All PFN ARTICLES

After 5.5 years of playful meat mimicry with its ‘THIS ISN’T’ range, UK-based food company THIS is making a serious new play. Launching next week in major UK retailers, 'THIS IS SUPER SUPERFOOD' marks the company’s first official move into APT — A Protein Thing sector. And it’s not just a new product, it’s a category shake-up.

New data from the Good Food Institute (GFI) reveals a sobering truth that most people who try plant-based meat don’t stick with it. But that’s not the real story. Look closer and you’ll see the shift away from mimicry, away from bleeding patties - toward something more interesting - plant-based protein products not pretending to be meat at all.

Lewis Hamilton’s once-celebrated vegan burger chain investment, Neat Burger, is closing multiple UK outlets after racking up major losses and he’s not the only famous name feeling the heat. With Leonardo DiCaprio also backing Neat and Beyond Meat, the message is clear: celebrity investment might launch plant-based brands, but it won’t keep physical restaurants alive. In today’s market, bricks-and-mortar plant-based burger joints are faltering fast — and the smarter money is m

A new wave of seafood is hitting the shores and this one never swam a day in its life. Israeli FoodTech firm SimpliiGood by AlgaeCore Technologies is officially scaling commercial production of its plant-based spirulina smoked salmon made entirely from spirulina, the vibrant green microalgae best known for smoothies, supplements, and now, apparently, seafood.

In a development, part science fiction, part Sunday dinner, Japanese scientists have just unveiled the world’s largest lab-grown chicken nugget with veins. Yes, you read that right. The nugget, grown in a lab using a simulated circulatory system of hollow fibres, marks a huge leap forward in the cultivated meat race. But before you fire up the air fryer, no it’s not edible yet.

Now Dubai chocolate is vegan. And honestly? It’s about time. The original pistachio-stuffed ‘Dubai chocolate’ may be blowing up online, but if you’re plant-based or just ingredient-conscious, your options until now have been slim to none. But here comes Ombar Chocolate -clean, green, and stuffed with a nutty centre so good it might make you forget what dairy ever tasted like.

In a quiet but seismic shift, Austrian food-tech startup Revo Foods has just released “The Prime Cut” - a 3D-printed mycoprotein product finally answering a question industry insiders are beginning to ask out loud. What if the future of alternative protein isn’t meat-like at all?

What if your protein was clean enough for your body and smart enough for space? That’s the proposition behind Pureture, the next-gen protein biotech outfit quietly scaling a next-gen yeast-based casein with no gums, no stabilisers, no emulsifiers, just functionality, purity, and real-world performance.

So, Pizza Hut in the US has thrown a curve-ball from the left field and it wasn’t crust-shaped. In a move leaving plant-based foodies and food snobs equally stunned - the chain dropped a plant-based pepperoni “caviar” made from seaweed. Yes, seaweed. Smoky little plant-based caviar pearls looking like they belonged at a yacht party and not dumped on a Personal Pan.

US based, The Better Meat Co. has scored its sixth U.S. patent, this time for the wild idea of fermenting spud waste with mycelium to produce a high-protein, cholesterol-free meat alternative called Rhiza. And it’s ready in just a few hours. Forget cow farts and climate guilt. This is meat made from mushroom roots and leftover mash.

Mumbai based, Biokraft Foods has just launched what could be the tipping point for Asia’s cellular seafood sector, revealing bio-manufactured (cultivated) rainbow trout fillets created without the fish. Developed in partnership with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research – Central Institute of Coldwater Fisheries Research (ICAR-CICFR), these next-gen fillets aren’t just lab-grown, they’re also 3D-printed.

Bio-manufacturing isn’t just for lab nerds and VC types. It’s the quiet force about to rewrite how we produce food, cosmetics, clothing, and even your future protein shake. Dr James Ryall, an Australian-based consultant and former Chief Scientist at VOW Foods and long-time insider in the cellular agriculture space, closed out the 2025 CellAg Symposium in Nelson with a rallying cry - Australia and New Zealand are sitting on a goldmine and doing nothing.