Original Ready Meal Pioneer Ottogi's '3-Minute Cooking'..."The National Curry Taste Preserved for 40 Years"

Ottogi 3-Minute Cooking. Photo by Ottogi

Last year marked the 40th anniversary of Ottogi's 3-Minute Meals, a pioneering brand in the home meal replacement (HMR) market that has explosively grown since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Launched in 1981, Ottogi's '3-Minute Curry' was the first retort pouch product in Korea and has maintained an unshakable number one position in the curry market for 40 years, becoming synonymous with curry products to this day. Its convenience of being microwaved for just 3 minutes and a diverse product lineup tailored to consumer tastes have garnered great response, with cumulative sales reaching approximately 1.8 billion units as of last year. The success of 3-Minute Curry led to the release of various other 3-Minute Meals such as ‘3-Minute Rice’, ‘3-Minute Spaghetti Sauce’, and ‘3-Minute Jjajang’.

Ottogi also focuses on continuous research and development to launch new products. In 2003, they increased the turmeric content by more than 50% and enhanced nutritional value by adding beta-glucan, dietary fiber, and oats with the ‘3-Minute Baekse Curry’. In 2014, they introduced ‘3-Minute Lentil Curry’, made primarily from lentils, which are recognized as a health food. They have also consistently released new products that align with trends, such as ‘3-Day Aged Curry’, '‘Geudaero Curry and Jjajang’, ‘Specialty Curry’, and ‘Specialty Curry 3-Minute’.