ONE AND THE SAME?

Meatless meat is on the rise – David Burton digs deep into the popularity of plantbased alternative meat.

David Burton examines the popularity of alternative meat products and we conduct our very own taste tests.

While vegetarianism and veganism are frequently touted as the great food trends of our time, how many New Zealanders actually identify as vegetarian or vegan? According to a national poll in 2021, a mere 6%. True, this is double the 3% estimate from the New Zealand Vegetarian Society 20 years ago, but it still leaves 94% who continue to eat meat, even if only on rare occasions. And there’s the difference. Whether driven by concern for the environment or for the sake of the health benefits that supposedly accrue, nowadays carnivores are significantly reducing their consumption of meat. A Colmar Brunton research poll in 2019 (commissioned by the vegetarian lobby) claimed 34% of New Zealanders are flexitarians (those who have a primarily vegetarian diet but occasionally eat meat or fish) or meat-reducers.

THE ‘WHY’ OF PLANTBASED MEAT

As many people, millennials and Gen Z in particular, embrace the flexitarian lifestyle, adopting plantbased protein – most fashionably known as alt-meat – gives them the option of not missing out. They can still have the burger-eating experience, while addressing environmental, health, and animal welfare issues.

So if you could be convinced that the meaty, juicy plant-based burger patty in front of you was going to taste uncannily of beef and yet be assured that no animal had died in the process, why wouldn’t you tuck in?

Being large consumers of fast foods, millennials and Gen Z are being targeted by the big three: Mcdonald’s, Burger King and KFC have all introduced plant-based meats. Interestingly, KFC, recognising their core market as flexitarian, have announced that their alt-chicken will be cooked using the same equipment as the real chicken.

When it comes to marketing the products, should an image or illustration of an animal be featured on the label of a product that is not made from an animal? If so, I’m not sure how the contents might comply under the Fair Trading Act, but certainly back in 2018 the French government saw fit to ban depictions or even mentions of animals on packets of imitation meat.

A MATTER OF TASTE

On the shelves of the newly named flexitarian section at my local supermarket, I found a wondrous array of this new breed of highly processed ‘meat’. At home, armed with a selection to taste, I unwrapped my first pink flesh-toned strips. Resembling rubber, with natty streaks of cartoonish faux fat, they look more like a toy I might buy for Pablo, my pet chihuahua. There was a mildly repugnant chemical odour when I first opened the packet, which