NOT real meat

True!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

I would feel cheated. It shouldn’t even be called a vegan sausage casserole, but meat free casserole.

Some of us really enjoy our meat!

I would like the food source to be mentioned on hotel menus too. I run conferences, and we get requests for vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, you name it, and happy to accommodate. However when I raised the issue of moslems needing halal meat, I was assured 'all hotels only provide halal meat these days anyway'. I was utterly appalled, I don't want to eat halal meat.

Think that you should check out what 'real' sausages contain! I don't really understand how anyone can actually enjoy meat nowadays.

If I make no meat burgers, balls, or goujons I'm just describing their shape. 'Fake meat' doesn't come into it.

My favourite vegan beetroot and chickpea burger recipe comes from Gransnet. Tofu and roasted carrot burgers from Saturday Kitchen. They could easily be made into different shapes like falafel.

When I was teaching food technology I had a devil of a job convincing some parents that a practical lesson learning how to make spicy bean goulash did NOT mean I was trying to turn their child into a vegetarian.

They often refused to provide ingredients.

They would soon go out of business if they don’t make a profit. How are they supposed to pay wages and massive overheads?

My middle brother had bacon, sausage and egg for breakfast then came home at lunch time declaring he was a vegetarian like the friends he had met up with. He then started throwing eggs at my youngest brother because he was eating a sausage sandwich! He doesn’t let people know in advance and seems to enjoy the mayhem he causes when he makes his announcement 5 minutes before a meal is served. I would just give him potato and veg.

Sausages contain very differing amounts of meat. A bit surprised that the local butchers sausages were 60% meat. OH devotes too much time sourcing sausages with high meat content. Lidl and Aldi are high but don’t taste right to me.

Tasted a sample which was excellent then from the discussion taking place discovered that what I thought was a sausage casserole was in fact a vegan product.
AIBU to feel that artificial meat products should be clearly labelled? I'll be making it myself tomorrow - with real sausages!

MamaCaz I thought that was the point of the OP - that people were being invited to taste something and the ingredients were 'a surprise'.

Yes, anyone with any known allergies or contra-indications should have the sense to question first before tasting - if indeed Tesco had a readily available list of ingredients.
However, a young friend ended up in hospital not long ago because non-GF food was put in the wrong cabinet and labelled as GF. Many people just do not understand the implications.

my son tells me around 75% of his friends in their 30s are vegan,a trend i feel, but i agree it may make everyone sit up and take notice of how animals are treated,no animal who goes to the abbattoir wants to die.a massive debate, is it all about compassion for fellow creatures? I eat a little meat but it bothers me a lot.

As a society, we are conditioned to have certain elements in our diet- milk, meat, veggies, fruits

If you are vegetarian or vegan, the social need to have dairy and meat does not disappear- hence the variety of vegetable milks out there.

The same with "meats".

Personally, as a vegetarian, it freaks me out if a meat free product looks and tastes too much like meat.

I don’t eat meat because I know it’s a piece of a dead body. I love the fake meat products and they don’t really taste anything like meat. With the exception of Jack fruit burgers, and I am not keen on them for that reason. I have been vegetarian for over twenty years and the longer I am, the less I understand why people still eat meat when there is no need to. Hardwired I suppose.

merlotgran I think thats a different scenario. If no one in a family is going to eat something I can understand them not wanting to spend on the ingredients especially if money is tight. has memories of making stuffed liver