All PFN ARTICLES

They used to say a Perrier bottle was the height of European sophistication, green glass, tight bubbles, and a whiff of French prestige. But now? It’s starting to smell more like cover-up than class act.

It’s taken years of plant-based flops, fridge disasters, and rubbery regrets, but at last, science has served up plant-based dairy-free cheese wheels that grill, melt, stretche and brown. Cue applause from every lactose-intolerant millennial who still remembers the trauma of early cashew 'cheddar'.

Forget feedstock, New Zealand’s kiwifruit rejects are being stitched into a very different future. At the centre of it all is KiwiLeather Innovations, a next-gen biomaterials company quietly turning over 50,000 tonnes of orchard discards into a new kind of plant-based leather.

If you’re still scanning supermarket shelves for inspiration, look no further than a converted convent outside of Melbourne, where the Foodpreneurs Festival cracked open a six-pack of future food brilliance. From umami-packed vegan mayo to Mediterranean spritzes and spreadable butter without the cow, the inaugural BiteBack Awards weren’t just about startup sparkle, they showed exactly where the food system is headed.

“The global wine industry is being disrupted by the convergence of powerful forces.” Not the opening line of a Netflix drama but Iain Langridge from In2Asia Export dropping truth like a cork in a tasting room. And he’s not wrong. The great Australian pour reset?

“Truth is, I didn’t like the taste of the fruit,” says Satish Kumar, Principal Scientist for Tree Crops at Plant & Food Research New Zealand (Shown left), with a smile. “And that gave me a challenge - could we improve it (the dragonfruit)”

Just when you thought New Zealand’s export playbook couldn’t get any weirder, or more wonderful, along comes a boutique beverage company turning catnip into vino for your fur baby. Yes, really.

New Zealand’s best-selling oat milk brand, Boring, is about to infiltrate Aussie fridges, whether you like it or not. The green-and-white bottles of this unapologetically minimalist milk-alternative are now hitting 95% of Woolworths supermarkets across Australia, marking a serious cross-Tasman power play in the premium plant milk wars.

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.

Most alternative proteins still want you to believe you're biting into a cow. But let’s be honest: consumers are tired of being fooled, and food developers are tired of wrestling with products that fall apart in a frying pan. Enter Maia Farms, a Canadian biotech outfit serving up function over fiction with a next-gen APT (A Protein Thing) not needing to pretend.