Which Fake Meats Are Actually Good?

It was burrito night — I had some tortillas, salsa, guacamole and red onion in my refrigerator, but all our meat was still frozen, and I didn’t have any beans handy. So I did what any climate reporter with an interest in food systems would do and grabbed a pack of meatless “carne asada” I’d picked up out of curiosity and threw it into the mix. The end result was more “huh” than “wow,” but it held its own — with a little help from some hot sauce.

Growing, raising, processing and transporting food is responsible for roughly a quarter of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, nearly 60% of which comes from meat production, according to one estimation. If you're concerned about your personal carbon impact, eating less meat is probably on your to-do list. But what if you still like a carne asada burrito? Thankfully, there are plenty of companies working on satisfying your cravings, no animals involved.

There are lots of other food system concerns that won’t make it into this guide — things like agricultural livelihoods, water use, and animal well-being. But if you’re curious about how fake meats work, what they taste like, and their emissions impact, here’s what you’ll want to know.

THE EXPERT PANEL

Ben Kelley, owner and proprietor of Kelley Farms Kitchen, a vegan restaurant in Harpers Ferry, WV. Ben and his wife Sondra started Kelley Farms after going vegan themselves more than a decade ago. The cafe offers a mix of housemade and commercially available meat alternatives.

Ismael Montanez, the program manager at University of California Berkeley’s Alt Meat Lab, where he’s focused on food and sustainability broadly. He is co-founder and former CTO of plant-based lamb company Black Sheep Foods and eats both meat and plant-based replacements.

Andrea Cecchin, senior agriculture and carbon researcher at HowGood, a sustainability ratings company. Cecchin told me he and his family limit the amount of meat they eat but are focused on a wider plant based diet.

OVERVIEW OF THE PROCESS

• Know your proteins.
  
• Assess your health needs and limitations.
• Take stock of your current diet and figure out what makes sense to replace.
• Maintain an open mind.

THE BASICS

• A food’s total carbon impact can be divided into four main areas: agriculture, processing, packaging and transportation, Cecchin told me. As a general rule, the largest part of any food’s impact is going to be in the agricultural phase. The processing stage, where food (e.g. wheat) is broken down into ingredients (e.g. flour) and/or processed with other foods to make a final product (e.g. bread), is “the other step where you can have quite some significant impacts.” Emissions at the processing stage are highly dependent on what kind of energy a business uses to power their processing, and how much energy they are using to do it, Cecchin said. In comparison, the packaging and transportation stage make up relatively small percentages of any food’s total impact.

• When it comes to the comparative size of foods’ emissions impact, beef cattle (and other grazing animals raised for meat, like goats and lamb), have the highest median greenhouse gas emissions per 100 kilograms of protein. Even compared to other animal products – pork, chicken, cheese, etc. — the difference is “massive,” Cecchin says. There are a couple reasons why:

• A significant portion of beef’s emissions come from cows’ digestion. Cattle and other ruminants break down the grass and feed they eat by means of enteric fermentation, which in turn produces lots of methane, mostly in the form of burps, which are responsible for the vast majority of cow-related methane emissions.
• Cattle are also “inefficient” compared to other protein sources, Cecchin explained, needing much more feed and/or grass (and thus land) to produce a pound of protein compared to other animals. This process also takes more time than other animals, increasing the total amount of methane released per cow, especially if what they’re eating is harder to digest. It makes beef an “obvious target” for any company pitching a plant-based alternative, Cecchin said.

• Crops have their own carbon emissions, primarily from the use of nitrogen fertilizer, which is not only energy intensive to make, once it’s spread on fields it reacts with the soil to produce nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that’s much more powerful than CO2. Deforestation drives additional carbon emissions — although much of deforestation is actually driven by crops grown for animal feed.

• Mock meats, cheese, eggs and seafood can be made from a wide variety of ingredients, but soy, wheat, and pea proteins are the cheapest and easiest to make at scale, Montanez told me. They’re also pretty flavor-neutral, which makes them easier to disguise as other things. “If you're making up a lamb flavor or a goat flavor or a pork flavor or a fish flavor, the protein source that you get might contribute to a little bit of umami,” Montanez added, but not enough to be distracting from the other ingredients. That’s especially important as the new batch of plant-based companies find taste is driving consumer’s decisions more than environmental impact, he said. “These products have to taste just as good, if not better, in order to have people switch over,” Montanez told me. 

• Many companies use high-heat extrusion processes to texturize plant proteins, creating structures that replicate meat textures. That involves putting the raw material through “a lot of heat and pressure, forcing the proteins to align in strips, so it looks like muscle fiber,” Montanez explained.

