Sheila Amiri says she never cared for jerky. But the Huntington Beach, Calif., account executive recently found herself ordering $75 worth of it online after sampling her sister’s stash while on vacation. “I immediately fell in love,” says Ms. Amiri, 44, adding that eating a small bag of it daily at her desk has replaced her afternoon potato chips. Ms. Amiri’s jerky isn’t made from meat—it’s coconut, part of a second wave of the remarkably enduring jerky trend. While a surge of meat-based products a few years ago transformed the once-lowbrow snack into fashionable hipster grub, a new crop of non-meat foods is now leading an expansion of the $1 billion jerky business.
Now Your Jerky Is Vegan and Made of Mushrooms
