The sushi counter at Complete Meals Market is a go-to for a fast meal however vegan choices right here have largely been restricted to edamame and avocado rolls. Nevertheless, for some buyers, that’s about to alter with new vegan tuna and salmon rolls by Kikka Sushi.
Kikka has been a companion of Complete Meals for greater than 30 years and affords plant-based sushi options, resembling vegetable and salad rolls, at 200 places of the grocery chain. Nevertheless, Kikka just lately expanded its sushi choice to incorporate its personal plant-based fish options, which are actually hitting Complete Meals sushi counters at 17 flagship places in six areas.
“Now we have at all times had a robust emphasis on accountable environmental stewardship, and use merchandise which can be licensed sustainable, pure, and accountable,” Grant Kimura, Director of Advertising and marketing and Enterprise Growth at Kikka Sushi, tells VegNews.
Kikka Sushi
“As meals science and plant-based options turn out to be extra obtainable, we have now been in a position to develop a product in partnership with one in every of our distributors in Japan to create one thing that not solely appears to be like good but in addition tastes good,” he says. “Earlier makes an attempt at vegan fish substitutes had one or the opposite, however that is the primary product we have now tasted that does each.”
Vegan tuna and salmon at Complete Meals
To make sensible vegan tuna and salmon, Kikka makes use of a proprietary mix of purple algae and konjac. Sometimes called “konnyaku,” konjac is a root vegetable that has been common as a noodle base in Japanese delicacies for hundreds of years. Now, its pliable texture is being explored in different functions, together with as a plant-based various to fish.
Kikka’s plant-based sushi was developed by the corporate’s vendor in Japan along with Kikka founder Tonny Soesanto, who holds a grasp’s diploma in chemical engineering from acclaimed college California Institute of Expertise (CalTech).
Kikka Sushi
Knowledgeable each by Japanese culinary traditions and a deep technical data of plant chemistry and engineering, this distinctive collaborative effort, Kimura says, is what differentiates Kikka’s plant-based fish from others. “I believe the distinction is evident if you see and style the product,” Kimura says. “The feel and ‘mouthfeel’ are on level, and the product tastes good.”
Plant-based sushi for all
Kikka expanded past its vegetable-centric sushi choices with plant-based tuna and salmon options to draw a broader vary of shoppers who abstain from fish for myriad causes.
Whereas some keep away from consuming marine life for moral causes, ocean air pollution—within the type of plastics and chemical substances—has led many to keep away from consuming fish, as effectively. One study printed final 12 months discovered a hyperlink between fish consumption and an elevated threat of pores and skin most cancers, due prone to publicity to mercury.
Resulting from its excessive ranges of mercury, the USA Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that people who find themselves pregnant keep away from sure fish to scale back possibilities of beginning defects—creating one other shopper base fish-free options.
Kikka Sushi
“One different demographic we additionally encounter is anticipating moms who miss fish and sushi, and we’re so glad we now have a product that they will eat,” Kimura says.
Kikka’s new plant-based sushi is just the start for the model’s exploration of fish-free improvements. Kikka additionally simply launched plant-based gyoza and is engaged on different vegan seafood gadgets resembling sizzling bowls and poke. Kikka additionally transitioned to vegan sugar to make sure that all of its white rice merchandise are free from bone char.
Vegan seafood makes waves
Along with Kikka, various firms have developed sensible options to sushi-grade fish, significantly bluefin tuna as numbers of the apex predator have sharply declined within the final many years as a result of overfishing.
Present Meals is one other firm within the plant-based house making sushi-grade fish. Created from algae, koji, radish, bamboo, and potato, the corporate’s vegan tuna is so sensible that it put the startup on TIME’s 100 Finest Innovations of 2021 record.
GTFO It’s Vegan
In 2021, vegan e-commerce platform GTFO It’s Vegan launched its personal line of konjac-based vegan tuna, salmon, sailfish, and calamari which can be utilized for chilly preparations of dishes that characteristic conventional sashimi.
Over in Chicago, Aqua Cultured Meals is doing one thing a bit completely different. The startup makes use of the ability of microbial fermentation to develop vegan whole-cut fish products from mycoprotein. Earlier this month, the startup started the buildout of its new facility which can permit it to scale manufacturing of its ultra-realistic calamari, shrimp, scallops, and filets of tuna and whitefish.
“This transfer is the ultimate step on the street to commercialization of our alt-seafood, and it’s what we and our supporters have been ready for,” Anne Palermo, CEO of Aqua Cultured Meals CEO, mentioned in a press release.
The startup plans to introduce its first merchandise to market within the second quarter of 2023.
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Anna Starostinetskaya is the Senior Information Editor at VegNews and is at all times keeping track of all issues vegan in her dwelling metropolis of San Francisco, CA and in all places else.
