Morning All,

Last night I was invited to be the guest speaker for the monthly gathering of HK Green Drinks. The chosen topic? State of alternative proteins. I won’t lie, it was hard to end on a very positive note, but I certainly gave it the ol’ college try and found a way to end on a somewhat hopeful note. One key message from me to the audience? The vibes around alt protein may have changed, but the math certainly hasn’t—we still have a finite amount of land/water/energy, a need to reduce food-linked GHG emissions and growing demand for animal protein. At some point, we will have to reckon with that.

In this week’s Future Food Weekly note, I’m rounding up my favourite recent food systems/foodtech reads from around the web:

Don’t Quit Climate: Juliette Devillard’s LinkedIn post is a timely gut-check amid founder burnout and exits from the climate space. She highlights persistent innovation in carbon removal tech and resilient supply chains, even as fatigue sets in and reminds us that real progress often happens quietly, far from the headlines. A rallying cry for those still in the trenches.

Ultra-Formulated, Not Ultra-Processed: All of us in the alt protein space know the dangers of the nuance-free anti-UPF narrative that has taken over airwaves the past two years and caused so much damage to plant-based food brands, so Mark Haas’ piece really resonated. He dismantles the push for blanket “ultra-processed food” taxes, using applesauce as a punchy example of misguided policy. He champions nutrient-packed, precision-engineered foods that deliver real satiety and health benefits, especially for GLP-1 users craving better options without the junk, arguing that humans have processed foods for millennia, and it’s the ultra-formulated stuff we should avoid. ​

Insect Protein Postmortem: DigitalFoodLab’s candid Ynsect scaling autopsy lays bare the pitfalls: sky-high costs, persistent taste issues, and brutal market misreads. I’ve argued for years that insect protein isn’t viable, so I am in no way surprised at the trials and tribulations the failing sector has been living through, but this short, clear-eyed postmortem is a worthy read, offering lessons for any ambitious protein play.

GLP-1’s Big Food Reckoning: The FT’s incisive op-ed by UK Food Tsar Henry Dimbleby exposes how GLP-1 drugs are quietly eviscerating Big Food’s snack empires with consumers slashing junk intake while execs drag their feet on protein-heavy pivots. It’s a wake-up call on how fast our eating habits are shifting, and why food giants risk obsolescence without bold adaptation. But can they help us get healthier? And can they do so while lowering supply chain emissions?

Chefs vs. PFAS: While the anti-plastic movement is experiencing a pushback, consumers have never cared more about PFAS amid growing toxic ingredient scares (thank you, MAHA!), so I found climate newsletter Heated’s investigation into celebrity chefs rejecting non-stick pans over PFAS health risks (and their anti-Teflon chef profile follow-up) very eye-opening. Their reporting reveals the risks to consumers when celebrity chefs morph into influencers and product sellers, pushing non-stick gear tied to forever chemicals while supply chains scramble for safer swaps in pro and home kitchens.

Consumer Trends 2026 Deck: New Consumer’s blockbuster 122-slide report is always a must-read/view, and this edition unpacks GLP-1 surges, creator economies, and a third of Americans entering “optimization mode” for richer living rather than mere longevity. Packed with survey data from 3,000+ US consumers, it’s a roadmap for food brands navigating trade-ups and health shifts in the US, but also, given the data I am looking at, across Europe and Asia, where these trends are showing up already.

Note: Next week, ​you’ll receive this newsletter a day earlier, on December 24th, and we’ll be back in your inboxes on January 8th as the team takes a break over the holidays.

-Sonalie

💡 Only On Green Queen

🌱 Exclusive: Livekindly Collective Snaps Up TiNDLE Foods’ Plant-Based Meat Business in Three Countries
Livekindly Collective has made its latest acquisition in the plant-based meat sector, taking over TiNDLE Foods’ foodservice business in the US, the UK and Germany. We have the inside scoop.

🇪🇺 Exclusive: MEP Anna Strolenberg on Why the EU’s ‘Veggie Burger’ Ban Reached A Deadlock
The EU has postponed its decision on the proposed ban of meat-like terms on plant-based product labels. Dutch MEP Anna Strolenberg takes us behind the scenes of the negotiations.

🇨🇳 Deep Dive: 10 Things We Learned About China’s Alternative Protein Ecosystem in 2025
It has been a big year for China’s future food economy – here are the 10 trends that defined the country’s alternative proteins space in 2025.

🏆 Op-Ed: Food Tech is Creating A Clean Slate for the Processed Food Debate
James Petrie, co-founder and CEO of Nourish Ingredients, argues why the processed food discourse lacks nuance, and how the food tech industry can provide winning solutions.

