Morning All,

Last week, I looked ahead at the big trends set to shape Green Queen’s reporting in 2026—from blended dairy and smarter protein policy to GLP-1 going mainstream. I gave a webinar about them for Bridge2Food on Tuesday; see my slides here. This week, many of those forecasts are already colliding with reality.

GLP-1 Pill Approval: With the first oral GLP-1 pills now approved in the US and Canada, what was once a niche injectable category is poised to become a true mass-market behaviour shift. This is something flagged here before as a major 2026 trend—especially as last year’s moves in China, India and across Asia made these drugs more accessible to hundreds of millions of consumers, not just the wealthy on injectables. A pill format removes a lot of the friction on uptake (lots of folks are squeamish about regular injections), so for Big Food, that means the “Ozempic effect” on appetite, portion size and category mix (not to mention grocery bills) is about to accelerate.

Dietary Guidelines of America (DGAs): At the same time, the new US Dietary Guidelines—shaped by RFK Jr.’s MAHA agenda—have thrown gasoline on the food politics fire. The updated guidance effectively inverts the old food pyramid: elevating protein (with a heavy emphasis on animal protein and especially beef), doubling down on dairy, telling people to eliminate added sugars and simple carbs, and being strikingly relaxed about saturated fat. Social media lit up with hot takes, backlash and cheerleading in equal measure. For future food and alt protein, it’s a double signal: the protein-first era is fully here, but the institutional deck is still stacked in favour of conventional animal agriculture, making policy engagement and scientific literacy non‑negotiable. I wrote about why the DGAs matter beyond the US here, and we have a great overview of all the reactions from sustainable food experts here (not to mention a piece on the pushback from the Physicians Committee). Oh, and the giant climate-sized elephant (cow) in the room? The new DGAs are terrible for the planet!

ChatGPT Health: Layered on top of this is OpenAI’s launch of a dedicated health assistant, which could quietly become one of the most influential nutrition advisers on the planet. If millions of people start asking an AI doctor what to eat for weight loss, diabetes or longevity, the answers—and the evidence base and guidelines behind them—will shape grocery baskets, restaurant orders and product development in ways regulators and brands barely understand today.

Put together, these three signals—the GLP-1 pill, protein‑heavy US guidelines, and AI‑mediated health advice—suggest that food tech’s next chapter won’t just be decided in R&D labs or VC boardrooms, but at the messy intersection of medicine, policy and algorithms.

-Sonalie

💡 Only On Green Queen

🇺🇸 New US Dietary Guidelines: More Red Meat, More Dairy in Blow to Climate Goals
The new US Dietary Guidelines have largely ignored scientists’ advice to prioritise plant-based proteins, instead endorsing red meat and full-fat dairy in a much-criticised move. Here’s what the experts are saying.

🧒🏻 Industry Insights: The Better-for-You Kids Brands Creating Food For A Climate-Conscious Generation
Children’s health is garnering more attention amid rising obesity and ultra-processed food concerns – here are seven brands that are truly better for kids, and simultaneously planet-friendly.

💡 Op-Ed: How to Build A Moat in Alternative Protein Manufacturing
Insa M. Mohr, an expert in strategy design and implementation for biomanufacturing as well as the founder of Offbeast, a US-based startup pioneering the manufacturing of plant-based whole cuts, shares how to build an alternative protein technology moat.

💰 Funding News

🇩🇰 Danish biotech Bactolife raised €30 million ($35 million) to launch its gut-health-boosting binding proteins in the US and kickstart a human study programme.
💡The company also plans to scale up its manufacturing and supply operations, with a focus on functional food and drinks, infant formula, dietary supplements, and feed additives.

🪸 UK sustainable packaging firm Notpla and 14 supporting partners have received a €4 million ($4.7 million) grant from the Horizon Europe programme to create a plastic-free, home-compostable coffee cup.
💡Notpla is working with a range of partners from across the value chain, from biomass and agricultural waste to scalable production, to end-of-life testing and full lifecycle assessment.

💸 Leading plant-based meat maker Rebellyous Foods secured $3.5 million in new funding and commercially launched its Mock 3 Production System on the back of a 30% sales growth.
💡The system converts conventional plant-based meat production into a continuous, automated process on a commercial scale, helping the company to further slash the costs of production.

🍄 Netherlands-based The Protein Brewery has been awarded €2.3 million ($2.7 million) in an EU grant to commercialise its fungi-derived ingredient, with a focus on dairy alternatives.
💡It also won a €570,000 ($665,000) grant from EU-backed accelerator EIT Food, to help bring Fermotein to the health and wellness markets.

🥛 Alt Dairy News

☕️ Starbucks India is targeting the country’s protein boom with a new line of cold foams made with SuperYou’s yeast protein, which is available across all its 500 stores nationwide.

🥛 Minnesota-based chain Caribou Coffee has become the latest company to drop the plant-based milk surcharge, as dairy alternatives become free across its over 800 locations.

🇩🇪 Polling by dairy giant Danone and market research firm Innofact finds that a majority of people in Germany are in favour of a lower VAT rate on plant-based milk, which is bought by nearly half of the country’s consumers now.

🚀 Everything Else In Future Food

🌱 Impossible Foods has partnered with Equii to cater to America’s protein demand by combining plant-based meat with grain-based pastas and breads, in response to the country’s latest dietary guidelines and amid the GLP-1 boom.

🍺 Researchers at the University College London have devised a method to turn the yeast left over from beer production into edible scaffolds for affordable cultivated meat.

👩🏻‍⚕ A physicians’ non-profit has petitioned the US health department to withdraw and reissue its new national dietary guidelines, alleging a conflict of interest with the meat and dairy industry.

🇨🇦 New data from Bryant Research shows surging demand for plant-based food in Canada, but prices remain both an opportunity and a challenge for companies in this space.

🐶 Dogs that eat premium, meat-rich diets can have a larger climate impact than their owners, according to research from the University of Edinburgh.

🌱🍔  Future Food Quick Bites 

In our weekly column, Future Food Quick Bites, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Beyond Meat’s new chicken products, Upside Foods’s cultivated meat tasting, and Shake Shack’s vegan menu.

📆 Scene & Heard

🚀 Secure Your Spot at Food Matters Live this June!

🇬🇧 Food Matters Live is returning to London on 3rd-4th June. The event will bring together hundreds of the UK and Ireland's innovators and product developers, technical managers, food innovators, and nutritionists across brands, manufacturers, retailers, QSRs and foodservice, including start-ups and scale-ups. Learn more here.

🌱 Step into the place where the natural and organic movement was born and where its future continues to unfold at Natural Products Expo West on 4th-6th March. For 45 years, Expo West has been the heartbeat of an industry built on innovation, purpose, and connection; find out more here.

🔬 The Foods of the Future: Science and Engineering Approaches GRC is a premier, international scientific conference focused on advancing the frontiers of science through the presentation of cutting-edge and unpublished research, prioritizing time for discussion after each talk and fostering informal interactions among scientists of all career stages. It’s happening 25th-30th January; sign up here.