Starbucks Launches Plant-Based Seafood in Hong Kong
For the first time, the coffee giant has added sustainable, vegan crab cakes to its menu at 170 Hong Kong Starbucks locations.
Vegan crab cakes are going mainstream, with the alternative seafood product now available on the menu at 170 Hong Kong Starbucks locations. This marks the coffee giant's first venture into the plant-based seafood sphere, an industry that saw companies raise $116 million in investment capital in the first half of 2021.
The new menu item is made by vegan foodtech company OmniFoods, and is incorporated into Starbucks’ Thai Style New Crab Cake Salad, which also features mixed lettuce, pumpkin, tomato, and fresh pomelo pulp, and a salad dressing made with fish sauce served on the side. The fish sauce salad dressing can be removed to make the meal 100% vegan.
Famed for its pork alternatives, OmniFoods launched its range of alternative seafood earlier this year, featuring two fish fillers, an ocean burger, tuna, salmon, and crab cakes. The products are made from soy, pea and rice protein. OmniFoods’ founder David Yeung is also the founder of Green Monday, a social enterprise that debuted OmniSeafood dishes across its own Green Common eateries.
“We are thrilled to have Starbucks Hong Kong to be one of our first OmniSeafood launch partners,” OmniFoods’ founder David Yeung said in a statement. “Besides the exciting menu item we are introducing, we trust this is the beginning of raising awareness that ocean preservation and reduction of seafood consumption should be high on everyone’s agenda in terms of combating climate change and ensuring food security for the planet.”
This venture marks the third collaboration between OmniFoods and the coffee giant, which has already introduced a variety of OmniPork dishes to its Hong Kong and mainland China menus.
Consumers can look forward to more plant-based seafood options coming to eateries and restaurants in the future too, as demand for the fish-free seafood market is expected to soar. Back in 2019, only 29 companies worldwide offered alternative seafood products compared to the 87 companies reported in June 2021, according to a report on the plant-based seafood industry conducted by The Good Food Institute.
“We cannot tackle climate change without addressing the destruction of our oceans,” said Yeung. “Overfishing and bottom trawling devastate our marine ecosystems. While conventional seafood accounts for 17 percent of animal-based protein sales in the U.S., plant-based seafood only accounts for less than 1 percent of the entire plant-based protein market in the U.S. This is why, since the launch of OmniPork in 2018, Green Monday [OmniFoods’ parent company] has started focusing on seafood. The OmniSeafood series promises to not only wow taste buds, but also to awaken our consciousness toward our oceans.”
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