLNT Burger, which will feature its vegan chicken on two burgers (in crispy and spicy variants) at all 13 locations on the East Coast.
Whole-cut meat maker Chunk Foods is continuing its US expansion through a listing with online retailer Vegan Essentials.
Los Angeles-based vegan protein shake maker Koia has extended its lineup with Koia Elite, which comes in vanilla and chocolate flavours and contains 32g of plant protein. The 12oz bottles are available in the chillers at Whole Foods, with shelf-stable versions set to come to 7-Eleven and e-commerce channels shortly.
In Germany, Rewe subsidiary Penny has launched Cremembert, a white-label Camembert alternative made from fermented cauliflower by Veganz Group, in its stores. It’s available for €1.99 per 125g pack.
Courtesy: James Moyle/Wagamama
In the UK, Wagamama – which is aiming to make half its menu plant-based by the end of the year – has partnered with vegan influencer Alfie Steiner (aka alfiecooks) to unveil a Firecracker Chick’n Ramen across the UK.
Bakery chain Greggs has reintroduced its Spicy Vegetable Curry Bake for Veganuary. It’s available nationwide for £2.10, and as part of its £3.35 savoury bake deal.
Fellow British chain Zizzi, which serves Italian cuisine, has teamed up with Bold Bean Co to put a Butter Bean Stufato on its menu for Veganuary.
Courtesy: Claudia Riccio Photography/Galaxy
Also in the UK, Mars has brought out a new flavour in its dairy-free Galaxy lineup in the UK. The vegan Hazelnut Praline chocolate bar can be found at Sainsbury’s for £3.
Plant protein producer Squeaky Bean has launched ham-like tofu slices in spinach-basil and tomato-red pepper flavours, as well as a Super Grain & Vegetable Burger (featuring fermented rye). The 80g slices are available for £2.50 and the burger for £3.50 per two-pack at Sainsbury’s.
In more tofu news from the UK, Cauldron Foods has come out with the “quickest-cooking tofu pieces ever”. The bite-sized cubes can be prepared in five minutes and are available for ¢2.75 per 160g pack at Asda.
Courtesy: Julienne Bruno
London-based vegan cheesemaker Julienne Bruno has annoucned the first product of its Collection 02. The Mozzafiore Pearls are its take on mozzarella balls, and will be available at Whole Foods stores in Kensington and Piccadilly from January 9 for £3.95.
UK dairy-free brand Nush has updated its almond yoghurt recipe to include more protein. The products now contain between 16g and 23g of protein per pot, and the move is complemented with the introduction of a new vanilla fudge flavour.
British vegan frozen foods makerOne Planet Pizza has gained a listing at 400 Asda stores for its recently launched Tex Mex Pizza.
Courtesy: La Vie/Papa Johns
And among the plethora of Veganuary innovations, one of the more outrageous ones comes from Papa Johns and vegan pork maker La Vie, which have worked together to roll out a Hawaiian Vegan Pizza for the chain in the UK.
Company and finance updates
La Vie, based in Paris, is also on the hunt for a new CFO to lead the startup’s financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and fundraising efforts.
Vegan cheese giant Violife has rolled out a new National Quitter’s Day campaign to promote its dairy-free cream cheese across digital, social media, and out-of-home channels.
Courtesy: Violife
The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Phaedra Parks has teamed up with Danone-owned brand Silk to host a side-by-side live taste test of cereals with cow’s milk and its Vanilla Almondmilk. Held in New York City on January 9 (ahead of National Milk Day), contestants – those who prefer dairy over plant-based – will be hooked to a lie detector taste when asked which milk they prefer.
In yet another Veganuary campaign, UK plant-based meat maker THIS has debuted its latest TV ad with creative agency St Luke’s. The mockumentary-style spot features a real estate agent who was inspired to (unsuccessfully) become a wingsuit flyer after tasting its vegan pork sausages.
Nestlé-backed plant-based food startup Sundial Foods has also shut down, having sold its IP to “an acquirer with greater scale and resources than we have”.
Canadian cell ag platform Cult Food Science is now accepting cryptocurrency payments for its Noochies! line of vegan pet food. Customers can pay with currencies like bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), solana (SOL), and dogecoin (DOGE).
Courtesy: TreesPlease Games
British developer TreesPlease Games is running Veganuary promotions (including paid marketing) throughout the month on its Longleaf Valley mobile game. It’s expected to gain around 75 million impressions.
Californian plant-based giant Beyond Meat has released results from a life-cycle assessment that shows its vegan steak generates 84% fewer emissions than conventional pre-cooked steak tips, while requiring 93% less water, 88% less land, and 65% less non-renewable energy.
Policy and research developments
Andy Jarvis, director of Future of Food at the Bezos Earth Fund, has delivered a Ted Talk on the future of food, and the importance of using a “yes, and” approach.
Nearly half of American adults are looking to change their diets this year, but only 7% plan to eat plant-based, according to a survey by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Morning Consult.
It’s also perhaps why the City of West Hollywood is urging people to participate in Veganuary, posting a list of meat-free restaurants in the city.
Courtesy: Heriot-Watt University
In the UK, NHS Scotland‘s Golden Jubilee University National Hospital has begun trialling biodegradable, plant-based theatre caps to cut single-use plastic waste. They were co-designed by the University of Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt University.
Finally, University of Exeter researchers are looking for 200 volunteers who are going vegan in January for a study about the impact of Veganuary.
The FDA has updated its draft guidance for vegan meat, egg and dairy labelling, suggesting companies place an emphasis on the plant-based sources that make up the product.
‘Chickpea meatballs’ is a more favourable term than ‘plant-based meatballs’ when describing vegan products on packaging, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The government body, which has regulatory authority over all plant-based alternatives, has published draft guidelines for the labelling of vegan meat, seafood, egg and dairy products, excluding alt-milk (which were covered in separate guidance last year).