✅ Must-Read Headlines

🥃 Scottish biotech MiAlgae has begun construction of a commercial-scale facility to recycle whisky waste into algal omega-3, backed by a £3 million investment from the UK government.
💡MiAlgae’s new facility will be able to recycle over 36 million litres of whisky byproducts and save six billion fish used to produce DHA every year.

🇮🇳 Indian plant-based nutrition brand Earthful raised ₹26 crores ($2.9 million) pre-Series A funding to support the expansion of its women’s health products.
💡Earthful has built a base of over 200,000 customers over the last two years, and the founders further teased a new project that will deepen the brand’s work on menopause. 

🇨🇭 Swiss manufacturing giant Bühler Group has collaborated with US firm Pow.Bio to launch an AI-powered continuous precision fermentation technology.
💡The new platform is designed for a whole host of fermentation-derived products, and addresses obstacles that have long slowed scale-up in the sector.

🇪🇺 The European Union has failed to reach an agreement over the highly contentious plant-based meat labelling ban, with negotiations now delayed to 2026.
💡While meat alternatives manufacturers will be spared (for now) from spending significant sums on redesigning their packaging and marketing, some have rued the debate’s impact on delaying a better deal for farmers.

🧫 Cultivated News

🇨🇳 Chinese startup Joes Future Food has built the country’s largest pilot plant for cultivated meat, after completing the world’s first scaled trial production run of its pork.
💡The announcement comes amid a year of major progress for China’s cultivated meat ecosystem; the factory’s official opening will be subject to regulatory checks, hopefully before the end of next year.

🤝🏼 US-based Fork & Good has signed a strategic collaboration with Nutreco and Extracellular to scale up its cultivated beef and pork in a cost-efficient manner.
💡The partnership will initially focus on high-performing media formulations, ingredient innovation, and dedicated workstreams to streamline cost drivers.

🚫 Israeli cultivated meat startup Believer Meats has ceased operations, a week after it was hit with a lawsuit over unpaid bills.
💡Believer Meats was on course to become one of the only startups to commercialise cultivated meat in the US, and had raised $378 million since its inception in 2018.

🇲🇾 The Department of Islamic Development Malaysia has ruled that cultivated meat can be halal if it meets certain basic conditions, the first such declaration by a Muslim-majority country.
💡Malaysia’s guidance follows similar rulings in Singapore and South Korea over the last couple of years, adding to a growing consensus that these proteins can be eaten by the world’s two billion Muslims.

☑️ Governments Making Moves

🥛 The US House of Representatives has passed the FISCAL Act to expand access to plant-based milk in school lunches. President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law.

🇪🇺 The EU’s first Biotech Act has proposed to expand the support given to companies looking for novel food approval, but has kept these products out of the scope of regulatory sandboxes. Here’s what that means.

💪🏼 The Illinois Alternative Protein Innovation Task Force released a report on how the state can build on its biomanufacturing leadership to strengthen its economy and food sovereignty.

🇹🇭 A Thai government agency has kicked off a campaign calling for a transition to a plant-rich food system, citing better health, climate and economic outcomes.

🚀 Everything Else In Future Food

📈 Despite what headlines might suggest, the global sustainability market is thriving, according to a new report by the World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group, and food and agriculture is poised to be the second fastest-growing segment.

🎸 A new MIT study calculates the climate impact of the live music industry, identifying fan travel and food and beverage as the biggest sources of emissions.

🥙 The annual carbon footprint of beef recipes promoted by the US’s leading food outlets on social media  - think Cook’s Illustrated, Food & Wine, Allrecipes, and Food Network - exceeds that of Belgium, shows new analysis from the Center for Biological Diversity.

🌱🍔  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 Emily in Paris's creamer collab, Beyond Meat's tenders, and Formula 1's blended beef trick.

📆 Scene & Heard

🚀 Apply Now For Cohort 9 of the Climatebase Fellowship

💥 Applications are now open for the next cohort of the Climatebase Fellowship — Climatebase’s flagship program designed to help talented, mission-driven professionals accelerate their careers in climate. Learn more and apply here.

🇺🇸 Join CPGs, retailers, ingredient and technology providers, cutting-edge entrepreneurs and investors at Future Food-Tech San Francisco on March 19th-20th and connect for targeted networking, exclusive industry insights and startup discovery. Sign up here.

🇬🇧 Plan ahead for Food Matters Live, 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.

🇯🇵 Since its debut in 1976, FOODEX JAPAN has become the premier international F&B business platform, connecting over 80,000 exhibitors with 4,000,000 buyers. Don’t miss the next one, taking place 10th-13th March. Get more details here.

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