Low calorie, low fat and very tasty
China is joining the global revolution of alternative meat, starting from the lion’s head meatballs. This September, the Taobao Maker Festival hosted by Alibaba from September 12 to 25 in Hangzhou will be selling what it claims to be the “first batch of made-in-China artificial meat” to the public.
In August, Alibaba hosted a tasting event in its canteen of substitute meat products which had been made into meatballs, noodle toppings, chicken rolls and burgers. The comments about the similarity to real meat noted slight differences in texture as it was not as chewy and dense as real meat, but the flavor was there.
People who tried the plant-based meat also commented that it was as delicious as real meat and even had the same feeling of little shreds of meat that get stuck between the teeth, that it’s the next level creation compared to traditional Chinese imitation meat dishes.
However, there are some people who voiced concern over substitute meat, mostly on the grounds of food safety and the number of additives used in the process to make
plants meat-like. Depending on the way it’s cooked, plant-based meat can also pack high calories.
In the US, fast food franchises such as Burger King and Subway have added plant-based meat from Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat to their menus. KFC has also started to test plant-based fried chicken from Beyond Meat on August 27 at a single Atlanta restaurant.
There are two types of artificial meat, the plant-based meat created with proteins from soy and other plants, and the lab-grown, cellbased meat cultured from stem cells from living animals. The latter, also known as clean meat, is much more environmentally friendly compared to traditional livestock production, helps to fight climate change and even improves animal welfare.
In 2013, the first clean burger created by a team of Dutch scientists cost US$330,000, now it may be down to US$50, according to a BBC story about Bruce Friedrich’s TED Talk on April 15 in Vancouver, Canada. The story wrote that he thinks the public will get their first taste of cell-based meat in 2020 and pay a premium of around US$50.
“Convincing the world to eat less meat hasn’t worked. For 50 years, environmentalists, global health experts and animal activists have been begging the public to eat less meat, and yet per capita meat consumption is as high as it’s been in recorded history,” said Friedrich in his TED Talk.
For alternative meat, both plant-based and cell-based, the cost must be the same or less than conventional meat in order for people to really accept the products.
In China, entrepreneurs are now exploring and promoting plant-based meat after seeing its success in the US. The focus now is to produce meats that are as similar to the real thing as possible.
Plant-based minced pork can be used as a filling for dumplings and mooncakes. Chinese startup Starfield and a lab at Beijing Technology and Business University have also announced the production of vegan meat mooncakes that use plant-based protein.
China has a long history of vegan cuisine and imitation meat. They are consumed by the public on a daily basis and served in vegetarian restaurants such as Zaozishu.
Imitation meat was a style from the