Shinsegae Food expanding vegan meat business in the US, Korea

Shinsegae Food Inc., a South Korean food service, distribution, catering, and manufacturing company, recently revealed it would expand its meat alternative business in Korea and the United States.

Shinsegae Food is planning to sell hamburgers made from vegetables such as beans. This will be added to the menu of its No Brand Burger stores. The company is targeting April 22 as the release date in time for Earth Day.

As per Pulse News, the company is expanding its meat alternative business as the popularity of vegan or plant-based meat continues to grow. As mentioned, No Brand Burgers will start selling 100% vegan hamburgers starting in April.

Shinsegae Group, the parent company of Shinsegae Food, said that the burger is served with eggs and cheese. It will also add pork and sundae, a Korean-style sausage made with vegetable ingredients.

As part of this meat alternative expansion, the company will also make whipped cream without milk, which will be sold in supermarkets very soon. One reason why Shinsegae Food is now focusing on its meat substitute unit is because of its huge potential to grow in various markets.

People these days are becoming more health conscious and more concerned for the global environment and animal welfare. Thus, they are shifting to plant-based food items for their daily diet. In any case, it was in 2016 when Shinsegae Food started the research and development for its plant-based menu items.

“The domestic alternative meat market is still small, but the company will be able to achieve hundreds of billions of won in sales in the larger U.S. market in three to four years,” Shisegae Food’s chief executive officer, Song Hyun Suk, previously said on why he chose meat alternatives as the company’s new growth engine. “We will push to list the meat alternative subsidiary established in Delaware on the U.S. stock exchange within five years.”