By Courtesy of Paul's table
Take the composition of a soy or lentil burger patty. Add a little collagen and animal fat -- that's essentially the basis for one of the latest food trends that could be a solution to not only the taste issue of plant-based alternatives, but also the cost issue.
Take the composition of a soy or lentil burger patty. Add a little collagen and animal fat -- that's essentially the basis for one of the latest food trends that could be a solution to not only the taste issue of plant-based alternatives, but also the cost issue.
The idea of adding animal fat to plant-based burgers to improve their taste is relatively new, largely because such meat alternatives were originally developed to meet the demand of consumers who wanted to eliminate all animal ingredients from their diet.
But this segment is no longer only targeting consumers who are morally opposed to eating products with animal-based ingredients. Plant-based patties are also being bought by consumers who want to eat less meat for health reasons. While more consumers are describing themselves as vegetarian or vegan in many markets, flexitarianism is also on the rise in a number of areas, that is people who consciously set out to eat less meat and replace it with a variety of other foods. For many of these consumers, both health and environmental concerns are behind the shift. And one of the main arguments of the brands making plant-based burgers is to highlight the fact that cultivation of lentils or split peas has a lower carbon footprint than that of a cattle farm.
In the United States, Saba Fazeli, a former R&D engineer of the famous Beyond Meat brand, which produces meatless vegan burger meat that is recognizable for its blood-red color and that has been snapped up by several fast food chains such as McDonald's and KFC, has just launched his own plant-based alternatives under the new Paul's Table brand based in California, part of Momentum Foods. But these alternative burgers are different. Because they contain a tiny bit of meat.
Because by the company's own admission, "meat alternatives today don't have a clear path toward improving quality," it outlines on its website. Co-founder Brice Klein even told the media outlet Fast Company that plant-based alternatives "were too expensive and didn't taste good enough."
Many consumers in the US and elsewhere have been cutting back on meat purchases, among other food items, due to inflation, over the past year.
The very first products using this hybrid meat take the form of pulled pork and a classic Mexican dish, carne asada, resembling very thin grilled meat cut into strips. To keep the price affordable, the company does not use animal muscle, but collagen and animal fat. The products are already launching at retail in some regions in the United States.