For plant-based food producers, there’s one big win: they’re allowed to use terms like ‘sausage’, ‘burger’, and ‘yogurt’ on their packaging, so long as they don’t mislead consumers.
But there is a big caveat too. The FDA prefers that companies highlight the source ingredients in their products. So instead of ‘vegan Cheddar cheese’, it’s more comfortable with ‘soy-based Cheddar cheese’. Likewise, ‘chickpea and lentil nuggets’ is preferred over ‘meat-free nuggets’.
“Names such as ‘Plant-Based Burger’, ‘Meatless Meatballs’, or ‘Vegetarian ChickN Sausage’ may signal to consumers that the food is a meat alternative, but they do not identify the plant source comprising the food,” the document says.
“The nature of the plant-based ingredients is important information for consumers and should be included in the name or statement of identity to identify and describe the food and distinguish it from similar foods.”
Courtesy: FDA
How would this work in practice?
The FDA believes that when looking at a food label, consumers should be able to “easily determine not just that the product is plant-based, but also the plant source (e.g., soy, lentil, walnut, etc.).”
It’s not just the use of ‘plant-based’ or ‘vegan’ – even descriptors like ‘meat-free’ or ‘beefless’ should be used in conjunction with the source ingredient. So, instead of ‘pork-free bacon’, it recommends using ‘plant-based soy bacon’ as the main term, with ‘pork-free’ used as a sub-descriptor above or below.
These terms should be presented in a bold font on the front of the packaging. “We consider a prominent print or type for the statement of identify to be at least 1/2 the size of the largest print on the label,” the document reads.
Meanwhile, vignettes or images that further describe the product’s flavour are allowed too, so long as they aren’t misleading. The FDA’s example includes the image of a cow on vegan jerky, with ‘artificially beef-flavoured’ written underneath.
If a product has multiple plant sources, the predominant ingredient by weight should be stated first. So, for a vegan egg that contains chia seeds as its majority ingredient, alongside flax seeds, the recommended label would read: ‘chia and flax seed eggless scramble’.
Within vegan subcategories too, the FDA outlines why it feels using the source names is important. “Plant-based alternatives to yogurt that are soy-based should bear names that distinguish these alternatives from those that are almond-based. Qualifying the names with “soy” or “almond” would inform consumers of the nature or source of the food, while also distinguishing one subclass of alternatives from another,” it states.
Courtesy: FDA
Why is the FDA prioritising the source ingredients?
Foods within the plant-based category can come from a variety of sources, from legumes and tree nuts to seeds, grains, and vegetables. The FDA feels its recommendations can help consumers distinguish between these products to align their purchases with their dietary needs or desire for nutritional variety.
“Omitting a descriptor of the legume, nut, grain, seed, or other plant source in the name of the food may be confusing to consumers, as the product would not be readily distinguishable from other types of similar plant-based alternatives,” it says.
Since there may be nutritional differences between plant-based alternatives and their conventional counterparts, conveying the source ingredients “may help consumers understand that the composition of the product is different and prompt consumers to review the Nutrition Facts label”.
It argues that this practice could help Americans with food allergies, encouraging them to review the ingredient declaration and allergen disclosure statements on the packaging.
“Further, consumers may value or be seeking out certain plant sources as they incorporate foods into their diet, especially as they are looking to build a healthy eating pattern in line with current dietary guidelines, so having this information on the principal display panel is important because it will enable consumers to identify the plant sources more easily,” the guidance reads.
Courtesy: Simulate/Green Queen
How should brands respond, and what happens next?
It’s important to note that draft guidance documents aren’t legally enforceable – instead, they’re recommendations that reflect the FDA’s “current thinking on a topic”.
Companies may not need to change anything on their packaging, but the recommendation to use plant sources on packaging does feel a bit unnecessary. After all, other product categories don’t have the same obligation, so why should plant-based?
The assumption that people with allergies wouldn’t look at the ingredients label anyway also seems a bit unrealistic. And imploring companies to use product descriptors like ‘soy and wheat jerky’ might hinder their efforts to attract meat-eaters looking for more realistic taste experiences in plant-based meat products.
The FDA is now accepting written or electronic comments, which firms can submit until May 7, when it will begin work on the final version of the guidance.
Its draft document comes just two weeks before Donald Trump returns to the White House. The incoming president has picked Robert F Kennedy Jr as his health secretary, who has promised to overhaul the US health and food systems. It could mean a significant overhaul of the FDA and the US Department of Agriculture, with processed plant-based proteins coming under significant scrutiny.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Octonuts California’s new cashew products, Gail’s new eco store, and Europe’s most vegan-friendly cities.
New products and launches
New York-based Bake Me Healthy, which makes allergen-free, plant-based baking products, has rolled out Soft-Baked Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies to its product lineup. Made from sunflower protein flour, it contains 8g of protein, 4g of fibre, and no added sugar.
Courtesy: Bake Me Healthy
On the west coast, plant-based snack manufacturer Octonuts California has debuted churro and strawberry cashew butters (priced at $11.99 per 16oz jar), as well as gochujang and crème brûlée cashew snacks ($6.99 per 5oz pouch).
Across the Atlantic, UK vegan snack brand ChicP has made its way into the pantries of British Airways Club Lounges, stocking a trio of hummus and breadsticks in harissa, basil and truffle flavours.
Courtesy: ChicP
Also in the UK, Tiba Tempeh will launch an XL pack of tempeh (featuring two 200g blocks) on Ocado at £4.85 in January. Meanwhile, its original block, soy-marinated, and curry-spiced pieces will be available in 1,000 Aldi from tomorrow.
Bakery chain Gail’s has announced it will open what it calls its first “sustainably built” store in London’s Southwark district at the end of this month.
Courtesy: OatMlk
And Indian oat milk brand OatMlk has landed a listing for its 200ml pack and its protein shake at 279 7-Eleven stores in Singapore.
