CU Launches 'Meaning Out' Ready Meals Including Vegetarian Lunchboxes and Antibiotic-Free Chicken Sandwiches

CU Meaning Out Ready Meal Series.

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] CU will sequentially launch ready-to-eat products for the ‘Meaning Out Tribe,’ who express their beliefs and values through consumption activities, starting from the 8th.

Meaning Out is a compound word of 'meaning,' which means belief, and 'coming out,' referring to actively revealing one’s preferences and beliefs through everyday consumption.

First, CU will release vegetarian lunch boxes made from purely plant-based ingredients and sandwiches made with antibiotic-free chicken and eggs.

The ‘Vegetarian Lunch Box (3,600 KRW)’ introduced by CU this time is a pasta-style lunch box made with soybean bulgogi basil pasta and pumpkin cranberry. The penne pasta, which contains no eggs, milk, or butter, is wrapped in basil pesto along with cherry tomatoes, black olives, and mini king oyster mushrooms to enhance the flavor.

To improve eating convenience, the basil pasta and pumpkin cranberry are separated, and the product packaging features the phrase ‘I’m veggie’ to indicate it is a vegetarian product. This lunch box is a product reintroduced about a year after CU first launched the vegetarian ready meal series in the industry, following continuous requests from vegetarian customers.

The vegetarian ready meal series launched last year gained popularity for allowing vegetarians to easily purchase hard-to-find vegetarian products at nearby convenience stores, recording cumulative sales of 300,000 units in just two months after release.

In addition to vegetarians, CU also offers two types of sandwiches made with antibiotic-free ingredients for customers interested in ethical consumption such as animal welfare.

The ‘Cranberry Chicken Sandwich (2,800 KRW)’ uses chicken certified as antibiotic-free. It is filled with onion salad containing cranberries mixed with chewy boiled chicken with 0% trans fat, all packed inside fiber-rich whole wheat bread. The ‘Soft-Boiled Egg Sandwich (2,800 KRW)’ is topped with a whole moist antibiotic-free soft-boiled egg inside smooth potato salad, enhancing nutritional value in line with the healthy consumption concept.

Furthermore, considering the characteristics of the Meaning Out Tribe who pursue sustainable consumption, CU used eco-friendly packaging for the ready meals. All containers in this ready meal series are made from eco-friendly foamed PLA. Foamed PLA containers are made from plant-based materials such as sugarcane and corn and naturally decompose within 180 days under composting conditions, so they can be disposed of as general waste without separate sorting.

Jung Seong-wook, head of the Ready Meal Team at BGF Retail, said, “As the Meaning Out Tribe who look beyond cost-effectiveness and emotional value to purchase products with additional values increases, there are many new attempts in convenience store ready meals. CU will continue to develop customized products tailored to customers’ diverse consumption preferences and perspectives through detailed analysis.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.