This article will give you an update on the latest news regarding meat alternatives. There are 2 broad categories of alternatives to traditional meat production. There are many plant-based alternatives to beef, chicken, sausages and even attempts at bacon and then there are “cell cultured meats”. I’ll briefly touch on the latter group, just so you know it exists.
Cell cultured meats take cells from animals and then grow them in a lab. There are a few companies, most notably Eat Just, Inc. (Eat Just) and Memphis Meats (Memphis), pursuing this. Their idea is to create a “cleaner, safer” (but real) meat. Eat Just has been a plant based producer so far, with egg substitutes and plant based sauces. The company just received approval in Singapore to sell their cell cultured chicken this past December. This is the first approval to sell a cell cultured meat in the world. Until this point, cost and volume production capability have kept these options in the background.
There are many plant-based alternatives to ground beef, chicken and sausage, but the alternative meat industry seems to have taken off since Beyond Meat (Beyond) and Impossible Foods (Impossible) entered. Both took a scientific approach to simulate the taste and look of real meat and both are sold at numerous grocery, specialty and fast food outlets. Costco now has Beyond patties and sausage as well as Impossible burger in warehouses. Trader Joes is now selling a 12 ounce Impossible burger for $5.99, down from $7.99!
These meat-like alternatives are frequently found in the meat aisle, depending on the store, rather than the vegan section. The meat industry is understandably trying to keep them out of the meat section. The cost is still slightly higher than meat, but is getting closer. The other detractor is that the calories and fat content are very similar to meat. Beyond Meat just announced that early this year they plan to ship a new version of the burger with 35% less saturated fat than beef. Both taste great in our opinion, but we are slightly partial to Impossible burgers. We’ll need to do some more investigation to be able to comment on the sausage comparison. We have only tried the Beyond sausage and like it.
There still are the traditional vege-burger patties made of soy/tofu or beans, as well, but those options don’t taste like meat. There are more of these options, as well, too many to review.