Food & Drink

Manchester’s plant-based food start-up Herblabism to supply major stadiums

The Manc - 13th December 2021

Manchester-based Herblabism is soon set to supply major sports stadiums, arenas and conference centres with its range of plant-based food.

The local start-up specialises in meat-free products and has now been contracted by Levy UK + I, which provides catering and hospitality at some of the biggest venues in the country.

The two businesses collaborated at the COP26 summit in Glasgow earlier this year on a menu that was 60% meat-free and 40% plant-based.

Thousands of Herblabism mushroom burgers and plant-based sausages were sold at the climate change conference.

James Buckley, Levy’s director of culinary, said: “Collaborating with an exciting and innovative plant-based start-up like Herblabism, which shares the same sustainable vision as Levy, is a great way for us to drive food innovation and change behaviours across the entire food supply chain.

“Levy is also completely committed to a low carbon, plant-forward strategy. This is something which we clearly demonstrated through our meat-free COP26 menus which accounted for 60% of our total sales. In comparison, our beef-based sales were less than 2%.

“We see Herblabism’s products playing a key role in helping us deliver our Net Zero vision – and we look forward to working closely with them further to supply more of our venues across the UK going forward.”

Herblabism’s move to feeding crowds at major sporting events and arenas is part of its ambitious journey to revolutionise the way food is cultivated, manufactured and supplied in the UK.

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Dr Vincent Walsh, founder of Herblabism, said: “Our vision is one where Herblabism makes an impact in every part of the supply chain, becoming central to the entire ‘farm to fork’ food journey.

“This spans innovations in circular farming practices, and sourcing better ingredients for our products, through to innovations in the processing of products, their packaging, and their distribution. 

“So, while I am incredibly proud that our mushroom burgers and plant-based sausages were so well received at globally significant event like COP26 – and I’m incredibly excited about extending our fantastic partnership with Levy – our ultimate aim is to create a food business which is clean, transparent, efficient, localised, and decentralised. 

“I also want to create a sustainable, cost-effective food production model which will be an exemplar for others as we all look to meet the challenges of climate change.”

In addition to being sold through Levy UK + I partner venues, a selection of Herblabism products will soon be available directly to the consumer through their website. 

Featured image: Supplied