All PFN ARTICLES

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.

Italy’s Gruppo Tonazzo, after 136 years in meat, has gone all-in on plants. The family company closed its butchery operations at the end of 2024 and handed the reins to its Kioene plant-based brand, which has been around since the late 1980s. What was once a sideline has now become the centrepiece with attractive packs of mini burgers made from pumpkin, carrots, eggplant, spinach and kale are carried in Carrefour Italy and millions of households nationwide.

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.

Jamie Oliver is back on the Sub-Continent, dipping into India's street food and veg traditions as part of his Ultimate Veg series. The clips are light, colourful, and unapologetically plant-forward - a absolute reminder that India’s culinary heritage has been carrying the veg flag long before it became a Western health trend.

Christmas has officially jumped the queue as Waitrose in the UK unwraps its festive range a full four months early, and it’s not the turkey grabbing the spotlight. Instead, the UK grocer is making noise with plant-based centrepieces looking and feeling like the real stars of the table.

The Pure Food Co is quietly reshaping aged-care nutrition in New Zealand and Australia — and now its available at home. The company has gone beyond hospitals and rest homes, launching a home-delivery partnership with EAT that’s already winning praise from families.

Cacao and coffee, two of the planet’s most loved crops, are buckling under pressure. Cocoa prices have smashed past $10,000 a tonne, while weather stress is pushing Arabica uphill. Enter the bean-free brigade: innovators who promise the same taste experience, minus the deforestation, price shocks, and labour exploitation.

The global ashwagandha market is flexing hard. Valued at USD 0.76 billion in 2025, it’s set to crack the USD 1 billion mark by 2030, tracking a solid 9.2% CAGR. Growth is fuelled by stress-fatigued consumers snapping up gummies, chews, and clean-label supplements; sports users chasing performance recovery blends; and beauty brands pulling ashwagandha into skincare for its antioxidant and anti-aging profile. North America dominates demand, but Asia-Pacific is sprinting ahead,

Malaysia Airlines has quietly rewritten a piece of its brand identity. The carrier’s signature satay skewers, a staple of its premium cabins, now come with a Lion’s Mane mushroom twist. Passengers flying Business Class and Business Suite on routes to Australia, New Zealand, and India can choose the plant-based satay alongside chicken, beef, and lamb, while other long-haul travellers can pre-order it in advance. Same marinade, same service ritual, just plant-based.

Precision fermentation just scored a $10.4 million boost from the Endeavour Fund, with AgResearch leading a five-year programme to turn pine pulp and other local side-streams into high-value food proteins and ingredients. Framed as a low-emissions bioeconomy pathway, the project is designed to convert forestry waste into scalable, export-ready ingredients that sidestep livestock emissions and feed into the next generation of sustainable foods .

This South-Asian pioneer is charting a clear departure from Sri Lanka’s traditional commodity-centric exports. Instead, Miditer is leaning into tiered, value-added opportunities—transforming tropical raw material heritage into branded, certified organic, health-forward FMCG ready for global shelves. With certifications like USDA Organic, EU Organic, BRCGS, Kosher, and ISO 22000 backing its supply chain, Miditer is packaging provenance, sustainability, and functionality into a

They’re cool, clean, and coming in coconut-covered, brain-boosting, and ham-free. A handful of plant-based innovators are either exhibiting at or circling this year’s Fine Food Australia Expo in Sydney and they’re not just tagging along for the free samples.