Chinese TikTok Turns Chilean Cherries into Clicks
What’s really at play here is a shift in how fresh produce reaches Asia’s growing middle class: farm-to-feed-scroll. Chilean cherries have long relied on logistics and Lunar-New-Year gifting culture; now they’re adding algorithms. For the AG2, grown in Chile’s Colchagua Valley and rooted in 1950s Californian genetics, TikTok isn’t just an ad channel, it’s the market itself.
14 hours ago1 min read
The Rise of the Bean – Join Squeaky Bean & Its UK Winter Pie Revolution
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.
1 day ago1 min read
Code-Cracking the Sea as Brazil Maps the Flavour Blueprint for Plant-Based Fish
For anyone who’s ever tried a plant-based fish finger and thought, “Nice idea, but it still smells like beans,” science might finally have your back. Researchers in Brazil have mapped the exact aroma compounds that make real fish smell and taste “from the sea.” Their work with mushroom-based fillets and soy–oat blends at the Federal University of Lavras has decoded the volatile molecules that turn bland into believable.
2 days ago1 min read
Canada’s Fungi Fix as Maia Farms ‘Shred’ Makes Plant Protein Actually Taste Good
Canada’s got a taste for hybrids, but not the meaty kind. Vancouver’s Maia Farms has unveiled The Shred, a next-gen protein that blends oyster mushroom mycelium and Canadian yellow pea protein, promising the chew, flavour, and versatility missing from earlier soy or wheat-based offerings. The startup says it’s using fermentation tech to mimic natural fibre alignment, producing a pull-apart texture that actually feels like food, not filler.
2 days ago1 min read
Gourmey Cultivated Duck Flies South
French cultivated-meat startup GOURMEY has just submitted the first cultivated-duck application to Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), marking the first cultured-meat filing since Vow’s local debut. The company’s cell cultivated duck biomass (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) is designed for foie gras and pâté formulations with a 5–80 per cent inclusion rate.
3 days ago1 min read
New Zealand Food Awards- Fonterra’s ‘Export-Only’ Win as French Dairy Giant Circles NZ
A UHT cream Kiwis can’t even buy has just won New Zealand’s top food award. Fonterra’s Easy Bakery Cream, a low-fat dairy formulation designed for Chinese bakeries, has taken the Supreme title at the 2025 New Zealand Food Awards. Brilliant science, yes. But when the winning cream is made for someone else’s fridge, it raises a fair question: whose food industry are we celebrating?
4 days ago1 min read
Raw C Coconut Water Outsells Soft Drinks as Pop Looses Its Fizz
Australians just delivered a reality check to big Soft Drink/Soda. Raw C coconut water sold over 500,000 one-litre bottles in a single week at Woolworths, marking the biggest week ever for coconut water and for the first time, it outsold 1.25-litre PET soft drinks on units. Baseline sales jumped nearly 40%, showing the switch to “healthier hydration” isn’t a fad; it’s the new fixture.
4 days ago1 min read
Breeding Sows Trapped in Iron – NZ’s Dirty Secret Behind ‘Clean and Green’ Pork
Did you know New Zealand still cages its breeding sows - mother pigs, literally. Behind the “clean green kind” image sit iron bars where breeding sows cannot even turn around.
4 days ago1 min read
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