All PFN ARTICLES

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.

Enter Squeaky Bean and their new plant-based pies - Braised Veggie and Spanish Chorizo Style - now hitting Tesco shelves just in time for the autumn chill. Each one is golden-crusted, bean-packed, and brimming with fermented vegetables for added gut-friendly flavour.

And there it is, another line between “NextGen Food” and “everyday grocery” blurred beyond recognition. Israeli alt-meat innovator Redefine Meat has officially landed its bio-printed “New-Meat” range inside ASDA UK, pitching itself not as a vegan option, but as an upgrade to real meat. Seven products, from Pulled Beef and Lamb Kofta Mix to Flank Steak, are rolling into freezer chests nationwide.

Whitworths has just dropped the UK’s first unprocessed walnut-based meat-free mince, and it’s a quiet challenge to the fake-meat aisle. Forget long ingredient lists and over-engineered soy bricks, this mince is just walnuts, lentils, and quinoa, spun into a texture that actually chews like beef. At £3.20 a pack, it’s aimed squarely at shoppers tired of the ultra-processed plant-based tag.

Forget just ready-meals and curry kits, Indian meal-building kit's secret power is in accompaniments. Think naan, paratha, rotis, samosas, pakoras, chutneys, pickles and raita bases. These aren’t full meals, but they’re the missing links that make a plate feel whole.

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.

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.

Alastair Hawken, founder of Hawkens Gingerbread in Grantham, has pioneered the UK’s first commercial grown ginger cultivation using hydroponic polytunnels. Inspired during Nottingham Trent University’s Help to Grow: Management Course, Alastair conceived a soil‑free flood‑and‑drain system to enable ginger production under controlled tropical conditions (25–30 °C and ~85% humidity), countering the UK's unsuitable climate for the crop

What happens when a humble family recipe gets its big break on the world stage? In SHICKEN Spice Babies case, it wins, again. The UK-based plant-based brand has just landed another Great Taste Award, this time for its now-iconic Seekh Kebabs, hailed by the Guild of Fine Food as one of the standout flavours of 2025. That’s three years, three awards, and one very proud kitchen.

Alpro in the UK has just dropped a new plant-based range aimed squarely at kids and not just any kids. This one’s got Gen Alpha written all over it. From banana-flavoured oat drinks to choc coconut indulgence pots, it’s dairy-free, climate-considerate, and dripping in cartoon-forward packaging designed to lure the lunchbox crowd.

A quick dash through Tesco’s UK's fresh aisle right now delivers more than the usual packet of spinach, it offered a glimpse of the supermarket’s newest weapon in the plant-based convenience war. Enter root & soul, a strikingly curated, own-brand range of prepped veg, tempura’d carrots, and grainy goodness aimed directly at Britain’s growing cohort of flexitarians.

It’s the kind of supermarket sighting that should spark chaos in the vegan snack aisles. A plant-based Nutella? With oat and almond milk instead of dairy? Surely that’s the moment the palm-oily, sugar-slicked classic finally catches up to the alt-dairy revolution. Right?