UK Makes School Beans Mandatory, Hain Sheds Vegan Brands for $323M
England's updated school food standards make weekly legumes compulsory, add fortified pea milk, and cap processed meat at once a week, replacing a decade-old meat mandate.
4 top stories29 sources read132 articles scanned6 sides of vegan life
England's updated school food standards make weekly legumes compulsory, add fortified pea milk, and cap processed meat at once a week, replacing a decade-old meat mandate [98].
02
Hain Celestial is selling its European business, including vegan brands Linda McCartney Foods, Joya, and Natumi, to private equity firm Aurelius for $323 million as it pays down debt [94].
03
A 12-week randomized trial found a self-selected vegan diet shrank older adults' muscle mass more than an omnivore diet, though resistance training closed most of the gap [26].
04
Beyond Meat relaunched as "Beyond," debuting a whole-food veggie burger, jerky, and protein powder as it steps back from meat-analogue branding [74].
05
The EPA is now using PETA-backed human lung-cell data instead of animal inhalation tests to judge certain chemicals' lung-irritation risk [119].
06
A crossover feeding trial found a whole-food plant-based diet cut LDL cholesterol 17.9% in adults with a genetic high-cholesterol disorder [33].
The Stories: the day’s biggest developments, in the sources’ own words
01▲Law & PolicyStory
England Makes Weekly Legumes Compulsory in School Food Standards
Photo: green queen
Starting next September, schools across England must serve legumes like beans, lentils, and chickpeas alongside main meals at least once a week, the first update to national school food standards in more than a decade [98]. The rules add fortified pea milk and vegan yogurt to the list of permitted plant-based options, cap processed meat like sausages and bacon at once a week, and scrap the old mandatory "three portions of meat per week" rule [98][145]. Deep-fried foods are banned outright, and the changes follow a government consultation that drew over 2,270 responses from the Plant-Based Schools campaign [98].
“It's brilliant to see new school food standards based on the latest science, to make sure the food children get at school is actually supporting their health and helping them thrive.”
Jamie Oliver, chef and school-food campaigner · [98]
“We also applaud the removal of the outdated, mandatory, 'three portions of meat per week' law that was enacted more than a decade ago.”
Hain Celestial Sells European Vegan Brands to Private Equity for $323 Million
Photo: food dive
Hain Celestial agreed to sell its international business, including vegan brands Linda McCartney Foods, Joya, and Natumi, to private equity firm Aurelius for an estimated $323 million as the struggling company sheds debt [94][69]. The sale follows Hain's February divestment of Garden Veggie Snacks and Terra chips, and leaves the company with North American brands like Celestial Seasonings and Earth's Best [94]. CEO Alison Lewis said the deal would let Hain "focus our resources on further reducing the Company's debt" [94].
“Completing the transaction announced today would advance our strategy to simplify our portfolio and enable us to focus our resources on further reducing the Company's debt.”
Trial Finds Self-Selected Vegan Diet Shrinks Muscle in Older Adults
Wikimedia Commons / Dumbbell
A 12-week randomized trial of 72 healthy adults over 65 found a self-selected vegan diet cut protein intake and shrank thigh muscle volume and lean mass significantly more than an omnivorous diet [26]. Adding resistance exercise to the vegan diet roughly halved the muscle loss compared with diet alone, but the group still lost more lean mass than the omnivore arm [26]. Muscle protein synthesis rates were also lower on the vegan diet than on the omnivore or vegan-plus-exercise diets [26].
“The negative impact of a vegan diet on skeletal muscle mass can be mitigated by resistance exercise.”
study authors, writing in the trial's conclusion · [26]
By the numbers
-1.15 kgappendicular lean mass lost by the vegan-diet-only group over 12 weeks, versus +0.05 kg for the omnivore group [26]
-0.62 kgappendicular lean mass lost by the vegan-plus-resistance-exercise group, roughly half the diet-only loss [26]
72healthy adults aged 65 and older enrolled in the three-arm trial [26]
FromPubMed
04▲Food & RecipesStory
Beyond Meat Rebrands, Launches Whole-Food Veggie Burger and Jerky
Photo: vegnews
Beyond Meat relaunched itself as "Beyond, The Plant Protein Company," moving past its meat-analogue business toward what it calls "Phytosphere" products, including a protein powder, jerky, and its first-ever whole-food veggie burger [74]. Founder and CEO Ethan Brown said the shift is "an opportunity to reshape the company around very real food that is directly from plants" [74]. The new Beyond Veggie patty, made with more than 10 fruits and vegetables plus legumes, joins rather than replaces the existing Beyond Burger [74].
