All PFN ARTICLES

A dairy-free take on classic Kiwi onion dip and a founder who loves experimenting have given New Zealand’s plant-based food sector something to celebrate. Savour Vegan Creamery founder Auda Finan has been named Food Technologist/Developer of the Year at the 2026 New Zealand Food Awards, with Savour’s Onion winning gold in the Chilled/Frozen category and Butta collecting silver.

These five foods as concepts are speculative, but each has roots in science or products already emerging here.

Hundreds of stores hit, temperatures reaching 50°C and food dumped overnight. Could Australia and New Zealand’s supermarket freezers be sitting ducks?

Innova Market Insights' Top 10 Food Trends for 2027 suggests a significant change in consumer expectations. Nutritional quality, digestibility, metabolic health, longevity and fermentation are increasingly shaping what people want from their food. And there's a subtle message for food manufacturers: simply adding another five grams of protein may no longer be enough.

Nearly 26,000 producers have embraced a simpler route from farm to consumer, true 'food power'. Australia and New Zealand could learn from it. While Australia and New Zealand grapple with grocery bills and supermarket dominance, Poland has been building another route to the dinner table. Its agricultural retail trade scheme allows eligible farmers to turn their own ingredients into bread, preserves, juices and other foods, then sell directly under simplified rules.

A tiny community on New Zealand's South Island is turning one of its ecological problems into something altogether more useful - food. From marine pest to pantry!!

SIAL Paris is putting the protein boom under scrutiny ahead of its 17–21 October food fair. Its published trend analysis warns of “protein washing” - marketing that elevates protein content without a corresponding nutritional benefit. The message to manufacturers is clear, protein quantity alone cannot establish a product’s value; quality, digestibility and the overall food matter too.

For some of us, the scent of lemon verbena brings back a grandma's garden and her potions. Today, that familiar plant sits within a global botanical ingredients business, while orchard woods are becoming the basis of premium non-alcoholic spirits. Two recent developments suggest the garden and forest still have plenty to offer modern food and wellbeing businesses.

Beyond Meat is broadening its offer from meat alternatives into everyday plant nutrition. Its brand-new "Phytosphere" portfolio brings together protein powders, savoury bars, beverages and meal products through a dedicated direct-to-consumer website. The range combines plant protein with nutrients including fibre, positioning Beyond across more eating occasions.

A new global food biotech shortlist isn't the final word on who will shape 2027, but it provides a remarkably telling picture of where food biotech is heading. Protein Production Technology International (PPTI) has shortlisted 81 companies from 379 nominations for its eventual 27 Food-Techs to Watch in 2027. Public voting remains open until October 23, with the final 27 due to be revealed in Amsterdam in November. So this is not yet the Top 27.

For thousands of years, olive oil has been governed by one unavoidable constraint in the form of the harvest clock. Pick the olives, get them to the mill quickly, extract the oil and then begin the slow decline from freshly pressed oil to a product that may spend months in tanks, bottles, warehouses and retail distribution.

Impossible Foods has found a pragmatic way into one of Europe’s most important grocery markets simply by stopping to waiting for its signature heme ingredient to be approved.