All PFN ARTICLES

Meat isn’t being replaced, it’s being re-engineered, and New Zealand is now part of that shift. Across food science, a new logic is taking hold, the future of protein isn’t “meat versus alternatives,” it’s meat plus. Hybrid protein , a blending of animal protein with algae, yeast, plants, or fermentation-derived biomass, is emerging as the most commercially realistic path to better nutrition, lower environmental load, and preserved taste. This isn’t a food trend. It’s a re

Organic dried fruit is quietly having a moment and not the dusty trail-mix kind. According to Verified Market Reports, the category is riding a wave of clean-label snacking, rising disposable incomes, and a renewed appetite for food that feels both simple and earned. The firm projects a 6.5% annual growth from 2026 to 2033, pushing the market from US$3.35bn in 2024 to US$5.78bn by 2033. This isn’t dried fruit nostalgia, it’s a food sector re-valuation.

Eggs are quietly becoming optional in South Island bakeries. Foodstuffs South Island, NZ is trialling Leaf Rubisco Protein as an egg replacement across more than 200 New World, PAK’nSAVE and Four Square stores, marking the first major retail test for the Canterbury-based ingredient maker Leaft Foods. Cakes, muffins and fresh bakery staples are the proving ground, exactly where eggs normally do the heavy lifting on structure, binding and lift.

A new computational study from the UK has thrown a curveball at the functional-food world as researchers find sterilised plant-based metabolic ferments, dead ferments, may still exert meaningful metabolic effects along obesity and type-2 diabetes pathways. Forget probiotics and gut flora nostalgia, these researchers are mapping how heat-treated ferments could influence insulin signalling, lipid regulation, and appetite control without the live bacteria consumers assume are do

For years, the coconut aisle has traded on a halo of tropical purity, hydration, wellness, plant-based goodness. But behind some Thai coconut products sits a practice feeling wildly out of step with 2026 ethics and that is forced monkey labour. According to Foodfacts, pig-tailed macaques are still being captured, chained, and trained to harvest coconuts in parts of Thailand, despite repeated assurances the practice has ended - monkey picked coconuts.

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.

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.

“Top Food Trends for 2026 – Protein Reigns” still holds, but the protein story now lives inside a bigger behavioural shift where people want options that fit their day, fit their wallet, and fit their mental bandwidth. Single-serve meals, snack-ready bites, and genuinely useful plant-forward proteins are now the scaffolding of everyday eating.

It’s the kind of milestone that makes both baristas and biotechs blink: The New Milk is officially here, the world’s first dairy milk made entirely without cows. Co-created by Israeli food-tech pioneer Remilk and heritage brand Gad Dairies, this precision-fermented milk delivers the taste, texture, and nutrition of real dairy, just without the livestock. For consumers, it’s a genuine milk experience that’s lactose-free, cholesterol-free, and 75 percent lower in sugar; for in

NXW, born in New Zealand in 2020 and now headquartered in Portugal, has achieved a category milestone with its Marine Whey™ ingredient. Together with SIG Group, they have completed their first commercial run of an affordable functional‐nutrition product for the MEA region: a UHT‐treated “Peach Power” marine whey yoghurt filled via SIG’s aseptic packaging solutions and tailored for local taste profiles.

New Zealand’s only commercial tea plantation based in the Waikato, Zealong Tea Estate, has steeped itself into global recognition, literally, after being listed among the world’s best tea houses in “150 Tea Houses You Need to Visit Before You Die” by Lannoo Publishing.

Chocolate giant Barry Callebaut is hedging its bets, keeping cocoa close while diving headfirst into the cocoa-free future. The Swiss heavyweight has entered a long-term partnership with Planet A Foods, the German start-up behind ChoViva, a chocolate alternative made from local crops like sunflower seeds. The deal neatly straddles both camps: traditional cocoa dominance and the growing demand for sustainable, non-cocoa chocolate.