“For me, it is an opportunity to reshape the company around very real food that is directly from plants.”
20 gramsof protein per serving in the new Beyond Starmatter protein powder [74]
17 gramsof protein per serving in the new Beyond Starcut plant-based jerky [74]
12 gramsof protein per serving in the new whole-food Beyond Veggie patty [74]
FromVegNews.com
Worth Knowing
Food & Recipes
Try this Filipinx-inspired peanut vegetable stew, colored with annatto and simmered with eggplant, long beans, and winter squash [76].
UK whole bean and lentil sales grew about 7% in volume as vegan fake-meat sales fell 4.3%, per NielsenIQ data analyzed by Madre Brava [80].
Research & Nutrition
A 6-week trial found a vegan Mediterranean diet cut LDL cholesterol and pain more than a traditional Mediterranean diet in women with fibromyalgia [30].
A placebo-controlled trial found a vegan multinutrient supplement significantly raised omega-3 index and vitamin D status in young vegans [27].
A crossover trial found a plant-based meat-supplemented diet lowered TMAO, a cardiovascular risk marker, compared with a red-meat-supplemented diet [40].
A meta-analysis of prospective studies found vegan diets cut total cancer risk 23% and breast cancer risk 20% compared with non-vegetarian diets [38].
A meta-analysis found people with the highest adherence to plant-based diets had a 26% lower risk of cognitive impairment and dementia [43].
An online UK trial found meat-eaters chose plant-based meals more often when menus didn't pair them one-to-one with a matching meat dish [41].
Law & Policy
GFI Europe says the EU's new food research strategy praises fermentation scale-up but commits no dedicated funding for alt-protein taste and price research [143].
Innovation
46 Dutch food organizations are pressing the government for a €65 million annual fund to raise the country's plant-protein consumption to 50% by 2030 [102].
Yoga Bar co-founder Suhasini Sampath and Better Bite Ventures launched a $260,000 fund for India's earliest-stage next-gen food startups [99].
Vegan cookie maker Sun Flour Baking renamed itself Hooray! Cookies after nearly 10 other US bakeries, several non-vegan, began trading under similar names [103].
Japanese retailer Aeon is expanding its cocoa-free chocolate line to about 3,500 stores using Fuji Oil's pea-and-carob Anoza M alternative [100].
Wins & Culture
A meta-analysis found eating a daily handful of nuts cut high blood pressure risk by 20%, according to Plant-Based Health Professionals UK [144].
One Good Thing
In Panama Bay this spring, marine biologist Yehudi Rodríguez and 18-year-old sailor Hermes, nicknamed Mbappé, freed a roughly 220-pound black devil ray from a fishing boat's net and sent it back into the water, one of nearly 407 sharks and rays her team has tagged and released over five years of riding along on industrial fishing vessels [113]. "It's an emotion to see a huge Mobula for the first time and liberate it in the ocean," Rodríguez said [113]. The crew that once saw bycatch as a nuisance now jokes and competes over who gets to make the release.
This easy vegan cheesy muffin recipe is ideal for little bakers who want to practice their skills. Delicious, satisfying, and easy to store, they make ideal snacks for lunch boxes…
45 min12 servings10 ingredients
See the ingredients
1 medium courgette (trimmed and grated)
125 g non-dairy cheese (grated)
60 ml mild olive oil
180 ml unsweetened soya milk
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp dried mixed herbs
225 g self-raising flour
1 tsp sea salt
3 Tbsp nutritional yeast
Powdered egg replacer (made up to 1 whole egg according to package instructions)
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