Pulmuone Expands Fresh HMR Market... Launches 'Bandeuthan Sik'

Sodium Reduced by Over 25% Compared to Same Food Type
‘Bareunmeokgeori’ Delivering Fresh Ingredients and Soup Flavor

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] Pulmuone is expanding its ‘fresh home meal replacement (HMR)’ market.

Pulmuone Foods announced on the 28th that it has launched ‘Bandeuthan Sik,’ a soup, stew, and jjigae HMR embodying Pulmuone’s ‘right food’ values, and released 10 new products. The lineup includes ‘Galbi Yukgaejang,’ ‘Naju-style Suyuk Gomtang,’ ‘Healthy Budae Jjigae,’ ‘Wild Ginseng Cultivated Root Samgyetang,’ ‘Korean Pork Kimchi Jjigae,’ ‘Beef Nourishing Seaweed Soup,’ ‘Korean Beef Bone Broth,’ ‘Meat House Doenjang Jjigae,’ ‘Siraegi Chueotang,’ and ‘Jjamppong Soft Sundubu.’

‘Bandeuthan Sik,’ which realizes the fresh quality of homemade meals, is a fresh convenience food brand. It reduces sodium by more than 25% compared to the same food category to lessen the sodium intake burden for Koreans, who tend to consume a lot of broth.

According to market research firm Nielsen Korea, the refrigerated soup, stew, and jjigae market grew rapidly by 37.1% compared to the previous year, reaching about 114 billion KRW this year. This growth rate surpasses the overall soup, stew, and jjigae market growth rate of 25.8%. As the main consumers of convenience foods expanded from 20-30-year-old single or two-person households to 40-50-year-old multi-person households, consumer demand for taste and health diversified, and the standard for HMR consumption shifted from cost-effectiveness to high-quality fresh refrigerated products.

‘Bandeuthan Sik’ took a long time to understand consumer demand, conduct internal verification, and collaborate with experts. Through big data analysis, specialty stores that received high evaluations regardless of age or gender were selected to establish objective taste standards, which were applied to menu recipe development. During this process, taste verification was strengthened, and five famous Korean cuisine experts in Korea participated in development to enhance the completeness of the flavor.

Additionally, Pulmuone applied a multi-stage sterilization process incorporating its research and development know-how, reducing heat damage to the product during sterilization by more than 35% compared to conventional processes. Thanks to this, the freshness of the original ingredients’ taste, aroma, shape, and texture was preserved, achieving homemade meal-level quality. With the multi-stage sterilization process,

following the launch last month of the new concept ‘Cooking Broth,’ which can be poured directly for easy soup preparation, Pulmuone has officially entered the market expansion by launching the soup, stew, and jjigae HMR ‘Bandeuthan Sik.’ Pulmuone plans to continuously expand its lineup so that anyone at home can easily complete delicious soups, stews, and jjigae, leveraging differentiation factors such as convenience and freshness.

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