A plant based protein company from New Zealand is bringing a unique offer to Australian supermarkets today – chicken without the chook!
Sunfed Meats launches its Chicken Free Chicken into Coles supermarkets and Coles Online on Friday, following sell out success across the water.
Similarly to US companies Beyond Meat and Incredible Foods, Sunfed Meats aims to emulate the taste, feel and cooking process of real meat products, using plant-based ingredients, to appeal to the growing flexitarian,
vegetarian and vegan markets. The majority of these innovators have focused on patties and red meat, meaning there are very few alternatives to chicken on the market.
Sunfed’s “chicken” is made from yellow peas and contains double the protein of the chicken and triple the iron of beef.
It is also non-allergenic, cholesterol free, trans fat free and from a sustainable food source, meeting the needs of those wanting to reduce their meat intake for health or environmental reasons.
Shama Sukul Lee, Sunfed founder and CEO
“We challenged ourselves to a high bar of not making a patty, but a whole piece of fleshy meat
with long succulent fibers that would be a good replacement to boneless skinless chicken breast
pieces. We also wanted it to be just as versatile, so it had to work easily with existing chicken recipes,” Shama Sukul Lee, Sunfed founder and CEO said in a statement.
“We strive to create products that are equal to or better
than the status quo in order to create real choice for mainstream consumers allowing them to vote with their wallets.”
Coles is the first Australian retailer to snap up the brand, in the hopes that it will meet the changing needs of its consumer base.
“Our chilled health range has experienced double digit growth in the past 12 months and not only are we seeing more of our customers buying health foods, but also continuing to purchase these items more frequently,” a Coles spokesperson told Inside FMCG.
“Reflecting the growing trend for vegetarian and vegan products, Coles has a growing range of plant-based and alternative protein products in store, and will continue to look to inspire its customers and meet their changing tastes.”
Sunfed’s aim is to build a highly scalable “regenerative” protein company that can feed the world without causing damage to the planet.
The company uses protein from pulses, which don’t require fertiliser, have a minimal water footprint are drought-resistant and require minimal pesticide use.
“Just like we’re evolving from fossil fuels to solar, we need to evolve from animals to plants,” Lee said.
“Food is the largest market in the world with the biggest footprint on the planet, transformation here will be significant.”
