Unfortunately, except for some pictures of the packages, there were no
images of the products themselves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/bu...portfolio.html

Business Day
Fake Meats, Finally, Taste Like Chicken

By STEPHANIE STROMAPRIL 2, 2014

Last May, Whole Foods recalled two types of curried chicken salad that
had been sold in some of its stores in the Northeast.

The retailer’s kitchens had accidentally confused a batch of “chick’n”
salad made with a plant protein substitute with one made from real
chicken, and reversed the labels.

Consumers buying the version labeled as having been made from actual
chicken were instead eating vegetarian chicken salad — and thus
inadvertently were exposed to soy and eggs, allergens that must be
identified on labels under federal regulations.

“None of the customers apparently noticed the difference,” said Ethan
Brown, founder and chief executive of Beyond Meat, which made the
substitute in the product that was recalled.

The error demonstrates just how far “fake” meat — producers hate the
term but have not come up with a catchy alternative to “plant-based
protein” — has come from the days when desiccated and flavorless veggie
burgers were virtually the only option for noncarnivores.

Demand for meat alternatives is growing, fueled by trends as varied as
increased vegetarianism and concerns over the impact of industrial-scale
animal husbandry on the environment. The trend has also attracted a host
of unlikely investors, including Biz Stone and Evan Williams of Twitter,
Bill Gates and, most recently, Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong magnate.

“I’ve tasted a few,” Mr. Gates wrote in a multimedia piece on the Beyond
Meat investment that was posted to his blog, “and they’re very convincing.”

Mr. Brown said that one of the big agricultural commodities businesses
that trades in meat also has a tiny stake in Beyond Meat, though he
declined to name it.

Some investors look at the development of viable meat alternatives as a
sustainability issue.

“Frankly, we’ve never said we’re interested in food,” said Randy
Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caulfield Byers, a venture capital
firm that has backed Google and Facebook — and Beyond Meat. “What we’re
interested in is big problems needing solutions, because they represent
big potential markets and strong opportunities for building great returns.”

Among the problems he listed that his firm’s investment in Beyond Meat
are intended to address are land and water use, stress on global supply
chains and the world’s growing population. “These are venture-scale
problems with venture-scale returns,” Mr. Komisar said.

Or as Josh Tetrick, a founder of a company that makes “eggs” from plant
proteins, said: “We didn’t start Hampton Creek to get into mayo or
because we were thinking about making muffins and cookies. More than
anything we’re trying to reverse what we see as a problem, which is
cheap and convenient food that is always going to win in China, win in
India and win with my father, but isn’t good for the body or animals or
the environment.”

Andrew Loucks, president of the United States frozen foods business at
the Kellogg Company, said in an email that the company, which owns the
MorningStar Farms brand of vegetarian products, was seeing growing
consumer demand for less fat, cholesterol and calories, which often
translates into a desire to eat less meat.

MorningStar offers a variety of products, including veggie dogs, a line
of ground meat substitute called Crumbles and burgers made from things
like black beans and chickpeas.

“Much of the new growth in the segment is coming from younger consumers
who seek foods that fit an overall lifestyle, be it for health reasons
or personal ethics,” Mr. Loucks wrote. “They are not just seeking foods
that mimic meat. Instead they specifically want vegetarian foods with
distinctive flavors and visible, recognizable ingredients.”

For whatever reason, the desire to replace meat proteins with proteins
derived from plants is spreading, although the market is still
minuscule. Mintel, a market research firm, reports that sales of meat
alternatives grew 8 percent from 2010 to 2012, when sales hit $553 million.

“Not that long ago, electrical cars were considered nonperformers, and
when Prius came out, a lot of people didn’t think there was a market for
it,” said Yves Potvin, founder and chief executive of Gardein Protein
International, which makes the Gardein line of meatless products. “Now
people are willing to pay $70,000 for a Tesla, and more than one million
Prius cars are sold each year.”

MorningStar Farms accounts for more than 60 percent of the market,
according to Mintel, while new competitors like Beyond Meat and Hampton
Creek have sprung up in the last five years. Gardein, founded a little
more than five years ago, is the granddaddy of new companies making meat
substitutes. Its products, sold by conventional retailers like H-E-B and
Target as well as specialty groceries, include “chicken” wings, “fish”
fillets, “beef” tips and breakfast patties.

