30% plant-based menus become a certification rule; Believer stalls
Restaurants certified by the World Sustainability Organization must now make at least 30% of their menu plant-based, the second certifier to set that bar.
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Restaurants certified by the World Sustainability Organization must now make at least 30% of their menu plant-based, the second certifier to set that bar. [70]
02
Daily fact-based texts lifted teens' plant-based lunch choices from 44% to 59% in a randomised trial, and AI style-matching added nothing. [23]
03
Believer Meats' two main creditors are weighing their own bid for its North Carolina plant after UPSIDE Foods pulled a $50 million offer. [56]
04
UK regulators published a third batch of guidance for cultivated-meat applicants, covering authorisation and growth-media toxicology. [104]
05
France's Biotech Open Platform, backed by Danone and Michelin, opened a 15-cubic-metre fermentation line to carry startups past the lab. [65]
The Stories: the day’s biggest developments, in the sources’ own words
01▲Wins & CultureStory
World Sustainability Organization requires 30% plant-based menus for restaurant certification
Photo: vegconomist
The World Sustainability Organization now requires certified restaurants, cafés and food service companies to make at least 30% of their menu offerings plant-based, and its more than 500 certified restaurants must comply to keep the label [70]. The revised standard also requires animal proteins to come from producers that use no cages, crates or ongoing tethering [70]. The Global Sustainable Tourism Council set the same 30% figure for main dishes in a standard it published in July [70].
“Pairing meaningful animal welfare requirements with a strong plant-based foods benchmark is exactly the kind of standard needed for true sustainability”
Ribbin Nichapa, Corporate Engagement Manager at Lever Foundation, which worked with WSO on the revisions · [70]
By the numbers
30%of menu offerings must be plant-based for a restaurant to earn or keep WSO certification [70]
500+restaurants worldwide hold the certification [70]
30%of main dishes must be plant-based under the GSTC food and beverage standard [70]
Fromvegconomist the vegan business magazine
02▲Research & NutritionStory
Daily texts lifted teens' plant-based lunch choices from 44% to 59% in an Appetite trial
Photo: vegconomist
In a preregistered two-week randomised trial of 587 adolescents in the UK and Ireland, teens who got daily health messages chose plant-based lunches more often as the days went on, while a no-message group stayed flat [23]. Rewriting the messages with a large language model to match each teen's own texting style added no further effect [23]. Lunch choices were self-reported, and the study counted any vegetarian or vegan meal as plant-based [67].
“concise, fact-based digital messages can promote healthier and more sustainable dietary choices among adolescents.”
study authors, Erasmus University Rotterdam · [67]
By the numbers
44% to 59%plant-based lunch choices in the messaging groups over two weeks [23]
45-46%plant-based choices in the no-message control group, unchanged [23]
OR 1.06 per dayrise in the odds of choosing a plant-based lunch [23]
FromPrimary Sourcesvegconomist the vegan business magazine
Believer Meats' creditors weigh a bid for the North Carolina plant after UPSIDE Foods walked away
Photo: AgFunderNews
Gray Construction and Ameris Bank, the two main secured creditors of Believer Meats, are weighing a combined credit and cash bid for the plant in Wilson, North Carolina, receiver Kevin Sink said in a September 16 court report [56]. Believer ceased operations in December, and UPSIDE Foods terminated its $50 million offer in August because the deal's conditions were not met, though UPSIDE said it remains interested [56]. Any deal still needs court approval and faces competing bids, and Sink said on September 16 that he expected to file the sale motion within 10 to 14 days [56].
“the interest in the transferred assets appears to be as high as it was prior to the final bid deadline.”
Kevin Sink, court-appointed receiver for Believer Meats · [56]
By the numbers
$50 millionUPSIDE Foods offer, terminated in August [56]
$36.4 millionGray Construction says it is owed for design and construction work [56]
$25 millionAmeris loan, backed by a first-priority security interest in Believer's accounts, machinery and equipment [56]
almost $400 millionraised by Believer from backers including ADM Ventures and Tyson Ventures [56]
UK food regulators publish third batch of cultivated-meat authorisation and toxicology guidance
Wikimedia Commons / Bioreactor
The Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland published guidance on regulatory authorisation and on assessing growth-media components and toxicology for cell-cultivated products [104]. It is the third batch from the Sandbox Programme, which launched in February 2025 [104]. The FSA has also published research on analytical methods and on how genetic drift can affect the safety of cell-cultivated products [104].
“Each batch of guidance we publish makes the path to market authorisation clearer and more predictable for companies developing cell-cultivated products, while ensuring consumer safety remains at the core of everything we do.”
Dr Thomas Vincent, Deputy Director of Innovation, FSA · [104]
WatchThe Sandbox Programme runs until February 2027 [104].
FromNews and communications from Food Standards Agency
Worth Knowing
Innovation
Whitworths' Nutty Kitchen Supermince, made from walnuts, lentils and quinoa with no additives, is now in 900 Tesco stores in four flavours, with a refund if you don't like it [66].
Research & Nutrition
A review in Frontiers in Animal Science says the forced swim test is being phased out: Norway has banned new academic trials since 2019, and one analysis found only 28% of compounds that looked promising in it advanced to human trials [17][80].
Law & Policy
Animal Justice says more than 70% of Quebec dairy barns tie cows by the neck, and has filed complaints with three regulators over a Producteurs de lait du Québec ad showing cows grazing freely [87].
Firefighter Adam Knauff was denied leave to appeal, so whether ethical veganism is a protected creed in Ontario stays open, but the ruling rewrote a 50-year-old appeal test after Animal Justice and five other groups intervened [86].
Activism & Animals
Ron Perlman wrote to his alma mater, the University of Minnesota, urging it to retire its surviving lab monkeys to sanctuaries, in a letter PETA released, and noted that Geoff Ghose no longer experiments on monkeys [84].
Food & Recipes
Giuseppe Federici has opened a vegan-only tiramisu shop at Boxpark Shoreditch in London, open Tuesday to Sunday, with pistachio, Biscoff and Nutella flavours [48].
One Good Thing
Edson Mabika kept losing four or five animals a year to predators in Zimbabwe's Chiredzi district until a former ranger told him to paint eyes on his livestock's backsides. He did, in January 2025, and says he has lost one goat and a lamb since, both after the paint had faded [72]. The idea has a study behind it: in Botswana, none of 683 cows painted with eyespots was killed by lions or leopards, against 15 of 835 unmarked cows [72][18].
vegconomist the vegan business magazine
