Future Food Quick Bites: Slutty Vegan, Protein Bars & Plant-Based Subway
Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Slutty Vegan’s new locations, Subway’s plant-based pork, and India’s vegan labelling mandate.
New products and launches
Pinky Cole‘s plant-based fast-food chain, Slutty Vegan, has signed franchise deals to open new locations in Washington, DC and Atlanta, and announced plans to relocate its Baltimore restaurant to a new site at the campus of Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2027.
Australian startup Green Choice Proteins has announced plans to expand into the US with protein powders in chocolate, vanilla, and salted caramel flavours. Each contains around 35g of pea and fava bean protein per scoop.
In celebration of the FIFA World Cup, vegan meal startup Daily Harvest (now owned by Chobani) has unveiled three limited-edition smoothies inspired by the “foods, flavours and cultural traditions” of the host nations: cherry pie protein, blueberry-maple, and mango-chile. They’re available exclusively on the brand’s website.
Months after raising $9.5M in Series B funding, US plant-based startup Mezcla has revamped its packaging and introduced four new flavours to its puffed protein bars: frosted strawberry, mint chocolate, chocolate pretzel, and salted caramel-chocolate.
GoMacro has launched MacroSquares, a new format with layered textures and a half-dipped finish. They contain 7-8g of protein each and are available at Whole Foods Market in four flavours infused with sea salt: peanut butter chocolate, caramel-almond, dark chocolate and nuts, and berry-white chocolate.
Kellanova (formerly Kellogg’s) has expanded the plant-based High Protein range of its RXBar brand with a new peanut butter-chocolate chip flavour, which delivers 19g of plant protein with only six ingredients.
In more protein bar news, Mondelēz International has rolled out a white fudge Oreo-flavoured bar under its Clif Builders brand, which packs 20g of plant-based protein each.
Canadian vegan cheesemaker Daiya has rolled out dairy-free cheesecake bites in original, chocolate and strawberry flavours in the US, containing its oat-cream-based cream cheese.
In the UK, Subway has introduced a smoky BBQ Pulled Plant Protein filling for its subs, wraps, salads and jacket potatoes, which will be available at participating stores until September 1.
And Spain’s Liquats Vegetals, the producer behind plant-based milk brand Yosoy and Natrue, has expanded its presence in the market with a listing in over 1,000 retail stores nationwide.
Company and finance updates
Italian VC firm Gerber-Rauth has sold its dairy distribution business L’Interform to food producer Atlante, exiting the legacy dairy industry to instead focus on alternative dairy companies. It has previously invested in innovators like WhiteWave Foods (now Alpro) and Kate Farms (both later acquired by Danone), Perfect Day, and New Culture.
Just weeks after raising $14M to build Europe’s largest cultivated meat facility, UK pet food startup Meatly has begun fit-out work on the pilot site.
Dutch contract research organisation Nizo Food Research has announced that the pre-pilot lab at its state-backed Biotechnology Fermentation Factory is fully operational.
Canadian biotech firm Pinnacle Food Group, which recently opened a precision fermentation hub in Hong Kong, has appointed Yunhao Chen as its new CFO, replacing Wencai Pan.
US non-profit Food System Innovations has appointed Liz Specht as its new VP of science and strategic industries. She was previously senior VP of science and tech at the Good Food Institute, where she still serves as a senior advisor.
Livekindly Collective, the company behind plant-based meat brands Like, Fry’s and Oumph!, has achieved B Corp certification, months after reaching profitability.
Research and policy developments
In India, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has made it mandatory for plant-based food products to carry a standardised green vegan logo on their packaging by July 1, 2027, with the aim of helping consumers identify and distinguish these animal-free products.
Oatly hosted Dutch agrifood minister Jaimi van Essen and the deputy to the King of Zeeland, Hugo de Jonge, to highlight the oat milk giant’s growth and sustainability plans in the Netherlands. The event saw the company sign an MoU with ZLTO and FarmPlus to explore sourcing Dutch oats locally.
Spanish plant-based meat firm Novameat and Israeli vegan seafood maker Oshi were recognised as the top startups at the International FoodTech Forum in Campinas, Brazil (May 27-28).
British startup Bold Bean Co has been named on The Sunday Times‘s list of the 100 fastest-growing private companies in the UK.
In the race to make cheap cultivated meat, scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a method that preloads plant-derived cellulose scaffolds with growth factors in a directionally frozen framework to achieve high-quality tissue development with up to 10 times fewer factors.
Speaking of cultivated meat research, Friends & Family Pet Food has partnered with the University of Hong Kong to host a focus group with dog and cat owners to find out what they think of these proteins for their furry friends.
Finally, Amai Proteins has published the results of a double-blind, randomised, crossover clinical trial that proves its precision-fermented sweet protein, Sweelin, does not affect blood glucose, insulin or GLP-1 levels in healthy adults.
Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.