Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop • Hacker News Board

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

#551

Post by stronglikedan » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 3:50 PM UTC

retinaros wrote: post #485

themoonisachees wrote: post #430

My perspective from France: Fake meat has never been so available. There are several restaurants that serve it that are not your "we are explicitly vegan" restaurants, burger king served some, and all major supermarkets have it in stock in the freezers right next to normal meat. However, the price is still unattainable. A few days ago i bought patties to make burgers and meat was about 1 euro/100g and plant meat was…

I dont think price is the problem. quality is. I pay my meat 3 times the price you pay yours because I go to the butcher and don’t trust supermarkets. but fake meat I wouldn’t even eat for free. the taste is too bad. If they could make good vegan meat even at a high price there will be an audience.

Not just the taste, but all that processed crap is terrible for nutrition.

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

#552

Post by namlem » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 3:50 PM UTC

nicbou wrote: post #516

maury91 wrote: post #429

I'm not a fan of plant-based meat, this is most likely because of my culture ( I'm Sardinian ), we do have many meat based dishes and many plant based dishes, and honestly I don't see the need to cook the meat based ones with processed food that tries to replicate the taste and consistency of meat. I believe that if you don't want to eat meat there's a world of recipes that do not involve meat and are made to elevate…

I second this. I cut meat by cooking better vegetarian recipes, not by finding better meat substitutes. Asia has no shortage of excellent dishes, as does Italy. I'll take a good pasta dish over a fake sausage made of mystery ingredients any day. Tomatoes are nearly fungible, but meat substitutes are not. Potatoes are cheap but meat substitutes are not. Carrots are easy to find anywhere but meat substitutes are not.

Seitan is very cheap and easy to make at home, and can be quite tasty.

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

#553

Post by 0xfeeddeadbeef » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 3:52 PM UTC

"Innovative New Process Converts Plants Into Meat By Feeding Them To Cows" (The Babylon Bee)

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

#554

Post by mbgerring » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 3:52 PM UTC

Durable plant-based meat brands have existed for decades. Beyond/Impossible certainly raised the bar, but when I was a vegetarian teenager in 2003-4, Tofurkey had already been a thing for a long time, and as far as I know still is. Impossible/Beyond had a “tech company” veneer, so a certain kind of business writer maybe expected more from them in terms of growth, but that was probably never a realistic way to judge these companies.

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

#555

Post by trashface » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 3:52 PM UTC

As a long time mostly vegetarian (still avoid red meat) I have long avoided all imitation "meat". The ingredients are generally utter garbage, if you are at all concerned about long term health you don't want to be eating that stuff. I don't know it its worse than meat but its probably close (trading heart disease for cancer or maybe increase risk of both).

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

#556

Post by stronglikedan » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 3:52 PM UTC

inkcapmushroom wrote: post #537

alphanullmeric wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replace healthy with unprocessed then. Vegans sure love their processed foods.

Of course it's going to be processed unless you're getting it straight from the field. That website's ingredient list for their unflavored grounds: Water, pea protein, fava bean (9 %, Finland), rapeseed oil. Looks fairly minimal to me. "Vegans love their processed foods" is a weird take, I don't think they likely eat more processed foods than your typical American.

The ingredients aren't the main problem. The main problem is that a lot of nutritional value is stripped out during the various industrial processes. This causes one to not feel as sated as they would from the same caloric amount of non-processed food, and causes overeating.

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

#557

Post by namlem » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 3:53 PM UTC

Swizec wrote: post #479

maury91 wrote: post #429

I'm not a fan of plant-based meat, this is most likely because of my culture ( I'm Sardinian ), we do have many meat based dishes and many plant based dishes, and honestly I don't see the need to cook the meat based ones with processed food that tries to replicate the taste and consistency of meat. I believe that if you don't want to eat meat there's a world of recipes that do not involve meat and are made to elevate…

Fake meat feels similar to my Slovenian eyes. There's a whole world of recipes that just don't include meat and are delicious. It wasn't until I moved to the USA that I even realized those are "vegetarian" ... to me they're just regular foods and recipes. Lots of cottage cheese hearty meals with high protein content. It helps that traditional (100+ years ago) Slovenian culture was that you rarely eat meat because mea…

Yes Mediterranean countries tend to have less meat in their cuisine. But Anglo and Germanic cuisine tends to incorporate more meat and that's just what people are used to.

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

#558

Post by maury91 » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 3:54 PM UTC

Swizec wrote: post #536

lukeschlather wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegetarian/veganism is not a fashion choice, it's a moral one. It's like asking why a Muslim prepares a dish that's traditionally prepared with pork but instead substitutes lamb. I'm not sure what more explanation you require.

To quote a funny meme: If my mother had wheels she would've been a bicycle! You can't just replace ingredients. Make a lamb dish if lamb is what you want!

Interesting, we say "If my grandma had wheels she would've been a wheelbarrow!" ( "Se mia nonna aveva le ruote sarebbe una carriola" ). And there's also the version with grandad, but it's better you look that one on Google "Se mio nonno aveva..."

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

#559

Post by julianlam » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 3:54 PM UTC

barbariangrunge wrote: post #547

kup0 wrote: post #481

This editorialized link title and the article's headline itself doesn't really match the article's content (as is increasingly common it seems). Sure, Beyond Meat has had lower sales- but soon after they mention that retail sales of Impossible meat products increased 50% in 2022- with an odd "but the CEO left so they're in trouble" assessment which seems a bit bonkers. Then the author seems to say that because fake m…

Price has kept me away for a few years now. But now the price of everything else is rising to catch up, so maybe I should check it out again

Hah, that's exactly my thought after reading some comments here.

Last I checked, impossible burger was $7.99 on sale. More expensive than beef. That might have flipped recently, with beef rising to obscene prices because of grocery store gouging.

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

#560

Post by dqv » Thu, Jan 19, 2023, 3:55 PM UTC

Swizec wrote: post #536

lukeschlather wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegetarian/veganism is not a fashion choice, it's a moral one. It's like asking why a Muslim prepares a dish that's traditionally prepared with pork but instead substitutes lamb. I'm not sure what more explanation you require.

To quote a funny meme: If my mother had wheels she would've been a bicycle! You can't just replace ingredients. Make a lamb dish if lamb is what you want!

> You can't just replace ingredients.

Huh? Yes you can. Replacing ingredients, adding ingredients, removing ingredients is the basis for all food culture. Recipes get passed down through generations and those variances over time are what give us distinct and unique dishes.