“The category was stuck between the bun for many years,” Mr. Potvin
said. “We came along and developed a new process that creates fibers
that are very meaty from a plant base, and now we’re in 20,000
supermarkets and responsible for 75 percent of the category growth year
over year.”

Creating from plant proteins something that will pass as meat is
complicated. Companies must first identify the right plant and extract
its proteins, then figure out how to reassemble them to taste like meat
and develop the technology to do it.

Hampton Creek Foods, a start-up working to develop egg substitutes from
plant proteins, tested thousands of varieties of Canadian yellow peas
before it identified what would mimic the functions of eggs, including
emulsification.

The goal? A mayonnaise that was nutritionally equivalent to one made
with eggs.

The company tested 2,200 prototypes before landing on Just Mayo, the
plant-based protein now sold in some 70 Whole Foods stores and arriving
in Safeway and Costco stores.

Beyond Meat’s proteins come from yellow peas, mustard seeds and
camelina, among other plants, and yeast. The company had a three-year
setback when it decided to remove an artificial sulfide and had to find
a natural substitute.

Mr. Brown said he did not expect Beyond Meat to replace a porterhouse
from Lobel’s butcher shop, but the bulk of beef consumed was ground and
turned into things like patties and chili. A chili made from the
company’s imitation-beef Crumbles, studded with beans and garnished with
cilantro and scallions, that he brought for a reporter to sample tasted
no different from one made with ground chuck.

A 55-gram serving of Beyond Meat’s “beef” Crumbles contains 4.5 grams of
total fat and no saturated fat, in contrast to the same amount of 80
percent lean ground beef, which has 11 grams of total fat, 4 of which
are saturated fat. The Beyond Meat product contains the same amount of
protein as the ground beef.

Mr. Brown is most proud of Beyond Meat’s “chicken breast” products,
which are sold in strips that look like real chicken and can be pulled
into shreds for chicken salad. “That was kind of the holy grail,” he said.

He knows, however, that his meat substitutes and others must gain
acceptance from mainstream consumers.

“It has to be just as good as, just as convenient as and maybe even
cheaper than ground beef or chicken,” Mr. Brown said. “Our business is
to create something better than meat; otherwise we are not going to move
the needle.”

"Sqwertz" > wrote in message
...
> On Thu, 10 Apr 2014 17:52:04 -0400, Travis McGee wrote:
>
>> Unfortunately, except for some pictures of the packages, there were no
>> images of the products themselves.
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/bu...portfolio.html
>>
>> Business Day
>> Fake Meats, Finally, Taste Like Chicken
>>
> ....
>> ´None of the customers apparently noticed the difference,¡ said Ethan
>> Brown, founder and chief executive of Beyond Meat, which made the
>> substitute in the product that was recalled.
>
> Because they're used to Whole Foods pre-made foods tasting like crap.
>
> I'm sure 95% (or more) of people could taste the difference between
> fake and real meat in a blind taste test.

When we lived in CA, I bought a lot of Boca Burgers. The All American kind.
Everyone I gave them to said the same thing. "What kind of meat is this?"
They all loved them. Wasn't meat at all. But made you think that it was.

Sqwertz > wrote in
:

> On Thu, 10 Apr 2014 17:52:04 -0400, Travis McGee wrote:
>
>> Unfortunately, except for some pictures of the packages, there were
>> no images of the products themselves.
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/bu...ives-on-the-pl
>> ate-and-in-the-portfolio.html
>>
>> Business Day
>> Fake Meats, Finally, Taste Like Chicken
>>
> ....
>> ´None of the customers apparently noticed the difference,¡ said Ethan
>> Brown, founder and chief executive of Beyond Meat, which made the
>> substitute in the product that was recalled.
>
> Because they're used to Whole Foods pre-made foods tasting like crap.
>
> I'm sure 95% (or more) of people could taste the difference between
> fake and real meat in a blind taste test.
>
Is anyone else familiar with the SF novel, The Space Merchants?
>
> -sw
>



--
--Bryan
"The 1960's called. They want their recipe back."
--Steve Wertz in rec.food.cooking 4-20-2009

Sqwertz > wrote in
:


>
> Because they're used to Whole Foods pre-made foods tasting like crap.
>
My wife likes their chicken salad. I dislike their prices.
>
> -sw
>



--
--Bryan
"The 1960's called. They want their recipe back."
--Steve Wertz in rec.food.cooking 4-20-2009

Winters_Lackey wrote:
>
> Is anyone else familiar with the SF novel, The Space Merchants?

