Future Food Quick Bites: Oatly Lookbook, Kraft Heinz NotCo & McDonald’s Jackfruit Burger

Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Oatly’s recipe lookbook, Villareal CF’s tofu seminar, and People Magazine’s plant-based awards.

New products and launches

Swedish oat milk giant Oatly has unveiled a lookbook for the Spring/Summer 2025 season, featuring a range of recipes using its products. Think a maple miso latte, a lacto-fermented blueberry matcha, and a salty banana split.

Dutch alternative protein producer Schouten has launched three Taste of the World veggie burgers inspired by Mexican, Italian and Thai cuisines.

McDonald’s Netherlands has re-released the Meatless McKroket two years after it was first launched, with a jackfruit filling made from Fiber Foods‘s PrimeJack ingredient.

Swiss plant-based meat giant Planted has introduced ready-to-eat steak bites in select Coop stores across the nation.

Yellow Sunshine is a new Swiss brand established by the founders of vegan creamery New Roots, Alice Fauconnet and Freddy Hunziker. It makes lupin protein blocks in plain, garlic and herbs, and pepper-paprika flavours.

While Ferrero has just launched its vegan Nutella in the UK, a new competitor has already emerged. Pip & Nut has released a chocolate-hazelnut spread with a sixth of the sugar content. It retails at Sainsbury’s for £3.50 per 165g hat and £7.65 per 400g tub, before rolling out at Whole Foods Market, Ocado and Amazon.

Spanish football club Villareal CF and the Embassy of Japan in Spain partnered to host a tofu seminar with Somenoya Co, a 163-year-old tofu company from Tokyo.

In response to the high prices and market volatility of cocoa, German food giant Dr. Oetker has released a carob flour for consumers in Turkey to replace cocoa powder at home.

In more alt-cocoa news, US flour giant Ardent Mills has launched a wheat-based Cocoa Replace product. It can substitute 25% of cocoa powder in baking applications.

Kraft Heinz Not Company has unveiled the latest innovations in its US lineup: a NotMayo Chipotle Squeeze and Kraft NotMac & Cheese Cups.

US breakfast foods company Purely Elizabeth has rolled out a Protein Oatmeal range in Apple Harvest Crumble, Chocolate Chip Banana Bread and Maple Cinnamon Roll. The vegan products have 10g of protein per serving and retail for $6.49 per 235g pack in supermarkets nationwide,

Meanwhile, the Plant-Based Seafood Co‘s Mind Blown brand has reignited its partnership with PLNT Burger to offer its Maryland-style crab cake in a limited-edition Happy Crabby Sandwich for the third year in a row.

Plus, Häagen-Dazs Shops has launched a summer blueberry collection featuring the brand’s first oat milk offering in the US. The Blueberry Lemon Non-Dairy Freeze drink combines its blueberry and lemon sorbet with oat milk and blueberry preserve.

Plant-based ingredients maker Planteneers has introduced a methylcellulose-free texturiser blend with functional yeast protein for clean-label plant-based meat.

And Israeli startup Alfred’s Foodtech has released dairy-free Gouda slices with 18% protein under its new Alfred’s Deli brand. They come in original and pesto flavours.

Company and finance updates

Danish ingredients firm Feast Foods has ceased operations after failing to secure funding for its yeast extract replacer.

Elsewhere in the Nordics, Swedish dairy giant Valio has announced that it will close the Kauhava factory it took over from Raisio by the end of this year, relocating operations to its Joensuu site instead.

Online grocer Vegan Essentials has been acquired by Fake Meats owners Steven and Kim Skaff, who bought it from fellow retailer PlantX.

British cultivated meat firm Ivy Farm Technologies has appointed Rebecca Wright as chief legal officer, as part of its effort to work with regulators globally to bring its Wagyu beef to market.

US vegan fast-food chain Slutty Vegan has hired entrepreneur, investor and marketer Lauren Maillian as brand president.

The new owners of the Merit Functional Foods plant in Winnipeg, which went into receivership in March 2023, are not planning to restart it as a plant protein business.

But fellow Canadian company Burcon NutraScience has completed the first production run of its Peazazz C pea protein at its facility in Galesburg, Illinois.

Edinburgh’s Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre’s FlexBio facility is home to Scotland’s first open-access 300-litre fermenter, which was supported by an £847,000 grant from national agency Scottish Enterprise.

As part of its 2025 sustainability initiative, Indian plant-based meat startup Blue Tribe Foods recycled 1,475 kg of plastic in the first quarter of 2025, building on the 2,333 kg it recycled last year.

A bankruptcy judge in Delaware has given vegan sushi chain Planta final approval to secure nearly $5M in financing after resolving comments from its debtor-in-possession.

Venture firm Nordic Foodtech VC has hit its first close of €40M as part of an €80M fund to invest in new technologies for the food and agriculture industry.

Policy, research and awards

Californian precision fermentation leader Perfect Day has asked a District of Columbia court to throw out a lawsuit alleging that it had misled consumers about its animal-free whey products.

Scotland’s biotechnology sector is celebrating the launch of the country’s first open-access 300-litre fermenter, which has been installed thanks to an £847,000 grant from the national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise.

Also in Scotland, the University of Stirling has developed the Clean Food Consumerism scale to help manufacturers meet evolving consumer preferences for clean-label foods.

Ahead of its Singapore approval, French cultivated foie gras maker Gourmey has joined the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture.

In the Philippines, IHG Hotels & Resorts has committed to increasing its plant-based offerings to 30% of all menu items by 2027.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have found a way to control the key amino acids responsible for flavour in a bid to get cultivated meat to taste closer to its conventional counterpart.

A study by the Federal University of São Paulo has revealed that 80% of these plant-based meat products in Brazil have good nutritional quality, based on the Nutri-Score indicator. And 73% of vegan alternatives were classed as ultra-processed, much lower than animal-derived meats (92%).

Beyond Meat, Califia Farms, Whole Moon, Jell-O and Pop & Bottle have won People Magazine‘s food awards for the best plant-based products in grocery stores in 2025.

Finally, animal rights charity PETA has named the 10 most vegan-friendly cities in the US for 2025. The winner is the home of deep-dish, Chicago.

Check out last week’s Future Food Quick Bites.