Thanks Plants

© Thanks Plants

Meat- and Fish Alternatives

Thanks Plants Launches Seitan-Based Alt Meats at ALDI Stores Across Ireland

Dublin-based Thanks Plants has launched a selection of meat alternatives at all 157 ALDI stores in the Republic of Ireland. The products are seitan-based and contain natural ingredients such as beans, barley, mustard, vinegar, and spices. Three of the meat alternatives will be available at ALDI: The Frankfurter — A plant-based version of the classic German sausage. NoMoooo Burger — Combines seitan with black beans, pearl barley, fresh carrots, beetroot, and mushrooms. Chorizo Crumbles — Ideal for use as a pizza topping, burrito filling, and more. Other Thanks Plants products include: Apple & Sage Sausages — Plant-based sausages high in protein and low in saturated fat. Chipotle Salsa Sausages — A limited-edition product flavoured with Cali Cali’s Baja Chipotle Salsa Sauce. Sundried Tomato & Herb …

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Gyro seitan Uptons Naturals

© Upton's Naturals

Company News

Upton’s Naturals is Best Selling Seitan Brand Across All Channels in USA

Chicago-based Upton’s Naturals announces that it is now the top-selling seitan brand across all channels (SPINS 52 weeks ending 12/4/22) and the only nationally distributed, independently owned company in its category. As the pioneer in seitan-based meat alternatives for retail as well as food service, Upton’s Naturals reports it has seen a continued boost in sales, growing approximately 600% from 2013 to 2022. Sell-out product When Upton’s Naturals’ seitan-based beef was added to the menu at all 24 Buona locations in Chicago and Indiana for the Plant-Based Italian Beefless Sandwich in 2021, the option sold out in the first day of launch across multiple locations due to “extremely high demand”, using 1,800lbs of seitan in the process. Following this success, Buona decided to make the sandwich …

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Blackbird Foods Chili Seitan

©Blackbird Foods

Food & Beverage

NYC’s Blackbird Foods is Bringing Restaurant-Level Vegan Comfort Food to More Consumers

As the diversity of plant-based convenience foods grows, many brands still rely on mass-produced ingredients that typically lack hand-crafted taste and quality. Enter Blackbird Foods, an NYC plant-based foods company passionate about bringing the best NYC-style pizza and seitan to consumers everywhere.  The world’s “meatiest” seitan Founded by chefs Mark Mebus and Craig Cochran, Blackbird originally produced seitan (a meat alternative made from wheat protein) for sale to local restaurants. Chef Mebus spent over a decade perfecting the art of transforming wheat into seitan, yielding a highly-flavored, meaty product that is low in fat and packed with protein. When more customers began to request Blackbird’s seitan for home cooking, the brand opened a production facility in NYC.  While there are plenty of wheat-based plant-based meats, …

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Daniel-Staackmann Upton's Naturals

Daniel Staackmann ©Upton's Naturals

Company News

Upton’s Naturals: Successful Meat Alternatives Made Simple

In an industry where bloody burgers dominate grocery shelves with big marketing dollars, independently owned Upton’s Naturals has been creating plant-based meat alternatives from easy-to-understand ingredients for over 15 years. Run by Founder Dan Staackmann and VP Nicole Sopko, this ethical vegan, 100% self-funded food company is the underdog in a modern-day David & Goliath story, bootstrapping its way to success by prioritizing passion, creativity, and hard work. Its products, which are now sold in over 5,000 retail stores in the United States, plus available to foodservice customers nationwide, are a far cry from the lab-created, highly processed products currently crowding the category. Said Staackmann, “We use ingredients that have been around for thousands of years and update them to produce meat alternatives for today’s …

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Buona Italian beefless

@Buona

Food & Beverage

Beef Restaurant Chain Buona’s ‘Beefless’ Italian Sandwich Sells Out in 24 Hours

Yesterday, Chicago beef chain Buona announced the launch of the Plant-Based Italian Beefless Sandwich, made in collaboration with Upton’s Naturals, at all 24 Buona locations in Chicago and Indiana. The business now reveals that it sold out of the vegan option in one day across multiple locations due to “extremely high demand”, using 1,800lbs of seitan in the process. Buono is reassuring customers that it is working hard to restock its restaurants as soon as possible.  Its social media post today reads: “Wow. We can’t believe the amount of support and kind words we’ve received over the last couple of days about our new sandwich. Due to extremely high demand for our Plant-Based Italian Beefless Sandwich, we have SOLD OUT of the sandwiches at multiple …

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Love Seitan pizza

Image courtesy of LoveSeitan

Products & Launches

LoveSeitan Partners with New London Pizza Chain Vegan Dough Co For the No Meat Beast Pizza

Following the successful collaboration of One Planet Pizza with the Meatless Farm for the UK’s first vegan cheeseburger pizza, LoveSeitan, the UK’s leading manufacturer of seitan products, has announced a new partnership with Vegan Dough Co., a young pizza company headed by Louis Blake, to produce the “No Meat Beast”.

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© Uptons Naturals

Food & Beverage

Upton’s Naturals Launches its Flavoured Seitan into UK

Upton’s Naturals, famous for popularising jackfruit and the first brand to produce flavoured seitan in the US, is bringing its popular flavoured seitan products to the European marketplace. The brand also runs Upton’s Breakroom, a vegan factory café in Chicago, and is a founding board member of the Plant Based Foods Association

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Co-Op vegan

©Co-op

Products & Launches

Co-op is Offering Vegan Christmas Meat Roast

Co-op UK is the latest supermarket in the UK to release a vegan roast for Christmas dinner. Hot on the heels of Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, this meat-free festive roasting joint is launching in a bid to get a top place in the booming plant-based industry, at this peak time of year for food retailers. The seitan-based joint, which serves 2 people, is made from flavoured seitan with an apricot and cranberry stuffing centre wrapped in smoky meat-free seitan rashers and served with herb gravy, and will be available in selected stores from Thursday 19th December 2019. The British Cooperative, trading as the Co-op, is a brand that is long-established as being more ethical than most supermarkets, so it will be keen to keep up …

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The Upton's Naturals Founders

© Uptons Naturals

Interviews

Upton’s Naturals: “Introducing Innovative New Lines”

Upton’s Naturals, an independently owned natural foods company based in Chicago, have focused on creating meat alternatives with vegan values since 2006. They offer a range of plant-based protein goods including various flavours of jackfruit and seitan, as well as ready-made dishes such as Thai curry, macaroni cheese, noodle dishes, vegan bacon and a classic burger – all created with real, recognisable ingredients.

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