If sf ever writes a novel, it would be more like
Oh never mind

G.

Gary > wrote in :

> Winters_Lackey wrote:
>>
>> Is anyone else familiar with the SF novel, The Space Merchants?
>
> If sf ever writes a novel, it would be more like
> Oh never mind
>
It's a good book, important even. You should check it out from the
library.
>
> G.
>



--
--Bryan
"The 1960's called. They want their recipe back."
--Steve Wertz in rec.food.cooking 4-20-2009

Winters_Lackey wrote:
> >>
> >> Is anyone else familiar with the SF novel, The Space Merchants?
> It's a good book, important even. You should check it out from the
> library.

I have read it but many years ago. I used to be very into reading
science fiction and Pohl is one of the old, great, classic SF authors.
I have several of his books. I have the paperback of Space Merchants
on one of my bookshelves. Maybe it's time to re-read it.

Asimov was my favorite. I like his SF as well as many of his
non-fiction books.

G.

On 4/12/2014 12:44 PM, Gary wrote:
> Winters_Lackey wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Is anyone else familiar with the SF novel, The Space Merchants?
>> It's a good book, important even. You should check it out from the
>> library.
>
> I have read it but many years ago. I used to be very into reading
> science fiction and Pohl is one of the old, great, classic SF authors.
> I have several of his books. I have the paperback of Space Merchants
> on one of my bookshelves. Maybe it's time to re-read it.
>
> Asimov was my favorite. I like his SF as well as many of his
> non-fiction books.
>
A reasonable opinion but what's it got to do with "fake meat"?


--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

Gary > wrote in :

> Winters_Lackey wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Is anyone else familiar with the SF novel, The Space Merchants?
>> It's a good book, important even. You should check it out from the
>> library.
>
> I have read it but many years ago. I used to be very into reading
> science fiction and Pohl is one of the old, great, classic SF authors.
> I have several of his books. I have the paperback of Space Merchants
> on one of my bookshelves. Maybe it's time to re-read it.
>
> Asimov was my favorite. I like his SF as well as many of his
> non-fiction books.

The first 3 Foundation books were edifying. Especially the first one.
I've read all of the Robot and Foundation books. Another book I think is
important is God Emperor of Dune. Dune is really good, Dune Messiah less
so, Children of Dune is good, and God Emperor of Dune is amazing. The
books that followed were all completly worthless. Herbert was just milking
an obviously finished tetralogy for extra cash.
>
> G.
>



--
--Bryan
"The 1960's called. They want their recipe back."
--Steve Wertz in rec.food.cooking 4-20-2009

James Silverton > wrote in news:libqii$alf$1
@dont-email.me:

> On 4/12/2014 12:44 PM, Gary wrote:
>> Winters_Lackey wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Is anyone else familiar with the SF novel, The Space Merchants?
>>> It's a good book, important even. You should check it out from the
>>> library.
>>
>> I have read it but many years ago. I used to be very into reading
>> science fiction and Pohl is one of the old, great, classic SF authors.
>> I have several of his books. I have the paperback of Space Merchants
>> on one of my bookshelves. Maybe it's time to re-read it.
>>
>> Asimov was my favorite. I like his SF as well as many of his
>> non-fiction books.
>>
> A reasonable opinion but what's it got to do with "fake meat"?
>
>
I can answer that Jim, though you should also read the book. There is a
product called ReelMeet in the book. A company has taken chicken heart
cells and engineered them to divide endlessly. They feed the mass of
tissue nutrients, and harvest their product from it.

The workers refer to the giant thing as, "Chicken Little."

Every public library should have the book. You should read it.

--
--Bryan
"The 1960's called. They want their recipe back."
--Steve Wertz in rec.food.cooking 4-20-2009