U.S. sales of plant-based meat and seafood analogs declined slightly in 2023, and private spending into the sector dipped in many worldwide markets, according to the Good Food Institute’s 2023 State of the Industry Report.
“Both dollar and unit sales fell for the second consecutive year, indicating that opportunities exist to better meet consumer needs on key product characteristics like taste and affordability,” the report said.
Plant-based food company Fuji Oil, based in Osaka, Japan, is aiming to overcome taste issue customers have with plant-based products and turn negative industry trends around through its MIRA-Dashi line of plant-based soup stock, which is available in four flavors: chicken broth, beef broth, pork bone broth, and bonito broth.
At Fuji Oil’s main factory in Izumisano, just south of the city of Osaka, the company is researching what consumers are looking for when it comes to plant-based products. The factory, located at the Izumisano port and featuring its own wharf for receiving bulk ingredients, features a research and development center where the dashi-replacement product is being developed.
Tsutomu Saito, the general manager of Fuji Oil’s fundamental seasoning business department, cited a consumer survey about plant-based food, which found 67 percent of respondents thought plant-based foods were delicious but only 25 percent said they were satisfying.
Saito said it was difficult to identify just what makes food satisfying, and that the process to ensure satisfaction is more complex than the sole addition of a single ingredient. Instead of relying on a simple solution, several procedural methods, as well as extensive trial-and-error testing, went into the development of nailing down a satisfying taste in its plant-based soup stocks, according to Saito.
While keeping the exact method of development a trade secret, Saito pointed toward the Maillard reaction – a breakdown of amino acids into peptides under heat – and the company’s long experience in creating emulsifications of fats and proteins, and Japan’s tradition of using fermentation to produce deep, satisfying flavors, such as in soy sauce and miso paste, as contributing factors to the product’s satisfying taste.
Saito said tourism has proven to be a surprising driver of demand for plant-based analogs in Japan. Post-pandemic, tourists have flooded into Japan to take advantage of the weak yen. This has led to many requests for vegetarian, vegan, and halal foods from foreign tourists, often described in the Japanese foodservice industry as “diversity foods.”
Restaurant operators in tourist areas have realized that if their establishment cannot meet a special diet requirement for even one member of a group, the whole group will move to another shop. Thus, there is a need to offer some diverse options.
“Inbound tourists are the main market,” Saito said. “Additionally, Japanese consumers interested in health and environmental sustainability have shown interest.”
Fuji Oil’s plant-based dashi has already attracted users among ramen shops, including the Vejin and Ippudo chains, both based in Tokyo, according to Saito.
For now, Fuji Oil's production volume remains small, with manufacturing currently outsourced, Saito said, but the company is exploring the potential of using plant-based dashi in curry dishes as a way to expand its use.
