Morning All,

There’s a lot to digest in alternative protein land this week.

Picking up on my earlier note about “where are the hyper‑trendy plant-based brands,” I’ve been thinking about the news that Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness has left the company and is now heading up Bel Group USA, the dairy giant. It’s very much a return to form: before Impossible, he helped lead Chobani’s rise as one of the most successful modern yogurt brands. When the departure first broke, people I spoke to in the industry assumed he’d been pushed out. With his new role confirmed and his own posts about how excited he is to join Bel, it feels more like a move he wanted to make than an exit under duress.

It does raise questions about what his departure signals. Did he simply get a better offer? Did he feel Impossible had hit a ceiling, or that he couldn’t execute the playbook he believed in? Unlike Beyond Meat, Impossible is still private, so we don’t have the same visibility under the hood. We do know it has raised a lot of capital and, commercially, has done relatively well: the Impossible Whopper is still on the Burger King menu, and the brand is present in multiple international markets. It hasn’t experienced the same scale of retreat that Beyond has in the US and elsewhere. By most measures, it’s still one of the more successful “plant-based 2.0” retail brands.

That’s why McGuinness always felt like a strong hire: a seasoned CPG operator trying to turn Impossible into a brand for everyone, not just vegans and plant-based enthusiasts. His leaving feels like a loss for the sector. At the same time, GFI’s latest funding numbers, based on Net Zero Insights data, show alternative protein investment at its lowest level in years (less than $1 billion raised in 2025). The refrain I keep hearing is that “this is a good thing” because capital is now only backing disciplined founders who care about P&L, not just topline growth. I’m also hearing that “the real industry” is now in ingredients and supply chain. I don’t disagree that there’s huge potential in alternative fats, cacao, coffee and other B2B plays—and I’ve been bullish on those myself—but I do worry we’re writing off consumer‑facing CPG too quickly.

For alternative protein specifically, I keep coming back to the same question: did we ever have enough true CPG talent in the room to build brands the mass market actually wanted? That was the thread in my note a couple of weeks ago, and it’s still where my mind goes when I look at these latest headlines. There’s nothing inherently wrong with a sector that’s mostly B2B and supply‑chain focused; we absolutely need more resilient, lower‑carbon inputs. But from a cultural perspective, CPG matters. It’s what changes minds and habits at scale. That’s where the industry has struggled, and I’d argue Impossible came closest—another reason McGuinness’s move feels significant.

He hasn’t said publicly why he left Impossible, but he has been vocal about his new role and appears to be hitting the ground running, which suggests this is a deliberate step, not a forced exit. He was one of the few experienced CPG veterans willing to go to bat for the category, to sit with journalists and make statements that ruffled feathers. He openly said that focusing on climate as the primary consumer message was a mistake, and more recently indicated he’d consider a blended meat‑Impossible product—an idea that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. Taken together, his departure, the funding slowdown, and the industry’s pivot toward ingredients leave me with an open question for 2026: has alternative protein quietly given up on CPG, and if so, are we doing that for the wrong reasons?

-Sonalie

💡 Only On Green Queen

🇺🇸 60 Minutes: RFK Jr Says FDA ‘Will Act’ on Ultra-Processed Foods GRAS Petition
The US FDA “will act” on a petition by its former chief, which would see the GRAS status of some ultra-processed foods revoked, health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has said. But he stopped short of promising regulation on these products.

💰 Funding News

🏭 Fermentation startup MicroHarvest received a €5.5 million ($6.5 million) grant from the German government to open an industrial-scale microbial protein plant in Leuna.
💡The plant will be able to churn out 15,000 tonnes of protein every year for use in pet food, human food, and aquaculture.

🥚 UK-based The Bland Company raised $2.7 million in pre-seed funding to build functional plant proteins from agricultural sidestreams, starting with egg replacers.
💡The startup's process is “capital-light by design”, and can plug into existing food manufacturing infrastructure.

☕️ Belgium’s Koppie secured additional funding from DOEN Ventures, taking its total raised to over €2 million ($2.4 million), just eight months after emerging from stealth.
💡It has also completed an industrial-scale production run of its beanless coffee products, ahead of a planned launch later this year.

