Richmond-based Garden Protein International (GPI) launched its first vegetable-based fish product earlier this month and has already won a couple national awards.
The company's Gardein brand of veggie foods includes everything from beef to chicken to turkey but it was lacking a fish product until it released its vegan fishless filets at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim in early May, vice president of marketing Russell Barnett told Business in Vancouver March 24.
The product has already won the National Restaurant Association's Food and Beverage Innovation (FABI) award and the National Association of College and University Food Services' Industry Innovation and Creative Excellence (IICE) award.
"I did a blind tasting with my team members and they thought that it was a new fish option that we were looking at," said Ed Wronski, who is director of food and beverage concept development at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide.
Wronski was also a judge for the FABI awards.
"The appearance is there as a breaded product," he said. "The flavour is there. The texture is there."
Barnett told BIV that Gardein has sales in the tens of millions of dollars annually and that sales are increasing at about 50% per year consistently.
Gardein products are now on sale in more than 20,000 retailers across North America. They are also on offer at restaurants such as Yardhouse, various Wynn hotels and veggie food chains such as VeggieGrill.
GPI is the second meat-substitute business for Gardein founder Yves Potvin.
Potvin also founded and grew Yves Veggie Cuisine Inc. to generate $35 million annually before selling the venture to Hain Celestial Group Inc. in 2003 for a sum that Potvin would not provide, but which BIV has previously reported to be $54.1 million.
He began selling soy-based creations that were similar to luncheon meat in 1985 and eventually added cheese and dozens of other products.
When Potvin sold Yves Veggie Cuisine, the company predominantly sold veggie hot dogs and veggie burgers.
Potvin's intent when founding Gardein was to focus instead on centre of the plate items because technology had improved to make quality entrees, Barnett said.
Much of the production takes place in Richmond.
Through the years Gardein has racked up other awards from national organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
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