South Korean food group Pulmuone is launching a plant-based products venture across a number of categories and in several markets.
The company – best known for making tofu – said it will release about 20 plant-based meat products in a number of category areas.
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In the plant-based meat category, for example, Pulmuone will release a tofu tender that can replace chicken.
It revealed the new products will be launched in the US, China and Japan, as well as in its home market.
Pulmuone said against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic it has noriced “a global trend in value consumption that prefers plant protein that is good for health and the environment instead of meat” and has launched its “vegetable-oriented food business strategy” as a result.
It said the strategy will be established upon “core competencies based on the world’s best tofu manufacturing and vegetable protein R&D technology and potential since its foundation in 1984”.
Pulmuone said it plans to introduce new plant-oriented products “sequentially” in three phases by 2023.
First off the blocks is its Tofu Noodle Kit, a “home-style meal” that replaces flour noodles. The second launch will be Cube Tofu and Tofu Bar and the third will be Tofu Crumble Bowl Sauce with vegetable meat and the aforementioned Tofu Tender.
The company said it plans to localise plant-oriented products to suit the characteristics of global markets, such as the US, China, and Japan, via overseas subsidiaries.
Pulmuone USA recently launched a plant-oriented food brand, Plantspired, while its Japanese subsidiary launched the Tofu Protein food brand. It said Fumetour Foods, a Chinese subsidiary, will further expand and develop plant-oriented products based on tofu.
Lee Sang-yoon, director of the Pulmuone Institute of Technology, said: “After the coronavirus outbreak, the number of consumers seeking healthy and nutritious plant protein sources instead of meat in the United States will increase rapidly, and consumption trends that value the global environment and ecosystem are expected to continue.”
He said Pulmuone plans to “compete shoulder-to-shoulder with global companies in the future food market”.
