A rare mushroom species found in Papua New Guinea and Yunnan Province is drawing scientific attention for inducing highly consistent “Lilliputian hallucinations” - visions of tiny people reported across cultures with unusual uniformity. Unlike known psychedelics, its effects do not align with established neurochemical pathways, suggesting the presence of a previously unidentified fungal compound or mechanism.

Juicy Marbles has extended its whole-cut credibility into the burger category with Umami Burger, a high-protein, whole-food-forward patty now live in 225 UK locations via Tesco. The product deliberately targets the middle ground between traditional veggie burgers and ultra-realistic meat analogues, using fermented ingredients and seitan to deliver texture without leaning on heavy flavour masking or aggressive processing.

2026 is shaping up as the year FoodTech stops selling promises and starts selling ingredients, formats, and functionality. The companies below are front-running not because they’re loud, but because they’re already embedded, piloted, or positioned to be.

High-resolution clinical research from the World Institute of Kimchi has demonstrated kimchi delivers targeted immune regulation rather than broad immune stimulation. Using single-cell transcriptomics, scientists showed kimchi consumption alters gene expression in specific immune cells including antigen-presenting cells and helper T cells..

Researchers screened 106 fungal strains grown on orange and black carrot side streams from natural colour production, ultimately selecting Pleurotus djamor (pink oyster mushroom) for its protein yield and growth efficiency. By focusing on fungi rather than fruiting bodies, the process dramatically reduced time, space, and resource inputs.

Organic dried fruit is undergoing a structural repositioning, driven by health-led snacking behaviour and technology-enabled premiumisation. Verified Market Reports forecasts sustained growth through 2033, with innovation centred on functionality, format, and clean-label assurance rather than novelty flavours.

Foodstuffs NZ, South Island’s trial of Leaf Rubisco Protein signals a shift from alternative proteins as products to alternative proteins as infrastructure. Rather than selling plant protein to consumers directly, Leaft Foods is embedding it into the backbone of everyday food manufacturing, replacing eggs where functionality, cost volatility and emissions intersect.

Italy is emerging as an unlikely leader in applied food fabrication. ENEA’s work at EltHub combines plant cell culture with 3D printing to precisely control food structure, from mouthfeel to sliceability, without relying on heavy industrial additives. The technology is already moving beyond R&D, with Rome-based restaurant Impact Food demonstrating real-world culinary use.

New neuroimaging data has intensified scrutiny of ultra-processed foods (UPF), particularly formulations heavy in emulsifiers, flavour systems, and structural additives. Crucially, UPFs span all categories, meat, dairy, snacks, beverages, and plant-based alike. Yet public discourse increasingly frames the issue as a plant-based failure, rather than an industrial food-system problem.

China has achieved a major milestone in the cultivated meat industry - the first scaled production run of cultivated pork in a 2000-litre bioreactor, engineered by Joes Future Food at its newly commissioned pilot plant. This expands the cultivated meat narrative beyond niche lab batches toward industrialised processes with real engineering data and performance insights, a crucial stage for commercialisation.

Sterilised plant-based ferments are emerging as a potential metabolic intervention tool, according to new computational modelling showing theoretical impacts on insulin, lipid pathways, and appetite-regulation mechanisms. Unlike kombucha, which relies on live cultures and consumer-friendly fermentation narratives, these “postbiotic beverages” could offer controlled, stable metabolic compounds without microbial variability.

ALDI has expanded it's Plant-Based Menu range reflecting a clear shift in how plant-based growth is being engineered in mass retail. Instead of leaning on innovation theatre or sustainability messaging, the retailer is using price discipline and private label scale to reduce friction for first-time and returning plant-based buyers. At £1.99, these products undercut much of the branded meat-free aisle, reframing plant-based as a default option rather than a lifestyle choice.

Forced monkey labour remains one of the most persistent and under-regulated practices in global agriculture. Foodfacts documents how macaques are illegally taken from the wild, trained through fear, and used to harvest coconuts at scale, often outperforming human workers, which is precisely why the practice survives.

Australia’s 2025 food signals point to a structural shift rather than a trend cycle. Pureprofile’s national social-insights model highlights a population leaning hard into provenance, local sovereignty, plant-forward living, and an AI-enabled reimagining of product development. Traditional narratives of “premium imports” are being displaced by identity-led consumption treating food as cultural expression, not just nutrition. Australia isn’t waiting for permission, it’s invent

Ajinomoto’s Atlr.72 expansion into Solein-powered pastries marks one of the most significant consumer-facing deployments of air-fermented protein to date. Mochelie sits at the intersection of Japanese confectionery craft, environmental minimalism, and the new industrial biotech frontier.

UNESCO’s protection of Italy’s cuisine reframes national food identity as a global economic and cultural asset. Beyond symbolism, this introduces a regulatory and perception benchmark that will undoubtedly influence labelling, provenance claims, ingredient sourcing, and authenticity narratives across the global food system.

The global protein drink sector is shifting from niche sports nutrition to mainstream daily nourishment, with the global market projected to leap from US $32B today to over US $76.5B by 2032 for an annual growth of 9.36%. RTD formats dominate demand due to lifestyle convenience, while plant-based proteins, sugar-free formulations, and "clean-label" claims remain the strongest purchase drivers.

Tunnel Hill Mushrooms is a standout example of ambient agriculture, leveraging stable underground microclimates to produce premium gourmet and medicinal fungi with minimal energy input.

Consumers want veg, but they also want convenience. Brad’s gives them both without guilt, without processing fatigue, and without needing to understand a chemistry set on the back of the pack. It’s simple, trustworthy, colourful and crucially, reliable. The kind of brand you grab because you know the veg is real.

The global move away from the word “vegan” reflects a deep shift in how consumers perceive identity-linked food choices. Viral social proof shows that taste bias isn’t sensory, it’s psychological. Anonymous plant-based products routinely outperform animal-based benchmarks when the vegan label is removed, indicating that terminology, not technology, is the barrier. This is reshaping branding, menu engineering, and front-of-pack strategy across major markets.