Leaft Foods

Leaft Foods is a New Zealand-based food ingredient and consumer product company specializing in the extraction and commercialization of Rubisco, a highly nutritious plant protein found in green leaves. Founded in 2016 by Maury Leyland and John Penno following executive education at Stanford University, the company is headquartered and operates its processing plant in Rolleston, Canterbury, New Zealand, where it grows and processes alfalfa at commercial scale.

The company's core technology centers on extracting Rubisco — the protein that drives photosynthesis and is found in every green leaf — from alfalfa crops grown in Canterbury's deep soils. Rubisco is notable for its exceptional functional properties: it dissolves, foams, gels, and emulsifies comparably to eggs or whey protein, while offering superior nutritional value and zero allergens. The protein has been recognized by leading scientists, including researchers at NC State University's Plants for Human Health Institute, and has been featured in Time Magazine as one of the best natural proteins available from a food-ingredient perspective.

Leaft Foods has developed a proprietary, gentle extraction process that preserves Rubisco's functional integrity at commercial scale — a technical challenge that had previously defeated numerous attempts by others in the food science and ingredient industry. The breakthrough was achieved in collaboration with Ross Milne, an engineer with extensive experience designing large-scale food factories, along with a growing multidisciplinary team.

On the consumer product side, Leaft Foods markets Leaft Blade, a ready-to-drink 100 ml protein shot that delivers 18 grams of leaf protein and 6 mg of iron derived from 50,000 leaves. The product requires no powder preparation or shaker, positioning it as a convenient, clean-label protein solution grown and manufactured entirely in Canterbury, New Zealand.

The company serves both the B2B food ingredient market — supplying Rubisco as a functional protein ingredient to CPG manufacturers — and the direct-to-consumer channel through its Blade product line. Its alfalfa-based protein platform targets markets seeking allergen-free, naturally derived protein alternatives to conventional animal or legume-based proteins. The company leverages New Zealand's established food production expertise and infrastructure to scale its operations and bring leaf protein into mainstream food and beverage applications.

Leaft Foods represents a novel category in the alternative protein space, distinguishing itself from lab-grown, fermentation-derived, or synthetic protein competitors by anchoring its value proposition in agricultural crops and nature-based processing. The company's ingredient is positioned for broad application across food and beverage formats given Rubisco's multifunctional properties.