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Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

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Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#41

Post by j-pb »

Nowado wrote: post #30
scantis wrote: post #7

If any of the planet saving meat substitute promises are true, such a fake meat patty would cost a tenth of the beef equivalent and it would dominate the market. I read somewhere you would need 25 kg of feed to produce 1 kg of beef, ergo one could potentially produce 25 times the amount of substitute. Obviously that isn't true and such a patty is a specialized product of various highly processed plant matter. It is a…

US livestock subsidies are in dozens of billions. Whole sector seems to have revenue in lower hundreds of billions (harder to get exact data, please correct me). Even without premiums target audience is willing to accept, subsidies of 10-20% of sector revenue are pretty hard to beat.

Same in the E.U. we have billions of subsidies for milk and meat. Many countries like germany also have a tiered VAT system, where basic foods are taxed lower, there is a base line tax and some luxury items are taxed higher.

Thanks to lobbying meat and cow-milk are taxed as basic foods, while vegan alternatives are taxed as luxury items.

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#43

Post by ranguna »

shapefrog wrote: post #33

I dont understand the obsession with reproducing meat out of plants. There are many plant based meals that are excellent without pretending to be bacon or steak or burgers. There is not, and should not be an industry trying to making pasta-based lettuce or potato-based lemons.

I love the taste of plant based meat, it's something that I was never able to emulate myself.

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#44

Post by ranguna »

monero-xmr wrote: post #9

It doesn’t taste that good, it smells weird when cooked, it isn’t actually healthier, it’s typically more expensive than real meat as it’s “premium”, the nutritional value is suspect… the list goes on and on

Beyond and garden gourmet taste amazing and I love beyond's texture.

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#45

Post by 317070 »

Scoundreller wrote: post #26
317070 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your story is true, it is remarkable it is not universally true. E.g. in the Netherlands the prices are more competitive, and sometimes even turned. [0] The vegetarian equivalent has been cheaper there than the real meat thing, although the process for both is not very different in the EU than in the US. [0] https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2022/07/26/plant-based...

That’s the average for vegan products. Soy/tofu/cardboard Patties bring the average down but the recent products that try to replicate the taste of meat are still a premium product.

No, the article I linked mentions it's a comparison between equivalents. So burgers vs burgers and chicken pieces vs chicken pieces.

Unless you mean the vegetarian chicken pieces don't taste like chicken but like cardboard, that is fair. Then again, supermarket chicken also tastes like chicken flavoured cardboard. It's not a premium product either.

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#46

Post by cat_plus_plus »

Novelty food item still existing after a few years is a groundbreaking success, not a flop. The real mistake is treating food as a tech startup. People are understandably cautious about what they put in their bodies and also associate food with their cultural identity. Widespread acceptance would require patient cultivation of each segment of the market and tweaking product to suit different needs and sensibilities. Now that burger composition can be altered rather than being whatever comes out of the cow, diet burger that still tastes meaty / fatty would not be a bad start, that's where people will overlook preservatives so long as they get results. Next, consider if plant burgers can fulfil various religious restrictions when real meat would not. Create ads and mascots for different cultures. Then wait a decade and you might be getting somewhere.

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#47

Post by avhception »

monero-xmr wrote: post #9

It doesn’t taste that good, it smells weird when cooked, it isn’t actually healthier, it’s typically more expensive than real meat as it’s “premium”, the nutritional value is suspect… the list goes on and on

The taste and smell was the killer for me. I wanted to like it and tried the burger patties, but they taste really weird. I'm not even sure if it's the beef itself or the seasoning. Maybe I should try the "ground beef". But the burger patties just taste really weird to me, not good at all. Guess I'll be waiting for lab-grown real meat.

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#48

Post by gernb »

alvah wrote: post #37
joesb wrote: post #14

What is this article's obsession with things being "processed" food? Is "processed" the new "chemical"? It's like the article trying to keep repeating the words "processed", "ultra-processed", "hyper-processed" as if it's some scary boogey man.

There are many millions of people who believe that, generally, the less processed, ie the closer to it's natural state any food item is, the better it is for you (or the less bad it is for you). Are you not aware of this?

and their are billions of people who like cooking and pounding vegatables into goo and then adding 10 to 30 spices to make yummy curries

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#49

Post by gernb »

avhception wrote: post #47
monero-xmr wrote: post #9

It doesn’t taste that good, it smells weird when cooked, it isn’t actually healthier, it’s typically more expensive than real meat as it’s “premium”, the nutritional value is suspect… the list goes on and on

The taste and smell was the killer for me. I wanted to like it and tried the burger patties, but they taste really weird. I'm not even sure if it's the beef itself or the seasoning. Maybe I should try the "ground beef". But the burger patties just taste really weird to me, not good at all. Guess I'll be waiting for lab-grown real meat.

which one did you try? impossible burger was great for me. beyond, not so much

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#50

Post by i_dont_know_ »

nprateem wrote: post #12

I guess a lot of people who reduce meat do so for health reasons, eg to reduce cholesterol, increase vitamins, etc. Changing to a heavily processed veggie burger seems against that especially when they're so expensive.

I think you're on to something here... the target audience of this product is the hardcore meat-eaters, hoping they'll just do a drop-in replacement. But I think the actual target should be the people who are meat-eaters considering quitting.

Those people are more likely looking at health benefits, and would probably be willing to tolerate some small issues here and there if it was definitely healthier. It looks like they prioritized taste over health concerns, meaning those 'early adopters' rejected the product, so it never makes it to their core segment.

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