FoodBev Media is pleased to announce the winners of the World Plant-Based Innovation Awards 2025, an event that recognises significant and practical advancements in how plant-based products are made, including ingredients used and production methods employed.

We celebrate the companies that are tackling tough challenges in areas such as texture, flavour, function and sustainability. This year's entries showed a clear and practical step forward, confirming a solid commitment to creating food that is enjoyable for people and better for the environment.

Each winning company earned its place by solving real-world problems. This might involve creating a successful plant-based alternative that truly feels and tastes like the original, discovering a valuable new source of protein or using manufacturing processes that significantly lower their environmental footprint. Their success is a result of smart science and a good understanding of the market, leading to innovations that are both practical and set a high bar for the entire industry.

FoodBev congratulates all the winners for their foresight, hard work and important role in building a more sustainable and plant-forward future.

World Plant-Based Innovation Awards 2025 winners

Best dairy solution

Arla Foods | Plant-based Soft Serve

Best dairy solution recognises Arla Pro Plant-based Soft Serve as a standout innovation for the foodservice sector. Arla successfully engineered a product that delivers the familiar, indulgent soft serve experience –complete with a rich, creamy texture and balanced vanilla flavour – using only 100% plant-based ingredients. The product’s key achievement is its ability to seamlessly integrate into professional kitchens, working effortlessly in existing soft serve machines while offering a solution that is both gluten-free and soy-free.

Best foodservice solution

Endori Food | Vegan Crispy Balls Chicken Cheese style

Best foodservice solution goes to Endori's Vegan Crispy Balls Chicken Cheese Style, a cutting-edge, one-bite snack designed specifically for professional kitchens. This innovative product perfectly balances efficiency, convenience and modern plant-based demand by combining hearty 'chicken' made from German wheat protein with a mild 'cheese' alternative, all coated in an extra crispy breading. They can be prepared quickly from frozen in a fryer or oven and allow for precise portioning, supporting economic planning and waste reduction. With a commitment to sustainability, produced using 100% green electricity and regional raw materials, Endori offers a forward-looking, high-quality solution that supports busy kitchens.

Best functional/health solution

Yumi | Organic Toddler bar

Best functional/health solution recognises the Yumi Organic Toddler Bar, a product setting a new standard in early-life nutrition. Thoughtfully designed to support the critical stages of early childhood development, this soft-baked bar delivers meaningful nutrition specifically for growing brains and bodies. A key achievement in the toddler snack category is that the bar contains not a single gram of added sugar. Additionally, it provides a source of fibre and eight essential vitamins and minerals, actively addressing common nutritional gaps in young children. Certified organic, non-GMO and gluten-free, the Yumi Organic Toddler Bar offers parents a convenient and health-forward option.

Best meat solution

Maia Farms | Maia Form

Best meat solution celebrates Maia Farms’ Maia Form, an innovative textured protein crafted from a blend of mushrooms and peas. This clean label base is designed to offer a superior sensory and functional experience for food manufacturers. Maia Form provides a dependable meat-like bite and excellent water-binding capacity, which ensures reliable performance across a variety of food formulations. With a natural umami taste and high fibre content, it seamlessly combines deep nutrition with crucial functionality. Available in versatile formats like Ground, Shred and Strips, Maia Form gives product development teams a consistent and scalable foundation for creating the next generation of alternative and blended foods.

Best protein solution

ICL Group | Rovitaris SprouTx Textured Protein

Best protein solution goes to ICL Group's Rovitaris SprouTx Textured Protein, an ingredient developed to address the key sensory and functional challenges in the plant-based meat market. SprouTx actively reduces unwanted off-flavours, eliminating the characteristic 'beaniness' often found in soy, and simultaneously increases natural umami taste for enhanced savouriness. Beyond flavour, the whole-bean process enhances the fibrous structure and shortens the hydration time to just minutes, offering both superior texture and efficiency for manufacturers. Versatile enough for applications ranging from sausages to seafood, Rovitaris SprouTx allows producers to create succulent, juicy, next-generation products without the cost and complexity of masking agents.

Best flavour innovation

DSM-Firmenich | ModulaSense for Vertis CanolaPro

Best flavour innovation recognises the powerful combination of DSM-Firmenich's ModulaSense for Vertis CanolaPro, a solution engineered to overcome the taste barrier in plant-based proteins. Vertis CanolaPro is a sustainable, upcycled ingredient that provides high-quality, complete protein with strong functional properties for smooth textures. ModulaSense goes beyond simple masking by employing receptor-based technology to target and decode notes of the canola protein at a molecular level. This precise targeting delivers superior taste accuracy and a clean finish. This pairing empowers manufacturers to create highly nutritious and palatable high-protein formulations without compromising on clean label integrity or sustainability.

