For World Vegan Day 2015, Rich McEachran looks at the food-industry innovators aiming to make veganism more delicious and desirable – and to make every day world vegan day, for everyone…
There can’t be many things worse than the rotten smell of boiled eggs. Except perhaps the chalky or metallic aftertaste of egg substitutes. If you’re a vegan then this is probably too common an experience. After all, it’s unlikely you chose a lifestyle free of dairy, eggs and meat, for the love of rubbery textures of fake turkey and cheese.
World Vegan Day (1 November) is upon us, so what better time to celebrate the companies and start-ups that are shaking up the food industry and promoting a sustainability impact that goes beyond the plate…
1. Dutch Weed Burger: here to unbeef the world…
(Photo: Rosalie Ruardy / Dutch Weed Burger)
If you want to remove the animal from the equation altogether, then eat seaweed, claims Lisette Kreischer, the creator of the Dutch Weed Burger, which is made from the kombu variety.
Kreischer believes that imitation products aren’t the answer to burgeoning food demands, as they’ll only encourage you to keep thinking about and craving meat and dairy. At the same time, persuading you to introduce seaweed into your diet can be tricky. This is why she went for a burger – a product you associate with cows – but doesn’t label it as a faux hamburger or meat substitute. It’s a standalone product in its own right, she says.
“You get to eat fast food that is healthy for you, and you get to help restore ocean life and save animals,” she adds, going in for the hard sell, not that the product needs it – it’s sold in eateries across the Netherlands and Belgium, and is making its way across the North Sea to east London.
“The taste is a combination of umami and BBQ due to spices added. And the patty has a nice juicy bite thanks to an innovative method we use to treat – roast – and texture our soyshreds,” explains Kreischer. “Those who are sceptical towards seaweed are often tricked into overcoming their prejudices, because they get hooked on the orgasm of flavours.”
Seaweed is packed full of minerals and vitamins, and can contain up to 10 times the amount of calcium found in cow milk and 25 times the amount of iron beef does. Even the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation recommends cultivating and eating more of the slimy stuff, as it requires no land, freshwater or fertiliser to grow. First though you may need to shake off the assumption that it’s a poor man’s food.
2. Beyond Meat: yo no soy a forkful of chicken
(Photo: Beyond Meat)
According to market research, 36 percent of Americans are now regularly buying meat alternatives, and of those, only 7 percent identify themselves as vegan or vegetarian. It’s a sizeable market, and taking the bull by the horns – metaphorically, of course – is Beyond Meat.
You’re bound to have heard of the company. Launched in 2009, it has been endorsed by Bill Gates and garnered praise for skilfully mimicking the taste and texture of chicken using soy and pea protein. The secret is in how the protein fibres are heated, cooled and kneaded into shape, and it’s this that apparently makes it stand out from other options on the meat-free table.
But wait: there’s a problem. The rapid expansion of soy production in recent years is making it, according to some critics, unsustainable in certain countries such as Brazil and the United States. The thing is, though, eating soy will nearly always be more more environmentally friendly than eating meat: a third of all cereal produced ends up going to feed livestock.
“Demand for protein is placing an increased strain on the agricultural value chain,” says Beyond Meat’s co-founder Brent Taylor. So “bypassing the animal” makes total sense because it builds self-sufficiency and cost-effectiveness into the food system. Nowhere better is this the case than in developing countries, explains Taylor, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where meat consumption is soaring and tonnes of it is imported from abroad.
3. Muufri: milk that’s whiter than white
(Photo via Tumblr)
Favouring soybeans over a slab of juicy beef might be less of an ask than swapping cow’s milk for a pint of lab-made substitute. But if a team of vegan scientists have their way you’ll be pouring a synthetic alternative over your Lucky Charms before too long and not noticing the difference.
Muufri (pronounced moo-free) is developing milk proteins by adding cow DNA to yeast cells and then combining the mixture with fatty acids that enhance flavour. The company hopes to launch a marketable product that it claims will replicate the taste of real milk within the next two years – something alternatives such as nut extracts struggle with.
4. EatLimmo: Not eggsactly vegan – but a humane egg substitute nonetheless
(Photo: EatLimmo)
The egg industry is widely regarded as being as inhumane as the dairy one. In the UK, there are around 35 million commercial laying hens, and in the US there are more than 300 million. It’s quite an eggstraordinary statistic. But what if chickens weren’t needed for eggs at all?
Substitutes like chia and flax seeds don’t have the best ability to foam – especially if you’re making airy desserts – and aren’t ever going to perform like the real thing, because eggs rely on a lot of protein do the work. But what if you could activate the protein in mountains of waste fruit peel and seeds? This is the question EatLimmo is posing.
The Mexican start-up has come up with a special way to transform the most nutritious parts of produce into a fine powder that can be used as a binding agent in bread and cakes. What’s more, it can be introduced into products without impacting on taste and texture, says co-founder Enrique Gonzalez.
“We can work hand in hand with clients to enhance their recipes or develop new ones. We’re able to improve what people already consume without adding a premium for a health improvement,” Gonzalez adds. “The objective is to make nutrition affordable.”
As it stands, the start-up can reduce the amount of eggs and fats in edible treats by around 40 percent. OK, so it might not be animal-free or totally vegan, but it could put some of the 90,000 tonnes of produce the UK throws away each year to good use.
5. Real Vegan Cheese: nerdled, not curdled
(Photo: Real Vegan Cheese)
Similarly, a group of ‘bio-hackers’ called Real Vegan Cheese has developed just that: a cheese, free of dairy, that isn’t a substitute. Again, it’s engineered using yeast, which is combined with water, oil and vegan sugar. Essentially the process is a bit like brewing beer. Rather than excreting alcohol, however, it is milk proteins that are as pure as the real thing – so the bio-hackers say – that come out the other end.
Whether marketing something to non-vegans as ‘as good as the real thing’ can persuade people to jump ship and turn their back on a dairy product they love and know is questionable. However, PETA reckons that cows are treated like “milk-producing machines” that are “intensely confined, leaving them unable to fulfil their most basic desires”. There’s an argument guaranteed to tug at your udders, should ever you need one.
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