PLANT-BASED NEWS ARTICLES

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.

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

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.

The first US consumer product made with Solar Foods’ Solein® has landed and it is not a burger, milk, snack bite or futuristic food demo. It is a ready-to-mix protein powder from Ambrosia Collective, launched under its Planta brand in salted caramel coldbrew flavour, with 20g of protein per serving and 0g of sugar.

The future of vegetables may not depend on forcing consumers to “eat healthier” at all. It may depend on flavour. New research published in Nutrition Reviews has found that adding herbs and spices to vegetables significantly increases the likelihood consumers will choose them and importantly, actually eat them. In commercial cafeteria trials, seasoned vegetables consistently outperformed plain steamed versions, with diners selecting herb-seasoned broccoli, green beans and cau

New Zealand biotech startup Forever Harvest may have just landed one of the most consumer-relevant future food breakthroughs yet - a pilot production of what it says is the world’s first cellular almond milk. Forget the lab-coat headlines for a moment. This is really about one thing consumers already understand as almond milk booms globally. Right now though the almond industry itself is under serious pressure from water shortages, climate instability and rising production co

The narrative that plant-based meat is “dead” keeps colliding with one awkward problem: consumers still want meat-like experiences without necessarily wanting more animals, more emissions, more industrial farming or belonging to a movement. Here comes Steakholder Foods with PERFECTA, a new U.S.-bound range of 3D-printed plant-based steaks, chicken breasts, salmon patties, white fish patties and filet mignon-style cuts looking uncannily close to the real thing.

The plant-based seafood sector may have just crossed a line from “interesting startup category” into something much bigger. Oshi, the company behind the first whole-cut 100% plant-based salmon fillet in the U.S. market, has secured a US$3 million strategic investment from one of Latin America’s largest traditional seafood manufacturers. That’s not just funding. That’s the old seafood economy quietly acknowledging the future may not look like trawlers forever.

China’s food strategy should be setting off alarms across New Zealand and Australia. Beijing is not merely trying to feed its population anymore, it is building a vertically integrated protein factory system spanning genetics, fermentation, synthetic biology, AI-led agriculture, ingredient processing and export manufacturing. Yet ANZ still largely behaves like a commodity frontier economy: grow it, ship it, hope the market stays loyal.