Meat-free restaurants, meat-like supermarket items grow as diners embrace vegetarian options

They may look and taste like meat, but will these new fangled-meat-style vegetarian options entice carnivores to dine in, or dine out, to replace their meat fix with vegie-based imitators?

Vegan restaurant Smith and Daughters owner Shannon Martinez tucks into a vegan slow-braised beef ragu on pappardelle that’s made from mushrooms. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

It sizzles, it caramelises, in some cases it even “bleeds”.

Move over tofu, vegetarians are now tucking into “meat” in the form of cheeseburgers and sausages and stir-fried chicken.

Plant-based meat products such as Impossible Burgers and Chicken Free Chicken are taking over supermarket shelves and takeaway menus around the country.

Federal Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie branded these meat-like vegetable products “fake foods” but meat alternatives are meeting a growing hunger for eating less meat.

A recent Roy Morgan report found 2.5 million Australians eat meals that are all or “almost all” vegetarian, an increase of more than 13 per cent since 2014. According to market research firm Euromonitor, Australia is projected to continue as the world’s third fastest-growing vegan market, with packaged vegan food set to be worth $215 million by next year.

Companies are rushing to be part of this growing movement, led by Beyond Meat, which created the first plant-based patty that cooks like beef.

Coles started stocking Beyond Meat burgers in its supermarkets nationally from May and now stocks five meat-free products, including the recently launched Chicken Free Chicken. According to Coles, the products have seen double-digit week-on-week growth during the past month.

A Sunfed Chicken Free Chicken burger. Picture: Supplied

Alternative Meat Co mince, available Coles Supermarkets. Picture: Supplied

Created by New Zealand company Sunfed, Chicken Free Chicken uses pea protein to emulate chicken breast pieces.

Sunfed founder Sharma Sukul Lee, who will be a keynote speaker at the inaugural Global Table food innovation summit held in Melbourne in September, said the product was a clear substitute for chicken breast pieces and that there was no issue labelling such plant-based food as “meat”.

“Soy milk, cashew cheese, peanut butter have been on the market for a while and no one has been getting confused. This whole labelling issue has been driven by big legacy forces in response to plant-based proteins gaining popularity,” she said.

It’s not just home cooks getting in on the act. Burger chain Grill’d has joined vegan fast food Lord of the Fries in serving Beyond Meat patties in their burgers, with Grill’d committing to make 50 per cent of its menu plant based by 2020.

Founder Simon Crowe said the Beyond Burger was now almost as popular as the regular meat burgers.

“We’ve seen the biggest increase among meat eaters who are choosing plant-based options, especially in the under 30s age group,” he said.

Beyond Burger plant-based burgers. Picture: Supplied

David Lindrea, an upholsterer from Cremorne, tries a Beyond Meat burger for the first time. Picture: Matt Harvey

But Shannon Martinez from vegan restaurant Smith and Daughters cautioned about the flood of mock meat products hitting the market.

She said more than 70 per cent of diners at her restaurant were meat eaters, drawn to such dishes as meatballs in red sauce and chicken piccata.

She said meat replacement products played an important role in enticing meat eaters to explore a plant-based diet but that they had to be of top quality.

“There’s a huge race to get these new products out, which means a lot of bad products on the shelves. More damage than good can be done with bad products,” she said. “If you’re trying to convince someone to swap meat for mock meat and it’s bad, they’ll never go back.”

She said many meat replacement products were highly processed and that people should instead look to simply increase the proportion of plants in their diet.

“I think once the novelty of a vegan burger that bleeds wears off, we’ll want to go to real food. If I can’t pronounce the ingredients I don’t want to eat it,” she said.

At high-end fine diner Attica, as part of the multi-course meal chef Ben Shewry currently serves a cheeseburger that’s completely plant-based.

“It appears to be a traditional burger and a lot of people believe that to be the case. They’re really surprised when we tell them there’s no animal products used at all,” he said.

The burger took four months of development to perfect. It is served in the courtyard of the Ripponlea restaurant to complement an art installation that imagines the world 100 years into the future.

“Things like the burger open people’s minds to eating less meat,” Shewry said.

“But I’m suspicious of anything too manufactured. A diet high in manufactured food is as bad as a diet high in meat. Treating meat, ethical, well-farmed meat, as a sometimes food, I think that’s the future.”