tood trend
Plant-based alternatives to meat are nothing new – just think Quorn, seitan (from wheat gluten), soy and jackfruit. Even tuna has had a plant-based makeover. But there’s something about a big ole juicy beef burger that’s pushed the race to make a close-your-eyes-and-you’llnever- know-it’s-not-meat meat into hyper-speed. Now our high streets are making space for ‘ground beef analogue products’, as the bods call it.
Innovation is being driven by two competitors: Beyond Meat, famous for its vegan burger with oozing beetroot ‘blood’, and Impossible Foods, which developed its patty with Burger King and is now rolling out the Impossible Whopper (vegetarian rather than vegan) in the US, before bringing it here. Both enterprises have had funding from Bill Gates, and other major food manufacturers are looking for an in. Mission statements are fairly matchy-matchy, and speak of wanting to address the bleak impact th foods, while shares in Beyond Meat more than quadrupled a month after they went on sale in May), analogue meat is set to be the future.