Artificial or alternative meat or meat analog is predominantly made from plant protein, oil, and water in a complex process to meet or at least approximate certain qualities of real meat such as texture and flavor and chemical characteristics of specific types of meat. Most of the alt meat is soy-based or gluten-based, while some are made from pea protein or mycoprotein which can be found in mushrooms.

CPF has set itself an ambitious goal of making Meat Zero the top alt meat brand in Asia by 2022 and one of the world’s top three by 2026, competing with early starters such as Beyond Meat or Impossible Food, both from the US.

As a first step, the plans are for CPF that it will offer ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat products consisting of artificial meat at 7-Eleven outlets across Thailand. Later on, the group will start marketing the products in Asian, European, and US markets.

The demand for plant-based meat in China and Thailand alone is expected to increase by 200 percent over the next five years, and CPF is not the only Thai animal meat producer to look towards plant-based, as the world’s largest tuna brand Thai Union is launching vegan seafood products and NR Instant Produce is also working on alt meat variations.

Bangkok-based CPF said it has been developing its plant-based products for over two years at a dedicated research and development center with the help of experts from around the world and two universities. The company insists that alt meat was “as tasty as real meat” and that consumers were “barely able to tell” whether they were eating plants or real meat.