Morning Folks,

Thanks for all the feedback on last week’s note. Keep it coming! Meanwhile, this is the note I had prepared before I got sidetracked by the Dieline piece.

Plant milk has a protein problem. And I think the category is about to feel that problem much more acutely.

Plant milk is complicated because every ingredient base comes with a trade-off. If you want to avoid sugar, rice is basically out. If you want to avoid fat, coconut is out — and coconut also has a very particular aftertaste. Oat milk, the most popular barista milk, is low in protein. Almond has a little more going for it nutritionally, but it has a very specific taste, doesn't froth as well, and comes with the obvious allergy issue (similar to cashew milk and other nut milks). Newer upstarts like potato milk are low in protein too. That leaves soy, which is still the closest plant-based equivalent to dairy milk in terms of protein, but has spent years dealing with an image problem (the phytoestrogen drama), even though much of the criticism directed at it has been mostly debunked. Across the category, the basic issue remains: soy can deliver something close to what people want, but oat is the milk people have chosen.

This is a problem in a food culture increasingly obsessed with protein, one that becomes more acute in the context of GLP-1 drugs, which are changing how people eat by reducing appetite and shrinking portions. When people are eating less, every bite (or sip!) has to work harder. The guidance around these drugs consistently emphasizes protein and muscle preservation, and the wider wellness culture has made protein the macro most closely associated with strength, health, longevity, and “doing food right.” The uptake on these drugs is extraordinary. JP Morgan estimates that approx. 25 million Americans will be on GLP-1 treatments by 2030 (compared to 10M in 2025 and 6M in 2024). With lower-cost options and oral pills reaching the market, global numbers will likely dwarf that. Employers are now paying for it. In a “wow moment” interview, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan recently said the company is spending “about $250 million or more” a year on GLP-1 medications for its employees, up from zero four or five years ago! That is not just a healthcare story. It is a sign of how quickly appetite, weight, workplace benefits, and food consumption are becoming connected.

And yet, look at the plant-milk aisle. An eight-ounce serving of oat milk can contain around 4 grams of protein, while almond milk is often closer to 1 gram; soy is much closer to dairy, at around 7–9 grams per cup, depending on the product. The category that has positioned itself around health, wellness, and better living is not necessarily delivering the macronutrient that consumers increasingly want most.

US plant-based milk remains a significant category — the Good Food Institute puts 2025 retail sales at $2.7 billion, representing roughly 13% of total milk-category dollar sales — although dollar sales fell 2% and unit sales 5% that year. In Europe, the picture is more positive in some markets: Germany’s plant-based milk category reached €632 million in 2025 and grew 7.7% in volume, while Spain’s reached €355 million and grew 5.8% in volume. So this is not a category in freefall. But growth cannot just mean more flavors, more packaging, and more barista editions. At some point, the nutritional proposition has to catch up with the cultural one.

The obvious answer is not necessarily to protein-max every plant milk forever. I don’t think people are going to want 20 grams of protein in every beverage indefinitely. But I also don’t think the protein moment is going away. The question for plant milk is how to add meaningful protein without compromising taste, texture, frothability, affordability, or the clean-label expectations that made the category popular in the first place (and without becoming a protein drink!) Do you reformulate oat? Do you accept that soy is the better nutritional answer and fix its image problem? Do you build new products around pea, potato, or blended bases? Or do you decide that plant milk is primarily a coffee and taste product, and stop pretending it is a complete wellness solution?

Because that, ultimately, is the tension. Plant milk succeeded by solving a very specific consumer and cultural problem: dairy avoidance, climate concern, coffee performance, and a desire for something that felt modern. Now the market is asking it to solve another problem, namely, how to make shrinking diets more nutritionally efficient. The category has always been very good at giving people an alternative. The next challenge is whether it can make that alternative genuinely deliver.

-Sonalie

 💡 Only on Green Queen

👋🏼 Industry Insights: Why This UK Insurance Broker is Turning Away Businesses That Sell Animal Products
British business insurance broker Really Honest has announced it will refuse new clients who produce or sell animal products, as well as other “destructive” services. Its founder, Steven Darrah, explains why.

 ✅ Must-Read Headlines

🌱 California-based Plantible Foods secured $35 million in USDA-backed loan and equity funding to quintuple the manufacturing capacity for its duckweed-derived Rubisco protein.
💡Plantible plans to build up to 50 new greenhouses at its 100-acre enclosed aquafarm facility near Eldorado.

🍚 US startup Mitti Labs raised $9.5 million in Series A funding to scale its AI-powered technology that reduces water use and methane emissions on rice farms in Asia, converting savings into verified carbon credits.
💡In the last year, Mitti Labs has gone from working with 35,000 smallholder farmers to 100,000 across six states in India, the world’s most populous nation and one of its most water-stressed.

