All PFN ARTICLES

Australia could be on the brink of a bioeconomy revolution, if it plays its cards right. A new blueprint from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) lays out a five-point plan to unlock billions in value from Australia’s natural and scientific resources. Titled, Growing Australia’s Bioeconomy, the report warns Australia risks falling behind as global competitors surge ahead in renewable fuel, precision fermentation, bio-based materials, and food-tech innovation.

Speaking at Bridge2Food Europe in The Hague, TiNDLE Foods co-founder and former CEO, Andre Menezes didn’t just suggest a rethink. He 'key-noted' the event by detonating a few myths that have quietly haunted the plant-based alt-protein industry since its 2019 peak.

Move over oyster. Slide aside shiitake. There’s a new shaggy contender coming for your sauté pan and TESCO is betting big British shoppers are finally ready to meet the mane event: Hericium erinaceus, better known as Lion’s Mane.

According to a fresh forecast from InsightAce Analytic, the global alternative protein sector is set to explode from US$63 billion in 2025 to over US$325 billion by 2034. Yes, you read that right. That’s a fivefold growth curve in under a decade. If you were waiting for proof this protein change is real, this is it, fully plated, seasoned, and served.

Just when you thought “plant-based” had peaked, Redefine Meat has quietly dropped a second-gen bombshell across European chillers in the form of a newly engineered New-Meat range with less fat, more protein, and a squeaky clean Nutri-Score.

It’s the kind of news that makes you look twice at a McMenu. McDonald’s Netherlands has quietly slipped something rather unexpected back into its stores in the form of a meatless version of the iconic Dutch McKroket, and this time, it’s loaded with jackfruit.

Just when you thought the pea protein parade couldn’t possibly squeeze in another float, along comes Vertis PB Pea and this one’s not just waving from the sidelines. Meala FoodTech, a spunky Israeli startup with a biotech brain and clean-label conscience, has teamed up with global ingredient giant dsm-firmenich to drop a new texturising bombshell on the European plant-based scene. And surprisingly, it’s not just another dusty sack of pea flour trying to pass itself off as pr

Let’s cut to the chase, naming your product in the alt-protein sector isn’t a branding decision, it’s a survival strategy. Get it right, and you’re dinner-table royalty. Get it wrong, and you’re just another cardboard-textured meat clone haunting the bottom shelf.

Back in the 1870s, a Chinese immigrant named Chew Chong was foraging black fungi in Taranaki and shipping them by the tonne to China. (Depiction shown below) The fungus? Hakeke. Known to the rest of the world as Woodear mushroom. Today, more than a century later, New Zealand’s long-forgotten export hero is suddenly back in fashion, everywhere but in the Land of the Long White Cloud.

Let’s be honest. The world doesn’t need another fake meat burger. But what if your next sausage roll was plant-based, gluten-free, and didn’t taste like punishment? That’s the delicious gamble The Why Meat Company is running with and investors are lining up like it’s a Friday night footy pie run.

We don’t usually interrupt your news feed for product launches alone, but this one made us stop in our tofu tracks. Because frankly, it looks like salmon. It plates like salmon. And by the look of these shots, it might just out-fish salmon - OSHI's Plant-Based Salmon.

Let’s call it what it is - a 200-page “we told you so” from Washington. The MAHA Report, has dropped with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm, lays out what anyone with half a lunchbox already knew and this is, America’s kids are sick, and ultra-processed food is a huge part of the problem. 70% of children’s daily calories now come from UPFs. Chronic illness is up.