Certifier mandates 30% plant-based menus; faba beans gain lysine
The World Sustainability Organization now requires certified restaurants, cafés, caterers and hotels to make 30% of meals plant-based, under a restaurant standard that covers over 500 restaurants globally.
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The World Sustainability Organization now requires certified restaurants, cafés, caterers and hotels to make 30% of meals plant-based, under a restaurant standard that covers over 500 restaurants globally [35].
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Danish researchers fermented faba beans with two bacteria and raised lysine more than threefold, closing a common amino acid gap in plant proteins [37].
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BirdLife Malta says hunters kept shooting turtle doves after the 500-bird quota was reached and the season closed on Sept. 14 [42].
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In a two-year randomized trial of 493 adults, diet drinks and water gave similar weight loss (4.8 kg versus 3.7 kg); the American Beverage Association funded it [13].
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The Stories: the day’s biggest developments, in the sources’ own words
01▲Law & PolicyStory
World Sustainability Organization makes 30% plant-based menus mandatory for certified restaurants and hotels
Photo: green queen
The World Sustainability Organization updated its Friend of the Earth and Friend of the Sea certification standards to require restaurants, cafés, caterers and hotels to make 30% of meals plant-based, with those dishes featured and promoted on the menu [35]. Certified restaurants must also source animal proteins from producers that avoid cages, crates and ongoing tethering [35]. Two months earlier, the Global Sustainable Tourism Council published its own food benchmark with the same 30% threshold [35].
“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 helped set the standards · [35]
By the numbers
30%of menus must be plant-based; hotels get 12 months from certification to reach it [35]
Over 500restaurants are covered by the restaurant standard today [35]
62%of a hotel's food-related emissions come from food sourcing [35]
FromGreen Queen
02▲InnovationStory
Danish researchers raise lysine in faba beans more than threefold with two-bacteria fermentation
Photo: vegconomist
Researchers at the DTU National Food Institute and Aarhus University used a two-stage bacterial fermentation to raise lysine in faba beans and rapeseed press cake by more than threefold, and published it in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry [37]. The first bacterium breaks down the plant proteins and the second converts the released material into lysine [37]. The work sits inside the NextOrganic project, which focuses on animal feed, so the human-food use is the researchers' claim, not a product; fermented rapeseed cake from FERM FOOD already has EU authorisation as a food ingredient [37].
“We can use microorganisms to improve the amino acid profile of plant-based ingredients”
Christian Solem, associate professor, DTU National Food Institute · [37]
By the numbers
More than threefoldrise in lysine in faba beans and rapeseed press cake [37]
Twoother essential amino acids Solem's team says it will soon be able to enrich in crops [37]
Fromvegconomist the vegan business magazine
03▼Activism & AnimalsStory
Hunters in Malta shot hundreds of migratory birds stranded by a September storm, BirdLife Malta says
Photo: Conservation news
BirdLife Malta says hunters shot more than 500 European turtle doves after a multi-day thunderstorm stranded migrating birds on Sept. 14, 2026 [42]. The group says the autumn quota of 500 was reached soon after the storm and the season closed that day, yet it documented turtle-dove hunting in the hours and days that followed [42].
“Protected-species legislation only works if it is effectively enforced”
Antonia Micallef, public engagement executive, BirdLife Malta · [42]
By the numbers
500European turtle doves is Malta's autumn hunting quota [42]
21protected birds with confirmed shooting injuries were collected by BirdLife Malta between 14 and 21 September [42]
Over 10,000hunters are active at any one time in Malta, the highest density in Europe [42]
FromConservation news
Worth Knowing
Food & Recipes
Tonight's pick: miso-butter smashed potatoes from the One-Pan Vegan cookbook, microwaved soft, smashed, then roasted 25 minutes in vegan butter with miso and garlic [27].
Innovation
IntegriCulture and ImpacFat signed an MoU to develop cosmetics from ImpacFat's cultivated fish fat, which is still made in five-litre bioreactors and being scaled toward 10 to 50 litres [34].
Activism & Animals
Only 110 of 259 tiger seizure cases across seven Southeast Asian countries between 2019 and 2024 ended in prison sentences or fines, according to a report from the GuArdean Centre, TRAFFIC and WWF International [41].
Animal Charity Evaluators says its one-year, 32-hour workweek trial met all three of its success criteria and is now permanent policy, while admitting it cannot fully separate the effect from its increased AI use [39].
Research & Nutrition
A Food Science & Nutrition review finds the 7S-to-11S globulin ratio predicts emulsifying, foaming and gelling in dairy alternatives better than protein source does, and warns that unstandardized assays may explain part of the differences between sources [18].
A 36-patient randomized safety trial in Nature Cancer found the vitamin D analog paricalcitol could be given with chemotherapy for metastatic pancreatic cancer, and on-treatment biopsies showed fewer αSMA+ fibroblasts; five of the 12 patients on oral paricalcitol had hypercalcemia, and the trial was not designed to show a survival benefit [16][14].
One Good Thing
Lamby is a disabled sheep who wears children's skateboarding elbow pads, has a taste for blue corn chips, learns to herd cats, and demands her meals by ramming her head against the kitchen door [38]. She stars in Michelle Lerner's new memoir A Series of Opinionated Animals, alongside a squirrel named Monster who serenades the neighborhood with squirrel opera [38]. Lerner went to Harvard Law School to become an animal lawyer, and says humorous writing about individual animals can win over readers who never thought of a sheep as a main character [38].
vegconomist the vegan business magazine
