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By MANNA | Sacred Meals - leading the way in mindfully incorporating plant-based eating into your everyday

 With Vancouver’s Planted Expo nearing, the need to talk about the benefits of eating a plant-first diet is at its peak. British Columbia is the province with the highest share of vegetarians and vegans and we know meat and dairy alone account for 14.5 percent of global annual greenhouse gas production—so it’s no surprise that for a while now, Canadians have shown interest in cutting back on meat. Committing to eating less meat however is easier said than done. It’s time-consuming to figure out how to best create a well-balanced, nutritious meal. 

My name is Marie Grapé and I am co-founder of Manna Sacred Meals. As a Filipino-Canadian woman, I grew up being used to a heavy animal-based diet. When I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, I took a step back to consider how my food habits were affecting my health. I felt compelled...

The foods we eat have a significant impact on the health of the planet. The team at Kove (Silver Sponsor at Planted Expo) is developing the tastiest, most delicious foods made with Cascadia Seaweed, seaweed grown in the pristine waters of the Pacific Ocean in partnership with First Nations. By simply cultivating seaweed in the ocean, Cascadia and Kove are working to solve some of the biggest challenges humanity is facing today; climate change, economic instability and food security. Kove’s first product powered by Cascadia Seaweed is its furikake style signature seaweed seasoning SEA SPICE which is available in retail stores and online. We put the sea in seasoning, so you can put it on EVERYTHING you love to eat. Salty, crunchy, garlicky, sea-weedy, and absolutely yummy. Good for the Planet, Good for the Community, Good for You. The sustainable way to snack.

Free shipping on orders of 3 or more bottles; get a bottle for you and become a star when you give it to your two...

By Alana Moor, Planted Social Media Coordinator

You ate. You voted. They won. 

With so much variety and over 27 product entries from established and delicious plant-based brands, the competition was stiff. 

First Place: Strawberry Sass Gelato by Simply BUCK Official | www.simplybuck.com 

Let’s start by giving a huge congratulations to Planted Expo Silver Sponsor, BUCK, for winning first place in the 2021 Product of the Year competition with their Strawberry Sass Gelato! 

From the first bite of this buckwheat gelato, mouths were watering for more, mumbles and groans of excitement could be heard, and looks of shock, love and delight could be seen in the judges’ faces. This isn’t any ordinary gelato—it’s better than any plant-based gelato that’s come before it. BUCK struck a gold mine and we’re thrilled to be here for it. 

For the competition, they chose to showcase their Strawberry Sass Buckwheat Gelato. When opening...

By Yumasoy,

At Yumasoy, we love the whole soybean. Unlike many other companies, we use whole soybeans, so you get all their amazing benefits. Whole soybeans are packed with protein, fibre, healthy fat, and an abundance of nutrients. 

What are Whole Foods? 

Whole foods come from nature and are minimally processed with their edible parts intact. 

Fragmentation of food, like soy, separates the food into different parts and causes important nutrients like vitamins, fibre, and healthy fats to be removed or lost.  Fractionated soybeans appear on labels as soy protein isolates, defatted soy, or textured vegetable protein (TVP). Fragmentation can involve the use of chemicals to separate the protein from the whole food, which may contribute to digestive problems. 

If you’ve always thought you couldn’t eat soy, it might be because you’ve consumed fractionated soy. At Yumasoy, we use whole soybeans, so all-important nutrients are maintained. 

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By Jaan Foods

The concept of sustainability has been discussed in many contexts over the past decade, ranging from sustainable materials to sustainable lifestyles. Inevitably, the food industry has also been targeted, with many consumers now looking for clean-label, sustainable products in their local stores. 

As an experienced chef, I have worked in the culinary industry for many years and have seen firsthand how our treatment of food within society could be improved. I have observed the sourcing, preparation and serving of food within restaurant kitchens, and I have worked within a bigger business that manufactured, sold and distributed large quantities of packaged food goods.

In these experiences, I began to recognize the minimal number of local, sustainable options being created within British Columbia. I also recognized the small number of local plant-based and vegan options available to consumers within our local grocery stores. This led to my desire to use my food...

