All PFN ARTICLES

If plant-based burgers leave you cold and lab-grown steaks feel like science fiction, you’re not alone. Most people don’t want a lecture on sustainability with their dinner, they just want their food to taste good, feel safe, and not blow the grocery budget. Enter a new $3 million New Zealand–Singapore research collaboration aimed squarely at one thing - making hybrid future meat, consumers actually want to eat.

In a move less about shock and more about shedding the last vestiges of a fading food illusion, Beyond Meat just dropped the 'Meat' according to US reports. That’s right, Beyond Meat will simply be Beyond, and with it comes a recalibration of the alt protein narrative. Out with mimicry, in with meaning.

Step into a Seoul supermarket and you’re not just shopping for grapes, you’re navigating a K-pop concert in aisle four. Shrink-wrapped mangoes next to Labubu plush toys, pineapples in luxury box sets, and strawberries that could pass for engagement rings. This isn’t grocery shopping. It’s identity shopping. And according to Karina Keisler of Hort Innovation Australia, that’s exactly the point. Asia's fresh obsession!

Demand for matcha, that vibrant, powdered punch of green tea so loved by wellness influencers, oat milk baristas, and TikTok’s Gen Z elite, is skyrocketing so fast that the world's traditional tea farms are quite literally running dry. The Japanese farms producing tencha, the shaded green tea leaves ground into matcha, simply can’t keep up. And it’s not just a social media surge. It’s a full-blown supply chain crisis.

The global food industry is at a reckoning point, caught between the promise of high-tech solutions and a growing hunger for something far more fundamental: real food. For years, alternative protein innovation has been charging forward. But the more advanced the science gets, the more consumers are left wondering: where did the food go? Now the third wave of food is emerging!

New Zealand’s vegan cheese scene just delivered a full-bodied, pepper-crusted slap to the dairy world with Bûche au Poivre from High Culture Cheese crowned Supreme Winner at the 2025 Vegan Society Vegan Cheese Awards.

And fizzing with intent is Kombucha Bros, the local fermentation outfit quietly embedded in the University of Auckland’s flagship project on bio-fermented functional foods. While headlines fixate on hybrid meats and algae proteins, the real story might lie in the cellulose-rich scaffolds, mushroom mycelium, and botanical extractions now being turned into snacks, sips, and supplements, with Kombucha Bros tapped as a key industry collaborator bringing frontline fermentation in

In a move rewriting the rules of haute cuisine, French Chef, Alain Passard’s legendary three-Michelin-star restaurant, Arpège, has dropped nearly all animal products from its menu. Out go the foie gras, lobster, and langoustines. In their place? Tomatoes, cabbages, carrots, and a philosophy that’s anything but humble.

It's been a busy week in the US. While Florida bans the future and Alabama clutches its steak knives, the United States just became ground zero for one of the most delicious science experiments in human history. Cultivated meat companies are done waiting. They’ve broken out of the lab and into the lunch rush.

Austrian alt-protein provocateurs Revo Foods have dropped their latest fungi-based product, a Minced Fungi Protein made with just four ingredients and not a single shred of soy in sight. It’s lean, clean, and built for the kind of post-animal eater who still wants gains without the conscience.

Here’s a bold thought for a Government seemingly allergic to ambition - if Queensland can back a food and manufacturing hub on the Sunshine Coast, why can’t New Zealand do the same at Ruakura - Waikato's inland port facility?

If you thought France was stuck in a butter-and-brioche time warp, think again. A quiet culinary insurgency is underway in the chilled section of supermarkets like E.Leclerc and it’s got nothing to do with duck confit. Instead, what’s catching eyes (and carts) is a rainbow parade of plant-based meals, soups, and meat alternatives, all scored, stacked, and screaming freshness with a surprisingly French flair.