CJ CheilJedang announced on the 21st that it showcased its K-food products at the 2025 National Restaurant Association (NRA) Show.
This year's 106th NRA Show is the world's largest business-to-business expo for the restaurant and food service industry, providing a platform for international exchanges to experience influential food service innovations, insights, latest trends, and solutions. Held in Chicago, USA, from the 17th for four days, this year's NRA Show featured 2,225 companies participating with 900 items. Approximately 50,000 visitors attended the event.
At this expo, CJ CheilJedang operated two booths for its Bibigo brand and Seoulfully, a premium K-sauce starter with Korean flavors for chefs. The Bibigo booth displayed products including the 'Bibigo Gochujang Sauce,' which applies CJ's unique fermentation technology, as well as 'Bibigo Dumplings' and 'Bibigo Egg Rolls.' Additionally, renowned chef Jet Tila showcased various recipes using these products on a separate 'Culinary Experience' stage.
In particular, the Bibigo Gochujang Sauce was the main product, with tempura dumplings, Philly cheese steak egg rolls, shrimp spring rolls, and breakfast egg rolls highlighted alongside gochujang dipping sauce and gochujang maple dipping sauce, featuring tasting events. This is part of the plan to invest more effort in not only frozen products but also room-temperature products like K-sauces.
The five products introduced this time, including Bibigo Gochujang, dumplings, egg rolls, and two types of Seoulfully (spicy and smoky), were selected for the 2025 Food and Beverage Innovation Awards (FABI) hosted by the NRA Show. The FABI Awards recognize innovative, creative, and forward-thinking products that lead industry trends and enhance menu expansion, regarded as one of the most influential awards in the international food industry. A total of 39 products were selected this year.
A representative of CJ CheilJedang noted, 'Through this expo, we reaffirmed the growth potential with significant interest and positive feedback from representatives of countries around the world regarding CJ K-sauces and K-flavors,' and added, 'We will make further efforts to accelerate the globalization of K-food with various innovative products based on CJ's differentiated technology.'