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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

#291
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…

I second this. Where I am in Europe, plant based 'meat products' are growing in number and variety, and their prices are falling. Their taste is as good as or better than meat, and actually they constitute pretty well fleshed out, tasty dishes in themselves. Especially when old housewives start buying a product, you know that it has succeeded in the taste department.

This brand seems to be the one that is pretty successful where Im at (a Mediterranean country), and you know that Mediterranean cuisine is quite tasty and housewives are very picky. This brand is able to replicate Mediterranean taste in all its meat products.

https://heurafoods.com/

These two ones are its particular hits:

https://heurafoods.com/es/productos/burgers-epices

https://heurafoods.com/es/productos/bocados-mediterraneos

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

#292

I've been vegan for 35 years and the thought of eating a burger that tastes like meat turns my stomache. If you're a meat eater that wants to reduce consumption of animals then do that in the other (healthier) meals and have a decent animal burger once a week/fortnight. If you're eating burgers much more regularly then you're probably better off getting more variation into your diet and than eating highly processed v…

I've been vegetarian for 12 years now. I used to dislike replacement products, but what Rügenwalder and Beyond produced in recent years is so good, I now eat some kind of meat replacement every week.

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

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wanted to say the same thing. Here i Germany the choice of vegan sausage and cold cuts is huge, even in small grocery shops. I know lot of people who eat meat regularly _and_ buy the vegan alternatives on a regular basis.

Which totally puzzles me. Nothing wrong with a vegetarian diet, but would I prefer processed food, vegan or otherwise, over unprocessed one?

> but would I prefer processed foo

When the processed food tastes as good and as fresh as the one you cook in your house - why not. In the case of European plant-based meat, this is the case.

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

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crazy that the people who don't eat meat can't see the properties of meat that meat eaters like and look for. Why on earth would anyone listen to a vegetarian about what makes a good meat alternative. If a steak chef says an alternative to steak is X, I'll listen.

> Why on earth would anyone listen to a vegetarian about what makes a good meat alternative. Because most vegetarians have likely tried a lot more meat substitutes than a meat eater, and most of them have eaten meat at some point? It seems that any story about meat-eating brings out all the reactionary commenters and switches off critical thinking skills on HN.

> Because most vegetarians have likely tried a lot more meat substitutes than a meat eater

Tried, maybe. The vegetarians I know don't do veggie burgers or steaks. They eat the actual vegetables.

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

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegan food: taste, healthy, filling - pick 2

These are all three: https://www.beanit.fi/en/our-products/ It's just processed fava beans, nothing unhealthy. Their tex-mex mince (not on the english pages for some reason) is superior to minced meat in my opinion. It keeps in the fridge for weeks (can't do that with raw meat) and the texture is pretty similar. Less fat, more protein.

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

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

#297
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…

Your link doesn't support your statement. Where does it say they want to turn 100% plant based?

I have not found any news that would support that claim. They sold more vegan products in 2021 than meat products, but nowhere can I find anything that they aim at selling only vegan products.

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

#298
post #74

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 dont understand the obsession with reproducing meat out of plants. I don't understand why someone has to bring this up every. single. time. People like meat. Those same people may want to become vegetarian for ethical reasons. They still like meat though. Oh look, a product that can fit in that "I like meat" slot without killing animals. Sounds tasty. What else is there to understand?

> ethical reasons

I like the consequence of murder; the texture, the taste, the blood, the everything ... but not the bit where something actually dies.

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

#300
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…

No, you are forgetting that meat is heavily subsidized while low-impact food is not.

I do not want to pretend that it is not part of the equation in US, but I am genuinely unsure how big a factor it is and if the argument makes sense.

Anecdotally, people in my social circle go for food that is socially acceptable in that circle. If 'low impact' food became a thing, price would have less influence on it ( kinda like every teen has to have an Iphone -- I am exaggerating a little - or when driving a small sedan in US means you are poor ).

There are all sorts of minor dynamics that are underexplored in that arena.

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