Whole Foods Changes The Sushi Game With Plant-Based Fish
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When you hear the term plant-based sushi, you might think of plain old veggie rolls, but Whole Foods is giving a whole new meaning to vegan sushi. Starting November 1 in New York and California stores, the market is rolling out plant-based tuna sushi called Ahimi, created by the company Ocean Hugger Foods.
The plant-based raw tuna alternative is made out of tomatoes, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and filtered water. It’s meant to mimic the fattiness and the texture of real fish. Quartz reports that tomatoes naturally contain a lot of glutamic acids, which are responsible for the savory flavor in a lot of meat products. While it might not give you the same exact mouthfeel that a real piece of fish would because it has less fat, the plant-based fish comes pretty damn close.
You’ll be able to buy a nigiri and roll combo for $11.99, and a California roll for $8.99. In addition to Whole Foods, you can find Ahimi online through www.veestro.com and Fresh & Co in New York City. Ocean Hugger Foods is already working to create similar eel and salmon plant-based alternatives.
Whole Foods is known for its experimentation with plant-based meat alternatives so it’s no surprise that the health-conscious store would be one of the first to hop on the plant-based sushi train. Eater reports that the store hopes to provide “alternative solutions to mitigate the effects of overfishing.”
Plant-based meats have been a growing food trend in 2017, where companies like Impossible Foods — which created the revolutionary plant-based Impossible Burger — have gotten their products into restaurants across the country. Ocean Hugger Foods continues to expand the sustainability-geared trend and has raised a significant amount of capital through private funding, according to Eater. Ahimi can be found in cafeterias across the country at large-scale companies ranging from Google to Twitter to LinkedIn.
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