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Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

nytimes.com

241–250 of 1001 posts

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#242
post #201
post #32

I married a vegan, and I eat a lot of vegetarian food. (I also still eat plenty of meat, just not every day.) One extremely frustrating aspect of plant meat is that they tried to aggressively push out traditional veggie burgers on restaurant menus. A familiar refrain I've heard in restaurants in the last few years is "we used to have a nice veggie patty, but they replaced it with the beyond/incredible/whatever patty.…

> aggressively push out traditional veggie burgers on restaurant menus I've found a similar trend in the supermarket frozen aisles. I used to be able to reliably find "veggie crumbles" at most largeish stores, perfect for pizza, chili, or mapo tofu. My favorite brand was Quorn (not quite vegan, includes egg whites) but there were often several decent options. Now it's rare to find anything other than Beyond or Imposs…

I also quite like Quorn but it is non existent in North America unfortunately.

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#243
post #32

I married a vegan, and I eat a lot of vegetarian food. (I also still eat plenty of meat, just not every day.) One extremely frustrating aspect of plant meat is that they tried to aggressively push out traditional veggie burgers on restaurant menus. A familiar refrain I've heard in restaurants in the last few years is "we used to have a nice veggie patty, but they replaced it with the beyond/incredible/whatever patty.…

I think its important to note that animals don't get fed human quality vegetables.

They get the cheapest possible bits that can't be sold for more to humans but are still enjoyed by animals.

Animals tend to eat human waste products which is a form of recycling, turning essentially rubbish into bioavailable protein

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#244
post #215

If you’re vegetarian, why do you want the uncanny valley version of meat? Be a vegetarian. I have always thought that the target market for Beyond/Incredible/etc was not vegetarians, but rather partners of vegetarians. They don’t really want to give up meat but they want to support their partner and/or avoid conflict.

For some people, meat tastes good, but they want to reduce meat intake or remove it from their diet for health or environmental reasons. The status of 'be a vegetarian' is irrelevant to the material effect.

These companies only really target the environmental, since they're not actually any healthier than actual meat.

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#245

Beyond and Impossible are full of chemicals. Definitely not a healthy alternative to traditional veggie patties. I wouldn't even call them food really. It doesn't even really qualify as a veggie burger (it's pea protein isolate, which doesn't really count). Beyond that (no pun intended) it's got a lot of seed oil, which is awful for you.

Aren't veggie patties full of chemicals too?

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#246
post #32

I married a vegan, and I eat a lot of vegetarian food. (I also still eat plenty of meat, just not every day.) One extremely frustrating aspect of plant meat is that they tried to aggressively push out traditional veggie burgers on restaurant menus. A familiar refrain I've heard in restaurants in the last few years is "we used to have a nice veggie patty, but they replaced it with the beyond/incredible/whatever patty.…

I always liked how Gardenburgers taste. They're not trying to be meat, and that was ok.

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#247
post #32

I married a vegan, and I eat a lot of vegetarian food. (I also still eat plenty of meat, just not every day.) One extremely frustrating aspect of plant meat is that they tried to aggressively push out traditional veggie burgers on restaurant menus. A familiar refrain I've heard in restaurants in the last few years is "we used to have a nice veggie patty, but they replaced it with the beyond/incredible/whatever patty.…

I’m vegan, converted about four years ago so I ate meat for decades. I ate impossible burgers for a while after Burger King got them, because there is some nostalgia/novelty in going to a fast food joint. But I’ve realized that this weird food product leaves some kind of odd taste in my stomach, and not just from Burger King. I’m pretty over these fake beef burgers now, and would way rather have a black bean burger o…

I don't watch TV so I didn't know about these products.

I ordered a incredible beef pizza thinking it was extra topping or something.

Half way through I happened to eat one of the 'beef' bits by itself and realised it tasted terrible and possibly expired.

I googled it and turned out they sold me a fake meat while advertising it as " beef". Which I felt should be false advertising.

The funny thing is I really enjoy falafels and the English brand of vege mushroom paddies. But this fake meat is soulless.

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#248
post #32

I married a vegan, and I eat a lot of vegetarian food. (I also still eat plenty of meat, just not every day.) One extremely frustrating aspect of plant meat is that they tried to aggressively push out traditional veggie burgers on restaurant menus. A familiar refrain I've heard in restaurants in the last few years is "we used to have a nice veggie patty, but they replaced it with the beyond/incredible/whatever patty.…

I disagree. I much prefer a Beyond pattie to more traditional veggie options. It is quite literally a matter of taste though, so you aren't wrong, but your perspective is just your own.

I hate veggie patties and feel like they were always the frost-bitten-back-of-the-freezer-kept-around-in-case-a-vegetarian-one-day-visits option that a restaurant falls back on. Not a vegetarian any more, but I don't think in the years that I was that I ever ate an enjoyable veggie pattie. As you said, it's 100% matter of taste so there's no right or wrong, but the opposing viewpoints are fascinating...

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#249
Really satisfying, foodie-quality meals can exist without meat or fake meat.

From a blind taste and smell perspective, animal flesh on a grill is very hard to beat. But if one wants to avoid eating animals, it is possible to do so very happily without resorting to manufactured creations that resemble meat.

Unfortunately, good creative vegetarian meals do take more work than throwing a nice steak on a grill. It seems that humans have a predisposition for appreciating hot animal fat with something to chew on.

All this is to say that we don't need fake meat. But it takes more effort and work, especially at first. Once the ingredients and skills are in place, however, vegetarial dishes can be more satisfying than typical meat dishes.

We should not be wasting business effort to provide fake something, but instead we should be working to teach good alternatives.

I think the reason we are in this situation is that companies need to sell things. Selling cooking lessons (good vegetarian cooking recipes and skills) is not as easy as pushing to the grocery store a plastic container with something resembling a hamburger patty.

Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries

#250
Plant based meats are full of sodium and chemicals. Now, I’m not saying real meat isn’t; most places stuff meats full of antibiotics etc.

If I had to choose one or the other, real meat hands down. I just don’t eat meat that much, maybe twice a week now.

I’m looking forward to vat grown meats, but the aluminium foil hat person in me thinks it would be used as a carrier for other crap the government decides to throw in there.

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