YAY! Foods To Unveil Plant-Based Marinated Feta At Woolworths Stores Across New South Wales, Australia

Women-owned business YAY! Foods is bringing its plant-based marinated feta to New South Wales (NSW) by debuting in select Woolworths stores, the Australian chain of supermarkets owned by the Woolworths Group across the state.

Founded by Australian Turkish sister duo Nalin and Nergiz, YAY! Foods first unveiled its handcrafted marinated alternative dairy feta product in their home state of Victoria. After a positive market response, the company is now expanding to other Australian states including NSW and Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

Nalin, who belongs to a traditional Turkish family, switched to a plant-based diet because of her love for animals and her environmentalism. After the birth of their daughter, Nalin’s husband joined her after waking up to the ills of baby animal slaughter whilst watching his wife breastfeed.

Nergiz came to veganism a different way. Faced with a painful spinal injury that put into question whether she would be able to walk again, she decided to try a vegan diet ad immediately noticed the benefits to her health- her chronic inflammation slowed and her pain reduced.

In 2017, the newly vegan sisters decided to launch YAY! Foods to provide consumers a range of handcrafted vegan pies, pastries and marinated vegan feta, a dairy staple from their childhood.

Made from organic tofu and nigari, a salt solution that forms when table salt precipitates from seawater/brines, the marinated vegan feta, which also contains organic coconut oil, lemon and apple cider vinegar, is infused with fresh, hand-peeled garlic and rosemary. YAY Foods’s feta is nut-free, dairy-free and cruelty-free.

Read: Meet These 5 Global Innovators Who Are Heading A New Generation Of Alt Cheese Startups

Alternative feta cheese is having a moment around the world: while still a fairly niche catgegory, Swedish foodtech Stockeld Dreamery just debuted a 100% plant-based feta cheese made from fermented pea protein and fava beans, and British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) featured a dairy-free feta cheese alternative among other new plant-based products in its own vegan brand Plant Kitchen product range in Hong Kong.

The global plant-based cheese market is presently valued at US$2.7 billion and is set to double to US$4.5 billion by 2025.

YAY! Foods feta can be found in the deli section at select Australian Woolworths stores in NSW and ACT from today (May 5).

Read: Interested In A Vegan Fromage Tour? Check Out These 10 Plant-Based Cheese Shops In The U.S.

Lead image courtesy of YAY! Foods.