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Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop
61–70 of 813 posts
Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop
#62I 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.
Because meat (particularly beef and lamb) is environmentally disastrous and ethically problematic, but a majority of people really like the taste and wouldn’t want to give it up.
Hence the desire to make a product that tastes like meat but is less environmentally damaging and doesn’t have the same ethical concerns.
You may not like the implications (as someone who really enjoys meat, I don’t) but the environmental arguments against red meat are pretty compelling.
Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop
#63I prefer the impossible burger to a regular one. The sausage is pretty good too. But you have to season it well and cast iron cook it.
Is it healthy? Probably not. It is juicy though.
Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop
#64It 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
Tough choice. Weird goo that was grown in a lab by people that have no idea what they're doing OR natural food we've been eating since the dawn of time.
What makes you think they have no idea what they're doing? There's a lot more weird goo we eat all the time, after all.
Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Meat and milk are basic foods.
And vegan alternatives are not?
Meat was a luxury product not eaten every day for most of history and still is in most parts of the world. Given the environmental impact of Meat and Diary in terms of CO2, Methane, Water usage, and Deforestation we should heavily reconsider our nonchalant view of them as a cheap commodity.
Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a misunderstanding. Fake meat products don't contain "a ton of additives".
Water, soy protein concentrate, coconut oil, sunflower oil, natural flavors, 2% or less of potato protein, methylcellulose, yeast extract, cultured dextrose, food starch modified, soy leghemoglobin, salt, mixed tocopherols (antioxidant), soy protein isolate, zinc gluconate, thiamine hydrochloride (vitamin B1), niacin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), riboflavin (vitamin B2), and vitamin B12. This is the list of…
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Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop
#67If 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…
> 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.
Products can fail even if everything promised is delivered. This is why the supermarket Tesco gave up on trying to enter the USA market.
Or why I can't get Quorn here in Germany even though I personally think it's a much better taste and texture than any of the Rügenwalder Mühle brands.
Or why I can get Sauerkraut juice here, but not in the UK.
Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop
#68It 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
Tough choice. Weird goo that was grown in a lab by people that have no idea what they're doing OR natural food we've been eating since the dawn of time.
I’m vegetarian (several years now) and I agree with you. Meat has its problems, but our bodies make very good use of it.
Long list of chemicals with unproven value? We have a bad track record with trying to engineer our own ‘healthy’ food. See: margarine for example.
Impossible/beyond is great as a vegetarian as a rare treat (different flavors than normal veggies, loaded with umami — I don’t love them or anything but there are some recipes they work well with). I might have it once every couple months or so, often when a thoughtful friend invites me to their bbq and brings some impossible patties so I’m not left out...
But to actually use it as a meat replacement, like for several meals per week? It feels like we’re going to look back on that in 30 years like we do now for margarine.
PS: there are a million delicious vegetarian dishes that don’t need any fake meat, you kind of stop wanting the impossible/beyond stuff after you’re vegetarian for a little while
Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop
#69Maybe unpopular opinion, but for me, best plant based patties are those that do not try to replicate meat taste. I much prefer patties made from actual plants&vegetables/mushrooms/chickpeas/beans like potato, carrot, some spices and so on. They have like actual 'natural' flavor, almost like something homemade. Those that add a ton of additives often taste awful, even beyond/moving mountains...
I'm a meat-eater, but those "classic" plant-based patties often taste perfectly fine. Not like meat at all, but they don't have to, that's okay. It's not like I only eat meat. But the new breed of patties that claim to be meat taste really awful, definitely. They sometimes smell really weird, too.
Beyond burger or what was the one that was hyped 3 years ago was really good in my opinion. Especially on a burger with some sauce and other taste things.
The only thing you really shouldn't do is mix real meat and fake meat. A natural thing to do is order two burgers, and compare them. Whatever you eat first will taste fine, whatever you eat second is extremely gross.
Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop
#70If 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…
> it is no surprise, that people aren't willing to pay more for an inferior product You hit the nail on its head. I think there's still hope for meat substitutes if they can improve their flavor while also lowering their price. But I'm not holding out hope for that.
Not sure where you're located, but in the UK the supermarkets stock stuff like this:
https://groceries.aldi.co.uk/en-GB/p-plant-menu-ultimate-no-...
https://www.trolley.co.uk/product/linda-mccartneys-2-vegetar...
They taste delicious and are absolutely competitive with meat burger prices.