2019 was the year for meat alternatives. Often subsumed under the term “Meat Analogues”, alternatives to meat have been produced for decades.

Early vegan cookbooks contain recipes for Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) or Gluten Steaks yet vegan meat alternatives have never really reached the mainstream until now. During late 2018 and into 2019 a number of key players introduced meat alternatives into the global and Australian market that have changed the game. Armed with new recipes and technology with their sights set on ‘flexitarians’ and omnivores, companies such as Beyond Meat (USA), Impossible Burger (USA), v2Food (Australia) and Sunfed (NZ) have reworked the meatless-landscape to offer new exciting contenders for replacement meats.

Why Meatless Meat?

A question of ethics: sustainable and humane

Avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet, according to the scientists behind the most comprehensive analysis to date of the damage farming does to the planet (Poore & Namacek 2019). Not only does meat production have an immense impact on the environment, the intensive farming practices involved require masses of grain, water and land; hurts the global poor; causes unnecessary animal suffering; and contributes to substantial global burden of disease and antibiotic resistance.

More Australians are making ethical dietary choices toward plant based diets but still crave the taste and textures of animal proteins. This is where the new generation of meat analogues steps in. Pea Protein is combined with fats, minerals, flavours and colours, and in the case of Impossible meats, non-animal heme, or soy leghemoglobin to produce a product that resembles animal sourced meant in taste and texture, and even bleed, just like the real thing.

The Technology

Cultured Meat

Lab cultured meat has been in the media recently. It is a protein produced from lab grown animal cells but does not involve raising and slaughtering animals. Lab cultured meat is expensive to manufacture at present with the technology being a few years away from wide public consumption.

Making it ‘bleed’

Meatless-meats are currently being served in restaurant chains (Hungry Jack’s Rebel Whopper formulated by v2foods, and the Beyond Burgers sold through Ribs and Burgers and Grill’d), and sold in supermarkets across Australia, with mixed reviews.

Eating is a sensual experience involving smell, taste, texture, and visual stimulation, therefore, creating a burger that bleeds is key to creating a realistic meat eating experience. Beyond uses beetroot juice to produce that signature red that a medium cooked burger offers.

Impossible, on the other hand, took the science a step further in creating their burgers ruddy appearance by incorporating plant based heme. Impossible uses industrially fermented genetically modified yeast to produce the Heme.

Impossible’s base product of pea protein, fats, minerals and spices is then infused with this heme giving their meat its rich/iron flavour and simulates bleeding. Take a look at their video on heme production.