YHATC061: IN THE NEWS: What You Need to Know about “Fake Meat”

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In this “In The News” podcast, I talk about “fake meat,” or “meatless meat.” It’s the latest food trend sweeping the nation as various restaurants add the meat alternatives to their menus.

I talk about what fake meats are, how they are made, and I give you my personal take on them as well.

Notes

What?

Fake meats, otherwise known as meatless meats, have been around for a long time (Boca burgers, Tofurkey, Gardenburgers)

Basics of modern plant-based meats (from www.gfi.org) – decide on the meat characteristics to be created (texture, taste, etc.); select certain plant foods and isolate the raw materials (proteins, starches, fats, etc.) from them; process the plant proteins to make them behave like animal proteins

Basics of cell cultured meats (from washingtonpost.com) – harvest muscle stem cells from the animal (cow, chicken, pig, etc.); grow the cells in a nutrient-rich environment in a lab until they grow into the desired look/shape of meat.

Why?

To meet a growing meat demand around the world as other countries advance and adopt western eating practices (i.e. more meat consumption)

To reduce the load on the environment from raising meat (grain production and consumption, water consumption, animal waste, etc.)

To provide a desirable alternative to vegans who still want the taste of meat

To reduce the incidence of disease caused by excessive meat consumption

My Take

It’s good to reduce the demand on the conventional meat production industry.  Mass cheap meat is not as good for us or for the animals because the main objective is getting meat to market.

It’s good to encourage people toward eating less animal products (in the case of plant-based meats).  It’s healthier.

Both meat alternatives are highly processed.  What in the world has to be done to make a plant taste like a meat??

Growing meat in a petri dish?  What are the implications of growing meat from stem cells rather than inside the animal where they belong?

Another alternative is to work towards reducing the overall meat consumption without necessarily providing an alternative