Best production/manufacturing innovation

Amano Enzyme | Plants Unlimited

Best production/manufacturing innovation is awarded to Amano Enzyme's Plants Unlimited, a revolutionary enzymatic toolkit addressing the growing need for transparent-label, sustainable food solutions. Building on a century of enzyme expertise, this platform offers targeted, natural methodologies to overcome formulation obstacles in the plant-based market. Plants Unlimited provides specific solutions which eliminates curdling in hot coffee and improves protein solubility without using acidity regulators. Compatible with organic and non-GM labelling, Plants Unlimited delivers the precise control over texture, flavour and functionality that producers require to meet contemporary consumer expectations.

Best replication/imitation innovation

Nongshim - Flavolink | R-CFL Base (Chicken-Free)

Best replication/imitation innovation is presented to Nongshim Flavolink’s R-CFL Base (Chicken-Free), an ingredient that achieves authentic chicken flavour without using any animal-derived components. Flavolink faithfully recreates the classic consommé chicken profile through plant-based design. The key lies in leveraging the Maillard reaction to produce a deep, layered umami character that precisely replicates the taste of real meat. This innovation offers manufacturers critical benefits for the future of food, including greater supply chain stability and regulatory agility by decoupling taste from animal sourcing. Whether used in noodles, soups or sauces, Flavolink brings consistency, realism and true-to-source flavour to diverse product categories.

Best texture innovation

Amano Enzyme | PG500

Best Texture Innovation is granted to Amano Enzyme's PG500, a specialised enzyme that solves major performance issues in plant-derived beverages, particularly within the booming barista market. PG500 improves the solubility of plant proteins under acidic and heated conditions. This enzymatic solution allows nut-derived, cereal-derived or legume-derived beverages to function comparably to dairy milk, resulting in a professional-grade texture, consistent foam and uniform mouthfeel. Crucially, PG500 achieves this without the need for unfamiliar food additives or acidity regulators, enabling producers to satisfy consumer expectations for clean label simplicity, performance and transparency.

Best start-up/new business

Sky Barn

Best start-up/new business recognises Sky Barn, a company that has executed a significant leap forward in the plant-based beverage category. Sky Barn has developed a process that allows its oat milk to froth perfectly hot or cold, without using any oils, gums, emulsifiers or harmful additives. This breakthrough delivers a clean label barista-grade oat milk that stands out nutritionally, offering 8g of organic, sunflower-derived plant protein per cup, matching the protein content of whole milk. The brand's innovation extends to functionality with its +Adaptogens Oat Milk, synergising organic ginseng, ashwagandha and l-theanine to promote clean energy and mental clarity. By resolving multiple category challenges with one product, Sky Barn represents the next generation of clean, functional and versatile plant milk.

Best marketing/partnership campaign

Vietnam Soya Products Company | Fami - Soy Milk

Best marketing/partnership campaign is presented to Vietnam Soya Products Company for its impactful Fami – Soy Milk: "It's Just Soybeans, But It's 100% Good for a Balanced Life" campaign. Recognising that consumers often underestimate the nutritional value of soy milk, the campaign transformed the exclamation, "It's just soybeans," into a message highlighting the product's complete goodness. This central communication pattern emphasises the nutritional value of soybeans for a balanced lifestyle. The campaign successfully positioned Fami as a comprehensive nutritional solution for millions of Vietnamese people by uniting diverse audiences under the shared message of "100% good". The creative focus on core benefits ensures that the campaign is also deeply informative.

World Plant-Based Innovation Awards 2025 finalists

4Life Research - Functional/health solution | A New Era in Immune Health: Plant-Based Transfer Factor as a Functional Solution

Amano Enzyme - Functional/health solution | VeramaxG3

Amano Enzyme - Dairy solution | PG500

Arti Bar - Functional/health solution | Arti Bar Matcha Latte

ICL Food Specialties - Production/manufacturing innovation | Rovitaris SprouTx Textured Protein

Nature's Bakery - Protein solution | Blueberry Hearty Bars

Nongshim - Flavolink - Flavour innovation | R-SFL Base (Shrimp-Free)

ProNutrition - Production/manufacturing innovation | Amazon Rainforest SuperShake - Mazô Maná

Sky Barn - Dairy solution | Original Oat Milk

The Mushroom Meat Co - Functional/health solution | The MushroomMeat Burger

The Mushroom Meat Co - Meat solution | The MushroomMeat Burger

The Original Teffly - Production/manufacturing innovation | The Original Teff-ly Plus

VietCoco - Dairy solution | Coconut Milk Beverage - Original Flavor

The esteemed judges

The value and credibility of the World Plant-Based Innovation Awards depend entirely on the skill and dedication of our judging panel. To the professionals who volunteered their time, shared their deep industry knowledge and carefully reviewed these strong submissions, we extend our sincere thanks. Their careful evaluation and commitment to fairness ensure that these awards genuinely recognise the best in plant-based innovation. Thank you for your essential contributions.

About FoodBev Awards

FoodBev Media awards schemes have been running for more than 20 years and are now recognised as the most credible and respected awards schemes to influence the international food and beverage industry.

For more information about our selection of awards programmes, please visit foodbevawards.com or email awards@foodbev.com.