Meet the millennial entrepreneur behind China’s answer to Beyond Meat

Lu Zhongming will introduce Suzhou-style mooncakes filled with plant-based meat in time for the Mid-Autumn Festival

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Chinese entrepreneur Lu Zhongming formed a start-up called Zhenrou that develops plant-based ground meat to be used as alternative filling in dumplings, meatballs and mooncakes. Photo: Tencent Video

Published: 7:00am, 23 Aug 2019Updated: 7:00am, 23 Aug 2019

Mooncakes, the widely popular Mid-Autumn Festival delicacy, will be getting a makeover in China this year, as a start-up’s plant-based ground meat is used as filling for the traditional cholesterol-packed treat.

Chinese entrepreneur Lu Zhongming has formed meat alternative producer Zhenrou, in partnership with a research team from the Beijing Technology and Business University, that will introduce Suzhou-style mooncakes filled with plant-based meat ahead of the festival next month.

While the most common types of mooncake are filled with sweet lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk, the regional variation from eastern China’s Suzhou province is stuffed with ground pork.

Lu said Zhenrou’s plant-based mooncakes will taste real enough for consumers, especially those from Shanghai and surrounding areas, according to a report by the Changjiang Daily. “We recently asked many old Shanghainese residents to take part in a taste test,” he said. “A lot of people couldn’t tell [mooncakes with traditional filling and those with plant-based meat] apart.”

Zhenrou, the start-up formed by entrepreneur Lu Zhongming, plans to introduce mooncakes stuffed with the company's plant-based ground meat from next month, in time for the annual Mid-Autumn Festival. Photo: Pear Video

Zhenrou joins a growing number of domestic and foreign companies that are now tapping into a potentially large market for plant-based meat in the world’s second largest economy.