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Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

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Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#151

Post by hervature »

VectorLock wrote: post #65
hervature wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't know why you are being down voted. As a vegan, one of my biggest gripes with the recent movement is the marketing of new products and the obsession of replacing meat with vegetables. To further illustrate your point, imagine trying to replicate carrots using only veal and calling it something like "calf-rots", it absolutely makes no sense. Your issue is primarily with the false representation, my issue is that…

It seems like the makers of these products have a dilemma between trying to describe a product in relative terms to meat in which they set themselves up for an unfair comparison or describing their product with no reference to meat ("texturized vegetable protein") and have the customer not have any idea what it is or balk at the phrasing.

It certainly is a dilemma but I feel choosing the first option is myopic (I want my customers to know "today" what this is) as opposed to long term strategy. If tofu was invented today, would we market it as soy cheese?

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#152

Post by astura »

yters wrote: post #128
throwanem wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're concerned enough about what you're feeding yourself to complain about what's on the label, but not concerned enough to find out what's on the label?

Yes, I'd prefer my products to be clearly labeled, but that's just a personal oddity, I know.

This isn't clearly labeled?

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Meat-Burger-0-5/dp/B074YGZ77H

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#153

Post by maximente »

wil421 wrote: post #133

Why do American (and presumably westerners) vegetarians want to replace meat? I hated vegan and vegetarian food for song long until I ate meat free Indian food. It was always the meat replacements like veggie patties and tofurkey type products that turned me away. Indian food doesn’t have some weird mystery replacement I find on almost every vegan or veggie dish. I had a conversation with and Indian colleague who liv…

KFC isn't rolling out thai/indian curries, garlic chinese broccoli, or cheese gorditas any time soon so in this context it seems odd to somehow demonize fake meat while suggesting foreign cuisines are superior. what's the point?

most of the interest i'm guessing is coming from what was previously thought to be "unthinkable": that is, fast food chains whose core business revolves around animal flesh introducing something else that isn't animal flesh. there are tons of consequences for this outside of American vegetarians wanting to replace meat or whatever.

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#154

Post by roenxi »

maximente wrote: post #64
_bxg1 wrote: post #2

I think it's fascinating how all these fast-food chains are jumping on artificial meat. It makes perfect sense: meat is expensive and difficult to work with, so low-cost chains like these have been serving really disgustingly low-quality meat for quite some time now; in some cases it could barely even be called meat. Plant-based meat, on the other hand, can be both cheaper and less gross at the same time, and it migh…

the economic argument has always been the strongest in my eyes, and it's unstoppable. animals are a huge liability health wise, pollution wise, environment wise, activism wise, logistic wise, etc. most companies don't care about all that stuff at the surface level, but it all translates into dollar signs, which they do care about. as soon as the economic-taste-weirdness function reaches a certain point, i'll expect y…

You were probably thinking it, but you didn't explicitly mention the No. 1 cost - raising the cattle. An animal that large is probably both delicate and expensive as it grows to maturity.

Could conceivably cut out all the work of growing bones, feeding/watering, animal healthcare, breeding & transport with labgrown meat. And the fixed cost of maintaining farmland. The cost saving potential is huge.

Not even considering the benefits of being able to quickly adjust production to what can be sold, as opposed to waiting however long it takes for a calf to grow up.

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#157

Post by telesilla »

fromthestart wrote: post #130
telesilla wrote: post #103

I'm preparing a large dinner for an organisation at the moment and decided that we'd make the menu vegan/vegetarian (we use a wonderful Italian caterer, so flavour isn't going to be missed). When I mentioned it to some omnivore colleagues, they asked why and I shrugged and said "the Amazon is burning". They shrugged back and said, makes sense. It's not many years since I would have expected complaints at not catering…

>we use a wonderful Italian caterer, so flavour isn't going to be missed A non meat dish is still going to taste like a non-meat dish. Perhaps your colleagues were just being polite and avoiding treading into politically charged territory after you brought up the Amazon. Personally I'm a picky eater and vegan/vegetarian dishes simply do not compare to meat. I'm sure others feel similarly. Though for one meal I suppos…

I honestly don't understand why it's such a big deal that so many people insist meat must be part of a meal? To the degree that in Argentina they say "si no hay carne, no hay comida" (if there is no meat, it is not a meal). It feels like if I insisted on having bread at every table sitting. Clearly, it can be seen as just a habit and not a requirement?

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#158

Post by icxa »

dmix wrote: post #135
tptacek wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you make a clearer, better-cited case for "low cost chains serve meat that could barely even be called meat"? KFC serves (primarily) whole muscle chicken†, and the general US appetite for "dark meat" chicken is so low that we've been accused of "dumping" it on other countries and messing up their markets --- KFC seems to have no trouble sourcing its inputs effectively. KFC's suppliers include all the major chicke…

Do you know why people think it's bad meat compared to the supermarket? Is it just the general attitude society has developed towards fast-food and big business? I don't mind KFC but Taco Bell meat always seemed a bit...off and low quality.

Because the meat you buy in the grocery store goes bad after a few days, and (here is where I think parent is being slightly intellectually dishonest) while it is true that the fast food companies certainly source their meats from authentic, standard-holding institutions, that's only the beginning. That isn't to say the rounds of processing and preservation that occurs afterwards. You can't just buy a McDonalds chicken nugget off the shelf. Sure the inputs are the same, but the outputs are vastly different, and that's where the perceived difference in quality comes from. Fast food optimizes for longentivity, ease of cooking so they can reduce the labor costs associated in preparing that meat, and eliminating sanitation issues so they reduce their total liability and loss around food borne illnesses so they can reduce the labor costs associated in preparing that meat for you. That is why McDonalds undergoes the painstaking process of sanitizing their meat with an ammonia wash (prompted by the 90's nationwide beef e-coli outbreaks that resulted in serious litigation against popular burger joints), then adding in artificial flavorings back in to make it taste like a burger again (furthermore this is how McDonalds achieves that "miraculous" feat often described here when this topic comes up of having their burgers taste the same and have the same consistent product everywhere for over 20 years).

Tl:dr; yes it is true, inputs are the same as what you get in the store, but the outputs are vastly different. You have to factor in additives and preservation process. There really is a simple "sniff" test/heuristic I have developed after my decades in food service, and it's not really a secret, but seems like some aren't in on it, and it goes like this: If it goes bad, it's good, if it doesn't go bad, it isn't good. (Good is obviously subjective here, so my criteria is obviously "real" food in the sense that it is minimally processed and preserved and minimal chemical additives)

Re: Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

#160

Post by hodder »

wil421 wrote: post #133

Why do American (and presumably westerners) vegetarians want to replace meat? I hated vegan and vegetarian food for song long until I ate meat free Indian food. It was always the meat replacements like veggie patties and tofurkey type products that turned me away. Indian food doesn’t have some weird mystery replacement I find on almost every vegan or veggie dish. I had a conversation with and Indian colleague who liv…

Primarily because sometimes people want a burger and not have to have a cow die to get it.

Another reason is that red meat is known to be carcinogenic and hard on lipids and while their isn't sufficient data on plant based meats the going assumption that it is at least modestly better is probably a reasonable one.

But yes, non-processed plant based food is terrific and probably the best for you.

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