Company, policy and research updates
In Israel, beverage manufacturer Priniv has earned approval from the Ministry of Health to employ BlueTree Technologies‘s sugar reduction technology on its natural juice line.
Courtesy: BlueTree Technologies
Catering company Accor Group Greater China has set a target to make half of the dishes at its hotel vegan or vegetarian by 2030.
Despite 13.5 million American households facing food insecurity, 29% of Americans aren’t familiar with the term, and 76% don’t believe it’s among the top three issues impacting households today, according to a survey by Sara Lee Bread and US Hunger.
Courtesy: Sara Lee Bread
In the UK, scientists at Aberystwyth University and Sun Bear Biofuture are working together to produce a more sustainable palm oil alternative through yeast fermentation for use in food and cosmetics.
Online booking travel platform Omio has analysed the number of restaurants on Tripadvisor to name the 10 most vegan-friendly cities in Europe. The winner? London.
Courtesy: Purezza
UK company BSF Enterprise (parent of cellular agriculture startup 3D Bio-Tissues) has listed 20 million new ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange.
Finally, French agrifood firm Louis Dreyfus Co has signed a binding agreement to acquire BASF‘s Food and Health Performance Ingredients department in a bid to expand its plant-based ingredients business. The deal includes a production site, a state-of-the-art R&D centre, and three application labs.
It has been a big year for the future food sector. These are our editor’s picks of the 10 best stories on Green Queen in 2024 (in chronological order), featuring a public tasting for cultivated meat, an interview with a US senator, and Portugal’s plant-based strategy.
Beyond Meat unveils IV lineup
Plant-based giant Beyond Meat reformulated its flagship beef product line for the first time in three years. The meat analogues are now healthier, meatier, and costlier, and communications chief Shira Zackai explained why in an interview with Green Queen.
Courtesy: Vow
Vow CEO talks regulatory approval for cultivated quail
George Peppou, co-founder and CEO of Australian cultivated meat startup Vow, spoke to Green Queen about obtaining regulatory approval for its Forged cultured quail parfait in Singapore, and the company’s business philosophy.
Meatable hosts EU-first cultivated meat tasting
We exclusively reported on Dutch cultivated pork producer Meatable’s historic public tasting for its hybrid sausages in the Netherlands, a first for the European Union.
Courtesy: Starbucks
A trip to Starbucks’s Farmer Support Centers
Green Queen visited Starbucks’s Farmer Support Centers in North Sumatra, Indonesia to find out what the giant is doing to safeguard the future of coffee and the farmer community it employs.
Bezos Earth Fund talks alternative protein
After Green Queen revealed that Bezos Earth Fund’s third Center for Sustainable Protein will be in Asia (it opened in Singapore months later), its Future of Food director Andy Jarvis explained the organisation’s goals and the industry’s challenges in an in-depth interview.
Courtesy: Bezos Earth Fund/Rocío Lower
Alternative protein = EVs?
We contextualised a report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the Good Food Institute (GFI), and Synthesis Capital that explored what the future food industry can learn from the rise of electric vehicles.
Massachusetts senator on highlighting alternative proteins in economic bill
While US states like Florida and Alabama moved to ban cultivated meat, Massachusetts passed an economic bill that pledged funding to alternative proteins. Senator Barry Finegold, who spearheaded the effort, spoke to Green Queen about the move and the importance of food tech.
Courtesy: UPSIDE Foods/Canva AI/Green Queen
Behind Upside Foods’s lawsuit against the Florida ban
Speaking of the Florida ban, California’s Upside Foods filed a lawsuit against the state, asking a federal court for an injunction and calling the effort unconstitutional. We broke down what the legal action meant, with insight from Upside Foods’s counsel. (A judge later rejected the request for an injunction).
India’s BioE3 policy and its implications for future food
Smart proteins, functional foods and climate-resilient agriculture were among the six pillars of India’s new biotechnology (BioE3) policy. Green Queen spoke to GFI India about how the policy came into existence, and what it meant for the alternative protein sector in India.
Courtesy: Venn Canteen
Portugal to develop plant-based strategy
We explored the behind-the-scenes moves that led to the Portuguese government’s decision to develop a national action plan for plant-based foods with detailed inputs from ProVeg Portugal director Joana Oliveria.
People taking dietary change challenges are more likely to stick to them months down the line if their loved ones participate too.
Around 25 million people participated in Veganuary, the month-long vegan challenge, across the world this January. But how many really stick to eating plant-based – or at least reducing their animal consumption – in the long term?
According to the campaign’s own research, a majority of participants. Six months after Veganuary 2024, over half (54%) of people who signed up said they had reduced meat consumption by at least 50%, while another 27% continued to remain vegan.
Now that we’re days away from the 2025 edition of the challenge, it’s worth asking: what could help more people stick to their vegan diet in the long run?
A study by researchers at Hasselt University and food awareness organisation ProVeg International might have the solution: your loved ones.
Published in the NPJ Climate Action journal, the analysis suggests that involving friends and family in monthlong challenges like Veganuary and Challenge 22 can be the push participants need to continue their commitment to cutting out meat.
Dietary change persists with support from loved ones
Courtesy: NPJ Climate Action
The study specifically explored ProVeg’s Veggie Challenge, investigating the difference between individuals going it alone, or enlisting others to accompany them in their journey. The challenge involves a mobile app where people can set goals to reduce animal protein intake over 30 days, for which they receive daily support and information about the climate and welfare impact of their dietary shift.
The researchers divided 1,213 participants from Belgium and the Netherlands into three groups: individuals, those joined by friends and family, and a control group.
In both cases of interventions, the consumption of animal-based foods was 16-17% lower than the control group at the end of the challenge, with meat intake falling even further (22-27%). However, the impact varied as time went on.
