Plant-based meat substitutes can sound peculiar, yet it is an emerging topic in today’s society. Over the months in the recent past, various stories occasionally shed light on research and promising results for various experiments, which saw and successfully produced outstanding outcomes.
Where did the idea for ‘Plant-based meat substitutes’ originate?
The attempt to produce substitutes for meats with the use of plant-based materials has been under development for a couple of years, as far as published reports testify.
This move has been initiated as many individuals have taken the stance to switch towards ‘veganism’ by opting to build a more sustainable lifestyle and minimise animal cruelty.
With great influence in the past 2 years alone, the global society so its the highest rate of individuals who have completely cut-out ‘meat’ from their diets, and consuming a completely fruit & vegetable based diet.
This prompted food researchers and even medical professionals to look into the matter more closely. Thus the move towards developing ‘plant-based meat substitutes’ arose.
Whenever the topic of ‘plant-based meats’ are discussed, jackfruit is almost always considered as the primary option. And according to many websites based on health & cookery, jackfruit is exclusively given the top spot.
Is this a mere reason to source jackfruit for this purpose?
No, while jackfruit is indeed the best pick to be used for preparing meat substitutes, we have taken into consideration the highly sustainable nature of jackfruit, as it requires only little amounts of water to be cultivated and grown. We have also considered the nutritious value of jackfruit as well since it’s rich in fibre and potassium. Jackfruit is also a perfect ingredient because, since it uses very limited amounts of water to be produced, there is a high production of jackfruit, this has led to a wastage of jackfruit. Thus utilizing it for additional purposes such as using it in preparing meat substitutes is quite a sustainable approach we can take to minimise the wastage levels of jackfruit.
How we source;
Jackfruit can be considered as one of the most unique types of trees grown in isolated forest reserves, and they are more commonly found in Kandyan home gardens.
As a leading company, we focus on quality, deliciousness and meaty texture. And as always, since we keep the freshness of our products as a prime factor, we have directly linked this initiative with our local market communities, thus ensuring opportunities and a fair turnover for our local farmers. We believe this will also help take a step towards encouraging farmer entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka.
Furthermore, it has been recorded that HJS has selected 805 farmers for this initiative, and of this group of farmers we have recognised that 52% represent female farmers.
As a well-established company which has indulged into the food manufacturing industry, HJS Condiments has already established nuclear farming which consists of up to 200 jackfruit plants, we have set our vision and objective of this initiative to be the largest and fore-running supplier of the vegan market by introducing a diverse selection of plant-based products.
Holding true to our company’s reputation of being a leading food manufacturer in Asia, we believe in sourcing young jackfruit and having a minimal processing approach which would aid us in being distinguished from other competitors. On the motive of standing apart from the competition we have differentiated and focused on ‘ready to cook and eat’ products, while also developing a differentiated recipe, we process jackfruit with minimum use of chemicals and additives. And also by utilising natural spices which have been sourced by our local farmer communities which has given the potential for opening a new market for authentic Sri Lankan spices, while also adding multiple other health benefits to jackfruit itself.
