All PFN ARTICLES

Italy has its UNESCO cuisine moment, but Japan just slid in with something arguably more disruptive in the form of a dessert made from air. Ajinomoto’s conscious brand Atlr.72 has officially launched Mochelie, a mochi-filled almond tart powered by Solein, the world’s first commercial “protein from air.” It's just hit Singapore shelves in three flavours, and yes, it’s still a pastry, with a carbon footprint reading more like a rounding error.

Italy's cuisine has just been received an accolade even the most passionate nonna might blush over by convincing UNESCO its entire cuisine, the whole sprawling, tomato-splashed, pasta-shaped universe, deserves protection as an intangible cultural treasure. Forget individual dishes. The whole national food identity just got canonised.

The global protein drink market is exploding again, not because people are suddenly bodybuilding in their lunch breaks, but because everyday consumers are chasing quick nutrition without the “gym bro” baggage. According to new industry data, the market already sits at US $32 billion and is barrelling toward US $76.5 billion by 2032, powered by wellness culture, plant-based swaps, and the growing obsession with “clean-label energy in a bottle.”

Tunnel Hill Mushrooms might be Australia’s most atmospheric food producer, literally growing the future inside a cold, abandoned Tasmanian train tunnel. In a world obsessed with glasshouses and steel-and-LED vertical farms, this one goes the other way: deep underground. The result? A quiet, almost eerie form of ambient agriculture turning a 19th-century sandstone tunnel into a precision-engineered microclimate for gourmet and medicinal fungi.

US based, Brad’s isn’t just selling kale chips, they’ve built a whole new air-dried snacking category out of air-dried vegetables. Walk down a Whole Foods aisle and their wall of colour jumps out at you in the form of Veggie Flats, Veggie Chips, Keto Crisps, Snackable Salads, and yes, Crunchy Kale. It’s the clearest example yet of how “whole-veg snacking” is separating itself from the UPF-heavy alternatives dominating grocery shelves.

Plant-based food doesn’t have a taste problem, it has a perception problem, and the internet keeps proving it. A recent viral video shows a man raving about a burger, calling it “one of the best ever,” right up until he’s told it’s vegan. It wasn’t, it was beef the whole time, yet the flavour apparently changed instantly.

India’s snack aisles are mutating again and this time, they’re going fully functional - India's plant-based snack boom. Seaweed chips, protein-packed bites, and fortified mini-meals are turning up in every metro, and they’re not framed as “vegan alternatives.” They’re just… snacks. Quick, nutritious, fuss-free, and engineered for a population that lives on the move.

Molly Ally isn’t just another plant-based ice-cream brand, it’s the proof point Asia has been waiting for. Thai start-up's cracked the code by designing ice cream around a truth most global brands ignore: Asia is overwhelmingly lactose intolerant, and traditional dairy desserts simply don’t love Asian bodies back. Molly Ally’s success comes from treating this pain point not as a limitation but as a creative brief.

Americans are about to inhale a staggering amount of avocados, more than 3 billion pounds in 2026, says the Hass Avocado Board. That’s roughly 1.36 billion kilos of green gold, an astonishing number confirming what brunch menus have been hinting at for a decade - avocados aren’t a trend, they’re a cultural fixture.

Plates earned its Michelin star back in July, but the real story has only just surfaced: 95% of its diners aren’t vegan. That single number torpedoes the tired “plant-based is over” narrative and shows what’s really happening on the ground. Flexitarians, omnivores, and curious carnivores are willingly booking a fully plant-based tasting menu because it tastes brilliant, not because they’re signalling ethics or identity.

China has just made one of the biggest protein calls of the decade and barely anyone outside the industry has clocked it. The National Health Commission has approved mycoprotein (Fusarium venenatum) as a new food raw material for the first time, thanks to an application by Jiangxi Fushine Biotechnology.

Chocolate haggis (yes, you read that correctly) is back on the menu for the upcoming Hogmanay and Burns Night, pushing the boundaries of what we politely call “ethnic food.”