After a month, consumption of animal products among individuals bounced back to nearly reach the intake of the control group, while those doing the challenge with friends family did not witness any rebound. That trend continued three months later, with the participants in the social challenge cutting back on animal products by 11%, and meat by 25%.
The researchers found that those who chose the vegetarian or vegan goal instead of a ‘meatless days’ target on the Veggie Challenge app experienced a “significantly lower reduction” in animal protein consumption.
“Research into measures for behaviour change, such as providing information, often shows that it is difficult to change behaviour permanently,” said lead author Rosaly Severijns. “Our research shows that encouraging friends and family to get involved provides the social support needed to eat less animal products in the long term.”
Reaching beyond regular audiences is critical
Courtesy: Planted
Quantifying the environmental and financial impact of the interventions, the research revealed that the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the dietary changes reduced by at least 21% over the first three days of the challenge – a trend that persisted three months later.
The researchers further found that participants in the social intervention were more active in the app, indicating that the involvement of friends and family led to more diligent participation in the challenge. The social element could also have led to a more supportive environment outside the app to maintain the dietary changes.
Using social networks for behavioural change could be a promising pathway for reducing animal protein consumption, according to the study. App-based interventions, meanwhile, could prove to be a relatively cheap, feasible and effective way to reach a large audience and make various behaviour change techniques easily accessible.
“The results of this research surprised us. They motivate us to focus even more on groups in our work, instead of on individuals,” said Pablo Moleman, strategic director of ProVeg Netherlands. “We want to bring the Veggie Challenge even more to the attention of large or small communities: colleagues, friends or sports clubs… This research shows: healthier and more sustainable eating is something you do together, not alone.”
Governments and non-profit groups should target meat consumers by reaching beyond the regular audience of organisations like ProVeg, who are already interested in vegan diets, the researchers suggested. Additionally, repeating or extending the challenge through maintaining ‘streaks’ after the 30 days could be beneficial to stem the disappearing effect of the individual intervention.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Impossible Foods’s Mufasa Lion King appearance, new Veganuary products, and Wow Burger’s deal to enter India.
New products and launches
At the world premiere of Mufasa Lion King in Los Angeles, celebrities and guests were served the new Lion King nuggets by Impossible Foods.
Courtesy: Peter McGuinness/LinkedIn
Plant-based milk leader Califia Farms has launched single-serve matcha latte and chai lattes (made from a base of almonds), which contain 40% less sugar than average coffee and tea blends on the market.
Vegan sneaker and apparel brand LØCI has opened a physical pop-up in Future Stores, a retail theatre for immersive shopping experiences in London’s Oxford Circus.
Courtesy: LØCI
UK vegan food producer Moving Mountains has rolled out a new superfood range to complement its meat analogues. It includes burgers, sausages, crispy dippers, crispy burgers, and falafel, which will be available at wholesale supplier Brakes from January.
The Tofoo Co, meanwhile, is bringing out Tofu Dippers, Sweet Chilli Cubes, Italian-Style Veggie Balls, and a Stir-Fry Block ahead of Veganuary 2025.
Courtesy: Aldi
Also in the UK, discount retailer Aldi has released its biggest-ever vegan Veganuary lineup under its Plant Menu brand, ranging from vegan liquid eggs and ‘gut health’ chicken smash burgers to kimchi koftas and pizza slices. They’re available from December 30, and – true to form – the prices start at £1.49.
French vegan chain Green Farmer’s has teamed up with influencer Mélanie en Véganie to create a limited-edition Frosty menu (featuring a burger, fries, brownie and winter sauce) for its Paris and Amsterdam locations and delivery menu until March 6.
Israeli alt-dairy startup Better Pulse has introduced an allergen-free yoghurt made from black-eyed peas.
As part of its Blue Green Project, Japanese convenience store chain FamilyMart has launched four new products under its plant-based product range, a Mont Blanc, a soy latte financier, a keema curry, and a bibimbap-style rice ball.
Company and finance updates
Hong Kong-based vegetarian fast-casual chain Wow Burger is entering India through a partnership with FranGlobal, the international business arm of Franchise India. They aim to open 100 outlets in the next five years, starting with metropolises like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.
Courtesy: Wow Burger HK/Instagram
Also in India, Sterling Biotech, the precision fermentation company co-owned by Perfect Day and Zydus Lifesciences, has broken ground on a 27-acre facility for recombinant dairy proteins in Bharuch, Gujarat. It’s set to be operational by early 2026.
In Europe, New Wave Biotech has secured €1.5M ($1.6M) in a funding round that included EIT Food and Innovate UK. Having launched an AI bioprocess simulation software to scale up alternative proteins last month, it will use the funds to expand its team and customer base.
Courtesy: Planted
Swiss meat analogue maker Planted has received a media-for-equity investment in the “mid-single-digit millions” from SevenVentures, the VC arm of ProSiebenSat.1 Media.
Danish startup Unibio, a fellow fermentation player, has unveiled a fresh brand identity to focus on its mission of full-scale commercialisation.
Courtesy: Orbillion Bio
Californian cultivated meat from Orbillion Bio has successfully called the production of its beef muscle cells in North America, Europe and Asia, added former Nestlé and DSM executive Dr Thomas Beck to its board of directors.
Policy, research and awards
Californian startup The Every Company, which produces precision-fermented egg proteins, has received a patent from the European Union for its recombinant ovalbumin ingredient, extending its IP portfolio in a major market.
University of Adelaide PhD candidate Mel Nguyen has been awarded the institute’s Trending on VYT (Visualise Your Thesis) honour for her research into turning food waste into durable bioplastics.
Finally, in Europe, vegan pork maker La Vie has won the Top Launch of the Year award from The Grocer.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Impossible Foods’s Mufasa Lion King appearance, new Veganuary products, and Wow Burger’s deal to enter India.