• Other companies produce fake meat via fermentation, in which fungi or mushrooms are inoculated in an organic growing medium (sometimes itself a food byproduct) and naturally grow similar fibrous structures. You’ll see it on food labels as mycelium, fungus, or mushrooms — this is how my burrito’s “carne asada” was made — and it’s used to build everything from chicken cutlets to ribs. While this skips an expensive and energy-intensive extrusion step and can allow for more chewy or moist textures, Montanez said, it’s also slower to grow and less established commercially.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. Does what I eat even matter for the climate?

It’s a multi-trillion dollar question, frankly. While the worldwide food system is far more complex than individual consumer choices, shifts in demand for food products, especially among higher-income individuals, have created changes, such tripling the price of quinoa during a boom in its popularity in mid-2010s. The U.S. and China’s growing middle classes also drove a spike in pork demand, only to have that growth slow and reverse in the past few years over health concerns.

2. Is it safe to eat meat that’s grown in a lab?

The plant-based meat alternatives currently available at your grocery store may be highly processed, but they’re different from the cultivated or “lab-grown” meat coming from a new batch of food companies that seek to “grow” meat from scratch on the cellular level. In theory, this would create direct replacements for things like steaks or fish without actually requiring us to raise actual animals. Almost all of these products are still in the research and development stage, however, and none are currently commercially available in the U.S.

3. What if my burgers are labeled “carbon-neutral”?

Let’s not mince words: There is no such thing as carbon-neutral beef. How to reduce cattle’s climate impact is an area of active research, encompassing supplements and dietary changes, breeding programs to create animals that process food more efficiently, and even methane-sucking gas masks. There are also ranchers committed to using specific grazing techniques that encourage extra retention of soil carbon, thereby offsetting emissions from cows, but “the science is not there yet” on the scale of sequestration needed for fully carbon-neutral meat, Cecchin says. “Climate-friendly” or “low-carbon” meat labels have been criticized for a lack of data transparency and only represent a 10% reduction in beef emissions overall.

BEFORE YOU GET STARTED

1. Consider the animal.

The process of making plant-based mock meats is basically the reverse of their animal version, Montanez explained. While meat is made by processing animals into specific cuts or parts, plant-based replacements use protein-packed flours and other ingredients to build the “meat” back up.

Almost all fake red meat products will have a smaller greenhouse gas impact than their animal versions, Cecchin explained. Compared to a beef burger, the alternatives “really bring down the carbon footprint — the amount of water we need to use, and the amount of land that we use” per unit of food. But for other products, the savings are less clear. Chicken, for instance, has a much lower footprint, meaning replacements have to compete against a “very efficient industry and a very efficient meat.”

Processing details are rarely public, making it difficult to declare other meat replacements automatic emissions winners. “It’s really company by company, and could even be year by year as processing efficiencies change,” Cecchin said, adding that he hopes more companies will show clear evidence of their total emissions, including being specific about what they are comparing against.

2. Read the nutrition labels.

Fake animal products are also not the same nutritionally as actual animal products, in ways that can be positive or negative depending on your specific dietary needs. An allergy to soy or wheat gluten would immediately knock out a good portion of these options, and my carne asada came with a warning to anyone “sensitive” to fungi.

There are generally more carbs, less fat, and more fiber in substitutes compared to meat, but protein levels can vary widely, and sodium levels can be high (e.g. Impossible burgers have just as much fat and more salt than a 80% lean beef burger of the same size, though zero cholesterol). As with any processed or prepared food, a look at the nutritional label is well worth it.

HEATMAP RECOMMENDS

If you want the convenience of bulk frozen burger patties, go with Impossible or Beyond burgers.

The experts all enjoyed the big-name beef replacements — Cecchin even said he has chosen Impossible and Beyond patties over regular burgers while eating out. If you have a little more time, though, Kelley said to skip the fast food fake burgers and make them yourself. Making good tasting meat replacements isn’t all that different from cooking meat itself: spices, technique and how it integrates into a meal makes all the difference. This is the case whether he’s using Impossible beef on the restaurant griddle or hand-making a black bean and chickpea patty. “Just like a raw piece of chicken,” he said, “it's about how you cook it.”

If you love a chicken sandwich, pick up Gardein’s Chick’n filets.

Everyone I spoke to said most breaded chicken replacements match their animal versions pretty well — Montanez even called them “most consistently tasty” than their actual meat equivalents, which for him was enough to justify the slight additional cost. He said he thinks Impossible’s chicken nuggets are the “most convincing” — although he also cautioned that he doesn’t eat a lot of breaded meat products in the first place.

Morningstar Farms’ Chik Patty has been a go-to at-home lunch in my house for nearly three decades, primarily because of that consistency and ease of preparation. (The “buffalo” flavor is by far the best, in my opinion.) Kelley uses Gardein’s Chick’n on one of their most popular sandwiches at the restaurant — they’re a big fan of the company and product.

Don’t expect a lot of options for raw chicken alternatives, however. Montanez suspects the economics of competing with relatively cheap meat isn’t attractive to companies, especially when prepared breaded versions, both animal and plant-based, are already popular.

