All PFN ARTICLES

Most New Zealand food companies heading offshore begin with distributors, trade missions and sizeable marketing budgets. EatKinda has chosen a very different path. Co-founder Mrinali (Milli) Kumar has been doing what many founders only talk about, packing samples, attending startup events, fronting tasting tables, and personally introducing Americans to an idea initially sounding quiet absurd - cauliflower ice cream. Yet, as the smiles from Target's recent Brand Discovery Da

The achacha, known locally as achachairú or "honey kiss", has been cultivated for generations in Bolivia. Yet it was Australian growers who established the world's first large-scale commercial plantation in North Queensland in 2003, investing years of research into propagation, irrigation, pruning and post-harvest handling before the first commercial harvests appeared in 2009.

Generally, home mushroom growing means oyster mushrooms, lion's mane or shiitake. Now, in parts of the United States where psychoactive mushroom laws have relaxed, the same cultivation technology is increasingly being used to grow psilocybin mushrooms.

The NanoBrew project is investigating how beer waste - brewers' spent grain- can be converted into nanocellulose, an ultra-light, high-strength biomaterial increasingly used in medical dressings, sustainable packaging, cosmetics, filtration systems and advanced composites. The project will represent New Zealand at this year's international iGEM synthetic biology competition in Paris.

Growing international attention surrounding ready-portioned cheesecake is less about cheesecake itself and more about a broader shift taking place across the global food industry. Rather than producing ever larger products, manufacturers are increasingly embracing a strategy best described as "downsizing to upscale" - creating smaller, premium products delivering greater value through quality, flavour, sustainability and experience.

Poland’s efforts to extend geothermal energy beyond heating and recreation into geothermal food production offer another signal New Zealand should be watching closely. Polish researchers are examining geothermal heat for protected cropping, aquaculture, agricultural drying and food processing. Existing applications remain limited, but include geothermal-supported fish farming, vegetable cultivation and some food-processing activity.

New Zealand's journey towards producing its own peanuts has taken another step forward, with scientists preparing to evaluate a new cultivar specifically selected for Northland's climate. Researchers from the Bioeconomy Science Institute say several years of commercial-scale trials undertaken alongside Pic's Peanut Butter, Northland Inc and industry partners have produced encouraging results. Crops experienced very low pest and disease pressure, required no insecticides or fu

Global packaging company, Tetra Pak has moved deeper into the NextGen Food economy with the launch of its first industrial bioreactor, signalling a major shift for a company best known globally for food cartons and processing systems.

At the Vegan Society's 2026 New Zealand Vegan Sausage & Deli Awards, Christchurch-based Harmless Food Co. claimed the Supreme Award with its new Plant Based Bacon, a product judges praised for its flavour, crispness and realistic texture before it has even reached supermarket shelves. The company also collected Gold awards for its Plant Based Steak and Fish Fillet, making it one of the standout performers of the competition.

Consumers won't be buying cultivated foods in the form of cell-cultured duck next month, but Australia's food innovation pipeline may have just become much more interesting.

The United Kingdom has become one of the first countries to publish a government-backed roadmap identifying the food technologies expected to shape its future food system over the next decade. Developed by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS), the report highlights precision fermentation, biomass fermentation, cellular agriculture, controlled environment agriculture, molecular farming, gas fermentation and several other emerging production systems

New Zealand food technology startup ANDFOODS has made a strategic decision that may signal a new commercial model for emerging food innovators. Instead of manufacturing its fermented whipped cream in New Zealand, the company has chosen to produce it in China—placing manufacturing alongside its target customers before its first commercial launch in Singapore.