New products and launches
At the world premiere of Mufasa Lion King in Los Angeles, celebrities and guests were served the new Lion King nuggets by Impossible Foods.
Courtesy: Peter McGuinness/LinkedIn
Plant-based milk leader Califia Farms has launched single-serve matcha latte and chai lattes (made from a base of almonds), which contain 40% less sugar than average coffee and tea blends on the market.
Vegan sneaker and apparel brand LØCI has opened a physical pop-up in Future Stores, a retail theatre for immersive shopping experiences in London’s Oxford Circus.
Courtesy: LØCI
UK vegan food producer Moving Mountains has rolled out a new superfood range to complement its meat analogues. It includes burgers, sausages, crispy dippers, crispy burgers, and falafel, which will be available at wholesale supplier Brakes from January.
The Tofoo Co, meanwhile, is bringing out Tofu Dippers, Sweet Chilli Cubes, Italian-Style Veggie Balls, and a Stir-Fry Block ahead of Veganuary 2025.
Courtesy: Aldi
Also in the UK, discount retailer Aldi has released its biggest-ever vegan Veganuary lineup under its Plant Menu brand, ranging from vegan liquid eggs and ‘gut health’ chicken smash burgers to kimchi koftas and pizza slices. They’re available from December 30, and – true to form – the prices start at £1.49.
French vegan chain Green Farmer’s has teamed up with influencer Mélanie en Véganie to create a limited-edition Frosty menu (featuring a burger, fries, brownie and winter sauce) for its Paris and Amsterdam locations and delivery menu until March 6.
Israeli alt-dairy startup Better Pulse has introduced an allergen-free yoghurt made from black-eyed peas.
As part of its Blue Green Project, Japanese convenience store chain FamilyMart has launched four new products under its plant-based product range, a Mont Blanc, a soy latte financier, a keema curry, and a bibimbap-style rice ball.
Company and finance updates
Hong Kong-based vegetarian fast-casual chain Wow Burger is entering India through a partnership with FranGlobal, the international business arm of Franchise India. They aim to open 100 outlets in the next five years, starting with metropolises like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.
Courtesy: Wow Burger HK/Instagram
Also in India, Sterling Biotech, the precision fermentation company co-owned by Perfect Day and Zydus Lifesciences, has broken ground on a 27-acre facility for recombinant dairy proteins in Bharuch, Gujarat. It’s set to be operational by early 2026.
In Europe, New Wave Biotech has secured €1.5M ($1.6M) in a funding round that included EIT Food and Innovate UK. Having launched an AI bioprocess simulation software to scale up alternative proteins last month, it will use the funds to expand its team and customer base.
Courtesy: Planted
Swiss meat analogue maker Planted has received a media-for-equity investment in the “mid-single-digit millions” from SevenVentures, the VC arm of ProSiebenSat.1 Media.
Danish startup Unibio, a fellow fermentation player, has unveiled a fresh brand identity to focus on its mission of full-scale commercialisation.
Courtesy: Orbillion Bio
Californian cultivated meat from Orbillion Bio has successfully called the production of its beef muscle cells in North America, Europe and Asia, added former Nestlé and DSM executive Dr Thomas Beck to its board of directors.
Policy, research and awards
Californian startup The Every Company, which produces precision-fermented egg proteins, has received a patent from the European Union for its recombinant ovalbumin ingredient, extending its IP portfolio in a major market.
University of Adelaide PhD candidate Mel Nguyen has been awarded the institute’s Trending on VYT (Visualise Your Thesis) honour for her research into turning food waste into durable bioplastics.
Finally, in Europe, vegan pork maker La Vie has won the Top Launch of the Year award from The Grocer.
The Portuguese government has committed to developing a national plant-based action plan as part of its climate strategy. Here’s how it happened.
Already considered one of the most vegan-friendly countries in the world, Portugal is taking a big step towards a low-carbon food system.
In its National Climate and Energy Plan (NCEP), the government has earmarked the creation of a national strategy to reduce meat consumption in favour of plant-based proteins, both to reduce the country’s agricultural emissions, and promote healthier nutrition.
The plan would involve “concrete measures” to boost the production and consumption of plant proteins, with an amplified focus on legumes. The idea is to use this integrated approach to ensure self-sufficiency and food security.
There will be a focus on implementing training programmes and bolstering the supply of plant-based meals in public canteens, as well as reducing food waste. Moreover, the strategy will promote the implementation of short food chains, which would help reduce energy use and emissions thanks to lower packaging, transportation and cooling needs.
The strategy is yet to be developed, but it’s a major win for years of activism from climate groups, and a laudable step by the Portuguese government amid calls for the EU to develop a similar strategy.
So how did we get here?
A concerted, long-term effort
Courtesy: Associação Vegetariana Portuguesa
Efforts to convince lawmakers to create a national plant-based protein plan have been ongoing since 2021, when the Portuguese Vegetarian Association (AVP) kickstarted the Proteína Verde project. Over the years, it teamed up with 17 organisations and produced comprehensive reports, a joint letter, and several other documents stressing the need for such a policy.
The consortium made a concerted effort to work together with policymakers – three parties have previously presented proposals to the Portuguese parliament based on the project’s recommendations.
The breakthrough came during the negotiations for the NECP. “We held a meeting with the Portuguese Secretary of State for the Environment and the Secretary of State for Energy at the Ministry of Environment and Energy, where we agreed to collaborate on drafting a document with proposals for changes to the NECP,” explains Joana Oliveria.
She is the former co-director of the AVP, which evolved into ProVeg Portugal earlier this year, with Oliveria taking the helm in the merged organisation.
“Among these recommendations was the proposal to create a strategy promoting plant-based protein consumption,” says the ProVeg Portugal director. “The General Secretariat for the Environment then sent us an official letter indicating that it would take our contributions into account.”
