Johnathan Bonnell. © Wholly Veggie

Interviews

Wholly Veggie: “Rebalancing the Plate by Getting More Than 1 in 10 People Eating Their Daily Vegetables”

Wholly Veggie is a Canadian brand working to meet consumer demand for convenient, veg-forward foods. The company aims to democratize healthy food while also benefiting the environment by encouraging the consumption of more plant-based meals. In 2021, Wholly Veggie saw a surge in popularity following the launch of its cauliflower wings and its expansion into 1,200 Target locations in the US. Another highly popular product, plant-based cheeze sticks, was launched later in the year. The brand is now available at several major chains across the US and Canada, such as Whole Foods, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Loblaws. Co-founder and Co-CEO Johnathan Bonnell told us more about the brand’s mission and plans for the future. What is the creation story behind your brand? We started with …

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Wholly-Veggie-cauliflower

© Wholly Veggie

Food & Beverage

4 North American Producers Championing Veggies in Plant-Forward Products

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, USA, only one in ten American adults consume the recommended daily serving of vegetables. The organization suggests that businesses should focus more on providing customers with healthier options to meet health recommendations. With the growing demand for plant-based foods, many companies believe plant-forward innovation should focus on vegetables, rather than producing more meat analogs. Here we look into four companies leading their plant-based developments not with soy or peas but with the power of vegetables. Cutting Vedge: artichokes US plant-based brand Cutting Vedge transforms nutrient-rich artichokes into a new world of artichoke-based meat: burgers, sausage, and meatballs.  Cutting Vedge launched at the beginning of 2021 as a clean-recipe, non-GMO, vegan, and kosher brand with impressive nutritional stats, including iron and …

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© Wholly Veggie

Food & Beverage

The 8 Most Exciting Brands Saving Food Waste by Upcycling Ingredients

Here at vegconomist we applaud and support innovation in plant-based but especially those who are working on upcycling ingredients and helping to solve the horrific global issue of food waste whereby around a third of the food produced around the world is discarded. The issue is beyond imperative but it is not beyond solution, so we here celebrate some of the brands innovating for our planet, upcycling ingredients from spent grain, to cashew fruit, to cauliflower and carrots. Spent barley from the beer industry – Take Two Portland-based Take Two transforms barley grains leftover from beer brewing into nutritious, fiber-rich barley milk. A subsidiary of EverGrain, owned by beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev, Take Two reuses over 500,000 pounds of discarded grain each year. Co-Founder & …

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©Wholly Veggie - Co-founders Johnathan Bonnell and David Orr Gaucher

Products & Launches

Wholly Veggie Continues Retail Expansion with Upcycled Cauliflower Product Rollout Across Canada

Canadian plant-based producer Wholly Veggie is debuting new products made from upcycled cauliflower. Developed with sustainable food tech innovator Outcast Foods, Wholly Veggie’s new Plant-based Mozzarella and Jalapeno Cheddar Sticks feature the brand’s patented upcycled cauliflower crust and will be rolling out in Sprouts Farmers Market across Canada. “Collaborations such as this one represent the future of the food industry” Founded to democratize access to healthy foods made from plants, Wholly Veggie teamed up with Outcast Foods to create the new products – the company taking misfit, unsellable, or cast-off produce and turning it into clean, sustainable, nutrient-dense food for wholesale, retail, and consumer use. These upcycling processes help divert food waste into value-added products.  Following the success of Wholly Veggie’s Cauliflower Wings, its new …

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