🥩 Israeli 3D-printed meat startup Steakholder Foods secured $3.5 million in private placements to broaden the distribution of its Perfecta consumer brand in the US.
💡Steakholder Foods also potentially stands to secure another $7 million if investors fully exercise its Series E and Series F warrants.

🤖 India’s Inaara NeoFoods raised ₹21 crore ($2.2 million) to advance its AI-powered “farm to formulation” platform for producing plant-based proteins, fibres, fats, and functional starches.
💡The company’s closed-loop system ensures continuous “customer-centric product development, complete traceability and quality control”, important in this time of misinformation and mistrust.

🇲🇾 Australian precision fermentation startup All G, which makes recombinant dairy and human milk proteins, secured financial backing from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund.
💡All G has already commercialised bovine apo-lactoferrin and is now targeting approval for infant formula in the US - a major opportunity.

🇮🇳 Public health scientists in India have proposed a “dual-axis” framework to classify foods based on nutritional content and processing levels, just as the government faces questions about its regulation of ultra-processed foods.
💡 This approach could provide the scientific foundation for improved front-of-pack food labelling, marketing restrictions, and school nutrition policies, as well as prevent misleading health claims on reformulated products.

🇺🇸 The Trump administration has published its long-awaited proposal to scrap a rule that allows companies to self-determine which ingredients are GRAS, but it has postponed its promised definition of ultra-processed foods.
💡Ashish Talati, a lawyer specialising in FDA regulatory matters, argued that the self-determined distinction matters legally, but less so commercially.

 📈 Sectors in Growth

🎨 Food processing giant ADM has pumped $16 million into expanding its Kentucky facility to meet the fast-growing demand for naturally derived alternatives to artificial food dyes.
💡According to ADM, the North American colour conversion market is valued at over $1 billion.

🫘 US agriculture company Scoular is adding a second soybean dehuller at its Ohio facility amid growing demand for plant-based food and milk products.
💡Expanded manufacturing has been a core focus for the milk alternatives industry, which accounts for 78.5% of all plant-based food sales globally.

🍬 Nordic CPG giant Orkla Snacks has agreed to acquire the European Candy Group for €207 million ($239 million) to expand production and footprint for its viral Bubs brand of vegan gummies.
💡In early 2024, Bubs went viral on social media, leading to an unprecedented global shortage.

 🥛 Plant-Based Milks

💪🏼 US plant-based milk brand Malk Organics has launched what it says is its “biggest innovation yet”: a high-protein, additive-free whole milk, following a year in which its sales hit $94 million.

☕️ Australia’s MilkLab has entered New Zealand supermarkets with barista oat and almond milks to tap into the country’s at-home specialty coffee culture.

🥛 South Korean food giant CJ CheilJedang launched low-sugar soy milk varieties under its Altive brand, while also refreshing the formulations and packaging of its plant-based protein shakes.

🚀 Everything Else In Future Food

🍈 South Korea’s Chilgok County has created a plant-based leather alternative from discarded melon peels, with the aim of boosting farm incomes and the local economy alike.

🥬 Researchers at Imperial College London have discovered a way to grow myoglobin, a heme-containing protein that gives meat its colour and umami flavour, in genetically engineered tobacco and lettuce plants to make better-tasting meat alternatives.

📊 US startup Superbrewed Food has released the results of a clinical study on its postbiotic cultured protein, which has been found to outperform pea protein and match whey in muscle protein synthesis.

💵 Continued headwinds in foodservice and the US led to an 8% decline in Beyond Meat’s Q2 2026 sales, but success in European and Canadian retail helped it beat its own revenue estimates.

📉 Berlin-based Cultimate Foods, known for its cell-cultured fat, has closed down nearly four months after filing for bankruptcy, having been unable to secure enough funding to stay afloat.

🇦🇺 A new study by Adelaide University reveals that meat-eaters in Australia perceive plant-based alternatives as riskier and less valuable, regardless of how they’re marketed, and calls on manufacturers to tailor their messaging to different consumer groups.

🌱🍔  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 ad campaign with Josh Hart, Califia Farms’s banana milk, and a Harvard study on UPFs and health.

📆 Scene & Heard

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The NAPIC Conference, happening 14th-15th October, will gather a diverse group of stakeholders— including industry leaders, innovators, researchers, investors, and policymakers—to explore and advance the latest developments in alternative protein innovation. Register here.

🤖 Coefficient Giving is launching a $10-30 million RFP for work to help ensure AI improves human health and wellbeing, with particular attention to risks for and benefits to the global poor. Find out more and apply here before 21st August.

🧫 The International Scientific Conference on Cultured Meat will return to Maastricht 15th-17th November to delve into the science and innovation behind lab-grown meat, exploring its environmental, ethical, and health impacts in the food industry. Find out more here.