Third certifier backs 30% plant-based menus; Tofoo doubles up
The Sustainable Restaurant Association is the third hospitality certifier this year to put a 30% plant-based menu benchmark into its standard, though it asks for a written plan rather than requiring the 30%.
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The Sustainable Restaurant Association is the third hospitality certifier this year to put a 30% plant-based menu benchmark into its standard, though it asks for a written plan rather than requiring the 30% [77].
02
UK tofu maker Tofoo & Co broke ground on a factory to double its output while plant-based meat unit sales slip [73].
03
Fleury Michon bought Allplants outright, the brand's second change of ownership since administration [80].
04
A 24-month randomized trial found high-dose DHA reached the brain but changed neither cognition nor brain volume [25].
05
A bipartisan US bill would ban wild sloth imports after 58 of about 69 sloths at Florida's Sloth World died [88].
The Stories: the day’s biggest developments, in the sources’ own words
01▲Law & PolicyStory
Food Made Good adds a 30% plant-based menu question to its 2027 restaurant standard
Photo: vegconomist
The Sustainable Restaurant Association's 2027 Food Made Good Standard asks certified businesses whether they have a written, time-bound policy to make at least 30% of their menus fully plant-based [77]. It is the third hospitality certifier to adopt the 30% figure this year, after the Global Sustainable Tourism Council in July and the World Sustainability Organization in September [77]. Those two wrote 30% in as a compliance condition, while the SRA criterion asks for a documented commitment and timeline [77].
By the numbers
30%of menus to be fully plant-based is the target the SRA asks operators to commit to, in a standard used in 50 countries and territories [77]
95%plant-based by weight is the GSTC's cutoff for a "predominantly plant-based" dish, so the certifiers count dishes differently [77]
500+restaurants hold the World Sustainability Organization standard that now makes the 30% menu a mandatory condition [77]
WatchEU clients received the new questions at the end of September 2026; everywhere else the edition takes effect in January 2027 [77].
Fromvegconomist the vegan business magazine
02▲Food & RecipesStory
Tofoo & Co starts a Yorkshire factory to double its tofu output
Photo: green queen
Tofoo & Co has started work on a factory at Malton Enterprise Park in North Yorkshire that will double its plant protein output, with completion expected by autumn 2027 [73]. HSBC UK and majority shareholder Comitis Capital are backing the build, and the company's current leases expire in 2028 [73]. Green Queen reports that tofu, tempeh and seitan sales are rising while plant-based meat declines [73].
“This investment is about creating the foundations for our next chapter and ensuring we have the capacity, capability and flexibility to meet growing demand from both the UK and Europe”
Fleury Michon buys Allplants, the brand's second owner since administration
Photo: vegconomist
French food maker Fleury Michon acquired 100% of Allplants on October 20 and plans to use it as the commercial base for selling its own plant-based range in the UK [80]. Fleury Michon says Allplants earns about €5 million a year, under 1% of group turnover, at close to breakeven EBITDA, and financial terms were not disclosed [80]. The name has now changed hands twice in under two years: the original frozen-meal business entered administration in November 2024, and Ella and Matthew Mills bought the brand in February 2025 [80].
“we've sold millions of products and helped to show that natural, plant-based is an exciting space again!”
Ella Mills, Allplants co-founder, on Instagram · [80]
By the numbers
€5 millionannual revenue, per Fleury Michon, with EBITDA close to breakeven [80]
65staff were made redundant when the original Allplants entered administration in November 2024 [80]
High-dose DHA reached the brain in a 24-month trial but changed neither memory nor brain size
Photo: sciencedaily
Researchers at the University of Southern California randomized 365 adults aged 55 to 80, all with low dietary DHA intake, to 2 g a day of DHA or a placebo for 24 months [25]. DHA in cerebrospinal fluid rose, yet the eBioMedicine paper found no treatment differences in brain volumes or cognitive performance [25]. The authors write that future research should prioritise brain DHA metabolism over further supplementation trials [25].
“We all wish there was a silver bullet for preventing Alzheimer's, but our findings showed that fish oil supplements do not appear to protect brain health”
Hussein Naji Yassine, MD, director of the USC Center for Personalized Brain Health and lead investigator · [20]
By the numbers
365participants were randomized, 47% of them carrying the APOE4 gene variant [20]
17%average rise in cerebrospinal fluid DHA after six months on the supplement [20]
38%dropout, mainly due to COVID-19, which weakens the trial's reach [25]
$1 billionis what Americans spend each year on omega-3 supplements [20]
FromPrimary SourcesNutrition Research News -- ScienceDaily
Worth Knowing
Food & Recipes
Row 7's Poulette, an organic potato bred over more than a decade from a French heirloom and a New York variety to taste as if cooked in chicken fat, is on sale at Whole Foods stores in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey [51].
Innovation
Pythag Tech raised a $4.25 million seed round led by Azolla Ventures to license AI-designed cultivated meat processes, in a sector whose funding fell 49% in 2025 to $74 million, against $1.5 billion at its peak four years earlier [75].
The EVERY Company won US Patent No. 12,767,701 covering finished foods made with its fermented ovalbumin, which the company counts as its 65th granted patent worldwide [83].
India's Dhampur Bio Organics signed a 10-year deal to make mycoprotein from sugar and molasses with Swiss startup Planetary's BioBlocks platform, paying Planetary a royalty of 10% of after-tax revenue each quarter [72].
Law & Policy
Animal Justice says none of the six Ontario labs it contacted agreed to a rehoming plan for dogs and cats before the January 1 testing ban, and it starts protests October 25 at Transpharmation in Centre Wellington [105].
Research & Nutrition
Non-dairy creamer now contributes the most added calories to Americans' coffee, 19 kcal a day against 16 from sugar and 11 from dairy milk, while total coffee energy rose from 43 to 60 kcal a day between 2003 and 2018 [24].
One Good Thing
Off Cornwall, ten fishers let researchers set 1,057 camera-monitored gillnets in pairs, one with a deterrent and one without. Nets flying bird-of-prey kites had 71% lower odds of drowning guillemots and razorbills, and nets with spinning googly-eyed buoys had 59% lower odds [87]. The catch is real: kites struggled in light and strong winds, and a Danish study found the buoys stopped working after about a month [87]. Still, a fix that works in commercial fishing, built with the fishers who tested it, is a good place to end [87].
vegconomist the vegan business magazine
