[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] Veganism is spreading among millennials who prioritize value consumption. According to the Korea Vegetarian Union (KVU), the domestic vegetarian population was estimated at about 1.5 million last year, with vegans (strict vegetarians) numbering around 500,000. Including flexitarians, who occasionally enjoy meat, the total number of people preferring vegetarian diets in Korea approaches 10 million. As the vegetarian population grows, small kitchen appliances that make related cooking easier are gaining popularity.
Comex Industry’s ‘Now is Range Time’ is a microwave-exclusive cooking container made of heat-resistant material usable up to 140°C, ideal for steaming sweet potatoes, pumpkin, corn, and more. Notably, it was developed to cook by opening only the steam hole without lifting the lid, preserving the moisture of the food so that dishes remain delicious even when cooked in the microwave. It is available in five different sizes, including ‘Family (2.6L)’, ‘Egg (340ml)’, ‘Rice (380ml)’, ‘Soup (800ml)’, and ‘Noodle (1.2L)’, allowing users to choose according to their needs.
People who start vegan diets for health improvement often prefer to blend vegetables or fruits into drinks for convenience. Hurom’s juicer ‘Hurom Easy’ uses low-speed extraction technology to preserve heat-sensitive nutrients and allows users to enjoy healthy juices that retain the natural taste, color, and nutrition without additives. The Hurom Easy features a large 136mm feeding chute and a 2L mega hopper, enabling whole fruits like apples, pears, and carrots to be juiced without cutting. A cutting blade at the bottom of the mega hopper automatically chops the whole ingredients, so users can simply add ingredients and press a button to easily make healthy juice.
Having a dehydrator to make vegetable or fruit chips at home makes vegan snacks easy to prepare. Liquap’s food dehydrator ‘IR D3’ features a minimal design that occupies little space, making it ideal for two-person or single households to use kitchen space more efficiently. The front door includes a straight internal viewing window, a feature not previously available, allowing users to easily monitor the drying process. It offers two modes?solar drying using near-infrared rays and shade drying?enabling optimal drying tailored to the characteristics of ingredients such as meat, vegetables, and fermented foods. Additionally, its rear circulation system blows drying air from the back, ensuring even drying of all ingredients. It also removes 99.9% of ammonia and trimethylamine, which cause odors during drying, as well as Staphylococcus aureus, which can cause food poisoning, ensuring cleanliness.
With a plant cultivator, you can grow vegetables yourself and consume fresh produce at every meal. Kyowon Wells’ ‘Wells Farm’ is a home-use plant cultivator that allows easy vegetable cultivation indoors. Wells Farm is equipped with a fully automatic system that controls essential factors for plant growth such as light, temperature, nutrients, and ventilation, as well as the amount and intensity of light needed for photosynthesis through LED lighting. It is unaffected by external environmental constraints like weather, seasons, temperature, or sunlight, requires no daily watering, and uses no soil, making it easy to manage. Unlike conventional plant cultivators, Wells Farm regularly delivers safe, pesticide-free seedlings. It provides only vegetable seedlings safely grown in a cleanroom-type plant factory optimized for the best growth environment, enabling consumers to easily grow and eat vegetables.
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