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It’s the chicken that’s fooling everyone — but people are embracing it.

At first glance, it’s easy to think this cult “Chicken Free Chicken” product is the “real” deal and that’s because the texture is almost, if not fully, the same as chicken.

It cooks, feels and tastes like chicken meat, but without an animal in sight — and New Zealanders can’t get enough of it.

It’s made from yellow peas using clean energy and is the only plant-based chicken product on the market, consistently selling out in New Zealand since it launched back in 2017.

Shama Sukul Lee of Sunfed, who is the brainchild of the popular product, told news.com.au Aussies can now experience what all the fuss is about after the product hit Coles shelves nationally a week ago.

“It has a higher nutritional value than chicken; double the protein of chicken and triple the iron of beef — drawn directly from yellow peas, without compromising on the real taste of chicken,” Ms Lee said.

Having raised $10 million to fund the expansion into the Australian market, Ms Lee said she didn’t expect the product to have such a phenomenal response.

“I didn’t expect this to happen when we first launched,” she said.

“I’m not out here to preach, all I am trying to do is empower consumers with choice and in order for that to happen I needed to create a product that was equal or better than what is already out there.”

When the launch video of Chicken Free Chicken went viral two years ago, with more that 12 million views, Ms Lee knew she was on to something, despite many people telling her it was a “stupid” idea.

“If the product wasn’t good, it wouldn’t have been received like this,” she said.

“People don’t know what they want until it’s in front of them and now they have true choice — ‘Do I buy animal chicken, or Sunfed chicken?’”

When asked to describe her “chicken”, she simply said, “it’s a clean, lean piece of protein that’s f**k*** delicious”.

“It has the same long, meaty fibres as real chicken. It acts just like the real thing: it cooks the same as chicken, tastes the same and has exactly the same texture.”

Admittedly, the software-programmer turned entrepreneur, didn’t know if the product was going to be a success — but she knew there was a gap in the market.

“We are trying to offer a solution to mainstream consumers — we’re not niche vegan or vegetarian, but just acting as an option for people looking for a clean source of protein.”

“I’m seeing that people want to eat more protein while reducing meat consumption and that’s the dilemma they're in.

“Chicken production is extremely intensified and there’s a lot of issues with it — and that’s happening because there is no choice in the market.”

WHY YELLOW PEAS?

Ms Lee, who spoke to news.com.au on the sidelines of the Vogue Codes summit in Melbourne recently, said she gravitated to using yellow peas because of the high yield in protein that can be extracted from such a small portion.

“They are regenerative which means you don’t need much fertiliser. There is also very minimal water used and they are drought resistant.”

Australian or New Zealand farmers don’t grow the peas, with Ms Lee exporting them from Europe.

“The mechanics of building a new industry is that you have to create demand first — and that’s what we are doing. Because once demand grows, then you can go backwards and set up a supply chain.

“Right now I can’t go to a farmer and say, grow me some yellow peas, because there’s not enough demand yet.”

Ms Lee’s goal is to is to create a highly scalable regenerative protein company that can feed the world without damage.

“For too long, we have been taught that when you scale out a system, exploitation of resources is a natural part of that. The world is full of examples of big corporations that are destroying the planet, which includes all the animal protein companies,” she said.

“It’s time to change the game. Sunfed is a highly scalable regenerative protein company that

can feed the whole word without damage. It will use its scale to invigorate, and not exploit; to

energise and not disempower, to add value and not just take”.

Using her background in engineering, Ms Lee uses purpose-built hardware her company has built over five years to make the “hunky, tasty chunk of ‘meat’”.

“It has the added bonus of not having the risks associated with animal chicken meat and is free from antibiotics, hormones and animal bugs such as campylobacter and salmonella,” she said.

A recent Roy Morgan report found that 2.5 million Australians — 12.1 per cent of the population — eat meals that are all “or almost all” vegetarian, up from 2.2 million in 2014.

“Ultimately people are just looking for a clean source of protein that makes them feel good, and that’s our goal,” Ms Lee said.