In Japan, egg recipes… but without eggs, because of avian flu

Japan had never seen this: the country has been suffering from a serious avian flu epidemic since last fall and restaurants are forced to rethink their menus. The price of eggs has indeed soared and suppliers can no longer meet demand. So, to compensate, the agrifood giants are inventing more and more recipes with eggs, but without eggs, such as good scrambled eggs with hake powder, for example.

>> Avian flu: “very effective” vaccines on ducks

The country has already been confronted with epizootics of bird flu. But this year, the disease affects more than half of all prefectures. And the authorities have already had to order the slaughter of more than 18 million poultry in the archipelago, twice as many as during the previous worst wave of contamination, when there were less than ten million animals slaughtered. Scientists believe that this season’s virus is particularly violent and that it infects migratory birds and wild birds more easily, and would thus spread more quickly throughout the country. The situation is so serious that several prefectures in the country have sounded the alarm by explaining that they no longer even have enough space to bury the remains of all the sacrificed chickens.

In Tokyo, half-empty fresh egg shelves

This crisis has an impact on the egg supply in the country: the whole supply chain is disrupted and there are very serious shortages. We see it in supermarkets in Tokyo, the fresh egg shelves are half empty, or the boxes are very expensive. The average price of a kilo of eggs last month reached 350 yen, that is to say 2.40 euros. This is unheard of since 1954, when the country began compiling food price statistics. The crisis, of course, is impacting restaurants: 30% of the country’s major restaurant chains have already changed their menus. Most have eliminated all dishes requiring fresh eggs altogether. It is thus more difficult now to find pancakes or fried rice “Chinese style”. Many others try to work with substitutes, sorts of artificial eggs. These are often products that had been developed for vegetarians or for people allergic to eggs, and for which the general public is slowly converting.

Hake powder omelet

How are these egg substitutes made? There are several solutions available in Japan. The agri-food group Nissui has developed an omelet made from hake powder. The company says sales of its product have increased fivefold since the start of the year. Kewpie, which is the great specialist in Japanese mayonnaise, has launched a recipe for scrambled eggs made from soy milk and ground almonds. Finally, one of the most popular products now is the White Bean and Carrot Fake Eggs.