progress in fake meat

I've been a vegetarian for some time and don't really miss meat.  There are some fake meat solutions, but they tend not to be very good (at least as meat proxies) and are also very expensive averaging about $8 a pound - a very expensive protein source.  

But making meat from animals is very energy intensive - animals are about 10% efficient energy conversion devices and that can rise quickly with ethically treated animals.  Some people have an interest in relying on energy from plants a bit more through "meatless mondays" and a larger percentage of vegetarian dishes.  There is real room for innovation in the mostly static fake meat industry - Mark Bittman reports.

Synthetic meat is noted in the Guardian - an attempt at real meat derived from real meat and a commerical project to make a plant based fake chicken and beef designed to be a better tasting, better texture and cheaper substitute. The later -  Beyond Meat is documented by NPR.  Beyond Meat is on sale in Whole Foods in Northern California.  If it is "good enough" and cheaper than meat, they may have a huge winner.  Probably more from people who are looking for a few meatless meals rather than real vegetarians, but I could be interested if it is cheap and not terrible.

(hat tip to Bjarne for the Guardian article)

 

 

Comments

[Roger]

I have a cast-iron stomach that can handle just about anything I can force down, but the catch is that my brain somehow prevents me from forcing down stuff I can't imagine as food, which protects my cast-iron stomach. It seems that I have lost my sense of smell, which further limits the range of appetizing cousine. Now my food has to be crunchy and salty like chips and not slimy and stringy like artificial health-food stuff, but that crunchy and salty stuff can't be stuff I can't imagine as food. Even though I have lost my sense of smell, I can still smell and taste foreign chemicals put into products to make them smell and taste better. I know the difference between real chicken and doctored chicken, real turkey and doctored turkey, real beef and doctored beef.

Try to find real fat-free cottage cheese these days. "Cultured Fat Free Milk, Buttermilk, Nonfat Dry Milk, Cream, Salt Citric Acid, Lactic Acid, Phosphoric Acid, Natural Flavoring, Guar Gum Mono and Diglycerides, Xanthan Gum, Carob Bean Gum, Titanium Dioxide(artificial color), Maltodextrin, Cultured dextrose, Postassium Sorbate, Calcium Chloride, Enzymes" Real fat-free cottage cheese should have one ingredient, skimmed milk!

Real chicken, I believe, will come from our chicken house. Maybe I'll even add a couple turkeys that can still fly like an eagle.