All PFN ARTICLES

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.

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.

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.

When Europe’s biggest army base, Catterick Garrison in the UK (13,000 enlisted soldiers) puts Redefine Meat's bioprinted meat on the lunch menu, you know the rules of protein are changing.

' Singapore Food Outlet Closures' isn’t just a sad headline, it’s looking like a structural reset. As rents, wages and ingredient costs bite, closures have climbed to ~307 F&B outlets a month in 2025 (up from ~254 in 2024). That squeeze is pushing diners home and straight into supermarket chillers, convenience chains and delivery-friendly formats (RTE/RTH).

Whitworths has just dropped the UK’s first unprocessed walnut-based meat-free mince, and it’s a quiet challenge to the fake-meat aisle. Forget long ingredient lists and over-engineered soy bricks, this mince is just walnuts, lentils, and quinoa, spun into a texture that actually chews like beef. At £3.20 a pack, it’s aimed squarely at shoppers tired of the ultra-processed plant-based tag.

Plant proteins aren’t just a fringe choice anymore, they’re quietly embedding themselves in the weekly menus of ordinary Australian households. Fascin8foods’ mushroom-based FROOM™ has landed in Delidoor’s plant-based frozen meal range, now reaching families, professionals, and seniors who rely on the brand’s 12,000 weekly deliveries.

Remember when McDonalds quietly shelved its McPlant ambitions? Well McDonalds Canada has gone against the memo from head-office. The McVeggie is now going nationwide, slotting a Beyond (Meat ) plant patty into the most mainstream of menus. For a chain still printing cash off Big Macs, this is a consumer signal showing plant-based has staying power, even in the most conservative QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) arena.

The world’s biggest food fair just got a plant-and-cell facelift. Anuga’s 2025 edition in Cologne is giving prime floor space to a new 'Anuga Alternatives' hall and it’s not short of headliners. Beyond Meat and Oatly are on the list, but so too are tofu makers like Omami, algae caviar producers like Jens Møller, mycelium innovators like Pacifico Biolabs, sunflower protein players, and egg-free specialists Neggst.

United States meat alternatives market — still growing on the big picture, but messy up close. DataM pegs the global meat alternatives market at US$9.6bn (2022) with a path to ~US$20.8bn by 2031 (Year on Year Growth~10.2%). That tailwind matters for the U.S., where brands are quietly reshaping ranges even as retailers trim slow movers.

THIS has just lobbed three fresh plant-based products into UK supermarkets, but it’s the pastrami deli slice catching eyes. Forget anaemic slices of soy, this is smoky, chewy, and aimed squarely at the deli shelf where tradition still rules.

It’s finally here - CowFree milk and cheese, real dairy, zero cows. Israeli based, Strauss Group and Imagindairy have pulled off what was unthinkable a decade ago - supermarket-ready milk and cheese made by precision fermentation technology, not udders. Microbes like Aspergillus oryzae now crank out whey protein 100% nutritionally identical to the cow version.