Karana, Asia's first whole-plant based meat brand is launching in Hong Kong. Karana champions not only its natural and sustainable base ingredient, jackfruit, but also how it's grown. They work with smallholder farms in Sri Lanka and help turn this food that's often under-utilised and wasted into a valued food and income source. The jackfruit is transformed into a "pork" alternative that comes in either shredded or minced form.
Compared to other meat alternatives such as OmniPork, Karana is minimally processed using only four ingredients: young jackfruit, canola oil, sea salt and natural flavours. Thanks to this, there are no protein textures, isolates or concentrates on the product. The fully plant-based product is also free from artificial preservatives, colours and flavours.
"Jackfruit is an extremely efficient crop with high yields and low water usage making it friendly to smallholder farmers. It's typically grown intercropped, promoting biodiversity. 60 per cent of jackfruit is currently being wasted, a contributor to global warming, so with Karana we’ll be reducing that wastage while working with farmers to support the local economy".