Hodo Inc., an Oakland, California-based tofu maker, is launching its faux-egg scramble later this month, with plans to have the product available in about 1,500 supermarkets by mid-June, the company told Bloomberg News.
“We noticed that outside of Just Egg there is not much innovation in the egg space. We started tinkering with our current recipe to make the texture and flavor more like scrambled egg,” said founder and Chief Executive Officer Minh Tsai. “I think it’s probably going to be our fastest-selling product a year from now.”
There are trends in Hodo’s favor. Consumers are still looking to add more plants to their diet, despite the stagnancy of sales of meat-alternative products, said Dasha Shor, an analyst at Mintel. Now, she said, they are looking for more-natural options. “We are seeing the processing backlash happening,” Shor said, noting that 60% of U.S. plant-based protein consumers say they would eat more meat alternatives if they were less processed.
Tofu seems to fit the bill. But despite being one of the oldest plant-based proteins, it’s still modest in sales compared with meat substitutes. Sales of tofu totaled $285 million in the U.S. in 2021, while meat and seafood substitutes brought in $1.8 billion that year, according to data from Euromonitor. Both look paltry compared with sales of real eggs, which totaled $9.8 billion last year.
Tofu’s relatively low sales are partly attributable to consumers’ hesitation about foods they aren’t used to cooking, something that Hodo has recognized with its long list of flavored, cubed and otherwise ready-to-eat or ready-to-cook products. Its scramble is similar: It has the short list of ingredients expected from tofu, but the convenience of going right into the pan or microwave for cooking.