By Herbaland

Embracing sustainability comes down to the daily choices and behaviours that focus on reducing our carbon footprint and impact towards our planet. 

At Herbaland, sustainability is one of our core values. We strive to make decisions in our global community from eco-friendly production technology, ingredient sourcing, and packaging.  Encompassing our core values in everything we do, we are committed more than ever to our goal of providing all of our products in compostable packaging by 2025! 

With the launch of our 100% compostable packaging in our five best-selling vitamin gummies, it is the first step in our mission to achieve our goal! You will find our Vegan D3 + B12, Calm Naturally, Vegan Collagen Booster, Sleep Plus, and Kids Multivitamins in 100% compostable pouches as a refill for your current plastic bottles. Although our plastic bottles are made of recyclable materials, they won’t fully break down for 500 years if they end up in the...

By Phox Foods

We are all aware that eating more plants is good for you.  The research is clear; the more unprocessed vegetables and fruits you eat, the less likely you are to have chronic diseases, like Diabetes, heart disease, or cancer.  But even with the abundance of health-promoting food available in the produce section, there are still several foods that deserve a special shout out for their ability to have remarkable, scientifically proven effects on our health.  These are foods that, when added to our daily diets, even without any other dietary intervention, significantly decrease rates of chronic illness and improve disease-free longevity.

MUSHROOMS

Mushrooms are like rocket fuel for the immune system.  They contain phytonutrients, like beta-glucan, that supercharge the activity of your immune cells, especially those cells that attack and destroy virus-infected and cancerous cells.

And although all cancers should run when they see a mushroom coming,...

By Plant Veda

“One night we were watching the TV series Ramayana and in that episode, King Dashrath (Father of Lord Rama) passed away. The same night we got the call from India that my father had passed away, possibly due to a heart attack. Later that year when we learned that if my father would have shifted to plant-based dairy, he would have reversed his heart disease.” Plant Veda CEO Sunny Gurnani.

Since the passing of his father about 9 years ago, it became Sunny’s mission to educate and shift humanity to a plant-based lifestyle. He has since created Plant Veda to further that mission, which has landed multiple product excellence awards including 2019 Veg Expo Product of the Year and 2021 clean eating Magazine clean eating choice awards. Plant Veda also recently became the first Canadian publicly traded dairy alternative company, listed under the symbol “MILK” on the Canadian Securities Exchange. 

Here are Sunny’s top 5 tips for anyone...

By Artisan's Way Organics

Arriba Nacional is an ancient cacao variety that traces its lineage back 5300 years to the earliest known domesticated cacao trees and is found in the volcanic mountainous regions of Ecuador. This variety was so coveted by European fine chocolatiers for its fruity taste and floral aroma that Ecuador was the world’s number one exporter of cacao throughout the 1800’s. In 1916 and 1919 diseases wiped out the crops and it was thought that this variety was lost forever. It wasn’t until 2009 that the Nacional variety was rediscovered and brought back from the brink. Today, Ecuador only supplies 4% of the world’s cacao but it has become the #1 exporter of “fine flavor” cacao in the world again thanks to the Nacional and Criollo varieties.

Arriba Raw Chocolate uses only beans of the Arriba Criollo variety. This is a hybrid of the Nacional variety and the Criollo variety which is another rare heirloom cacao grown in South America...

Canada's largest plant-based event, Planted Expo Vancouver, is thrilled to announce that it is presented by Boosh Food, plant-based comfort food you can feel good about.

Boosh was created for one simple reason. They wanted to help health-conscious consumers meet their goals by providing convenient plant-based meals for people who found it difficult to prepare meals from scratch.

Now, there is a way to comfortably have a fun and conscious lifestyle without having to inspect every meal for gluten, animal-based, or GMO-based ingredients. Boosh Foods has a line of products made for every person and occasion, click here to find it in-store.

Welcome to Boosh Food and be sure to check them out at Planted Expo in Vancouver!

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