Tried mock meats or part-mushroom burgers? Here’s how to go veg without quitting meat
From sausage rolls, juicy chicken chunks, and tuna to bacon, butcher Jaap Korteweg offers it all. But there’s a twist: None of the goods on display at his shop in The Hague (Netherlands) are made from meat.
Korteweg, a ninth generation farmer, became a vegetarian out of concerns about animal welfare after millions of pigs were slaughtered to contain swine fever in his country in 1997. But he missed meat so much that he got together with scientists and chefs to create plant substitutes.
The reason there are relatively few vegetarians in many parts of the world “is not that people don’t care about animals, but because they are hooked on meat,” says Korteweg.
MUSHROOM BURGERS
Many experts say cutting demand for meat – particularly in wealthy countries – would make a big difference.
If all hamburgers eaten in the United States could be made of a blend of 70% beef and 30% mushrooms, for instance, it would save as many emissions as taking 2.3 million cars off the road, according to research by the World Resources Institute (WRI). It would also save water equivalent to that used in 2.6 million American homes, and reduce the agricultural land needed to produce the burgers by an area larger than the U.S. state of Maryland, or the size of the nation of Belgium, WRI said.
“Because of the umami taste and extra moisture of mushrooms, you can end up with a better tasting burger, and it’s healthier,” said Daniel Vennard, director of the Better Buying Lab at WRI.
CUT THE LABEL
Labelling foods as ‘vegetarian’ or ‘healthy’ can put off shoppers and people in restaurants, some researchers say. Linda Bacon, a behavioural scientist, has studied how people’s choices in a restaurant depend on where vegetarian dishes are placed on a menu.
She found that when pea risotto and ricotta and spinach ravioli were clustered at the end of the menu under the heading Vegetarian Dishes, people were 56% less likely to order them than if they were listed as the first and last dish on a unified menu – one that also included king prawns, fish and chips, steak, and hamburgers.
“This and other similar research shows that restaurateurs can influence their customers to eat more vegetables and less meat,” she wrote in a blog post. “All they need to do is change the design of the menu.”
SUCCULENT NAMES
Using decadent-sounding descriptions also boosts sales of vegetable dishes, according to researchers at Stanford University. When their canteen used labels like Sweet Sizzlin’ Green Beans and Crispy Shallots, Zesty GingerTurmeric Sweet Potatoes and Rich Buttery Roasted Sweet Corn, they sold significantly more than if the same dishes were given health-promoting labels, or simply called beans or sweet potatoes.
Meanwhile, Korteweg, the Dutch producer of vegetablebased chicken and bacon, now is selling his products across Europe, and in Israel and South Korea.
THE “MEATS” ARE MADE FROM WHEAT, BEANS, PEAS, SOYA AND OTHER PLANTBASED PROTEINS; ARE GIVEN A MEATLIKE TEXTURE AND NATURAL FLAVOURS