A Rice-Based Burger Just Won Taste for Life's 2026 Veggie Burger Award
Taste for Life named 21 winners in its 2026 Food & Beverage Awards, and five of the award categories are named for plant-based alternatives to animal products, covering nut milk, plant milk, hot dogs, yogurt, and veggie burgers. The veggie burger award went to Bahama Burger, a patty built from rice.
Source: 2026 Food & Beverage Awards
Bahama Burger is the retail brand of Morini Brands, and the patty is made with Risofu, a rice curd base the company describes as the world’s first rice-based alternative to meat. The magazine’s listing credits the patty with 17 grams of protein and notes that it is soy free and gluten free.
The full-page ad announcing the win calls Risofu “a new food innovation.” Morini Brands announced Risofu in December 2009, when the original Bahama Rice Burger was already selling in four flavors. The company says Christopher Morini had developed rice-based cheese alternatives at Galaxy Nutritional Foods before that. The 2026 award went to a patty running on an ingredient platform that is 17 years old.
The retail box holds four 3 oz patties at 12 oz net weight, free of the top nine allergens, non-GMO, and made without artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. The 4 oz patty sold direct and through foodservice carries 22 grams of protein, 270 calories, and 5 grams of fiber. The ingredient statement lists the Risofu base of filtered water with brown, black, and wild rice, then rice purée, rice milk, pea and rice protein, chia, lentils, chickpeas, and cocoa butter, plus flavorings and stabilizers making up under 2%.
Buyers can check current stockists on the company’s retailer map. The product page sells three case configurations, an eight-burger BOGO pack, 40 patties, and 80 patties, and operators request pricing through the foodservice form. The ad points readers to Italian meatballs, a Mediterranean burger, and an Italian sausage pattie as the rest of the line, and the company lists a Sanford, Florida address.
The Good Food Institute’s 2026 State of the Industry report put US plant-based meat and seafood at $1 billion in 2025, with dollar sales down 10% and unit sales down 11%. GFI found that products carrying claims about low saturated fat, heart health certifications, or shorter than average ingredient lists were among those that grew, and that plant-based meat dollar velocity improved 3% in the natural channel, where health and wellness retailers concentrate. In foodservice, growth came from noncommercial operators, and education and healthcare were the largest of those segments. Morini Brands has been pointing Risofu at schools, hospitals, and restaurants since that 2009 announcement. A wellness magazine’s award badge and a school nutrition director’s allergen list are aimed at the same spec sheet.
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