She adds: “Following this, we mobilised citizens to advocate for the inclusion of the plant-based protein strategy by participating in the subsequent NECP public consultation. Their engagement further underscored the importance of this strategy, contributing to its incorporation into the final plan.
“We have since had the privilege of commending the Ministry of Environment and Energy for thoughtfully considering all contributions and evidence.”
Countries like Denmark and South Korea have led the way with government-backed protein transition strategies, and experts have been calling on other countries to follow. Portugal will hope to join that list once its strategy is finalised.
Meat and seafood consumption trends ‘alarming’
Courtesy: Plantz
There were several reasons why Portugal decided to go ahead with a plant-based strategy – chief among them the energy ministry’s approach of engaging with civil society and considering statistical data, according to Oliveria.
“It recognised the need to address the environmental impact of the agricultural sector, which has been diverging from its national greenhouse gas reduction targets,” she says.
Agriculture accounts for 12% of Portugal’s emissions, 72% of which come from livestock in the form of enteric fermentation and manure management, linked with the release of methane and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. “Encouraging a shift toward plant-based diets was identified as a key measure to significantly reduce these emissions,” suggests Oliveria.
“The Portuguese Environment Agency, a state body, has also consistently underscored the substantial role of animal farming in national agricultural emissions and has highlighted a troubling trend of rising emissions driven by increasing populations of cattle, sheep and chicken,” she adds.
Portugal is one of Europe’s largest meat consumers, and its leading market for seafood. This presents both challenges and opportunities to “raise awareness about urgent dietary issues”. Apart from the climate footprint, poor dietary habits are among the top five contributors to the loss of healthy life years, and the third-highest risk factor for mortality in Portugal.
“The overconsumption of animal-based products contributes to this situation,” says Oliveria. “These alarming trends and opportunities are beginning to capture the attention of political decision-makers.”
She points out that the NECP doesn’t mention alternative proteins like cultivated meat, yet public acceptance of these foods is high. In fact, the Portuguese are the most welcoming of cultivated meat among EU countries, and also among the most opposed to banning it.
Oliveria adds: “At the same time, Portugal highly values the Mediterranean diet, which prioritises plant-based foods. As Portuguese eating habits increasingly diverge from this diet, public health and environmental organisations are becoming more concerned.”
The legume focus, and what the NECP means for dietary guidelines
Courtesy: Plantz
This is where legumes come in. Beans have become central to the food conversation this year – not just for their versatility and flavour, but also for their contribution to improving public and planetary health.
“Legumes are quite typical of traditional Portuguese cuisine and stand out as a versatile, healthy and eco-friendly source of plant-based protein. Yet, Portugal produces only 14% of the legumes it consumes,” Oliveria says when asked why the government namechecked legumes in the NCEP.
“The emphasis on legumes in Portugal’s strategy to promote plant-based protein consumption highlights not only their role as a traditional and widely accepted food in Portuguese cuisine, but also their potential for innovation and development,” she explains.
Being a familiar and culturally significant source of plant-based protein, they can facilitate broader acceptance of plant-based diets among the population. But does this also indicate a lack of confidence in meat alternatives?
“At the same time, legumes are the foundation for many meat analogue products, offering a versatile and sustainable solution for food innovation. One of our key objectives is to foster research and development (R&D) in food products, with a particular focus on legumes,” she says.
“These ingredients are rich in protein and have significant potential for creating new, eco-friendly, healthy and innovative plant-based alternatives. By leveraging legumes, we aim to support the development of products that meet the growing demand for healthy, sustainable food options while respecting local culinary traditions.”
This strategy of showcasing traditional plant proteins as key sustainability and innovation drivers encourages a “diverse range of solutions, from familiar legume-based dishes to cutting-edge meat alternatives”.
This year, several European countries have updated their dietary guidelines to promote plant-based foods. Is Portugal’s move a sign of things to come? “Yes, perhaps,” Oliviera replies.
“The Portuguese Directorate-General of Health recently shared a recommendation on its Instagram to include some meat- and fish-free meals during the week. At ProVeg Portugal, we are collaborating with the country’s main nutritionists’ association to present a proposal in January for updating the national dietary guidelines.”
The only “better chicken” is one who gets to keep her wings! The Global Animal Partnership, a humane label marketing scheme backed by the Humane Society of the United States and two other “animal welfare” organizations, announced that it is phasing in the requirement that all producers follow the abysmally low standards of the “Better Chicken Commitment,” a humane-washing sham that allows chickens to continue to suffer mightily in vile, filthy, factory-farm conditions so the meat industry can profit. Join PETA in urging the Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, and CIWF to stop supporting factory farms and humane washing and start telling consumers the truth: No factory farming is humane. Go vegan—it’s easy.
What Is the Better Chicken Commitment? The “Better Chicken Commitment” is a humane-washing ploy that lures kind consumers into buying chicken flesh claiming it is “humanely” produced, even though the chickens suffer their entire lives and travel in all weather extremes to a frightening death.
“The chronic disease and deformities faced by virtually all chickens [is] because they have been genetically modified to grow fatter, faster than ever before.” – Andrew deCoriolis, Farm Forward Executive Director
Chickens must reach “slaughter weight” quickly to remain profitable to the chicken industry. The meat industry forced decades of genetic modifications onto chickens, turning the once energetic and curious birds into beings bred to do nothing but suffer.
“Better Chicken Commitment” birds are still:
factory-farmed in intolerably crowded conditions that cause great distress.
expected to reach slaughter weight only weeks after hatching.
Suffering from serious ailments that afflict “broiler” chickens, like breast blisters, hock burns, footpad dermatitis, and muscular myopathies.
forced to gain weight by the farming industry, which makes them morbidly obese, unhealthy birds who can barely walk more than a few steps at a time and often collapse.
in pain their entire lives.
violently killed when they are 6-7 weeks old.
Factory-Farmed Chickens Are Suffering at GAP Farms
Chickens feel pain, grief, love, joy, anxiety, and a range of other emotions, just like humans. When chickens are permitted to engage in their natural behavior, they are social and like to spend their days together, scratching for food, taking dust baths, roosting in trees, and lying in the sun. Chickens are arguably the most abused animals on the planet—and the ones who end up on your plate don’t get to enjoy anything that’s natural or important to them.
Over 8 billion chickens are killed for their flesh in the U.S. each year. Almost all of these chickens, called “broilers” by the speciesist chicken industry, spend their entire lives confined in filthy sheds with tens of thousands of other birds, even when their flesh is labeled “Animal Welfare Certified” or “organic,” in grocery stores like Whole Foods. The intense crowding and confinement by the meat, egg, and dairy industries often lead to outbreaks of disease, such as bird flu. When the birds are only 6 or 7 weeks old, workers cram them into overcrowded crates and truck them to slaughter.
Workers shackle chickens who survive the grueling journey to the slaughterhouse and hang them upside down before sending them through an electrified water bath intended, but often failing, to stun them. Many are still conscious when the workers slit their throats and scald them to death in defeathering tanks.
The Humane Society of the United States Is Humane-Washing: Don’t Trust the Label As part of its campaign against humane-washing ploys like the “Better Chicken Commitment,” PETA is campaigning against the Global Animal Partnership and urging the three animal “protection” organizations that have representatives sitting on its board of directors to step down: The Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, and Compassion in World Farming. Sign our petition and remind these organizations through polite social media comments that the Global Animal Partnership’s certification is a misleading sham.
On each day of Hanukkah, we eat latkes, play dreidel, exchange gifts, and light the menorah to remember the Jewish people’s struggle for religious freedom. Known as the “Festival of Lights,” Hanukkah celebrates an ancient miracle: For eight long nights, a candle burned bright with just a tiny bit of oil as the Jews cleansed and rededicated their holy temple long ago.
Hanukkah is a time to reflect on the plight of all sentient beings—and that includes the suffering of our fellow animals who are used in experiments, killed for their flesh and skin, exploited for entertainment, and abused in other horrific ways. That’s why we must mark this long-held tradition by doingmitzvahs—or good deeds for others.
Here are eight actions you can take for animals on each day of Hanukkah.
Night One: Object to Oreo Maker’s Experiments on Mice
The maker of Oreo has paid experimenters to conduct pointless and cruel “nutritional science” tests in which they force mice to eat human feces before killing and slicing them open. Please urge the company to end its experiments on animals and join PETA’s revolutionary Eat Without Experiments program, which makes it easy for consumers to see which food and beverage companies do or do not test on animals:
Night Two: Tell the Thai Government to Terminate Forced Monkey Labor
Multiple PETA Asia investigations have exposed that Thailand’s coconut industry relies on the forced labor of endangered monkeys. These highly social animals naturally live and thrive in large groups—but in the Thai coconut industry, they’re violently torn away from their families and chained in isolation at “training schools” without adequate food, water, or companionship. Handlers often whip or beat them to force them to obey.
Urge the Thai government to shut down all “monkey schools” and ban monkey labor immediately:
Night Three: Take PETA’s Three-Week Vegan Challenge
Animals do not want to be violently slaughtered for their flesh, forcibly manually impregnated and separated from their precious babies for their milk, or crammed into filthy, windowless sheds on misleadingly labeled “cage-free” farms. On farms and in slaughterhouses, billions of sensitive, feeling individuals suffer in these conditions every day. YOU can spare nearly 200 animals annually, reduce your carbon footprint, and boost your health by going vegan. Get started by taking PETA’s three-week vegan challenge, and encourage your friends and family to do the same:
Night Four: Fight Off False ‘Humane Washing’ Labels
PETA investigations have revealed filth, suffering, and abuse at all 12 “animal welfare certified” locations we’ve investigated—including Plainville Farms, where PETA’s investigators witnessed workers violently beating and sexually abusing birds. Still, representatives from self-proclaimed “animal protection” groups—including the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and Compassion in World Farming—sit on the board of directors for the Global Animal Partnership, the group behind misleading “animal welfare certified” labels. This humane-washing certification means nothing to the animals who suffer immensely on farms. Tell “animal welfare” organizations to stop propping up factory farming and to cut ties with the Global Animal Partnership:
Corky, the longest-held captive orca in the world, has been imprisoned at marine parks for 55 years. Today, she swims in endless circles in a tiny tank at SeaWorld San Diego, while her siblings and other members of her pod swim free in the ocean.
PETA’s extensive campaign for Corky has included bold demonstrations, public service announcements with celebrities such as Pamela Anderson and Christopher von Uckermann, a constitutional lawsuit on Corky’s behalf, and even a 150-mile relay run from Los Angeles to San Diego. More than 200,000 of our supporters have joined PETA in urging SeaWorld to release Corky into a seaside sanctuary, where she could finally feel ocean currents, hear the songs and calls of other free orcas, and possibly communicate with her siblings. Learn more about Corky and speak up for her before it’s too late:
As temperatures plummet, dogs who are left tethered or chained outside 24/7 struggle to survive without proper shelter to protect them from the elements. Unable to escape the freezing cold, these dogs are vulnerable to frostbite, hypothermia, and even death. Often, these lonely animals are deprived of even the basics—such as food, water, and veterinary care. All winter long, PETA’s fieldworkers deliver dry, fluffy straw bedding and sturdy wooden doghouses to dogs neglected outside.
