Dicos, one of China’s leading fast-food chains, announces that its conventional egg patty will be replaced with JUST Egg‘s pre-baked, folded plantbased egg product, marking the first time a major quick service restaurant has swapped an animal-based product with a plant-based one across multiple regular menu offerings.
As we reported back in March at the start of the global health crisis, interest from Chinese consumers in JUST Egg was booming as a national awareness of the benefits of plantbased alternatives began to increase, in line with a gradual understanding of the enormous problems caused by animal wet markets.
“We’ve witnessed the excitement consumers in China have for JUST Egg, all driven by a generational move to healthier, more sustainable foods. We’re grateful to partner with Dicos on this global plant-based protein milestone,” said Eat Just co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick.
Over 500 Dicos stores in Bejing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Dalian, Changchun, Harbin and Hainan province will introduce JUST Egg in three breakfast burgers, three bagel sandwiches and a “western” breakfast plate.
“The introduction of JUST Egg at Dicos is a product and brand upgrade based on consumers’ increasing interest in nutrition, healthier diets and environmental awareness. Adding JUST Egg to our core breakfast menu offerings will allow customers to experience JUST Egg in a variety of ways. We look forward to seeing the consumer response and will plan future menu offerings around it,” said Chief Marketing Officer Xie Yahui.
JUST Egg has been available in China since 2019 on popular e-commerce platforms like Alibaba-owned Tmall and JD.com, with year-over-year growth of 70%. The product has also been sold in select brick-and-mortar retail and foodservice locations.
In October, Eat Just announced a partnership with a consortium led by Proterra Investment Partners Asia Pte. Ltd., an investment management firm focused on the food and agribusiness sectors, to build and operate a plant protein production facility in Singapore to meet demand for JUST Egg products across Asia.
