Annie Ryu, CEO of The Jackfruit Company, on bringing the world’s largest fruit to menus, markets, and a climate-smart future
Jackfruit is steadily making its way onto restaurant and foodservice menus as a versatile plant-based ingredient. Especially in its unripe (green) form, jackfruit is valued for its ability to mimic the texture of shredded meat—making it an attractive option for chefs and operators seeking whole-food alternatives to processed meat analogues.
To better understand jackfruit’s potential in professional kitchens, I interviewed Annie Ryu, CEO and founder of The Jackfruit Company. Ryu has been the driving force behind the company’s mission to bring this remarkable fruit to the global stage, while empowering farming families and positioning jackfruit as a climate-smart solution for the foodservice industry.
In the conversation below, Ryu shares insights on jackfruit’s role in menus, sustainability story, and future opportunities for chefs, restaurateurs, and operators.
What is jackfruit, and why has it received attention in the food industry?
Have you met Jack? If you don’t know Jack(fruit), your guests are ready for it, and you might be missing out. Young jackfruit is a naturally meaty plant that’s been enjoyed as a meat alternative for hundreds if not thousands of years across South and Southeast Asia. Jackfruit is increasingly popular both because it directly addresses rising consumer and operator needs, and because, over time, we’ve tackled the barriers that previously made jackfruit inaccessible and unavailable.
Since we first brought young jackfruit to retail grocery stores a decade ago, demand and need have only risen for meat alternatives that are not primarily soy or gluten, and that are whole food or minimally processed. As the plant-based meat boom gave way to concerns about processing and ingredient complexity, one ingredient has stood apart: jackfruit. While it sits within the broader plant-based category, jackfruit hasn’t faced the same backlash because it doesn’t need to be engineered. It’s a simple, naturally remarkable plant and crop. Consumers are increasingly aware of the connection between our diets and our health, and for our health, we need to be eating more fruits and vegetables – this is one!
Mainstreaming a delicious food that was previously unavailable due to supply chain barriers (i.e. jackfruit), is a process not just of building supply chain, but also of product/recipe development and education. After we invested in building our innovative and globally leading farm-to-fork supply chain for jackfruit, we crafted craveable recipes (see jack & annie’s) that enable consumers to easily incorporate jackfruit into their meals and habits and made these foods accessible (nationally available at affordable prices). Our brands The Jackfruit Company and jack & annie’s have educated consumers and operators on what jackfruit is and why it deserves a spot on our plates.
How did you first get interested in jackfruit, and what inspired you to found The Jackfruit Company?
I was inspired by the potential for immense positive impact back when I was a pre-medical student at Harvard, working on a healthtech venture I’d started with my brother. That venture took me to India, where I stumbled across a jackfruit (Indian porcupine) on my first day, and got invited to a jackfruit festival my first weekend. Jackfruit festivals have been going on for almost two decades in recognition of the fact that jackfruit is an amazing natural resource that could greatly benefit farmers, consumers, animals, and our planet, if and when properly connected to the market.
When I first encountered jackfruit, I was (and still am) passionate about global health, and kept seeing in my work in global health – in Latin America and in India – that the problems I was aiming to solve were rooted in poverty. With jackfruit – the highest yielding tree crop, drought-resistant, climate-resistant, and thriving regeneratively, without any inputs in India, the world’s most populous country where agriculture employs the greatest number. I saw money growing on trees that small farmers could access if we could build the supply chain to get jackfruit to market.
Today, our scope for impact has expanded dramatically: a small farmer introduced me to young jackfruit as a meat alternative, and since that time we’ve been focused on helping consumers eat healthier, and also on reducing our (humankind’s) carbon footprint. Dietary risk factors are the leading contributor to morbidity and mortality, but behavior change is extremely hard – otherwise we’d already be eating and exercising in the way that’s best for our health. With naturally meaty jackfruit, you can have your meat and eat it too. Also, with animal agriculture contributing as much to climate change as the transportation industry, we make a huge impact mitigating climate change: through our vertically integrated supply chain, our jackfruit’s carbon footprint is 94% lower than beef’s.
Your website says, “We’re on a mission to make jackfruit a global sensation while empowering over 1,700 farming families. Today, you can find our foods in stores, restaurants, and cafeterias across the world.” How are you accomplishing your mission?
Specifically in relation to our impact on small farmers, we work directly with thousands of small farmers, with an average farm size of less than 5 acres, and contribute 10-40% of their annual income, entirely incremental to what they were making before.
Could you give specific examples of your partnerships with chefs, restaurateurs, and foodservice operators—and how those collaborations shaped your product offerings?
