domeet webmaster

At this year’s Taobao Creation Festival, one of the hottest booths was the “Artificial Meat Lab.”

Here, at the right time, Hong Kong Food Technology Corporation Right Treat will present a free snack for the audience with “artificial meat” – a snack called “OmniPork New Pork”.

Gourmets say that the premise of “knowing” is to have a “taste foundation” – only when you are very familiar with the same ingredients can you judge whether it is good or bad. Pork, as the meat most familiar to most Chinese consumers, is delicious or not. It is also a topic that everyone has the right to talk about.

Because of this, it is not easy to make “artificial meat” that can conquer the taste of Chinese people. To this end, Ai Faner and Right Treat founder Yang Dawei chatted and tried to understand the story behind OmniPork’s new pork (hereafter referred to as “new pork”).

How about eating?

We have also introduced that the current “artificial meat” is mainly divided into two types: one is animal meat based on animal cells, and the other is plant-based. As close as possible to the nutrition and taste of the meat of the meat.

“New pork” belongs to the latter.

The raw materials for “new pork” are peas, non-genetically modified soybeans, mushrooms and rice. Like the product of Beyond Meat, the “first piece of artificial meat”, “new pork” is also a “blood color” that gives the meat to the meat with beetroot juice and is presented in the form of “ground meat”.

I know that everyone is surprised by how “new pork” is eaten.

As a Cantonese who is not a picky eater, I tried to eat meatballs made with “new pork.” In terms of taste, the meatballs still have the soft, slightly elastic taste of the meat, but what I eat is the smell of beans.

I have also eaten Beyond Meat’s hamburger meat, the experience is quite similar, and the final product is the taste of (another kind) beans. And although both have a little bit of meat adhesion on the texture, the structure is still loose. This also has the advantage – after eating, my two long wisdom teeth have no teeth.

Ai Faner also asked the audience’s feelings of other tastings on the spot. Many of them said that the taste was OK, but the taste was light, and some people thought that the overall situation was quite delicious.

This may also be because we all try to eat with the knowledge that it is “successful meat”, and we can more sensitively detect the different places of pork in peace.

Yang Dawei told Ai Faner that they had done a lot of blind tests before, and many people could not eat the difference.

We did blind testing at a Japanese restaurant. We used the “new pork” to make fried dumplings. As a result, neither the chef nor the customer had any difference.

Moreover, Yang Dawei said that although “new pork” is a new product, it is inevitable to go through the education period for consumers when it is launched, but this process is shorter than they expected. “Because everyone just tried once. After that, they will find themThere is no difference in meat in peace.”

Not just hamburger meat, but also lion head, dumplings, meatloaf…

Compared with Western hamburger meat, the most intuitive difference in “new pork” this time is the way of cooking. At the booth, tryners can choose from mini burgers, meatballs, spring rolls and patties with cold noodles.

This also reflects Yang Dawei’s understanding of the differences between Chinese and Western ingredients. For “ground meat” alone, the West may be used to make hamburger meat or sausage, but in Asia, the way to cook is varied, which is the question that Right Treat needs to consider when developing products.

We are targeting the Asian market. In addition to developing meat, we have to consider how the chef will use (food). For example, when we are playing hot pot, will the meat be separated or can it be held together? In addition to the taste, we have to take into account the moisture viscosity, etc., which is different in every cuisine.

“New Pork” was officially launched in Hong Kong last year and will be officially launched at Tmall’s “Green Common Overseas Flagship Store” this month. The price of 230g packaged “new pork” will be around 20 yuan.

At that time, everyone will still be able to buy “raw ground meat”. According to the introduction, everyone can personally see the changes in the texture of raw meat from “raw” to “cooked” from the cooking process. For many people, it should be a very new thing.” As for the cooking method, the official said that it only needs to be treated normally with ordinary meat.

In addition, Yang Dawei told Ai Faner that they will soon launch “New Pork” to make dumplings and other instant snacks, so that people who don’t have time to start cooking can easily eat. As for the “sugar pork” in the form of ground meat, Yang Dawei also said that they are already ready and will be launched in the near future.

Behind is a more complete food culture

In addition to the more cooked forms and the eating habits of the Asian market, there is a more complete “elastic vegetarian” food culture behind “New Pork”.

In addition to the food technology company Right Treat, Yang Dawei co-founded “Green Monday” in Hong Kong in 2012, a company that promotes the concept of “one-day vegetarian diet a week”, which also has a retail experience brand. “Green Common” – a space that combines the functions of a supermarket, a restaurant, and a cooking class.

Yang Dawei said that in the past few years, Green Monday has been promoting the “elastic vegetarian” culture in Hong Kong and has seen a very significant change. He claimed that in 2012, Hong Kong’s flexible vegetarian population was only 2%-5%. By this year, this figure has grown to 24%.

Many companies have joined the Green Monday (Vegetarian Monday) activities, such as Google, Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC, which are all supplied by Green Common.

In the Green Common store, in addition to the self-developed product “New Pork”, they also represented Beyond Meat and Gardein’s vegetarian burgers, Alpha Foods’s chicken nuggets and Califia Farms’ oatmeal.

At present, “New Pork” has not only become the choice of some Hong Kong Michelin chefs, but has also sunk to the chain fast food restaurants “Grand Joy” and “Cuihua”, and will enter the primary and secondary school catering options in the near future. in.

The success in Hong Kong has made Yang Dawei more confident to enter the mainland market. Next, in addition to the “new pork” on Tmall, they will also cooperate with domestic restaurants and gradually add this new material to the menu.

It’s really hard to have someone to eat vegetarian food completely, but it seems better to eat one day a week.

Now everyone has a consensus on reducing meat consumption (good for health). This is not a fashion trend. This year’s popularity may disappear next year. This is a fundamental change.