NOT real meat

MamaCaz I would like to be told because while I am fine eating real meat I cant eat the fake ones due to allergies and medication interactions. I normally avoild samples anyway but it would be nice to have the information so I could make an informed choice rather than just automatically saying no all the time.

Quite a good little article here about fake meat. It's so highly processed and filled with goodness knows what. I have a vegan chum who abhors the stuff. Wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.

www.theguardian.com/food/2019/jan/27/the-trouble-with-fake-meat-beetroot-burgers-food-substitutes

On the allergy thing, what I meant was that legally there must have been something on display with a list of ingredients so it was possible for the OP to see there was no meat.

I do find the burger that’s treated with beetroot so that it bleeds a bit odd though?

There are various laws concerning themeat contentofsausagesin theUK. Theminimum meat contentto be labelled PorkSausagesis 42% (30% for other types ofmeat sausages), although to be classed asmeat, the Pork can contain 30% fat and 25% connective tissue.

Merlotgran, how come sausages can be in a casserole? I thought sausages had to be fried or roasted. Anyway, thanks for the 'Plant Chef' heads up.

I am a vegetarian myself but I agree that meat eaters should have as much right to be made aware of what they are eating as anyone else. For example some people might have been advised to eat more protein and red meat because they are anaemic or have some other metabolic problem. No matter how tasty a vegan product is, a vegan steak is very unlikely to have the same amount of haem iron or full-range protein as an animal steak.

It's just a marketing exercise. Tesco are promoting their 'Plant Chef' range - hence the advert with the little girl persuading her dad to swap from meat to vegan sausages.

We've tried the sausages and liked them but the 'meat'balls were tasteless and didn't have a nice texture.

DH loves veg and will happily eat no meat meals but if I'd said, 'Lets have pea protein balls tonight' he'd have soon had his moany face on.

I'm not suggesting for one moment that a list of ingredients shouldn't be available for anyone who asks for it, Callistemon.
I presume that anyone with a known allergy would avoid taste-testing anything without checking that first. However, I see that as a different issue to that raised by the OP.

MamaCaz even some innocent sounding foods such as celery can cause an allergic reaction in some people.

Soy, wheat, nuts, sesame seeds, kiwi fruit etc could all cause illness or even death if the ingredients are not clearly labelled.

My dh is veggie and I make two casseroles, two spag bol etc, two toad in the hole etc. I put one in the meat oven and one in veggie oven. I never try to convert dh and he never tries to convert me we just accept we prefer different. I get very annoyed when veggie and vegan people try to convert me to do as they do.

Please can you tell me the recipe and the name of the vegan product?

Surely even we meat-eaters regularly eat vegan products anyway - we just call them fruit, veg, etc!

For that reason, I see no reason to 'warn' someone in advance that something that looks like meat is actually made from ingredients that we might already eat as part of our balanced diet.

Why change it if you really enjoyed it...I don't get that. I have been veggie 40 years and vegan the past year. I am very healthy and full of energy.

If it tasted good then why not just go with that? Foods food. Doesn't matter if its 'real meat' or not unless you're a definite vegetarian.

True!

Supermarkets don’t care what you buy as long as they make money out of it

Sausages usually contain about 97% meat plus a binding product eg potato and salt, pepper etc.

The supermarkets and food suppliers want to extend the veggue/vegan meals to carnivores who are keen to reduce their meat intake.
(Surely sausages contain very little meat anyway?)

Here’s one veggie who doesn’t think it’s wrong to eat meat (my daughter would disagree) I don’t eat it because of the cruelty involved in the slaughter of animals. As for meat substitutes most of them are pretty disgusting apart from one or two.
Esspee can you put the recipe of that casserole on here please it sounds fab.

If it was "excellent" just enjoy it!

Eglantine another good point

It could contain any number of ingredients which could make people very ill indeed if they have an allergy or auto-immune disease.

The product could be any shape you wish without using a well-known term used for meat eg bacon

It’s a sort of inferiority complex that makes vegans want to copy meat products, why not just eat beans or vegetables instead of fake meat. It is said that more of us are eating non meat meals these days - a flexitarian, I’ve always been that I eat what I fancy wether it has meat or not.

I have no interest in what someone else eats, if they have an eating disorder I’m sorry about that. If they try to tell me what to eat they have a serious personality disorder.!

If it tastes good I eat it- vegan chocolate cake, cauliflower burgers, bacon and egg sandwiches, roast chicken, etc. I agree with the labelling comments though.
BlueBelle’s shape point is true, sausages, burgers, pieces, lasagne, ‘meatloaf’ all useful shapes. It did however make me laugh to be offered vegan king prawns! Why not call them spikes or curls? If you don’t want to eat animals including prawns, then don’t call it a prawn.

I don't understand the need to make vegan products look, smell and taste like meat either.

I would have thought that the words 'sausage', 'bacon' 'chicken' etc would repulse a true vegan.

It is truly odd.

I find the false 'meat' products rather silly too - I don't want to eat meat, so a pretend sausage or chicken bite won't tempt me. I too find it strange that having tasted a delicious meal you are a little annoyed that you weren't told what it was; a veggie/vegan would obviously be unhappy having inadvertantly eaten meat because of priciples about animals.