Author

Anay Mridul 3136 posts 0 comments

Anay is Green Queen's resident news reporter. Originally from India, he worked as a vegan food writer and editor in London, and is now travelling and reporting from across Asia. He's passionate about coffee, plant-based milk, cooking, eating, veganism, food tech, writing about all that, profiling people, and the Oxford comma.

Alt Dairy

EatKinda Takes Its Cauliflower Ice Cream to the US Amid Scaling Struggles in New Zealand

Anay Mridul Mar 26, 2025

New Zealand-based cauliflower ice cream startup EatKinda is moving operations away from its home country to focus on the US amid scaling challenges. EatKinda, the New Zealand startup making dairy-free ice cream from cauliflower, is…
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Future Foods

NotCo’s AI is Revolutionising the Food Industry – And Big Brands Are Eating It Up

Anay Mridul Mar 25, 2025

Chile's NotCo pioneered the use of AI in food. Its co-founders explain why they're doubling down on the B2B business, which is growing by triple digits. Karim Pichara has been working with artificial intelligence (AI) his whole life. “I…
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Cell-Based News

The Biased Science That Fuelled Italian Farmers’ Anti-Cultivated-Meat March

Anay Mridul Mar 25, 2025

One of the loudest opponents of cultivated meat, Coldiretti rallied thousands of farmers to demand the EU assess novel foods like new drugs. It cited concerns from scientists, but half of them are members of the organisation. It was…
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Alt Dairy

Why Alpro UK Is Spending Millions to Switch to 100% British Oats for Plant-Based Milk

Anay Mridul Mar 25, 2025

Danone-owned plant-based dairy giant Alpro has announced that it is moving to a 100% local supply for its oat milk lineup in the UK, powered by a multimillion-pound investment to expand its capacity. The UK's leading plant-based milk…
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Health

Ultra-Processed or Not, Ditching Meat for Plant-Based Foods Can Help You Lose Weight: Study

Anay Mridul Mar 25, 2025

A new study shows that swapping meat with plant-based alternatives – no matter how processed – can lead to significant weight loss. The backlash against ultra-processed foods (UPFs) has cast a dark cloud over plant-based meat…
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Health

In Thailand, Eating Plants Could Prevent 100,000 Deaths from the Burning Season

Anay Mridul Mar 24, 2025

Replacing half of meat and seafood production with plant proteins could save 100,000 lives lost from air pollution in Thailand, a new study has found. Thailand's annual crop-burning season causes air pollution lethal enough to…
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Alt Protein

Hooked Foods CEO: Underwhelming Sales of Plant-Based Leaders Has ‘Scared Investors’

Anay Mridul Mar 24, 2025

Tom Johansson, co-founder and CEO of Swedish vegan meat maker Hooked Foods, says underperforming big players have "scared" investors interested in the plant-based sector. The slow sales progress of leading plant-based companies in…
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Fermentation-Based Alt Protein

Israeli Microalgae Startup Raises $5M Seed Extension to ‘Take Fermentation Out of the Dark’

Anay Mridul Mar 24, 2025

Brevel, an Israeli startup using light and fermentation to create microalgae-based ingredients, has secured $5M in a seed extension round. Israeli food tech player Brevel has extended its seed funding pot by $5M, taking total investment…
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Cell-Based News

What Does Cultivated Meat Actually Taste Like? We Asked People Who’ve Tried the Real Thing

Anay Mridul Mar 24, 2025

With a number of cultivated meat startups hosting public tastings of their products, three taste testers take us behind the scenes of what it's like to bite into the future from cultivated fois gras to cell-cultured salmon. It was a…
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Alt Dairy

For Its Sustainable Butter, Savor is Ditching Cows for CO2 – and You Can Eat It This Year

Anay Mridul Mar 21, 2025

Californian food tech startup Savor has launched its farm-free, carbon-based butter, which will appear on Michelin-starred menus this year, ahead of a Series B funding round. "Life on Earth is carbon-based, meaning both we and the food…
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Green Business

