Patricia Chairopoulos, magazine 6 food section manager0 Million consumers mentioned today, in franceinfo conso, a divisive food in canteen conversations. There are those for whom it is a kind of symbol of the hell prepared for us by vegans and other wokes. And those, on the other hand, for whom it appears to be one of the solutions to save the planet and not harm animals. We are talking today about meatless steaks, these vegetable substitutes which are now in good place on the shelves of supermarkets.
franceinfo: First, in terms of volume, what does the consumption of this vegetable meat represent compared to traditional meat, is it marginal or is it becoming significant?
Patricia Chairopoulos: So, even if I don’t have exact figures, it becomes significant. There is a real trend. Moreover, we can already see it on the shelves. Previously, these were small niches, a few products, mostly organic. Now, we see that the big brands, the manufacturers are taking it over. It’s really a marker of something that’s grabbing consumer attention.
What’s in these plants?
Lots of things, vegetables, of course, soy, legumes and cereals. But in steaks, it’s often ground, textured. Already, it’s not very natural, let’s say. And then, there is also water, additives, aromas, egg. So there are still a lot of things. This is called a processed product. It went through the major food laboratories to offer these products which seem natural to us but which are not necessarily that much.
Is it healthier than meat?
So from a composition point of view, it’s less healthy since these are processed products, on the other hand, yes, it can be healthier for the health since meat, we know that too much high consumption, it is rich in saturated fatty acids, there is heme iron which is not necessarily very good.
What we do not find in vegetable substitutes which are rich in fiber and vegetable proteins which are rather better, and also in polyunsaturated fatty acids which are good. So composition not terrible, but on the other hand, from a nutritional point of view, it can be better than meat, yes.
At the nutritional level, does it really replace our need for protein?
In our analyses, we have observed that, in particular for what is called vegetable steak, even if the name is destined to disappear one day or another, these vegetable steaks have almost the same proportion of proteins as a steak of beef, roughly 16 grams per 100 grams of product. Which means that you can periodically, to replace the meat, totally replace the deal with a pancake or a vegetable steak.
There are great price disparities that are found in stores. In your opinion, are they still justified?
Not always. Already, we know that national brands are generally more expensive than private labels on the one hand. On the other hand, there is also organic or not organic in these ranges. Precisely, some products are organic, so necessarily a little more expensive because the raw material is more expensive. And then there is also the recipe that can come into play, but overall, the raw materials, the composition, we are still dealing with relatively similar things, so vegetables, additives. So it’s true that it’s not a product that’s going to be very expensive initially to manufacture.
The taste in all this, would you say that a vegetable steak is good or not?
We just did a taste test which is not very conclusive, it must be said. In fact, if we are trying to find the taste of beef steak, it is useless. It obviously has absolutely nothing to do with it. And the manufacturers, precisely to give taste, will sometimes overuse aromatics. So overall, no, the jury was not totally convinced, it must be said.