All PFN ARTICLES

Forget cautious targets, Lidl GB has blown past its 400% goal for plant-based sales with a staggering 694% surge since 2020. What’s driving it? Not just the meat-free burgers and sausages, but an appetite for whole-food staples like pulses, grains, tofu, and falafels that outperformed meat substitutes by nearly 20%.

Something unusual happened on UK's Ocado this August. Redefine Meat, the Israeli alt-meat brand built on chef-grade cred, surged +248% in searches week-on-week. That’s not just a blip in a vegan niche, that’s a mainstream summer signal. The reason? It was BBQ season in the UK, and shoppers wanted burgers and koftas looking, cooking, and searing like the real thing, but without the cow.

South Australia has just made sushi history and not for what’s on the plate. As of now, those tiny plastic soy sauce fish, the ones that spill sticky umami soy sauce over every food court bento, are officially banned across the state. It’s a world first, and the move affects more than 1.8 million people.

Shoppers are calling it “heaven on Oxford Street,” TikTok is drowning in foodie walkthroughs, and the cafe has been dragged from the back to the front of the house all because convenience sells.

The verdict - those who ate the most butter faced a 15% higher risk of dying, while those reaching for plant-oils like olive, canola, or soy oils enjoyed a 16% lower risk. So simply swapping one tablespoon of butter for plant-based oils a day cut overall and cancer-related mortality by 17%.

Little Lato has done it again. For the second year running, the Auckland dairy-free gelato maker has scooped the Tetra Pak Dairy-Free Champion at the NZ Ice Cream & Gelato Awards, with its Mango Lassi Vegan Gelato.

Edinburgh-based Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS) and Aberdeen’s Modutec signed a deal to build what they’re calling the world’s first “GigaFarm” in Dubai’s Food Tech Valley. The first 20 towers are shipping now, with a full build-out of 200 growth towers projected to crank out more than 3,000 tonnes of fresh produce a year. What's interesting is that volume replaces just one per cent of the UAE’s fruit and veg imports, a glimpse of how much reliance on overseas supply chain

Australia’s mushroom meat darling Fable Food Co. has scored another big win in the fast-casual space. Its smoky, rich pulled shiitake has just landed in Zambrero’s Signature Burrito, rolled out across nearly 300 restaurants nationwide. Paired with the chain’s limited-time Truffelo Sauce, the burrito is loaded with mushrooms, veggies, corn, pepitas, and serious flavour.

Forget the Grammy stage, Entertainer Billie Eilish is now making waves in the kitchen. With nearly 74 million TikTok followers, the global pop icon just dropped her own take on the viral Dubai Chocolate, a pistachio-layered dessert that’s been blowing up feeds since late 2023.

Shandi Global is no longer a kitchen experiment but a $30 million food-tech contender. Their chickpea, mung bean, soy, and pea-based proteins are already feeding schools, hospitals, and workplaces across Asia and beyond. Their mission? Nothing less than fixing global protein deficiency while making meatless burgers taste like the real deal.

Grill’d has signed a national partnership with Beyond to launch the Beyond Burger IV - the fourth-gen patty now boasting avocado oil, 20 grams of plant protein, and a clean label free of soy, gluten, and GMOs. For Beyond, whose share price has been battered globally, the deal is more than just another menu slot, it’s a potential lifeline. Grill'd has 173 burger outlets Australia wide.

Pistachio Papi, who just clocked the biggest week ever in Woolworths’ spreads aisle. Twenty thousand jars flew off shelves in seven days and that’s with constant out-of-stock gaps. Imagine the numbers if they’d actually managed to keep up with demand.