Food, glorious food

China, which has around four times the population of the United States, consumes about twice as much meat as the US. People in China ate about 74 million tons of pork, beef and poultry in 2017, according to US government estimates.

Omnipork is the first food product created by Green Monday, which campaigns for people to ditch meat at least once a week.

Made of shiitake mushroom, rice and pea protein, the new food will initially only be available in prepared dishes such as dumplings and the traditional Asian dish of dan dan noodles.

As well as running grocery stores, the social enterprise has an online directory of restaurants with vegetarian menus and has invested in Beyond Meat, a California-based firm that produces a burger made from plants.

Yeung says it took Canadian food scientists about 18 months to achieve the right texture, moistness and taste to create a product that is "almost indistinguishable" from real pork.

Nearly three quarters of consumers globally are limiting or avoiding meat altogether, according to GlobalData, a data-analysis company that surveyed nearly 27,000 people in 36 countries, including China.

"The shift toward plant-based foods is being driven by millennials, who are most likely to consider the food source, animal welfare issues and environmental impact," says Fiona Dyer, a consumer analyst at GlobalData.