Unilever to Sell Plant-Based Meat Brand The Vegetarian Butcher to JBS-Owned Vivera

Anay Mridul Mar 21, 2025

Unilever has agreed to sell The Vegetarian Butcher to fellow plant-based meat business Vivera, with the deal expected to be completed by Q3 2025. Four months after it first emerged that Unilever was planning to offload The Vegetarian…
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Policy & Regulation

Self-GRAS Uncertainty Looms Over Food Tech Leaders As FDA Spotlights ‘Transparency’

Anay Mridul Mar 21, 2025

The US's move to potentially remove the self-determination pathway of food safety could have significant implications for fermentation protein companies, with the FDA doubling down on safety while outlining its support for innovation. …
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Cell-Based News

Korean Muslim Federation Issues Fatwa Ruling Cultivated Meat As Halal

Anay Mridul Mar 20, 2025

South Korea's largest Muslim organisation has issued a fatwa recognising that cultivated meat can be Halal if it meets certain requirements, with one startup already pursuing the certification. Cultivated meat can be considered Halal…
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Alt Protein

5 Minutes with A Future Food VC: Better Bite Ventures’s Simon Newstead

Anay Mridul Mar 20, 2025

In our interview series, we quiz future food investors about the solutions that excite them the most, their favourite climate-forward restaurant, and what they look for in successful founders. Simon Newstead is a Founding Partner at…
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Eco Packaging

German Startup Bags $15.5M to Bring Tech-Led Reusable Food Packaging to the US

Anay Mridul Mar 20, 2025

Based in Cologne, Vytal Global has raised €14.2M ($15.5M) in growth funding to fuel the expansion of its reusable food packaging solutions. German eco packaging startup Vytal Global has secured €14.2M ($15.5M) in investment to scale its…
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Policy & Regulation

UK Dietary Guidelines in Need of Plant-Based Reform to Save the NHS Millions

Anay Mridul Mar 20, 2025

The UK government is being urged to update its Eatwell Guide in line with the Eat-Lancet Planetary Health Diet, with a plant-forward system predicted to save the NHS over £50M every year. As novel food regulation advances rapidly in the…
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Alt Protein

McDonald’s New Meat-Free Burger in Canada Is All About the Veggies

Anay Mridul Mar 19, 2025

McDonald's Canada is trialling the McVeggie, featuring a patty that ditches plant-based meat for vegetables. After the Beyond Burger failure in Canada, McDonald's is banking on vegetables for its latest meat-free main. The Golden…
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Future Foods

Future Food Quick Bites: Chia Seed Milk, Healthy Ham & Vegan Calcium

Anay Mridul Mar 19, 2025

Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Benexia's new chia seed milk, Violife's campaign with Chrishell Stause, and Holy Carrot's upcoming restaurant in London. …
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Fermentation-Based Alt Protein

Ahead of $15M Fundraise, The Better Meat Co Secures Mycoprotein Deal with South American Meat Giant

Anay Mridul Mar 19, 2025

The Better Meat Co has signed a letter of intent with one of South America's largest meat companies for the use of its mycoprotein in blended meat applications, just as it starts a new $15M fundraising round. US food tech startup The…
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Alt Protein

India: In the World’s Most Populous Country, Health is Putting Plants on the Plate

Anay Mridul Mar 19, 2025

A nation known for its meat-free culture, India's plant-based food market is on the "brink of transformation" as healthy eating and protein intake take centre stage. While many have spelt doom on the vegan food industry, its most…
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Fermentation-Based Alt Protein

McKinsey’s $250B Question: How Can Fermentation Attract Investors to Meet the Protein Demand?

Anay Mridul Mar 18, 2025

Fermentation tech could account for 4% of global protein production by 2050, but it needs $250B of investment to meet the capacity needs, according to McKinsey. By 2050, the global population will be approaching 10 billion, a number…
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