On The Green Side clean label chicken alternatives

© On The Green Side

Market & Trends

ProVeg South Africa Report Shows Significant Rise in Plant-Based Options in Fast Food Industry

ProVeg South Africa has released a report on the prevalence of plant-based options in South Africa’s fast-food and restaurant industry, offering in-depth analysis and ranking of major chains based on their plant-based offerings, advertising strategies, product naming, and more. According to the report, fast-food consumption in South Africa has surged by 33.1% since 2019, spurred by challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and load-shedding crises in the country, which caused many people to turn to fast food due to power outages in their homes. In response to growing health, ethical, and environmental concerns, plant-based main dishes have seen a 16.67% increase in menus, though they still constitute less than 5% of the total offerings. The rise in vegan, vegetarian, and flexitarian consumers, who now, according to …

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Plant-Based Pizza by Modern Meat

Modern Fiesta Pizza © CNW Group/Modern Plant Based Foods Inc.

Gastronomy & Food Service

Canada’s Modern Meat Develops QSR Plant-Based Pizzas with Carbone Restaurant Group

Canadian food company Modern Plant-Based Foods (CSE: MEAT) announces its subsidiary Modern Meat is co-developing plant-based pizzas with Carbone Restaurant Group, a leading restaurant group and brand incubator.  Modern Meat currently supplies products to Carbone and is working to expand the restaurant group’s plant-based menu offerings, as well as increase product supply volumes.  Pizza ventures Based in Canada, Carbone owns several quick-service concepts and is a leader in ghost kitchen brands. Through its partnership with Modern Meat, the company now offers Modern Meat Crumble at its FAST FIRED pizza chain via the “Modern Fiesta” pizza, which features vegan mozzarella, vegan bacon crumble, tomato, green pepper, corn, jalapeño, and vegan aioli drizzle. Carbone has also launched Plantza Pizza, an all-vegan, delivery-only pizza restaurant that showcases Modern …

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Clean Kitchen Club

©Clean Kitchen Club

Investments & Finance

Made in Chelsea and YouTube Star Close £1.4M Seed Round for Vegan Clean Kitchen Club

Made in Chelsea reality TV star Verity Bowditch and former YouTube personality Mikey Pearce have closed the seed round funding for their plant-based food brand Clean Kitchen Club. The round raised £1.4 million with a £7.5 million valuation despite being less than 12 months since launching.  “People are waking up to the impact that meat production is having on the environment and need a clear solution” – Verity Bowditch The plant-based QSR chain currently operates out of five sites in London, selling over 50,000 burgers in its first year and growing 30% month-on-month. The funding and valuation will enable Clean Kitchen Club to expand further with plans to open 40 new sites across the UK as it aims to bring sustainable, plant-based food and carbon-neutral …

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Pork Crackling Burgers & Tots The Vurger ©The Vurger Co

Gastronomy & Food Service

Exclusive: The Vurger Co Reveals the Opening of Its Biggest Ever Restaurant Location

The Vurger Co, whose founders were awarded Restaurant Entrepreneurs of the Year at this year’s Food & Drink Heroes Awards, reveals exclusively to vegconomist that it is to open a fourth restaurant, venturing for the first time into the north of England with a new location set to be the biggest to date. As the much-loved vegan QSR chain celebrates five years of exponential success, founders Rachel Hugh and Neil Potts enthuse today: “We are incredibly excited to announce that our next restaurant will be opening in Manchester! Manchester has been a huge goal for us right from the start, and after spending a year sourcing the right site, we couldn’t be more excited to be launching our biggest restaurant site to date later this …

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