Future Food Quick Bites: Karen Carney Goes Beyond, Carbon Butter & Billie Eilish
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Beyond Meat’s partnership with Karen Carney, a wave of British launches, and Savor’s bakery debut.
New products and launches
Beyond Meat has brought on former England footballer Karen Carney as its brand ambassador. The pundit and Strictly Come Dancing winner has been vegan for several years, and has linked up with the plant-based meat company in time for BBQ season and National Hamburger Day (August 27).
Still in the UK, Met Foods has launched Mushus, a skincare-focused sparkling drink featuring vegan collagen. It’s available in Raspberry Fizz and Pineapple Fizz flavours, with a six-pack of 250ml cans costing £20. Each drink contains real fruit juice, 3g of collagen, organic tremella mushrooms, and more.
Aussie startup Fable Food Co has teamed up with Eurest, the corporate division of Compass Group, to debut blended meat at Social @ Heathrow, the workplace catering brand set up by the caterer at the London airport. The half-beef, half-shiitake burgers were preferred by staff over 100% beef patties.
British plant protein firm Tofoo & Co (formerly The Tofoo Co) has introduced a soy-marinated tempeh block exclusively at online retailer Ocado.
Innocent Drinks, owned by The Coca-Cola Company, has launched a dessert-inspired range of dairy-free smoothies in the UK. The Strawberry Cupcakes, Blueberry Muffin-ish, and A Bit Like Lemon Pie variants blend fruits with coconut milk, and are available at Tesco.
In yet more news from the country, French plant-based meat startup La Vie is bringing its meat-free sausages to all Sainsbury’s stores nationwide.
Mycoprotein giant Quorn, meanwhile, is building on its No Artificial Ingredients range with the launch of a chilled mince, which is available in Tesco and Sainsbury’s for £2.89 per 230g pack. It’s also expanded its frozen lineup with a lemon and pepper schnitzel, which can be found in Sainsbury’s and Asda for £2.85 per 220g pack of two.
Months after hitting £1M in sales, vegan frozen food maker One Planet Pizza has secured a nationwide listing for its cheesy garlic sourdough flatbread in Asda, where it’s selling for £3 per 190g pack.
And US food tech startup Savor has rolled out its carbon-derived EcoButter as part of a vegan sour cherry oat scone at famed San Francisco establishment Jane the Bakery‘s Geary Street location.
Company, policy and research developments
After Billie Eilish ignited an internet debate by saying: “Eating meat is inherently wrong,” and backing it up on her Instagram stories days later, animal rights charity Peta has amplified the message with a new billboard on New York City’s Times Square. It reads: “Billie Eilish is 100% right. You can’t love animals and eat meat.”
Californian molecular farming company Mozza Foods, which grows casein proteins in soybeans, is aiming to enter the B2B market by 2028, pending approval by the US Food and Drug Administration.
As part of its bid to scale and expand across Europe, Italian vegan cheesemaker Dreamfarm has brought on former Alpro and The Protein Brewery CEO Sue Garfitt as an independent member of its board of directors.
In the UK, Deliciously Ella co-founder Matthew Mills has stepped down from his role as UK and Ireland general manager of Swiss multinational Hero Group, which acquired the plant-based brand in 2024.
Beyond Meat, meanwhile, has appointed Tony Kalajian as its chief accounting officer, with its human capital management and compensation committee approving an equity grant package.
GF Fermentech, a subsidiary of South Korean chemicals company HLB Genex, has unveiled a high-speed commercialisation-focused CDMO platform for precision fermentation, having built production lines ranging from one litre to 50,000 litres, with a total of 160,000 litres of fermentation and purification infrastructure.
Finally, the Finnish parliament’s Plant-Based Food Network hosted Vegepäivä, a plant-based food day attended by over 300 people, including MPs from all parties. The products they were served included Enifer‘s Pekilo mycoprotein.
Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.