We overhauled our approach to foodservice at the start of this calendar year and have been building partnerships with operators across the industry – including high-profile universities, corporate cafeterias, healthcare, restaurants, and more – at an accelerating pace ever since. Relative to the strength of these partnerships we’ve kept a relatively low profile as we’re focusing all of our resources against ensuring these partnerships are as successful as possible at the ground level. Part of this has been routinely seeking feedback from chefs and guests about our foods and recipes, as well as collaborating on how our foods and their attributes are menued and messaged.
In this way, chefs and guests have been integrally involved in product development and how we’re going to market. One thing is for certain, we are leading the way in innovation with foods and ingredients that are game changers. From Naked Shredded Jackfruit that serves as an ideal stand-in for pulled meats to our flavorful and tender meatballs that chefs are surprised to learn are entirely plant-based, we’ve created a true one-stop shop for culinary innovation. I’ll be able to share more about our partnerships in 2026 and beyond.
Sustainability is increasingly important to chefs and diners. How does The Jackfruit Company tell the story of jackfruit as a climate-smart ingredient?
There are so many amazing things to say about jackfruit as an ingredient – we love that in foodservice there’s a bit more time and space to tell the story, in conversation with chefs, than the fractions of seconds we have with a retail package on the supermarket shelf.
We’ve conducted a third-party validated Life Cycle Assessment that shows that our jackfruit’s carbon footprint is 94% lower than beef’s. We partner with operators on materials to showcase the messages about jackfruit that will resonate most with their guests, and often, carbon footprint is part of this. We’ve also benefited from broader industry awareness around plant-based as a way to reduce one’s carbon footprint, and always appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with other leaders across the industry, for example with speaking at NYC Climate Week with Environmental Defense Fund and Food System Innovations.
What new menu formats or cuisines (e.g., tacos, curries, bowls, pizza toppings, and blended burgers) are showing the most promise for jackfruit in restaurants?
Jackfruit as an ingredient has not always been available in a format that’s easy for chefs to work with, and create amazing experiences for guests: we’ve changed that. Earlier this year we launched a new item, Shredded Naked Jackfruit, that directly addresses all requests we’ve received historically from chefs, about how they wished jackfruit was prepared, and this item has consistently received rave reviews. This ingredient gives chefs a new way to deliver unforgettable flavor across any cuisine, dishes that don’t just satisfy, but start conversations. While savory BBQ sandwiches and bold tacos lead the way, we can’t wait to see these favorites rise in popularity and to discover the new, taste-driven recipes chefs will dream up next.
Our jack & annie’s items have also been a main focus for our expansion with restaurants. We routinely hear from chefs and guests that our jack & annie’s 4-oz burger is the best veg burger they’ve ever had, and regularly get asked how much meat is in our meatballs – the answer is, none! Many prefer our jack & annie’s meatballs to beef/pork meatballs.
How do diners react when they see jackfruit on the menu? Do you recommend operators highlight it or integrate it quietly into dishes?
Operators who brought jackfruit to their menus, have seen incredible diner excitement, stronger engagement, and repeat orders. As one partner recently shared, “We can’t take our jackfruit tacos off the menu, guests ask for them every week.”
We’ve seen the same great results time and time again across the many accounts and locations we work with. Jackfruit performs beautifully in familiar formats like tacos, bowls, and sandwiches, where its meaty texture and ability to soak up bold flavors make it an instant favorite.
We’ve seen operators succeed both by featuring jackfruit front and center and by seamlessly integrating it into existing recipes. To set every partner up for success, we’re always happy to work with new accounts to find the winning formula for their marketing and menu
Looking ahead, do you see jackfruit carving out its own distinct category in plant-based menus, or competing head-to-head with alt-meats like soy and pea protein?
Jackfruit is its own ingredient. It’s nature’s meatiest plant, and we’ll know we’ve been successful once jackfruit is at least as prevalent on menus as buffalo cauliflower wings. We’ve also enjoyed the rise of crispy balsamic brussels sprouts, and know that winning recipes will continue to catapult jackfruit forward. We’re excited for the chef(s) who will make this happen!
With jackfruit, our company aims to be a plant-forward solution provider more broadly. jack & annie’s items are delicious and simple meat alternatives consumers can rally around, with jackfruit as the primary ingredient. Jackfruit also plays a central role in the emerging category of meat blends, since naturally meaty jackfruit performs flawlessly in these applications. Many prefer our beef + jackfruit blend on taste to 100% beef, and our blend has ~40% lower saturated fat and carbon footprint.
For more information, visit the websites for The Jackfruit Company and jack & annie’s.
