Plant-based meat in Hong Kong supermarkets and at McDonald’s – going vegetarian or vegan has never been easier

News that Impossible Beef is now available at ParknShops in Hong Kong is the latest indicator of plant-based diets becoming more mainstream in the city

Growing movement sees OmniPork luncheon meat sold at McDonald’s and served on Cathay Pacific flights and one hotel chain going completely vegetarian

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With Hong Kong supermarkets now stocking meat alternatives like Impossible Beef, going vegetarian or adopting a completely plant-based diet is not as difficult as it used to be.

Published: 7:15am, 29 Oct 2020Updated: 10:15am, 29 Oct 2020

Hong Kong diners no longer have to go to a restaurant to enjoy an Impossible plant-based burger – they can now walk into any ParknShop supermarket and buy some Impossible Beef to cook at home.

Hong Kong and Singapore are the first places outside the United States to have the vegan “meat” available in supermarkets. For non-meat eaters, it’s a welcome addition to what has been a limited menu and another sign that the notion of a plant-based diet has moved from the periphery to the mainstream.

Impossible Foods chief executive and founder Pat Brown explained last week that because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the California-based company’s roll-out into retail shops has become a priority. “Ninety-five per cent of our [US] business [before the pandemic] was in food service, [as was also the case] in Hong Kong and Singapore. When the epidemic hit, one of the hardest-hit sectors in the economy was restaurants,” he said.

The company therefore wanted consumers to have ready access to the product. “We are now, in the US, in more than 13,000 grocery stores, a 100-fold increase from the beginning of the year,” Brown said.

Hong Kong diners can now walk into any ParknShop supermarket and buy some Impossible Beef to cook at home.

Since January, there has been a 150 per cent increase in demand for Impossible Food products at the 700 restaurants in Hong Kong and Macau that serve the plant-based protein, Brown said. For him, this has made his company’s mission – to make the use of animals in the food system obsolete and to reverse climate change – one step closer.

“If you replace 1kg [2.2 pounds] of beef from a cow with 1kg of Impossible Beef, the savings in greenhouse gas emissions is equivalent to what’s emitted flying in a passenger jet 300km [186 miles], or 130km driving in a typical compact car. It’s a massive, massive greenhouse gas footprint,” he said.