The Annual Vegetarian Festival 2022 in Thailand Begins
According to the Chinese Lunar calendar, Thais are celebrating the Annual Vegetarian Festival in 2022 from 24 September - 4 October 2022. The Festival is a Taoist celebration when food vendors and restaurants across the Kingdom all decorated with the “yellow flag” offer customers a variety of vegan dishes.
The diversified varieties of these vegan foods (imitation meat) are made of plant-based, especially soybean. Some cereals, beans, mushrooms, algae, sesame, and vegetables are also used to produce look-alike animal protein (pork, chicken, squid, shrimp, meat products, etc.) in the vegan diet during the annual feast. Seasoning such as; fish sauce, which is widely used in almost all Thai dishes, is replaced with soya sauce or mushroom sauce. While chilies, pepper, ginger, galangal, and basil becomes parts of the ingredients during the annual vegan festival. Some vegetables, for instance, garlic, onion, and chives are temporarily prohibited from the kitchen during the annual feast.
Plant-based protein consumption is getting more and more popular internationally and Thailand is one of the key international players in R&D, not only plant-based protein but also alternative protein sources for sustainable agri-food & feed value chain.
Thailand has been moving forward under its BCG (Bio-Circular-Green) Economy Agenda. The BCG economy concept has become a promising post-pandemic growth strategy where science, innovation and technology are applied to promote the efficient use of resources, maintain and restore our ecosystems and reduce waste to build a system where the government and business can thrive. It aims to contribute to the global efforts of comprehensively addressing all environmental challenges for a sustainable planet (www.apec.org).
