I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I first heard about the latest development in faux meat products: vegan SPAM. No, really. Not to lean too hard on an old joke, there are those who claim SPAM is already fake meat – but that’s another story for another context. I’m talking about a new competitor for Beyond and Impossible…
How big is OmniFoods? Although all but unheard of in the west, it’s huge in Asia.
And it’s suddenly the king of vegetarian Pork Substitutes!
The new product is called OmniPork, and hails from the East, where its manufacturer, OmniFoods, is already a household name. Actually, OmniFoods is a brand name under the Green Monday umbrella, a global group based in Hong Kong dedicated to promoting the future of sustainable food. But it’s still the world’s leading maker of Pork product substitutes, in spite of the fact that few have ever heard of it before here in the west.
What is OmniPork?
It’s a blend of a blend of Shiitake mushrooms, pea, non-GMO soy, and rice. We assume that the Shiitakes are in there to add ‘umami wham’ to the flavour profile. In support of its sustainability, Omni Foods says their proproducts (‘SPAM’, Loose Ground ‘Meat’ and ‘Strips’ – like bacon) require 68 percent less energy to produce than traditional Pork, and rich in calcium, iron and fibre.
How good is it?
OmniPork is already on the menu at Taco Bell and McDonald’s in Asia, Australia, and the UK. See? I told you they were already big!
Market dynamics
While Beyond and Impossible – both U.S. startups that arose in the last decade or so – have concentrated on developing plant-based Beef substitutes, it’s only natural that an Asian company like OmniFoods would focus on Pork. After all, 65 percent of the meat consumed in China is Pork, in some form or another. It’s obvious that the market there would crave a Pork substitute. Compare that with North America, where only about 25 percent of the meat we consume is Pork, while Beef and Chicken remain the favourites. But Omni is counting on its products catching on virally here, especially in the absence of any viable domestic competition.
That hope is reflected in a launch campaign set to premier on April 22 – Earth Day – at 8 selected chi-chi restos in California and Hawaii. Why Hawaii? Because SPAM is nearly a ‘national food’ there, and folks consume more SPAM per capita than in any of the other 48 states.
My take
I guess we need a vegan substitute for Pork if we have them for Beef. It’s only fair to the veggies and – let’s face it – the great masses of people everywhere in the world who will be probably subsisting on vegetarian-source proteins by some time in the second half of this century. No matter what you support, going veggie is the only way we will be able to sustainably feed the world’s exploding population.
What about the heavy emphasis on mimicking conventional meats? Thousands of generations of humans (with a few exceptions) have relied on conventional meats as their main sources of dietary protein. We’re hard-wired by evolution to crave that umami experience that only meat (until now) can provide. I firmly believe it will take much more time than we have available to make the ’emotional switch’ to veggie protein sources than it will take to make the ‘functional switch’. But it’s something we’ll have to do, and we should all give thanks to the ‘innovators’ that we’ll have bridging products such as Beyond, Impossible and Omni meat substitutes available to ease the pain.
With the addition of OmniPork to the North American diet – along with second-tier substitutes such as veggie-based ‘Milks’, and Egg substitutes from outfits such as Just Foods – the circle has been closed. Time to move forward and embrace these new foods.
~ Maggie J.