The future of meat substitutes is getting brighter: Beyond Meat, a startup that manufactures protein-packed vegan meat products that purportedly taste and feel like real meat (but with no cholesterol or saturated fat) has some high profile backers, including Obvious Corporation, a company owned by Twitter's co-founders. So what's all the buzz about?
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, who's been a vegan for ten years, tells FastCo.Exist that he's "acutely aware of the potential health and sustainability gains of a world that eats less meat," and was impressed by Beyond Meat's strategy and potential.
"These guys are coming at the meat analogue industry not as a novelty kind of thing or hippy dippy," says Stone."They were coming at it from this big science, super practical, scalable angle. They were saying, 'We want to get into the multi-billion-dollar meat industry with a plant-based meat.'"
In fact, Beyond Meat's products taste so much like meat that some vegans and vegetarians won't like it, according to Stone. He says "there's something about the mouth-feel, the fattiness. It feels fatty and muscly and like it's not good for you when you're chewing it. For a long-time vegan, it's a little bit freaky."
Beyond Meat's first product is Veggie Chicken Strips, currently available at Whole Foods stores in Northern California and coming to other grocery stores on the West Coast in late summer and fall. The products are made partly with soy, but the company says it will focus on other non-soy options in the future, like pea protein, lupin, mustard seed protein, and barley.
Read More: Biz Stone Explains Why Twitter's Co-Founders Are Betting Big On A Vegan Meat Startup at FastCo.Exist
Related: Meat Substitutes: Love 'Em or Hate 'Em?
(Image: Beyond Meat)
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That's creepy. I hate eating anything that is mostly unrecognizable. How about real food?
As a pescetarian I am not a big fan of meat substitutes. I don't want to replace real meat with fake meat, I want to eat things that were never meant to have meat in them at all.
Ugh! I agree 100% that people need need to be eating a whole lot less meat than they're eating now. But I don't understand how you can claim that highly processed meat substitutes are healthy or sustainable. Just eat some vegetables! Beans are an excellent source of protein in their natural state. There's really no need to turn them into "protein isolates."
The 'why not eat real food' is the question that non-vegetarians pose all the time to vegetarians who like the occasional fake brat. Not to be rude, but it's slightly annoying, as if to want something like that once in awhile is akin to only ever eating fake food. So, here are two answers that matter to me.
1. Sometimes having something that's meaty flavored, full of umami, and has that kind of chew is just what you crave if it's not part of your diet. Or you want something that's easy to throw on the grill when you're being sociable at a backyard party. Or you want a vehicle for relish. Or you want some protein in between the roasted veg on your skewer. Eating a fake brat doesn't mean that I also always eat cheetos instead of good cheddar.
2. Mark Bittman had an opinion piece in the NYT a few months ago about the fact that while fake meat pales in comparison to really high quality meat, ethically raised free-range chickens, etc., it IS remarkably similar in flavor and texture to the kind of processed meat that lots and lots of people eat on a regular basis in the form of chicken tenders, fast food burgers, etc. In those cases, why not use fake meat, which has the potential to be less environmentally damaging and doesn't have all the animal cruetly problems? I found this argument really compelling.
I don't want fake processed meat or real processed meat. I just want less processed food in my life.
Disgusting.
@JMCCourt -
Re: 1. Mushrooms go easily on the grill, are "full of umami", and have a "chew." They can also be tossed on a bun like everyone else's burger.
I really so no reason to eat fake meat when I don't eat meat to begin with. Also not a fan of processed foods.
People are free to eat what they want obvs., but to argue convenience is a fallacy in this case.
Nail on the head @JMCCOURT. Whether or not the meat-eaters "approve" of this idea, there is a market for this kind of product in the grocery stores, and I SINCERELY doubt all the naysayers commenting on this thread are seriously just eating all organic whole fruits, veggies, and "free-range" meats, making their own salad dressing and condiments, and feeling totally satisfied at the end of every meal. Please.
Agreed! @jmccourt. I am vegan for ethical reasons, not because I didn't like the taste of meat. While I now find it pretty gross, sometimes I do crave something meaty-tasting that isn't a mushroom. And since I already "eat some vegetables," I'll pass on the judgement from others.