🍫 Food industry giant Cargill has teamed up with Kokomodo to advance cell-based chocolate solutions, partly funded by the Proof-of-Concept Co-Financing Instrument of EIT Food.
💡The goal of the collaboration is to accelerate research to fast-track these products’ market entry.

📉 The investment downturn in alternative proteins continued in 2025, falling by 20% and totalling under $1 billion for the first time since 2018, according to the Good Food Institute’s analysis of data from Net Zero Insights. 
💡The gap between well-capitalised and struggling startups is set to continue this year.

✅ Must-Read Headlines

🍬 Israeli startup Amai Proteins secured a ‘no questions’ letter from the US FDA, clearing the way for the market entry of its sweet protein in food and beverage applications.
💡The ingredient can replace 40-70% of added sugar content, key in a time of consumer concern over health and product labels, and has a 98% lower climate footprint.

🇳🇴 Norwegian food systems non-profit EAT Foundation will discontinue operations in its current format amid a significant shift in the funding priorities and conditions of the global donor landscape.
💡The foundation’s work on food systems transformation has helped shape research, policy and practice across the world: it helped create the world-renowned EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet.

📈 Oatly announced its first full year of profitable growth as a public company, with revenue increasing by nearly 5% in 2025.
💡The results came the same day the business lost a long-running battle over the labelling of plant-based milk products in the UK. You win some, you lose some.

👩🏻‍⚖ Plant-based giant Beyond Meat is facing a(nother) class-action lawsuit from investors who allege that it concealed its need for a big asset writedown.
💡It’s been a tough year for Beyond Meat, and the latest lawsuit comes two weeks before it announces its full-year earnings for 2025. 

👨🏻‍⚖ Government Guidelines

🇫🇷 After years of debate, the French government has updated its national dietary guidelines, which recommend limiting meat and increasing plant-based protein consumption to improve public and planetary health.

🇺🇸 In an open letter to the US health and agriculture secretaries, 210 doctors and researchers have highlighted serious concerns about the new dietary guidelines and called for a science-based approach instead.

🇪🇺 A group of 20 food companies, including Beyond Meat, Quorn, The Vegetarian Butcher, and Linda McCartney, are imploring the EU to reject a proposal that would prohibit plant-based products from using meat-like terms on their packaging, ahead of a vote next month.

🚀 Everything Else In Future Food

🔬 The Global Stewardship Group launched a programme dedicated to plant molecular farming, with five startups joining as inaugural members to help bring the technology to market.

🌱 Vegan food is returning to growth for the first time in years in the UK, whose largest retailer, Tesco, credits the expanding demand for protein, fibre and whole foods behind the sector’s sales rally.

💡 A new study by the University of Borås in Sweden shows that mycoprotein can deliver significant nutritional benefits with high protein digestibility and mineral accessibility, though its true potential depends on these factors.

🌱🍔  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 Bareburger expansion, Crafty Counter’s Whole Foods ramen collab, and One Planet Pizza’s sales milestone.

📆 Scene & Heard

Could YOU Be a FoodTech World Cup Winner?!

🏆Applications just opened for the FoodTech World Cup. The ultimate tournament to showcase the world’s best startups in Food BioTech hosted by Nestlé and FoodHack. Apply today to take part.

🎥 Who Let The Docs Out, a new non-profit documentary alliance and film fund, officially launched with the announcement of its 2026 Coexistence Documentary Fund, a global grant program designed to support bold documentary storytelling about animals, food systems, and the rapidly growing global shift toward plant-based and alternative ways of eating. Learn more here.

🌱🥛 Head to San Francisco on 18th March for the 2nd Annual TASTY Awards, and you might run into Green Queen’s super reporter, Anay Mridul! Find out more here.

🇳🇱 Join Europe’s biggest conference for alternative protein professionals, Plant Fwd, at the Midden Nederland Hallen in Barneveld on April 8th-9th. Get your ticket here.

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