Vegan launches healthy version of his childhood favourite: ‘luncheon meat’ that almost made him cry
- Green Monday group’s David Yeung has launched Omnipork Luncheon, plant-based luncheon meat
- Luncheon meat is especially popular in China, Korea, and Hong Kong. Yeung has also launched Omnipork strips
Almost 20 years after adopting a vegan lifestyle, David Yeung again tucked into one of his favourite childhood dishes – instant noodles with luncheon meat. This version of “meat” was plant-based, but just as tasty.
“When I bit into it I almost cried,” he recalls with a laugh. “This is highly related to our childhood memory, our Hongkongers’ way of living, luncheon meat with egg and noodles.”
Yeung started Green Monday Group’s retail arm Green Common and food-tech innovation arm Omnifoods (previously called Right Treat), and has achieved several milestones since the group first began promoting a plant-based lifestyle in 2012.
Its original Omnipork plant-based ‘meat’ is made from peas, soybeans, shiitake mushrooms and rice. The luncheon product has soy, wheat, beet and coconut oil, while the strips contain soy, wheat, beet and sunflower oil.
Compared to regular luncheon meat, the vegan version has 40 per cent fewer calories, 49 per cent less fat and 62 per cent less sodium. And it does not contain nitrates, added preservatives, hormones, antibiotics or cholesterol.
“From just a personal, emotional standpoint, from a craving standpoint, and a real market demand standpoint, we knew that luncheon meat had to be on the list [of products to develop], we didn’t know how difficult it would be and how long it would take, but it was high on the priority list,” says Yeung.
That’s because global sales of luncheon meat last year reached 374,000 tonnes, of which Asia-Pacific consumed 146,000 tonnes (accounting for 39 per cent), followed by North America at 119,000, and Europe 88,000. That means of the 1.1 billion tins of luncheon meat sold around the world, 400 million were sold in Asia-Pacific alone.
According to a survey on processed meat that Ipsos conducted for Omnifoods, Hongkongers and South Koreans favour luncheon meat over sausage and bacon. In China, 88 per cent of people eat luncheon meat at least once a month, followed by 78 per cent of Koreans, and 69 per cent of Hongkongers.
“In a funny way luncheon meat is the ultimate example that when we consume we are illogical and emotional people, and despite data and science, no matter how convincing they are, our craving [for luncheon meat] still comes first,” says Yeung.
“If plant-based food can meet the degree of craving with a much higher health and environmental composition, then it’s the ultimate win-win-win.”
No one could have predicted this even 10 weeks ago, nor that the pandemic would have actually helped the plant-based industry to leap forward, Yeung says. “But the reality is these ‘black swan’ events are technically not unpredictable. In the case of infectious diseases transmitted from animals to humans, that has happened time after time after time. But this time, it became a full-blown disaster globally.”
“No one wants this kind of global pandemic tragedy to happen, but the way we live our lives, the way we eat, it would be a surprise if these kinds of things didn’t happen,” he continues. “Not to make it sound like we predicted this; this is based on science and past case studies. It’s just that as human beings, our consumption of things has gone up so much the meat industry has lagged behind. We are still using such an outdated model that is not meant to support the population we have today.”
Still, Yeung sees hope in Hong Kong, where there is growing awareness that people should eat less meat.
The Omnipork products were developed in Canada and produced in Thailand for easier distribution in Asia to countries including China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Thailand.
Currently the Omnipork Luncheon and Strips are available only at the Kind Kitchen restaurant in Green Common’s flagship store in Nan Fung Place in Sheung Wan. They will be available for retail in July for about HK$40 per pack.