Vegan Tuna Called a ‘Dead Ringer’ for Ahi Sashimi Debuts in New Restaurant!

Exciting news for our oceans! Ocean Hugger Foods, a company that makes plant-based seafood alternatives, recently rolled out their vegan “Ahimi” tuna in Whole Foods and set their plans to feature their products in restaurants into motion.

Now, Westcoast Poké, a restaurant in Vancouver, Canada, has introduced the revolutionary vegan tuna in a new poké bowl on their menu.

Ahimi is a premier product from Ocean Hugger Foods and was developed with the help of Chef James Corwell and is made using Roma tomatoes, water, soy sauce, sugar, and sesame oil. Not only was their alternative called a “dead ringer for Ahi tuna sashimi” by NPR, but it also grabbed the attention of the single largest Asian foods distributor at the National Restaurant Association Show.

“When I first tried it, it blew my mind how realistic it was. If I didn’t tell you [it wasn’t tuna] and gave you a poke bowl, you would never know. Even people who aren’t vegan or vegetarian will love it,” Zachary Cho, co-founder of Westcoast Poké, told Straight. 

With many scientists predicting that fish stocks in our oceans will collapse by the year 2048 due to our increasing demand for salmon and tuna, a viable seafood alternative is desperately needed. And just have much of an impact could Ocean Hugger Food have? Americans consumed about 4.8 billion pounds of seafood in 2009, most of which was shipped in from other countries after being caught in the ocean or raised in an aquafarm. That same year, about 143 million tons of seafood was consumed globally. The reality is only about one billion people worldwide rely on seafood as their primary source of protein, mostly in developing nations, yet, we here in the West are draining scarce fish stocks at unprecedented rates. The average person in the U.S. eats around 225 fish a year, so if we could replace all of that – or at least a portion of it – with plant-based alternatives, we could help struggling marine populations recover and restore the balance we need to maintain a healthy global environment.

We often think that the ocean is its own, independent ecosystem that has little to do with life on land, but the ocean is responsible for about 70 percent of our oxygen and holds a majority of our freshwater stores in ice sheets. Without a broad and diverse variety of marine life, the healthy ocean ecosystem that stabilizes life for the entire planet will disappear. This is one of the most pressing and ominous issues of our time and the potential impact that Ocean Hugger Foods could have can’t be overlooked.

Want to learn more about the plant-based seafood alternative that is being raved about by top sushi distributors and the business behind it? In an episode of the #EatForThePlanet with Nil Zacharias podcast, David Benzaquen, the CEO of Ocean Hugger Foods, explained how their revolutionary Ahimi tuna replacement is changing the world of sushi.

If you like this episode, be sure to subscribe to the #EatForThePlanet with Nil Zacharias podcast for new episodes with food industry leaders, health, and sustainability experts, as well as entrepreneurs and creative minds who are redefining the future of food.

Image Source: Ocean Hugger Foods/Facebook