Protein straws made from vegetables constituted a type of food. These straws were edible for humans, and despite their rather uninteresting flavor, they offered a reasonably healthy and substantial meal option when compared to numerous other food choices. They were available for purchase in tubes, with each tube priced below six credits. In approximately 4 BBY, which was during the Imperial Era, the human named Jyn Erso bought a tube of these dehydrated straws while she was located on the Five Points space station. Shortly thereafter, a pickpocket made off with her straws. Following the Galactic Empire's prohibition of her scandocs, which kept her from departing the system, Erso secured an inexpensive room on the station's primary level and sustained herself primarily on vegetable protein straws and nutritive milk.
The existence of vegetable protein straws was first revealed in Rebel Rising, a novel from 2017 penned by Beth Revis.