All PFN ARTICLES

As 2025 starts to draw to a close, the next wave of Future Food trends is already reshaping what we eat, how we make it, and how we feel about it. The newly released 2026 Trend Report confirms a deep convergence between food, data, and emotion, where AI is no longer a tool, but an ingredient. It’s the unseen chef in the kitchen, the curator of taste, and the quiet translator of human cravings into coded experience. The next course is coded.

After a quarter century of gruesome experimentation, New Zealand’s last genetically engineered - GE animal trials have come to an end. The Soil & Health Association and GE Free NZ say the closure of AgResearch’s Ruakura facility marks the end of an era defined by animal suffering, failed science, and ethical neglect. Their meta-report reveals that from 2000 to 2024, hundreds of cows, goats, and sheep were subjected to GE and gene-editing trials that produced no commercial ben

New Zealand has dropped $42 million into a brand-new Biodiscovery Platform, with the goal of turning native biodiversity into export-ready pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and functional foods. Announced by Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Dr Shane Reti, the seven-year investment will fund the newly formed Bioeconomy Science Institute, which aims to translate cutting-edge R&D into products that actually make it to market.

New Zealand diners are done scanning QR codes and waiting for robots to smile. According to the national Restaurant Association’s 2025 Consumer Dining Insights Report, Kiwis still want their food served with eye contact and a bit of human warmth. Service quality and consistency outrank everything else, from portion size to price tag, in deciding where people spend their $112 a week.

Australia’s food future just got a shot of adrenaline. Startupbootcamp Australia has unveiled its latest Cluster Connect accelerator cohort and the line-up reads like a bio-food dream list. Mushrooms, cultivated meat, seaweed biotech, native plant supplements, all under the eye of the federal Department of Industry, Science and Resources. It’s no longer just drones and packaging with the focus shifting squarely into biomanufacturing for food.

Fermentation is finally giving vegan cheese its groove. Forget coconut oil blocks and starchy slices: UK and Canadian researchers have shown that mixing pea protein with sunflower and coconut oil can deliver real melt, stretch and firmness, the holy grail of vegan cheese texture. At the same time, European startups are running with microbial cultures to close the “taste gap”.

Swees Plant Based Foods, the Thai maker of the country’s first vegan cheese, has rolled out a new line called CleanBean. Think Beev Steaklets and Chick*n Bites, designed to fry, grill, or simmer in a green curry without a label full of additives.

Japan’s sushi scene may be heading for a quiet revolution. As wild tuna stocks dwindle and prices soar, Mitsui DM Sugar is preparing to launch a plant-based tuna sashimi brand next year that undercuts the market cost of maguro. This isn’t just a vegan niche product — it’s a calculated strike at the heart of Japan’s seafood economy, where raw tuna is both cultural currency and a disappearing resource.

Amazing to think a whey product can come not from a cow, but from water. New Zealand’s Nutrition from Water (NXW) has just unveiled Marine Whey™ Golden 35, a protein concentrate clocking in at 35% and designed for bakery, nutrition, and dairy-alt applications. Whats amazing is it’s grown from microscopic aquatic organisms, not milk.

The Australian plant-protein sector is still alive and kicking and valued USD 338 million in 2024 and tipped to push nearly USD 600 million by 2033. The headlines sound good, but scratch the surface and you see what’s really going on: a solid, middle-of-the-road year-on-growth of 6.6% means the sector is maturing, not exploding.

Forget kale chips, Israel’s Brevel wants you crunching on microalgae pasta and crackers. Using illuminated fermentation (think: high-tech photosynthesis in a tank), Brevel has cracked the code on turning algae into something you can actually eat without holding your nose. The result? Protein-rich tagliatelle looking like it belongs in a boutique pasta bar and dark, nutrient-packed crackers screaming “future snack aisle.”

K-food is moving from curiosity to convenience aisle in Australia. South Korea's CJ Bibigo’s frozen gimbap rolls are in Woolworths, and now rubbing shoulders with sushi packs and frozen dumplings. But CJ's isn’t stopping there as mandu dumplings, kimchi, rice balls, corn dogs and even frozen Korean meals are all hitting Australian freezers. Local manufacturing is appears to be the answer. “Made in Australia” mandu (dumplings) went to #1 in Woolworths within seven months, prov