Verdino Green Foods launches unfished into UK retail sector, with a new range of plant-based fish alternatives

Verdino Green Foods is launching Unfished, a new range of revolutionary plant-based fish alternatives targeting vegetarians, vegans and flexitarians, at Plant Based World Expo, Olympia (booth H24).

Plant-based fish currently has a small fraction of the plant-based market in size, but huge potential for rapid growth; therefore, Verdino sees this as a major opportunity for both retail and food service, and believes the Unfished brand is well placed to drive the growth.

Unfished is the most diversified plant-based fish portfolio currently available internationally, with a rapid evolution and an extensive number of product innovations introduced in less than two years. Unfished covers all the biggest seafood segments, with alternatives to tuna, salmon and smoked salmon, as well as white fish and breaded fish, all part of the UK launch. The products are sold under Verdino Green Foods’s trademarks, Unfished® PlanTuna®, Unfished® PlantZalmon® and Unfished® PlantFish®.

“Unfished offers the retail industry a unique range of plant-based fish alternative products, from salmon slices to sashimi to fillets,” says Raul Ciurtin, Verdino Green Foods Founder. “There is a massive opportunity for Unfished to explode into the UK market, due to the fast growing, but unfilled, demand for fish alternatives. Unfished products have been developed to allow consumers to enjoy plant-based meals easily and conveniently, in all their favourite meals, without any compromise on taste and texture. The retail demand is there for quality products that deliver on these important points, and Unfished is here to meet it.

“What’s most exciting of all about launching Unfished into UK retail,” says Raul Ciurtin, “is that plant-based fish is wholly incremental in sales, so has potential to expand the market significantly. The plant-based category has shrunk this year, with some conservatism having been shown by buyers and brands alike. This means there has been less genuine innovation of the kind that electrified consumers a few years ago and drove double-digit growth. Plant-based fish, led by the launch of Unfished, can be the catalyst that drives the whole plant-based category back into growth.

“Verdino’s Europe-wide success story has been built on the power of pea protein. A sustainable, versatile protein base fit for the needs of our planet and its people! Through our multiple brands we offer the broadest range of vegan options in plant-based meats, and now we’re doing the same with fish alternatives. Our products have been internationally awarded for their quality, taste and impact. Our Unfished range works well with a wide variety of delicious recipes, and we’re confident that UK consumers will be inspired by how easy it is to simply swap our plant-based alternatives into the great dishes they currently produce with fish.”

Raul adds: “Based on Verdino’s extensive experience here in retail with our plant-based meats, we’re confident we have the expertise to scale up the Unfished offer fast. We’re also launching Unfished into foodservice, where we also see huge opportunities including with our breaded fillet, with vegan and plant-based tuna sandwiches and salads, and with our Poke Cubes. So as Unfished takes off in food service experience tells us consumers will look to retailers to help recreate their out of home discoveries.

“We know that product innovation previously exploded plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, and people have been waiting for the same thing to happen with fish alternatives.”

Verdino will be offering tasting samples of the Unfished range at booth H24 of Plant Based World Expo (30th November to 1st December), to showcase the quality and benefits that the range can provide retailers.

The Unfished UK retail range (all frozen) includes:

Unfished PlantZalmon Poke Cubes 200g
Unfished PlanTuna Poke Cubes 200g
Unfished PlantZalmon Fillet 170g
Unfished PlantFish White Fillet 170g
Unfished PlantFish Breaded Sticks 190g
Unfished PlantFish Breaded Fillets 170g
Unfished PlantZalmon Smoked Slices 100g
Unfished PlanTuna Flakes 180g
Unfished PlanTuna Sashimi Block 200g
Unfished PlantZalmon Sashimi Block 200g
Unfished PlantFish Breaded Fillets 225g
Unfished PlantFish Breaded Sticks 240g

The Unfished brand delivers much more than just quality fish alternatives. It means less overfishing, more biodiversity and a more sustainable food system for future generations, for healthier oceans and their valuable resources.

“While our business is rooted in pea protein as our core protein base our Unfished products also use rice and fava bean proteins,” says Raul Ciurtin, “As with plant-based meat, most of the sustainability gains come from the food. It is simply more sustainable to create food from plants as opposed to animals, and the rapid growth in consumer interest in all parts of plant-based demonstrates that they understand this. Now it’s time for retailers to work with us and turn interested consumers into delighted customers.”

Verdino Green Foods is an innovative plant-based company from the Transylvania region in Romania. Since 2019 Verdino Green Foods has developed a broad range of plant-based meats, cheese and now fish products. Verdino is the market leader in its home country, Romania, and has expanded into Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Hungary and Poland. The products are award-winning, picking up trophies at the Plant-Based Taste Awards, V-Label awards, Men’s Health Good Food Awards and PETA Deutschland’s Vegan Food Awards.

For further information, visit www.verdinofoods.co.uk.