CHICAGO — Vegan food manufacturer, Upton’s Naturals, has teamed with Dot Foods, the largest food industry redistributor in North America. The new relationship will increase availability of the brand’s popular 100% vegan meat alternatives for distributors, restaurants and foodservice customers nationwide. Providing super versatile, clean-ingredient, heat-and-eat meat substitutes for the ever-growing population of people embracing plant-based diets, here’s how the SKUs breakdown:
- Original Jackfruit: versatile, whole-food swap for pulled pork or shredded chicken
- Banana Blossom: unseasoned, packed in brine, delicious battered and fried to make fish & chips
- Seitan: high-protein meat substitutes made with vital wheat gluten and simple ingredients
- Updog (smoky and savory with signature Chicago hot dog snap)
- Traditional seitan chunks (minimally seasoned, ready to sauce and slice)
- Strips (ideal for sandwiches, stir-fries and fajitas)
- Italian seitan crumble (works in any dish made with ground sausage)
- Chorizo seitan crumble (mildly spiced, great for tacos, bowls and burritos)
- Ground seitan (finely ground, lightly seasoned swap for ground beef)
- Gyros (made with lemon juice, marjoram, rosemary and other traditional seasonings)
- Bacon seitan (smoky, sliced and perfect for BLTs, salad or pizza)
- Chickless Patties: tastes great grilled, breaded and fried for sandwiches
- Chickless Strips: perfect for chicken tenders or as a vegan protein option for salads
- Vegan Char Burger: a unique blend of seasoning gives this burger fresh-off-the-grill-flavor
“We’re proud of the impact we’ve made by selling our products in retail stores and know that we have just scratched the surface of what we can do with restaurant and foodservice customers,” said Upton’s Naturals’ founder Dan Staackmann. “We are excited and ready to reach more people willing to embrace a plant-based diet through this partnership with Dot Foods.”
“We are excited to welcome Upton’s Naturals to Dot. Our plant-based offering continues to grow, and our partnership will allow us to help make Upton’s Naturals’ products more accessible to our customers in this fast-growing segment of the food industry,” said Rodd Willis, director of natural & specialty at Dot Foods.
About Upton’s Naturals
Located in Chicago, IL, Upton’s Naturals is an independently-owned natural foods company with a focus on meat alternatives and vegan values. Serving foodservice and retail customers nationwide and globally, Upton’s Naturals’ products can be found on the menu at restaurants and sold in over 5,000 stores across the country. The company also runs Upton’s Breakroom, a vegan factory café in Chicago, and Liberation Donuts, a 100% vegan gourmet donut shop. Visit UptonsNaturals.com for more information and find @UptonsNaturals on Facebook and Instagram. Follow @UptonsBreakroom on Facebook and Instagram, as well as @LibertionDonuts on Facebook and Instagram.
