Spoon, Sip... The Hot Battle of Morning Meal Replacements

Morning Tofu Salad Concept Renewal
Launch of Various Fermented Milk and Fruit-Vegetable Juices
Granola Market Expected to Exceed 100 Billion Won

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] Due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the morning convenient meal replacement (CMR) market is emerging as a blue ocean in the food industry. With remote work and online classes continuing, and more people taking breakfast for health reasons, food companies are fiercely competing to dominate the ‘breakfast’ market.

Diversifying Processed Foods like Nurungji and Tofu

Ottogi is targeting the meal replacement market using rice. At the end of last year, Ottogi launched ‘Bap Flake’ and introduced ‘Achim Misik’ earlier this year. ‘Bap Flake’ is a product that becomes nurungji (scorched rice) when hot water is poured over it. It was released in a limited quantity of 500 units and sold out within a week. Since last month, production has increased to 2,000 units. ‘Achim Misik’ is a meal replacement product that adds roasted rice flakes with a savory taste similar to nurungji and freeze-dried ingredient blocks. Korea Yakult’s ‘It’s On Processed Eggs’ consists of grilled eggs and soft-boiled eggs. The shelf life is set to 15 days under refrigerated storage to enhance freshness. Lotte Confectionery’s oatmeal brand Quaker surpassed 10 billion KRW in sales last year.

CJ CheilJedang renewed its meal replacement soft tofu product ‘Happy Bean Morning Tofu’ with a ‘spoonable salad’ concept. The company explained that it enhanced the soft texture and savory taste unique to soft tofu. The calorie content is 80 kcal per 140g. CJ CheilJedang and Dongwon F&B are selling Bibigo porridge pouch-type and Yangban Morning Meal, respectively. They contain ingredients such as octopus, making it convenient to consume nutritious meals.

There are also products that are easy to drink. Namyang Dairy Products launched three types of ‘Postbiotics Inner Care,’ developed through three years of joint research with Green Cross Wellbeing. It consists of two pills containing ingredients recognized for health functionality by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and a fermented milk-type liquid. Pulmuone Green Juice’s premium fruit and vegetable juices ‘Fresh Pomegranate Collagen’ and ‘Fresh Carrot Mango’ are designed to conveniently provide fresh fruit nutrition amid busy daily life.

Growing Granola Market

Granola, considered a representative product of morning meal replacements, is a healthy cereal made by mixing grains, dried fruits, nuts, and baking them in an oven with sugar or honey. According to market research firm Euromonitor, the domestic granola market size is expected to exceed 100 billion KRW this year. Last year, it was 86.1 billion KRW, increasing 124% over four years.

Orion’s convenient meal replacement brand Market O Nature’s granola products sold 15 billion KRW worth last year. In 2018, sales volume was 35 million units. This year, Orion is launching ‘Oh! Granola Choco Whale Snack’ to target the children’s market. It includes eight whale snack characters with added chocolate and cocoa powder, chocolate granola made from five grains including domestic rice, oats, and rye, and multigrain balls. Dongseo Food’s cereal product ‘Post Granola’ recorded sales of 34 billion KRW last year, a 33% increase from the previous year. Reporter Lim Hye-seon lhsro@

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