Alaska Airlines Cooks Up Vegan, Plant-Based Options
Alaska Airlines’ Soy Meets World vegan salad includes roasted broccoli, fresh cucumber slices, scallions, pickled carrots, fried tofu and brown rice served over a bed of crisp romaine and baby lettuce greens, topped with roasted cashews, fried onions and paired with a Tamari Chili-Lime dressing.
This summer, Alaska Airlines guests can veg out on board with more gluten friendly, plant-based and vegan meal options available in all cabins. The new vegan option, “Soy Meets World,” is a vegan salad developed in partnership Evergreens, a West Coast-based company that makes gourmet, freshly chopped salads.
“We’re thrilled to offer our guests more healthy and nutritious choices when they fly with us,” said Todd Traynor-Corey, managing director of guest products. “We built our menu thoughtfully to offer more plant-based, vegan and gluten-free options, which include a range of fresh, bright flavors inspired by the West Coast and ingredients that are authentically healthy by nature such as roasted broccoli, crisp romaine and baby lettuce greens, quinoa, fresh fruit and more.”
Alaska Airlines offers three meal options in First Class, including its Signature Fruit & Cheese on flights as short as 550 miles.
It also offers ample food options in Premium Class and Main Cabin, which include up to four fresh options on flights over 1,100 miles and up to five snack items on flights over 223 miles, such as the Mediterranean Tapas Pack (vegan and gluten-free).
Now through October, guests can enjoy fresh summer flavors that include berries, summer squash, corn, citrus and tomatoes. To see all of our food and beverage offerings, visit alaskaair.com.
Travelers can enjoy fresh ingredients inspired by the West Coast, from snacks to freshly prepared meals, by pre-ordering favorites ahead of a flight using the reservation on the airline’s app or alaskaair.com.
Meal orders can be made starting 14 days before the flight, and up to 20 hours before departure.
Snacks and Picnic packs do not require pre-order and are available on board most flights over two hours. Mileage Plan members can store a method of payment in their Mileage Plan account for touch-free inflight purchases, including food and beverages.
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Impossible Foods Launches Nuggets, Patties in UK
California-based Impossible Foods, the fastest-growing plant-based meat company in the United States, is making its European debut in the United Kingdom this week with the launch of two of its latest products — Impossible “Chicken” Nuggets Made From Plants and Impossible Sausage Patties Made From Plants.
Both products will be available starting May 19 at restaurants across the country — including many of the UK’s best-loved chicken shops. Impossible “Chicken” Nuggets are preferred two-to-one by UK consumers, according to the company.
“The UK has a unique and unrivalled chicken shop culture that we’re confident our nuggets will compete in because first and foremost they taste better, and they’re also better for you and better for the planet,” said CEO Peter McGuinness. “And there’s more to come — later this year, we’ll be expanding to supermarkets and rolling out additional products. We can’t wait for our friends and fans in the UK to finally taste our products.”
Impossible “Chicken” Nuggets launched in the United States late last year and quickly became one of the company’s top-selling products and the fastest-growing brand of plant-based chicken nuggets in the category. Impossible Foods’ expansion to the UK marks the international plant-based chicken debut of Impossible “Chicken” Nuggets outside of the United States.
This is the fourth new market the company has expanded to in nine months, following the launch of its flagship Impossible Burger in Australia, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates last fall. The company plans to launch its full product portfolio in the UK, including products containing heme (soy leghemoglobin) — a key ingredient in the Impossible Burger and other Impossible products — at a later date.
Impossible products will be available in thousands of restaurants and foodservice establishments in the UK within a year, starting with more than 300 this month. The country’s first Impossible dishes will appear exclusively on the menus of select restaurants and chicken shops, including Chicken Cottage, Halo Burger, Le Bab, MEATliquor, Patty&Bun and others.
Later this month, Impossible products will launch at more than 250 Hungry Horse pubs owned by Greene King, the UK’s leading pub company and brewer.
“At Hungry Horse, we’re big on getting together, and our customers come to us for the generous and unique food creations in a ‘home away from home’ environment,” said Robert Calderbank, business unit director for Hungry Horse. “We’re so excited to bring the Impossible ‘Chicken’ Nuggets to our pubs and really believe these will deliver on that promise, tantalising the taste buds of our customers across the country, we can’t wait!”
Impossible Foods celebrated its UK debut with a launch party hosted by fictional TV character and bossman Chabuddy G, played by Asim Chaudhry, a star on BBC’s hit mockumentary “People Just Do Nothing.” The company invited hundreds of \Impossible fans to be among the first to taste Impossible products on UK soil at its “Chicken Paradise & Sausage Palace” themed event emceed by Chabuddy at Maison Bab, a popular London restaurant offering modern gourmet kebabs.
“From the beginning, our goal at Le Bab was to offer a new kind of kebab, fusing global influences with amazing ingredients, always with a mind to sustainability,” said Stephen Tozer, co-founder of Le Bab, Maison Bab and Kebab Queen. “Impossible’s products are extraordinary. I first tried Impossible years ago and it blew my mind. I’ve wanted to collaborate with them ever since, so this is a bit of a dream come true! I’m absolutely certain that their plant-based meats are going to fundamentally change the way the world eats.”
Chicken is the most commonly consumed meat per capita in the UK, with three-quarters of consumers reporting that they eat animal-based chicken on a weekly basis, and nearly 90% saying they eat it on a monthly basis, according to an Impossible Foods study.
Made for chicken-lovers everywhere, Impossible “Chicken” Nuggets require far less resources to produce: 55% less water, 24% less land, and 24% less GHG emissions than animal chicken nuggets. They feature a golden, crispy breadcrumb coating on the outside and a tender, juicy bite on the inside, with 13 grams protein per 100-gram serving and 25% less salt than animal chicken nuggets.
Impossible Sausage Patties Made From Plants are also better for consumers and for the planet, designed to be conveniently slipped into a breakfast sandwich or enjoyed as a center-of-plate delicacy. In addition, they’re produced using 88% less water, 77% less land and 47% less greenhouse gas emissions than animal pork sausages. They’re also packed with 5.6 grams protein, 2.5 grams fiber, and 1.1 milligrams iron per patty.
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Neat Food Expands Team Before Expansion, Product Launches
Neat Food Co. – one of the world’s fastest growing alternative-protein food groups backed by Formula 1 Champion Lewis Hamilton, a key investor who helped found the company in 2019 – announced multiple senior hires as it builds critical mass in key roles as part of its international expansion plans, starting in the key U.S. market.
- Neat Food Co. has bolstered its Advisory Board with two appointments: Jeffrey S. Fried, former Chairman of Sweetgreen, who has a wealth of experience nurturing high growth companies; and Henrik Fjordbak, former COO at Joe & The Juice, who is an expert in equity funds, specializing in F&B and lifestyle companies
- At the helm of NEAT’s expansion into the U.S. market is newly appointed Vincent Herbert, the former CEO of Le Pain Quotidien, who joins the brand as chief executive of Neat Burger USA and will oversee all aspects of the group’s rapid site expansion strategy in the United States including the development of products at Neat Burger’s innovation center in New York and CPG distribution into the retail arena
- The group is expanding its food technology division with the establishment of new innovation centers, and implementation of its cutting edge texturized protein innovation
- NEAT plans to roll out its award-winning burger patty and a range of other proprietary products – including improved versions of its plant-based chicken patty, hot dog, nuggets and shakes – by the end of the year
- Neat Food Co plans to expand to 1,000 corporately owned, franchise and dark kitchens by 2030
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