Century Pacific enters dairy-free segment

MANILA, Philippines — Century Pacific Food Inc., the listed food company of the Po family, is making its foray into the dairy-free food category.

This further expands its plant-based products under the pioneering vegan brand, unMEAT.

CNPF entered the dairy-free category with a cheese alternative called unCHEESE. The new product is made with starches blended with plant-derived oils to closely match dairy cheese.

“Dairy alternatives is one of the fastest-growing segments in plant-based globally,” said Nikki Dizon, vice president and general manager of Refrigerated Food.

For the initial launch of ‘unCHEESE’, CNPF partnered with affiliate company, Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc., one of the leading full-service restaurant chains in the country.

CNPF co-created Shakey’s first plant-based pizza, the Goood Taco Pizza, made with plant-based meat toppings and dairy-free cheese.

On the retail end, CNPF also introduced vegan shelf products such as ‘unMEAT Luncheon Meat’ for export. CNPF leveraged its scale and expertise in shelf-stable food to develop the new plant-based format, using non-GMO plant-based proteins and ingredients.

unMEAT’s shelf-stable products are now available in Singapore and will soon be in other key markets such as the US and United Arab Emirates, Dizon said.

“The plant-based category has a huge potential, and essential to unlocking that value is through continuous innovation. As the category develops and awareness spreads, consumers will start to look for more. We started ‘unMEAT’ with four SKUs, the plant-based starting line. Now, we have a new range and exciting innovations in the pipeline, all designed to add diversity to the plant-based food choices of our consumers,” Dizon also said.

CNPF launched ‘unMEAT’ in 2020 in response to the expanding consumer preference for healthier, better-for-you, and better-for-the-planet food choices. The company goes by the philosophy that eating plant-based should be easy, thus offerings are made and priced as close as possible to their analog counterparts.

In recent months, CNPF announced the global roll out of ‘unMEAT’ to key international markets, such as the United Arab Emirates. To date, unMEAT has landed in the UAE, US, China and Singapore.