I was a champion of fake meat: but I’m not surprised people are losing their taste for it
Faux meat is failing. Once championed as a way to fight the climate emergency, protein alternatives are now struggling, with plant-based pioneers Beyond Meat reporting net revenue losses of nearly 31% in the second quarter of this year.
I could say I’m surprised, but the truth is I’m only amazed that our collective love affair with fake meat lasted as long as it did. I was once a fan, but standing in front of a towering wall of hyper-processed meat alternatives in my local supermarket last year, I couldn’t help but think: are vegan burgers that bleed really the answer to our meat consumption woes?
Climate scientists have been sounding the alarm over how food production systems are contributing to global heating for decades. Eating less beef, pork and chicken is a vital element of the fightback, creating a gap in the market for meat alternatives. But, according to US charity the Center for Food Safety, “replacing conventional animal products with ultra-processed, poorly studied and under-regulated genetically engineered products is not the solution to our factory farm and climate crisis”. And I’m inclined to agree.
Not long ago we were enamoured of everything that vegan alternatives promised, as a way to “do our bit” without sacrificing our carnivorous instincts. But the nutritional and environmental pitfalls of processed protein have slowly made themselves apparent. Swapping meat with Beyond Meat resulted in some impressive health findings, according to one study, including reduced LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol and body weight. But while these plant-based products don’t appear to be inherently damaging to our health, they are undeniably ultra-processed. In the long term, the implications of consuming industrially produced vegan products on a mass scale are unclear.
It’s not just Beyond Meat that has seen sales plummet; in June, UK vegan producer Meatless Farm ceased trading before it was rescued from administration, while sausage company Heck reduced its vegan range, citing a lack of consumer demand. In the US, vegan chicken nugget startup Nowadays recently folded “due to an inability to raise venture funds in this market”, an ominous forecast for the industry.
The cost of living crisis has been cited as one significant reason for tanking sales of vegan meat products. And it’s true these alternatives can be expensive. A pack of two Beyond Meat burgers costs £4 at Tesco, while a pack of four Finest beef steak burgers is also priced at £4 – the same price for double the quantity. Beyond Meat is now reducing its price points and cutting jobs in a bid to save what some are calling a “sinking ship”. But I wonder if waning sales aren’t more likely to be linked to a shift in our collective feeling towards these products.
The reality is that many of these foods don’t taste terribly good. As a chef who has spent my career designing vegan recipes, I’ve become something of an expert in the flavour profiles of meat alternatives. Beyond Meat remains the fiercest competitor to real meat when it comes to taste and texture but most other brands are se