🥗 NYC Embraces Plant-based
Plantwise Monthly Roundup (May 2023)
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🌆 New York Advocates Plant-Based Diets in Public Institutions to Lower Carbon Emissions
📚 TL;DR: New York is taking a proactive step to reduce carbon emissions by endorsing plant-based diets across public institutions. This comes in response to the first integrated greenhouse gas inventory of the city, which highlights that emissions from food production and consumption account for 20% of the city's total emissions. New York City Mayor Eric Adams has set an ambitious goal of reducing the city's food-based carbon emissions by 33% by 2030.
🧩 Context: Following the findings of the greenhouse gas inventory, NYC is initiating a menu transformation in public schools and hospitals. About 100 plant-based recipes will be introduced in the city’s public school system in the coming school year. Simultaneously, the city's hospitals are planning to serve more than three-quarters of a million plant-based meals this year. Moreover, the city has secured a $44 million investment from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine to offer plant-based nutrition training to up to 200,000 healthcare professionals.
➡️ Want to know more about New York's steps towards sustainable plant-based meals? Read the NYC announcement here and CNA’s full story here.
🛒 Canopey.com, the marketplace for verified sustainable products, launches to UK shoppers
📚 TL;DR: Canopey.com, the only platform that brings verified sustainable products, education and powerful impact stats all into one place, is launching to UK shoppers. The platform brings together a wide variety of ethically-made products ranging from beauty and self-care brands to conscious clothing, cleaning products, and vegan food and drink. The company was founded on a vision to make sustainable shopping easier for everyone by doing research for them.
🧩 Context: Canopey founders Thomas Panton and Hugo Douglas-Deane could find no marketplaces that properly verified sustainable products while being truly transparent about how they do it. As awareness about environmental issues grows and greenwashing becomes more rampant, people are crying out for a place they can actually trust. Canopey's platform has in place a vigorous vetting process that requires evidence for every single claim made by brands in order to bring clarity and empower people to buy better. A key feature of the platform is its in-built Canopey Calculator, which shows stats on carbon emissions, water waste and plastic waste for a product compared to the mainstream options.
➡️ You can discover verified sustainable products today at Canopey.com – and by simply signing up to their newsletter you'll also get 10% off your first order.
🥦 Plant-Based Diets Linked to Lower Cholesterol Levels, Supporting Heart Health
📚 TL;DR: A recent study published in the European Heart Journal has demonstrated that vegetarian and vegan diets are associated with lower levels of cholesterol and blood fats. Professor Ruth Frikke-Schmidt, Chief Physician at the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, commented, "We found that vegetarian and vegan diets were associated with a 14% reduction in all artery-clogging lipoproteins as indicated by apoliprotein B. This could result in a 7% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease for someone maintaining a plant-based diet for five years.”
🧩 Context: Researchers analysed 30 randomised trials involving a total of 2,372 participants, conducted between 1982 and 2022. The trials examined the effects of plant-based diets in comparison with omnivorous diets on levels of cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol ('bad' cholesterol), triglycerides (a type of fat found in the blood), and apoliprotein B (apoB - an indicator of fats and cholesterol in the body).
➡️ Interested in reading more about the study and its implications? Check out the full publication in the European Heart Journal here.
🍔 Neat Burger Secures $18M Series B Funding and Expands into the US Market
📚 TL;DR: Neat Burger, the plant-based restaurant chain backed by Lewis Hamilton, successfully raised $18 million in a Series B funding round. The investment will support the company's expansion into the US, starting with the already open location in Nolita, New York. Among the investors, Formula 1 Champion Lewis Hamilton reinvested, along with Chimera Capital, B-Flexion, LionTree, New Theory Ventures, and celebrities like Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and model and actress Sara Sampaio.
🧩 Context: The successful fundraise comes amid a record-breaking first quarter for the group's London restaurants, with like-for-like sales up by 20%. The first month of operation for the New York location was also a huge success, making it the best-performing store in the group's estate. Neat Burger’s future plan includes further international expansion with new restaurants in Italy and the Middle East, following the successful launch of a franchise in Dubai in October 2022. Neat Burger is also growing the B2B vertical by partnering with businesses to help them achieve their net zero ambitions.
➡️ Read the full story here. If you're in New York City, you can stop by their new location at 25 Cleveland Place.
🐮 UK Considers Regulations on Plant-Based Food and Drink Labels
📚 TL;DR: The UK could prohibit plant-based products from using terms like "cheese" or "yoghurt" to describe themselves, according to the new draft guidance. These new measures aim to help trading standards officers interpret and enforce laws on how dairy alternatives are labelled and marketed. If passed, this guidance would expand current restrictions, which only cover the term "milk", to other dairy-related descriptors, even when prefaced by 'vegan' or 'plant-based'.
🧩 Context: The UK has seen its plant-based drinks market increase by 24% from 2020 to 2022, reaching £276 million and a 7% market share. Almost half of UK consumers drink at least one plant-based milk alternative. However, this proposed legislation has raised concerns about potential negative impacts on the thriving plant-based industry in the UK.
➡️ Interested in this proposed legislation? Learn more here.
🤖 Plantwise Unveils AI Recipe Creator for a Customised Plant-Based Cooking Experience
📚 TL;DR: We're incredibly thrilled to launch our newest feature this month: the AI Recipe Creator. Now the Plantwise app can help customers come up with unlimited plant-based meal ideas tailored to their specific ingredients, nutritional goals, and taste preferences. Be it using leftovers or experimenting with your favourite ingredients, our AI Recipe Creator is here to make plant-based cooking more accessible and personalised.
🧩 Context: The AI Recipe Creator is designed to address a common challenge our customers face - creating diverse, nutritious plant-based meals with limited or specific ingredients at hand. No more extra grocery runs after work or compromising on nutritional goals. You can customise the AI's suggestions based on allergies, nutritional targets, available cooking time, kitchen equipment, and preferred cuisine.
➡️ Want to give the AI Recipe Creator a try? Check out the Plantwise app here.
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