Although a doghouse is no substitute for a real home in which dogs could be warm, comfortable, and surrounded by their human families, it can mean the difference between life and death to dogs who previously had no shelter. Help us continue this vital work by sponsoring a doghouse:
Night Seven: Speak Out Against Coach’s Use of Cows’ Skins
Every year, more than a billion gentle cows and other animals are slaughtered so that their skins can be used to make handbags and other leather accessories. A PETA exposé of the world’s largest leather processor—which has been linked to Coach—showed that workers brand calves on the face, beat cows and bulls, and shock them with electric prods. The leather industry also contributes to the climate catastrophe, land devastation, deforestation, pollution, water contamination, and loss of biodiversity. Join PETA in urging Coach to stop using animal- and planet-killing leather:
Night Eight: End the Abuse of Camels and Horses in Egypt
In Egypt’s tourism industry, horses and camels are forced to carry tourists at the pyramids in the sweltering heat. PETA’s latest mini documentary revealed that workers forcefully beat the exhausted animals, who were denied adequate food, rest, shade, and proper veterinary care. Injured and malnourished horses were seen eating from garbage dumps, and the bodies of dead horses were found discarded every day at trash sites outside gates to the pyramids of Giza.
Following pressure from thousands of PETA supporters, Egyptian officials launched a program that aims to provide veterinary care for animals used at archaeological sites throughout the country. While this could mark some positive change, the only reliable way to ensure that horses and camels don’t suffer is to keep them away from the pyramids altogether. Please join PETA in urging Egyptian officials to ban the use of these animals in the tourism industry:
Want to Do More Mitzvahs? Join PETA’s Action Team!
With help from our dedicated supporters, PETA has secured numerous landmark victories for animals in laboratories, on farms, at marine parks, and in other dire circumstances. By joining PETA’s Action Team, you can stay up to date on our latest campaigns, join local protests, connect with other passionate animal rights advocates, and more. Get started today!
A new study shows that meat-eaters recognise that vegans are health- and environmentally conscious, but also view them with fear and contempt.
There seems to be a sort of emotional rivalry between people who eat meat and those who choose to opt for plant-based alternatives, with the latter being viewed as “socially deviant” from the former – and this has hurt sales of vegan meat products.
These are the findings of a study published by University of Vaasa researchers in the Food Quality and Preference journal, which adopted a bias-centred methodology to explore why people are “more inclined to consider harming” vegans than meat-eaters and flexitarians.
The researchers asked 900 people each from the UK, Finland, Germany and Sweden to evaluate their beliefs about fictional consumers based on their shopping lists, each of which contained pasta, bread, apple juice, carrots and bananas.
The differences were in the proteins: there were plant protein balls and vegetarian sausages on the vegan shopping list, chicken balls and plant-based sausages on the flexitarian list, and conventional meatballs and sausages on meat-eaters’ list.
Vegans most admired, yet most envied
Courtesy: Food Quality and Preference
For the analysis, the Finnish researchers used the BIAS Map framework, which is devised to assess what kind of social prejudices and perceptual biases exist towards a specific group – vegans, in this case. They then looked at whether observers’ need for status and affiliations lighten perceptions of meat-eaters.
“Meat (alternative) consumption represents a social area where highly mixed and charged meanings are sent/signalled and received/interpreted,” the study reads.
Vegans were seen as more climate-friendly and health-conscious with high moral standards, and also commanded the most amount of admiration among the shopper groups. But on the flip side, these eco-minded consumers elicited more fear, contempt, envy and anger than others too.
Shoppers only buying meat were rated the lowest on the climate, health and admiration scale, but they were also the least likely to evoke the negative feelings vegans did. Flexitarians landed somewhere in between.
The fictional vegan consumers were considered more competent but less warm, which the researchers said suggests “envious prejudice” towards “model minorities”. Flexitarians, on the other hand, weren’t envied, but considered more socially approachable. “This makes them an easier target to identify with, as they do not seem too extreme, and they also remind others of something familiar (e.g., meat-eating),” the study says.
Courtesy: Food Quality and Preference
A concerning behavioural effect was the tendency for buyers of plant-based meat to induce both passive and active harm, which can range from social exclusion and ignorance to bullying and harassment.
Meanwhile, the psychologists found that participants with a high need for belonging in a group appear to be most welcoming of flexitarians, and those who crave a higher status showcase stronger feelings of anger and envy towards vegans.
This is because the latter group can be “painfully aware” that cutting back on meat is the “ideal and ‘right’” solution to fighting climate change. “This realisation could then explain their envious response toward meat alternative favorers, whose behaviours cannot be copied without some degree of self-sacrifice,” the study notes.
What does this mean for the plant-based meat category?
Courtesy: Beyond Meat
Scientific consensus states that reducing animal protein consumption is crucial if we want to ensure a liveable planet in the future. Meat and dairy production alone accounts for up to a fifth of total global emissions, and nearly 60% of the food system’s climate footprint.
To turn their fortunes around, brands need to market these products more creatively, weakening the climate messaging (as some are doing), and applying social influences like the idea of envious prejudice.
“It could be useful to experiment with highlighting the superiority of the meat alternative shopper in advertisements, as that would elicit both envy and admiration, depending on the observing individual, and might then motivate people to make better food choices,” the study suggests.
Portraying consumers of vegan products in softer and warmer terms could help too, “humanising the cold picture of vegetarian consumers by increasing perceptions of authenticity”.
Emphasising – rather than challenging – the stereotypes around vegans could reduce prejudice too. This could be in the form of humorous marketing, and utilising the concept of an “extended contract” by reeling in celebrity endorsements (as Veganuary has successfully done), which can persuade omnivores to give these products a go.
“Communication emphasising how eating meat alternatives helps to assure the continuance of traditional ways of life, or how it helps to prevent major societal disruptions could reduce the perceived symbolic threat,” the researchers add, referring to how people seeking higher status find these products to be a threat.
Finally, vegan producers would do well to shift their focus away from vegans towards flexitarians, embracing the idea of reduction over elimination. “The most promising avenue for transitioning from meat-intensive diets to more plant-based diets is through promoting a diet that does not entirely eliminate meat but replaces it with plant-based meat alternatives on a weekly basis,” write the authors.
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