Vegan Food News of the Week: White Cheddar Baby, New Slutty Vegan and more

It seems like every week the news in the vegan food world is more exciting than the last and this week is no exception. Iconic French cheese company Bell Group is having a good time this week with the launch of a brand new vegan flavor of its plant-based Babybell cheeses. Pinkie Cole Slutty Vegan is bringing it to Texas, and if you’re anywhere near Dallas, you can get in line now. Oatly is hitting the skies with Swiss Airlines and Beyond Meat’s chicken line is flying to the UK. Read on for more.

1Slutty Vegan Texas Hits

Everything is bigger in Texas, making the arrival of one of the country’s biggest food sensations a welcome addition to the food scene. This summer, the Dallas neighborhood of Deep Ellum is getting its own location of popular Atlanta chain Slutty Vegan.

Madeleine Boykin

Texans can expect all the luscious vegan favorites on the menu at the 2,500-square-foot shop, including One Night Stand, Hussey Fossey and Hollywood Hooker.

“Dallas is asking, and we’re excited to deliver,” Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole said in a statement. “We’re bringing the heat just in time for summer.”

Slutty Vegan raised $25 million last year to expand its celebrity-favorite vegan initiative, and Cole isn’t skipping a beat to bring plant-based burgers to people everywhere. The Dallas location will be the fourth Slutty Vegan this year, following outposts in Atlanta’s Troost Park, Harlem, N.Y., and Georgia Tech’s campus.

If this location’s grand opening is anything like the rest, you should probably make a beeline right now.

2Otley’s high flying with Swiss Air

These days, it seems like everyone is drinking oat milk on the ground but Swedish brand Oatly is taking the trend to the skies with its new partnership with Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS). This week, Oatly’s canned Caffè Lattes are available for purchase on all SWISS flights

Otley

“Today’s collaboration with SWISS is a major milestone for Otley and our goal is to deploy our products everywhere to make it as easy as possible for people to switch to plant-based—even 10,000 meters in the air,” said Helge Weitz, general manager of Otley. DACH and Poland, said in a statement.

“We are excited to work with SWISS to offer a great tasting and climate conscious coffee beverage option to millions of their annual passengers around the world,” said Weitz.

Oatly’s collaboration with SWISS marks the first time a vegan brand has worked with a global airline.

Matthias Vonlanthen, Head of Hospitality Management at SwissWISS, said in a statement, “We are delighted to be collaborating with Otley to expand our beverage range. “SWISS values ​​a high-quality and diverse offering—including plant-based products and Otley’s coffee drinks are a great addition to this.”

3So delicious oats get into milk

If you’re in need of another oat milk brand to love, organic oatmilk is joining the launch in delicious original and extra creamy flavors.

Very tasty

Oat milk sales are set to grow 50 percent in 2022 over the previous year, and the Danone-owned brand is scrambling to get its piece of the oat milk pie. “As a leader in the dairy-free space, at So Delicious we’re always listening to consumers and striving to deliver what they’re looking for,” Olivia Sanchez, vice president of marketing for plant-based beverages at Denone North America, said in a statement. .

“Oatmilk is a favorite among both dairy-free veterans and people new to plant-based beverages, and we know that interest in oatmilk isn’t going anywhere anytime soon,” Sanchez said. “With Organic Oatmilk, our first oatmeal beverage innovation, we’re proud to offer fans a new great-tasting organic option to enjoy in their daily routine.”

And if you prefer your oats in frozen form, Delicious has a line of oat milk-based ice creams in Chocolate Salted Caramel, S’mores, Coffee Chip and Chocolate Hazelnut Brownie flavors.

4Beyond Meat’s chicken flies the coop

Californian company Beyond Meat is spreading its wings with the launch of its plant-based chicken line in the UK.

Best known for Beyond Burgers, the company launched Beyond Chicken Tenders in the U.S. in 2021 and expanded the line — made with fava beans — with Beyond Popcorn Chicken and Beyond Chicken Nuggets in 2022.

out of the flesh

Now, British fans of Beyond are finally getting a taste with the launch of the Beyond Chicken line (filets, nuggets and chicken-style burgers) in Waitrose stores.

“Following the success of Beyond Meat’s burgers and meatballs, we know our customers love the brand and think they will too, as demand for plant-based chicken grows,” Waitrose Child vegan and vegetarian buyer Catherine Shalock said in a statement. .

“Our customers are always looking for something new, and this product is a great example of how much the plant-based market has evolved in recent years, both in taste and texture,” he said.

Beyond Meat’s chicken line landed in the UK just in time for King Charles III’s coronation on May 6, in honor of which chef and influencer Sam Jones (of No Meat Disco) created the Beyond Coronation Chicken-King Sarni recipe.

Beyond Meat’s chicken line will hit Sainsbury’s stores in early May.

5Babybel’s new vegan cheese flavor

We’re still trying to digest the fact that 150-year-old French cheese company Bell Group is reinventing vegan versions of our childhood favorites like Babybelle and The Laughing Cow cheeses. And this week, The Bell Group brings us another surprise: a new plant-based Babybell cheese in its fan-favorite White Cheddar flavor.

Bell Group

Launching this spring, the new flavor comes a year after the original plant-based Babybel hit store shelves—where it performed very well. “BabyBel has seen an overwhelmingly positive response to date among plant-based flexible and vegan shoppers,” Ridhi Barber, senior brand manager at BabyBel, said in a statement.

“We wanted to continue this momentum and introduce a second dairy-free BabyBelle snack option in the fan-favorite White Cheddar variety,” said Barber.

Currently, Bell is working to make 50 percent of its cheese portfolio plant-based and has tapped biotechnology company Climax Foods to get there. The pair are working to revamp the iconic portfolio of cheeses using Climax’s AI-powered technology, leading to a next-generation version of Babybel (probably next year) and others like The Laughing Cow and Boursin to follow.

We’re ready for anything, Bell.