From SIAL Paris26 Comes More Plants, Less Pretending

A matcha latte from your coffee machine. Spinach and spirulina fingers from the freezer. A sparkling drink with a little extra fibre. Among the products showcased at SIAL Paris26 there was plenty for shoppers who simply want something interesting to eat and easy to prepare.

France’s Green Matcha offers a particularly familiar starting point: the kitchen coffee machine. Its vegan latte capsules combine matcha with powdered coconut milk in a Nespresso-compatible format, taking the measuring and whisking out of preparation. The product won SIAL’s hot beverages category award. For consumers, the appeal is straightforward in the form of a café-style habit made easier at home.

From the freezer, French company Cocoriton puts wheat, spinach and spirulina into finger food with a pulse-based coating. SIAL describes a crisp exterior and soft centre, with the product supplied pre-fried and frozen. Here, the vegetables get to be themselves. Add a dip or a salad and it is easy to picture where these might fit into an everyday meal.

Belgium’s Yugen brings another everyday format into the mix. Its Super Soda combines fruit juice, herbs and added fibre, with the company reporting 3.3g of acacia fibre per can. The proposition is a soft drink offering something beyond sweetness and fizz. Whether shoppers keep reaching for it will still come down to flavour, price and how it feels to drink.

The Food Institute’s show-floor coverage also highlighted Borde’s shiitake mushroom chips, popped chickpea and lentil snacks from Pea Pops, and Vieille Graine’s organic, gluten-free macaroni made entirely from sorghum. Together, they suggest plenty of room to give familiar snacks and cupboard staples a different ingredient base.

From our POV, the interesting thing is how comfortably these ideas could fit into routines people already have. A quick drink, something crunchy, an easy dinner. Their appearance at SIAL does not establish when, or whether, they might reach Australian or New Zealand shelves. But the question they raise travels well - could making plants more enjoyable and convenient be enough to earn them a bigger place in the weekly shop?

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