The Grocer’s plant-based coverage has been causing quite a stir on social media in recent weeks. The catalyst seems to have been the demise of Allplants, the DTC frozen ready meals business, which went into administration last Friday owing almost £70m.

It’s a moot point to what extent Allplants was a casualty of the category’s troubles or investment hype. But it adds to a growing list of high-profile casualties, including plant-based brands such as VBites, Plant & Bean and Meatless Farm. On the own-label side Samworths closed its plant-based factory in July. And this isn’t a recent issue. Nestlé took the axe to its Garden Gourmet and Wunda brands almost two years ago, and the share prices of Beyond Meat and Oatly have been investment basket cases for a couple of years now, losing 95%-plus of their value. Indeed as we recently reported Beyond Meat is running out of cash.

And this week comes news that Unilever plans to sell its Vegetarian Butcher brand.

So it seems not unreasonable to suggest plant-based is in a spot of bother. After a boom in various vegan, vegetarian, alt-meat and dairy alternatives, plant-based has undergone a major reassessment by consumers, for a variety of reasons. In turn it’s prompted retailers and suppliers to take stock.

Yet some in the plant-based supplier community think The Grocer and its journalists are anti-vegan. Nonsense. Our job is to report the news. It’s not always fun seeing interesting, brave and in some cases much-loved brands struggling or going to the wall. But it’s important to cover the downs, as well as the ups.

At the same time, we continue to showcase plant-based success stories like Tofoo, Bold Bean and Better Nature. We champion often brilliant innovation (from the likes of This, Nomo, Lurpak, Jude’s, Cathedral City and BFree) through our news coverage and awards, including The Grocer’s recent New Product & Packaging Awards, in which there were 17 plant-based winners. And crucially our regular Focus On reports on the plant-based category provide balance, nuance and above all robust data so we paint an accurate picture of what’s truly going on.

This week, I also chaired the judging for a new competition called the Future of Food. All of the finalists, including the winner, Nice Rice, were in one way or another plant-based. That’s telling. 

This category isn’t dead. Plant-based is having a tough time. You might call it growing pains. But it will definitely keep moving forward (even if it has to do so on its knees). And The Grocer will follow its path every step of the way.

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