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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

#271

Post by winReInstall »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #58
legitster wrote: post #19

It's the cost. We are meat-eaters and have been trying lots of plant-based products. I was never sold as them being health products, but I liked the (presumed) environmental benefits. Plus, I could make a single meal for me and my Vegan friends. Plant-based meats were supposed to be cheaper. But it never happened. So now we've mostly moved back to normal meat products. (It doesn't help that my vegan friends never sto…

Exactly. Most burger chains don't use high quality meat for their burgers. You go to McDonald's, Burger King, or whatever and you are getting a greasy grey slab of ground "meat" (let's not think to long about where that comes from) that is 1) very thin 2) a bit rubbery 3) not that tasty 4) has some filler content in addition to meat and fat. To cover that up, most burger chains use lots of sauce, salt, and spices. It…

It comes from a normal farm and they are actually quite thorough in validating the cow was healthy. Source: Parents had a farm in europe and mc donalds inspected it.

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

#272

Post by hutzlibu »

prepend wrote: post #250
hutzlibu wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most vegetarians were not born vegetarians, though. Some did recently eat meat so can compare. In my opinion, I don't think anything vegetarian will come close to a steak anytime soon, but I have eaten chili sin carne, without noticing it being vegetarian. My main problem is also simply, that I have not learned yet, to cook without meat very good. It takes effort, but is worth it.

> Most vegetarians were not born vegetarians, though. I’m not sure about that. Internationally, this definitely isn’t true as most Hindu were born Hindu and vegetarian. And in the US, I’d say that about 1/3 of non-Hindu/ cultural vegetarians friends and acquaintances were born into families that are vegetarian.

Most of the vegetarians I thought we are talking about, meaning people from "the west", were only some grew up with it, but rather switched to vegetarism for ethical/health reasons.

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

#273

Post by cr3ative »

wil421 wrote: post #231
cr3ative wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These products exist _because_ your claims about mushrooms and quinoa being acceptable (and somewhat available) just aren't true. There seems to be this army of people who say "compressed vegetables in a circle" are acceptable burger alternatives; they're really not. This market isn't for existing vegans/vegetarians in most cases, it's for people curious about going that way or cutting down their consumption.

I don’t need to replace meat with something fake. Western meatless diets try to replace meat with either way too processed of a food or a nasty mash of fake meat. I’ve found I like vegetarian Indian way better than anything else. The dishes do not try to recreate some fake meat concoction.

Sure! You are not the market for plant-based meat.

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

#274

Post by OJFord »

taylorius wrote: post #230
lampe3 wrote: post #161

Can we add an "in the US" at the end? Since for EU countries this is not true. I'm living in sweden now and lived in germany and poland. Plant-based meat products are growing in numbers and the price of meat is going so high that its cheaper to buy the plant-based one. In Germany one producer of meat sausages want to turn 100% plant based[1]. I will not go into the whats better and not for you. Since this highly depe…

It's a bit of a flop in the UK too tbh. It's been pushed fairly hard, but not that much uptake.

It's a flop for me because of the 'plant-based' marketing. I make my own burgers with jackfruit or chickpeas and things quite often, but I call them what they are, not 'plant-based', which is about as appetising to me as 'meat-based'. (What's the meat?! Surprise mix of whatever was going cheapest plus horse?).

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

#275

Post by cabirum »

ragazzina wrote: post #211
cabirum wrote: post #121

Stop calling it "meat", please. It's not. Meat grows on animal skeletons. Use terms like "reprocessed plant sludge", soysage, or shitpatty.

Do you feel the same about almond milk?

Yes and no. You see, almond milk does not aggressively attempt to take over "normal" milk, they coexist peacefully, and the distinction is obvious.

The fake unmeat thing tries to look like meat, appears everywhere I expect my normal meat to be, and annoying like a popup with a broken [x] close button.

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

#276

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

I have a personal opinion on the trend itself and it is basically that it is trying to imitate something, while it could ( and some would argue should ) be its own thing with its own flavor ( and everything that goes along with it ). It is a little like me trying to re-live to experience of hotdogs for the sake of nostalgia. I suppose I could, but the why goes back into focus. Why are we doing this? Is it to appease the mass consumer? Is it to make a temporary pitstop on humanity's hopeful trajectory that does not include self-destruction? I just fail to see the appeal and I tried some of the products out of sheer curiosity.

Why can't we just have falafel, bean patties and so on? Why does it have to 'feel' like meat?

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

#277

Post by edu »

23B1 wrote: post #78
Moldoteck wrote: post #29

Maybe 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...

You can do up a portobello burger in a thousand different ways and they all taste amazing. I do not understand the fascination with replicating meat for environmental good when nature herself provides plenty of delicious alternatives. Ever had a deep-fried cheese-stuffed portobello? Mama mia...

Or, portobello carpaccio with pecorino and truffle.

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

#278

Post by kuschku »

auggierose wrote: post #238
yreg wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems that they don't plan to "turn 100% plant based", but rather built a new factory that is 100% plant based. The ≤5% estimate is just as inaccurate though. > “Over the full year [2021], we sold for the first time more of our vegan and vegetarian products than of the classic meat products. Last year, the ratio had been fifty-fifty,” the spokesperson added, without giving detailed figures. https://www.just-food.c…

> The ≤5% estimate is just as inaccurate though. Well, render me extremely surprised! I am wondering if that is because the population as a whole goes vegan/vegetarian (which I doubt), or if they are one of the few producers offering a wide range for vegetarians, and so they get all the vegetarians as customers.

> I am wondering if that is because the population as a whole goes vegan/vegetarian (which I doubt)

The truth is actually somewhat close to that – not everyone goes vegetarian, but the vast majority of young adults are replacing some (not all) of the meat in their diet with replacement products.

Rügenwalder isn't the only company seeing such growth, though. Nestlé (Garden Gourmet) and Iglo are seeing similar growth.

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

#279

Post by virgildotcodes »

avhception wrote: post #114
dachryn wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It never occurred to me to mix real and fake meat. Now I'm curious. Maybe I'll have to try a 50/50 ground beef mix, just out of curiosity, haha. My comparison method so far was the Whopper.

I saw an actual 50/50 mix of beef/plant based burger patties at the grocery store once. It really had me scratching my head.

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

#280

Post by maxerickson »

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…

Using modern farming practices it's about 7.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed_conversion_ratio#Conversi...

(Disliking and thus moving away from those practices is a goal some people have, but they are the dominate method of meat production at the moment, so it's the reasonable comparison)

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