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No mocking this meat

Something quite incredible happened in the US last week.

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Aprajita Monga

Something quite incredible happened in the US last week. Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), the American fast food restaurant with global footprint, went vegan for a day! One of the largest chicken-selling outlets sold vegetarian, plant-based chicken for a day in select its outlets in the US, calling its new offering ‘Beyond Fried Chicken’. No, the KFC experiment wasn't driven or influenced by any of the cruelty against animals campaigns; the giant food chain was merely trying to find out a way to cater to the huge non-meat eating population. The trial, which according to many reports turned out to be quite successful, was in keeping with the growing trend of several food companies trying out mock meat or faux meat — the plant-based meat that tastes exactly like actual meat.

With giant chicken-selling chains like KFC and Burger King — it tested a vegan version of its signature beef hamburger a few months back — making forays into the vegan territory, the growing fad of mock meat could become meaty.

At a time when being a vegan is the in-thing, mock meat has been making inroads into Indian markets for a while now. For people who are turning vegan or vegetarians because of health or religious reasons, mock meat ensures they don't miss the taste and flavour of actual meat. However, the awareness about mock meat is pretty low in India. “There is not enough awareness among people about mock meat. People also aren't aware of the problems of factory farming and why they should choose mock meat over actual meat,” says Radhika Rao of Humane Society International India. “There are many companies involved with mock meat which can spread awareness and engage people in a conversation about mock meat. There is a huge market for this in the US, and that can be replicated here as well.”  

With rising health concerns, people have started to ditch high cholesterol meat products that tend to cause heart diseases and diabetes. According to various studies, non-vegetarians are twice as likely to get diabetes and heart diseases. Besides, the campaigns aimed at highlighting the cruelty to animals are nudging many over to the vegetarian terrain. For the record, India's 70 per cent of the population is non-vegetarian and almost 300 crore chickens are slaughtered each year. Besides, the non-vegetarian food puts massive pressure on our scarce natural resources — about 4000 litres of water is required to produce 1 kg of chicken. Mock meat, in comparison, is not as harmful to human health, is environmental friendly and cruelty free. Swarnali Roy, meat reduction manager at Humane Society International India, says, “Youth of the nation needs to be engaged to take the cause of animal welfare further. For this, we need to give them substitutes to meat. People eat chicken or fish because of its protein content, but if the same could be provided in products free from cruelty to animals, maybe they will feel inclined to change their food choices and choose mock meat.”    

Future of food? 

Scientists all over the world have been working to replicate the flavour and texture of meat, and faux meat is being touted as the future of food. An Indian startup, Good Dot, sells uncooked mock meat all over India through Amazon, Paytm and its own website. Their website has detailed recipes for people to try out their products. These products have a long shelf life and do not need to be refrigerated. When cooking mock meat, the dish has to be flavored first and the “meat” is added in the end. Veggie Champ sells ahimsa food in Delhi, offering items like vegan burger, vegan mock duck, veg tikka, veg salami, veg korma, veg hotdog and many more mouthwatering dishes. Many restaurants in Mumbai and Bangalore are also offering mock meat. According to sources, Good Dot sells about 10,000-15,000 products a day, proving mock meat has good demand across the country. 

Lovers and haters 

Shikha, a non-vegetarian turned vegetarian, says the Good Dot products taste pretty much like meat. She loved chicken before becoming a vegetarian. She missed her favourite food a lot; the advent and availability of mock meat filled up the big void. She can now have her ‘meat’ without having to deal with any guilt. Altab Hossain, a vegan and animal activist from Kolkata, says mock meat facilitates the conversion of meat-eaters into vegetarians.  As of now, mock meat is expensive and out of reach of the common man in India. However, innovation and technology can decrease the cost in the next few years, making it accessible to the large majority. 

Despite several benefits vis-à-vis actual meat, mock meat has a long way to go in India. Although these products replicate the flavour and texture of the actual meat products, they feel a little spongy while chewing. “Mock meat tastes spongy and chewy. It does not leave a good aftertaste; it feels like I am eating a bubblegum. I would rather stick to meat at this point,” says a committed non-vegetarian.

Also, many question the very existence of mock meat, and its aim of reducing the supply of meat. According to Deepak Sharma, a founding member of the Animal Lovers Association (ALA), Chandigarh, feels mock meat is not the answer to reducing the demand and supply of meat. “If there is demand for mock meat, it means the craving for meat is there, so non-vegetarianism will continue. It is just about creating an illusion and nothing else.” 

For now, though, mock meat seems here to stay. For how long, time will tell. 

Sourced from plants

Mock meat is plant-based food that mimics flavour, texture and appearance of actual meat. The ingredients used to prepare mock meat are soya protein, bean curd, white gluten and plant proteins, among others. Soy protein is used to give mock meat a texture similar to actual meat. In many products, white gluten, too, is used to get the desired texture. 

There’s lab-grown meat too

If mock meat is not your thing and the thought of the butchered chicken leaves you uneasy, you could try lab-grown meat. Many companies world over are getting into producing lab-grown meat. It involves extraction of a muscle sample from the animal, collecting stem cells from the sample, and then allowing multiplication of these cells for form muscle tissues in a lab. A while back, researchers at IIT Guwahati also developed lab-grown meat. According to these researchers, muscle progenitor cells isolated from animals through small biopsies are grown on edible material base. Fat cells, cartilage cells or bone cells can also be grown in conjunction with the muscle stem cells in different layers.  

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