Delicious Home Meal Era Opens with 'Bibigo'... Pioneering Balanced Healthy Convenience Food 'The Bibigo' (Comprehensive)

Next-Generation Health-Focused HMR Launches with The Bibigo... Pioneering the Healthy Convenience Food Market
Evolution from 'Delicious' to 'Healthy' Korean Food... Continuous Category Expansion Planned

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] “Delicious Korean food ‘home meal replacements (HMR)’ is now evolving into balanced Korean food ‘healthy meal replacements’.” CJ CheilJedang, the leading food company pioneering and leading the domestic HMR market, is once again driving innovation and evolution in HMR. If they opened the era of ‘delicious home-cooked meals,’ their strategy now is to lead the era of ‘healthy home-cooked meals.’ The protagonist of this evolution is the new-concept Korean food brand ‘The Bibigo,’ created through more than three years of research and development using secured food technology.

On the 12th, CJ CheilJedang announced the launch of the ‘healthy meal replacements (Healthy HMR)’ specialized brand ‘The Bibigo,’ based on its accumulated differentiated research & development (R&D) competitiveness and HMR expertise, releasing 12 new products including 4 types of soup dishes, 4 types of rice bowl sauces, and 4 types of porridge. The plan is to pioneer the ‘next generation (Next) HMR’ market with a new-concept Korean HMR that guarantees home-cooked meal-level taste quality as a basic, while also taking responsibility for ‘health’ and ‘nutrition.’

‘Healthy meal replacements’ is a newly conceptualized HMR by CJ CheilJedang reflecting consumer needs for health and domestic and international HMR trends. While ‘Bibigo’ leads the HMR market growth by replacing home meals as ‘properly made delicious Korean food,’ ‘The Bibigo’ advocates ‘balanced Korean food designed with health as the core.’ The plan is to create and lead a new market called ‘healthy meal replacements’ through proposals for healthy eating habits.

CJ CheilJedang focused on domestic and international HMR trends and consumer needs to evolve the rapidly growing domestic HMR market. According to Euromonitor, in advanced countries such as the United States and Europe, the ‘Health & Wellness Ready Meals’ market is formed at a scale of about 10 trillion KRW. It has evolved from the existing cost-effectiveness-centered HMR emphasizing taste, quantity, and ingredients to a segmented HMR market reflecting consumers’ diverse eating habits and lifestyles such as high-protein, low-fat, low-carbohydrate, and gluten-free.

Domestically, amid the HMR trend emphasizing ‘taste’ and ‘convenience,’ interest in excessive intake of carbohydrates and sodium and nutritional imbalance is growing. However, the so-called ‘healthy meal replacements’ market that can satisfy consumer needs for healthy Korean HMR has not been properly formed. As a leading domestic HMR company, CJ CheilJedang has drawn a blueprint to cultivate a new market called ‘healthy meal replacements’ and lead the growth of the HMR industry. To this end, they invested over three years to secure ‘low-sodium-based flavor preservation technology’ and ‘raw material pretreatment optimization technology,’ which are considered core R&D competencies of ‘The Bibigo.’ A CJ CheilJedang official explained, “Compared to similar products, we succeeded in reducing sodium content by more than 25% or making it less salty to alleviate consumer concerns while preserving the original taste, aroma, form, and texture of healthy raw materials,” adding, “The competitiveness of ‘The Bibigo’ lies in realizing products that are not salty but delicious.”

Additionally, through joint research by CJ CheilJedang researchers, nutrition experts, and chefs, nutrients that are often lacking in diets such as protein and dietary fiber were added, while sodium and cholesterol, which are concerns for excessive intake, were reduced to balance nutrition. Ingredients mainly used in healthy foods, such as fresh ginseng and octopus, were abundantly included to enhance the sense of whole ingredients. The flagship product ‘Doganitang’ contains plenty of collagen-rich beef knee cartilage and tendons (muscle and surrounding tissues of cattle), delivering a high-protein (more than 20% of the daily protein intake standard) yet low-cholesterol, clean, and delicious soup dish.

CJ CheilJedang plans to continuously expand ‘The Bibigo’ product categories and varieties to meet consumer expectations. Besides the current pilot sales at department stores and the food specialty mall ‘CJ The Market,’ distribution channels will gradually be broadened. A CJ CheilJedang official said, “We will focus on expanding awareness of ‘The Bibigo’ as the representative brand of ‘healthy meal replacements’ that cares not only about taste and convenience but also health,” adding, “We will continue to lead innovation and evolution in HMR through relentless research and development efforts.”

Meanwhile, according to the ‘2019 Processed Food Segmentation Market Status Report’ by the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corporation (aT), the domestic HMR market size was estimated to approach 4 trillion KRW last year and is expected to exceed 5 trillion KRW by 2022.

The first generation of HMR (1980s to early 2000s), centered on retort foods emphasizing convenience, was followed by the second generation (early 2000s to 2013) with the emergence of frozen foods such as frozen dumplings, refrigerated noodles, and porridge. Subsequently, the third generation (2013 to 2014) saw a significant increase in Korean HMR such as frozen rice, cup rice, soups, stews, and side dishes, replacing home meals. It then evolved into the fourth generation (since 2015), which considers health, taste, convenience, and nutrition altogether. Now, heading toward the fifth generation of HMR, CJ CheilJedang’s ‘The Bibigo’ is expected to lead the next-generation market with healthy meal replacements.