My husband and I treated ourselves to some over-priced faux-chicken patties the other day and could not believe how much they tasted like the processed chicken patties we used to get in the school cafeteria. It was spooky.
Well said, JMCourt. Food is such an important part of our social interaction and tradition. Meat analogues make it easier for me to attend a barbecue or go out to dinner or throw a dinner party and keep everyone (including me) happy and satisfied. In our transition to veganism (done out of concern for potential cholesterol and blood pressure problems that runs in my husband's family), meat substitutes made it much easier for my husband, an avowed omnivore, to feel satiated and satisfied while he adapted to more whole foods and non-meat protein sources. 10 months later, we enjoy a veggie burger on the grill or the occasional vegan sausage without guilt or concern. If meat substitutes help people move away from commodity meats and fast food, we should applaud the health and environmental benefits rather than judge.
Edible uncanny valley. That's new.
Thanks @JMCourt - well said. We are mostly veg in our household and its really nice to have alternatives to tofu, beans, rice, quinoa, for protein sources. We eat a good amount of a variety of fake meat as well as whole foods too. To simply demonize all fake meat and all people who eat it is judgmental and problematic.
Nicely put, @jmccourt. Personally, I always get excited to try new meat substitutes & love them as an option to put in dishes when I host parties. They always seem to please my vegan & meat-eating friends alike :)
I would love to eat "fake meat". It's mostly soy, and soy is not something I can eat without having a room clearing effect. Now if it was made of seitan? I'd be all over it.
Chalk another one up for @jmmccourt. As an ovo-lacto vegetarian, I would add the fact that meat substitutes sometimes make it really easy to participate in food-related social occasions like barbecues without needing to make a huge deal about the fact that I can't eat the main dish. Just slip a veggie burger onto the least meat-encrusted section of the grill and you're good. I'm well aware that they are vegetarian junk food, and pricey junk food at that, but there is room in every diet for a little junk food.
That said, I made my own veggie burgers for the first time last week from black beans, oats, veggies, and spices, and they were GOOD. Even my omnivore husband liked them. So I might try to get my once a week fake meat habit down to a once a month fake meat habit.
Just wanted to pop in and say I had a chance to try this yesterday (I work for a NorCal Whole Foods)... The texture really is uncanny. It was prepared as kind of a mock curried chicken salad with vegan mayo and currants... Yum! I will agree with Mr. Bittman that it isnt really the flavor Beyond Meat nails, it's that chew and texture.
I'm a vegetarian as well, and agree with others here who are looking primarily for a substitute protein, and that being veg doesn't mean it's hypocritical to eat mock meat products. Yes, it's a little bizarre... And probably missing the point to be chewing down on fake meats, but the products out there are yet another way to enrich an already rich food lifestyle.
Give this product a try... I'm looking forward to it being available for retail.
I don't know that anyone's blasting the occasional fake-meat product eater for the exact reasons @jmccourt mentions, but we all know there are bad vegetarians just like there are bad omnivores. And I'm not really comfortable with the "it's better than the alternative!" argument either. Eat what you want, of course, but the personal is political, and we make big choices with our dollars.
And while we're judging, @kidding, I do make my own salad dressing, condiments and eat local as much as possible in season here in zone6, thanks. =P
I'm with the pro-fake meat crowd. It makes going out easier when I can order a veggie burger instead of always being stuck with a salad (most of which have meat on them anyway, and you have to request that it be removed & hope the kitchen doesn't screw it up), and family members who eat meat are more likely to try vegetarian dishes I make if they look like familiar dishes; for example, enchiladas with soy "chicken" are more likely to be devoured at my MIL's house than a dish of roasted veggies.
Also, consider that people who choose not to eat meat might have a difficult time following certain diets without meat substitutes. Boca and Morningstar Farms make it a whole lot easier to lose weight or cut cholesterol than having only eggs, cheese and nuts as protein sources, especially for those amongst us who still don't like tofu.
I'll give them this: the ingredient list is way shorter than the Morningstar Farms stuff, of which I have breakfast sausage in my freezer for biscuits & gravy.
Brilliant idea. I'd happy support this. Looks good <3