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posted by takyon on Friday January 04 2019, @01:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the flexitarians dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Meatless 'Beyond Burgers' come to Carl's Jr. restaurants

The competition in lab-made veggie burgers is heating up. Beyond Meat has brought its burgers to more than 1,000 Carl's Jr. locations in the US, marking its Beyond's largest restaurant deal to date. Order a $6.29 Beyond Famous Star and you can eat a vegetarian (sorry vegans, there's American cheese) burg that tastes much like its conventional beef counterparts. You can also pay $2 to add a Beyond patty to other burgers on the menu. [...] You can already eat Impossible burgers of various sizes at White Castle, Hopdoddy, [and] Umami Burger

The veggie burgers won't be available at Hardee's (a nearly identical fast food chain operated by the same parent company). Sorry, "flexitarians".

Big Beef Prepares For Battle, As Interest Grows In Plant-Based And Lab-Grown Meats

The U.S. meat industry is gigantic, with roughly $200 billion a year in sales, and getting larger. But the industry faces emerging threats on two fronts: plant-based meat substitutes and actual meat grown in labs. Plant-based meat substitutes are a lot more, well, meaty than they used to be. They sear on the grill and even "bleed." They look, taste and feel in the mouth a lot like meat. Savannah Blevin, a server at Charlie Hooper's, an old-school bar and grill in Kansas City, Mo., says the vegetarian Impossible Burgers on the menu are popular with the meat-eating crowd. "I had a vegetarian actually turn it away, because it reminded them so much of meat, they sent it back," says Blevins. "It's delicious," she adds.

The industry that makes these products is taking off, growing 20 percent a year. "Business is booming," says Todd Boyman, co-founder of food company Hungry Planet. "We just can't keep up. We're actually having to expand our production facilities to keep up with the demand that's out there for this type of food."

[...] The meat industry is focused on shaping the regulatory environment for its new competitors, taking into account lessons learned from the rise of plant-based milks.

Previously: Would You Try Silicon Valley's Bloody Plant Burger(s)?
Impossible Foods Just Raised $75 Million for Its Plant-based Burgers
Inside the Strange Science of the Fake Meat that 'Bleeds'
FDA Approves Impossible Burger "Heme" Ingredient; Still Wants to Regulate "Cultured Meat"

Related: U.S. Cattlemen's Association Wants an Official Definition of "Meat"
Missouri Regulates Use of the Word "Meat" by Food Producers


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  • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by FatPhil on Saturday January 05 2019, @01:58AM (6 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Saturday January 05 2019, @01:58AM (#782356) Homepage
    It's just a long way of spelling "frauds". Wannabee vegetarians who don't have the conviction of actually eating vegetarian, but want some of the cachet they perceive is available from a claim of so being.
    --
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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday January 05 2019, @03:24AM (4 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday January 05 2019, @03:24AM (#782374) Journal

    There's nothing wrong with eating both meat and meat substitutes.

    Even if you aren't eating fried tofu patties, you might eat tofu in a Thai salad [itdoesnttastelikechicken.com], for instance. Foods such as black bean burgers are good in their own right (IMO), even if they don't taste like meat. Does some madman out there enjoy a Beyond Meat or an Impossible Foods plant-based burger more than a real hamburger? Possibly. And if they do, they could still eat chicken, pork, fish, etc.

    It would be easier to sympathize with "flexitarians" if the food was cost competitive when compared to meat, e.g. in terms of dollars per kilogram, calories per dollar, and grams of protein per dollar. That doesn't seem to be the case with this $6.29 burger. But if production of these meat substitutes is scaled up, maybe the prices will drop and there won't need to be any more talk about the cachet.

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    • (Score: 1, Redundant) by FatPhil on Saturday January 05 2019, @10:22AM (3 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Saturday January 05 2019, @10:22AM (#782460) Homepage
      > There's nothing wrong with eating both meat and meat substitutes.

      The mother of all counter-arguments, as it's undeniably true. I'd just trying to work out what it's a counterargument to. Which of my statements do you think you are countering?
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Saturday January 05 2019, @02:43PM

    by bobthecimmerian (6834) on Saturday January 05 2019, @02:43PM (#782500)

    The term 'flexitarians' is absurd. But as I wrote elsewhere, I think the real value of these meat substitutes is as a transition food. I have friends and relatives that have been vegan for decades, and none of them care for vegan or vegetarian foods that mimic real meats. But for someone accustomed to eating a lot of real meat, this is a ways to make the switch into a vegetarian or vegan diet less of a shock. I have my lentils, nuts, potatoes and onions, etc... etc.. but when I miss the taste of real meat I grab a product like this - provided it doesn't suck. I had my first Beyond Meat burger in November and was impressed.