Boss of v2food outlines how Wodonga factory fits into his bid to draw consumers to artificial meat

The v2food plant opened without fanfare last year with COVID scuttling plans for a grand unveiling.

Situated in the former Moore Paragon printing factory in Moloney Drive, v2food employs about 25 workers in Wodonga across production, finance, research and development and engineering and 87 as a whole across Australia..

V2food founder and chief executive Nick Hazell said components that form the textured protein were blended in Wodonga.

IN OTHER NEWS:

"We make our meat at a meat factory, that could be up in Queensland for example or it could be a meat factory in China, if we're going to be selling into China, but we take our materials which are made in Wodonga, at least a proportion of them are, and that forms the meat," Mr Hazell said.

"There's not trucks coming out of Wodonga, chilled trucks with meat in them...Wodonga's pretty high-tech with technology solutions that go into our meat products."

Having its plant-based beef already in supermarkets in Australia and Hungry Jack's burgers, Mr Hazell said overseas demand would shape whether the Wodonga factory became a 24-hour production site with up to three shifts.

"We could only do that when we have the volume," he said.

"It all depends on volumes in Australia, but even more important for us, volumes in China that's where the majority of the growth will be in export."

Mr Hazell said the artificial meat category had doubled in the past year but only one to two per cent of meat purchases were plant-based.

He said taste and affordability were integral to broadening sales.

To that end, v2 will sell its artificial chicken in supermarkets from next month.

Patties of the ersatz chicken were recently served free at lunchtime in Wodonga's Junction Place as part of a v2food promotion trip from Melbourne to Byron Bay.

Among those sampling them were partners Mel Edwards and Irene Hammond.

"It's wonderful, it tastes like a real burger without having to eat a dead animal," Mr Edwards said.

Ms Hammond added: "It's not as chickeny as chicken but it's not bad."

Thurgoona mother Catherine Burke had a would-be chicken tender.

"To be honest if I didn't know I couldn't tell it wasn't real meat," she said.

"It's very tasty."

Business Wodonga chief executive Graham Jenkin also enjoyed the free burger sample.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: