All PFN ARTICLES

In a market the size of New Zealand, every new product launch is effectively a conversation with consumers. For artisan food producer Janin de Conti, founder of One Love Planet, that conversation led directly to a complete rethink of one of the company's products.

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.

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.

The company produces whole-cut plant-based meat products using a fermentation-based process built around soy and wheat proteins. Unlike many first-generation plant-based brands focusing heavily on burgers and mince, Chunk has built its range around premium steaks, pulled meat products and diced meat alternatives designed to deliver a more convincing eating experience.

Emirates is seeing a significant uptick in vegan meal preorders as travellers increasingly choose plant-forward options, pushing the airline to rethink its in-flight cuisine strategy. In 2025 the carrier served more than half a million vegan meals, up by 100,000 year-on-year, and demand continues to climb across global routes including London, Sydney and Bangkok. Emirates attributes growing vegan interest not only to plant-based passengers but also to non-vegans seeking li

The new U.S. Dietary Guidelines just out have done something almost unthinkable in the post-2019 food wars as they’ve re-centred red meat, dairy, eggs, poultry and seafood as primary protein sources, while quietly sliding plant-based proteins further down the nutritional hierarchy. Not banned. Not dismissed. But no longer treated as nutritionally equivalent. That alone tells you something fundamental has shifted.

ALDI UK is quietly doing what many plant-based brands keep promising but have not yet delivered: making meat-free eating genuinely affordable. Just ahead of Veganuary, the UK grocer has expanded its Plant Menu private-label range with a Vegetable Burger, Vegetable Popcorn Bites and No Chicken Pieces, all landing at £1.99 and hitting shelves from 30 December 2025. No premium pricing. No virtue tax. Just plant-based food priced like everyday food.

Here’s the thing nobody really talks about: breast milk is basically a real-time diagnostic of the human diet. The new University of Texas study showed when nursing mothers swapped beef for plant-based meat for just six days, their breast milk radically changed its fatty-acid profile showing more medium-chain fats, less long-chain polyunsaturated ones. That’s not a moral argument; that’s biochemistry. It tells us the body is a lot more “live-wired” to what we eat than we pret

Global plant-based yogurt is quietly climbing at a 9.2% annual growth, driven by gut-health hype, dairy fatigue, and the rise of “clean comfort foods” that look and behave like the real thing without the lactose hangover. And while oat and almond yogurts are having their moment, it’s coconut yogurt that keeps showing up in shopping baskets because consumers trust the texture, thick, creamy, reliable.

Let’s call it like it is, when almost 21,000 Dutch consumers were asked whether terms like vegaworst or veganburger were confusing, a thumping 96% knew exactly what they meant. That alone pulls the rug out from under claims EU shoppers can’t tell a plant-based sausage from an animal one. The data couldn’t be clearer, consumers aren’t confused, regulators are.

Plant-based egg innovator, Crafty Counter’s new Protein Buns are the kind of functional convenience foods consumers are absolutely primed for - soft, gluten-free, microwave-ready, and stuffed with a hemp-based “egg” scramble packing 40% more protein per gram than a real egg. In a protein-obsessed food economy, this is the kind of micro-innovation that creates its own demand curve.

The arrival of a bioprinted meat product into the spotlight of a major industry awards show signals a turning point, as Redefine Meat’s 3-D-printed Flank Steak takes out the Plant-Based Meat Alternatives champion title in the UK's The Grocer’s New Product & Packaging Awards 2025. But it isn't just a trophy, it's recognition from the heart of the UK food trade.