What’s new in Plant Based?
I spent yesterday (19/9/2024) at the Lunch! / Casual Dining Show at the ExCel Centre in London with Kate Rapacchi on the hunt for interesting new products, trends and innovations, especially in the plant-based space.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the macro trends around UPFs, sugar and functional products, many brands were promoting their clean ingredients as well as their physical and mental performance-enhancing benefits, with high protein, gut-health and uplift/wind down featuring heavily across beverages and alt-snackfoods.
- Common Functional Drinks have both a nootropic range based on Lion's Mane and Chaga mushroom extracts with a Vit B complex for their mental boost products, and a CBD and vitamin complex for their step back range
- The Jamu Wild Water range of gut-friendly sparkling waters are based on prebiotic chicory fibre and British botanical extracts, wrapped up in a brand mission to support young people in reconnecting with nature
- Boka have new recipes of lunchbox-friendly and vegan-friendly cereal bars that are low in sugar and fat, high in fibre, and nut-free
A couple of personal highlights for me came in the plant-based space:
- Fable's insanely-good shiitake-based alt-meat products are already in market at Rosa's Thai and Wagamama etc, but also available in Holland & Barrett for consumers. Made from shiitake stems that would otherwise be discarded as waste they promote a strong sustainability story and the product delivers a really good meaty texture and eat, holding flavour well
- Biff's Lion's mane mushroom steaks were superb, as were their plant-based beechwood "smoked salmon" and their crispy tofu pieces - somehow maintaining a good chewy tofu texture as well as a crisp crunchy exterior
- And a shout-out for Moma who served me the best oat flat white I've ever tasted (no lie!) made with their Barista oat product and were showcasing their new range of canned oat-based chilled coffees (thanks for the best-in-show tote bag too)
So, although there weren't many knock-your-socks-off innovations, the show provided strong reminders of the dominant trends of the moment and some interesting emerging brands bringing fresh tweaks to common themes.