“Emulating the flavor of American chicken is relatively easy and shouldn't be seen as a significant achievement,” Montanez said. “What’s truly interesting is creating a versatile analog that can withstand the same cooking conditions as real chicken.”

If you’re tailgating, get the Beyond Sausage Brat Original.

Kelley’s favorite meat replacement is Beyond’s bratwurst sausage, made with pea protein and avocado oil. He uses it in a variety of meals at his cafe, as well as to grill up at home, sometimes adding it to pasta.

If you must have a plant-based steak, try Juicy Marbles.

Steak and other meats that include marbled fats have been a particularly tricky nut to crack for fake meat producers  because the traditional extrusion process makes it difficult to capture fat alongside protein. Montanez told me Juicy Marbles has developed a process capable of doing both, which it’s used to create filet and loin products.

If you’re trying to make the perfect vegan BLT, you might be out of luck (unless you live in Berkeley).

Montanez’s favorite fake bacon is only available in a vegan deli in Berkeley, California, but generally both he and Kelley haven’t found full bacon strips that really match the experience of eating bacon. “There's no way to hold it after you cook it without it drying out,” Kelley said. Instead, he likes using soy [bacon] crumbles in various dishes, including in his potato salad.

If you’re putting together a charcuterie board, you want Prime Roots Koji Pepperoni.

The pepperoni and other fermented charcuterie from Prime Roots is “quite impressive, even from a meat eater’s perspective,” Montanez told me. The company starts its process with koji, a strain of fungus that has been part of Japanese cuisine for hundreds of years, including in the product of soy sauces and sake.

If you’re building a stacked sandwich, go with Tofurky.

The deli slices Kelley uses in sandwiches like reubens or Italian hoagies are made with seitan or a mix of seitan and soy, from a variety of companies. But the Tofurky brand (not just turkey) is one of their favorites. “We are always testing new recipes of our own and using reliable and ethical companies that we grew up loving,” he said.

If you’re craving a lobster roll, you might be on your own.

Kelley  has yet to be convinced by most seafood replacements, he told me. “All the seafood is kind of just the same as the chicken replacements,” he said. Instead, he uses unripe jackfruit – a common meat replacement with a stringy texture – hearts of palm, and spices to replicate crab cakes. Having an exact match isn’t always a priority for Kelley, who’d rather highlight an ingredient that serves as a replacement rather than calling it by its faux name. His lobster roll replacement is made with hearts of palm, but it’s not “vegan lobster” on his menu, it’s a “hearts of palm” roll.

Texture is a “very difficult thing in seafood,” Montanez said. “I haven't seen anything myself where it is 100% convincing,” but he points out companies like Impact Food that are making plant-based sushi without extrusion or fermentation, currently available in some New York and California restaurants.

If you’re making a sauce for your vegan buffalo wings, use Climax Foods’ blue cheese.

Montanez also called out vegan cheese as a category that struggles to match its original, citing texture, not flavor, as the sticking point, especially when it needs to work in a multitude of different recipes. “You might see a vegan cheese that’s okay applied in pieces,” he said, “but it's only as good if you put it in pizza oven temperatures.” An exception to the rule for him is Climax Foods’ blue cheese, which almost pulled off a Judgment of Paris-like upset in a food competition this year before being removed from the running.

If you want a no-meat picnic full of protein, sample the various offerings from Quorn.

Montanez identified Quorn as a brand that’s not trying to replicate meat exactly, but tastes good on its own. The British company has a wide range of no-meat products that feel like they could have a home in a Tesco, from a vegan Yorkshire ham to mini sausage rolls to “picnic eggs.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

1. It’s all a matter of taste.

Approaches to fake meat taste fall on a spectrum. On one end are companies that try to replicate as closely as possible the taste, texture, and smell of some specific meat product — say, a chicken nugget. (Your personal mileage may vary when it comes to replicas of more complicated meat cuts such as steaks or pork chops.) On the other end are brands that offer a functional, hopefully flavorful replacement for meat in a meal but otherwise aren’t trying to fool anyone.

The former approach involves more materials science and chemistry, Montanez told me. For example, Impossible makes a soy version of a key molecule in meat known as heme and combines it with a carefully calibrated proportion of sugars, fats, and water to induce the Maillard reaction, the process that makes meat brown and form a crust. It’s possible to create a similar meaty flavor profile without heme (Impossible has a patent on their version), but they have their own complications.

“It’s those sugars reacting with the proteins and creating these molecules that ultimately result in a meaty aroma or flavor,” Montanez said.

Kelley Farm’s menu is a good example of the wider ingredient possibilities of meat replacements beyond this approach. In addition to Impossible patties, Beyond brats, and Gardein’s Chick’n, the restaurant also serves deli meat replacements made with seitan (basically textured wheat gluten); folded eggs made from mung beans; BBQ pulled pork made from jackfruit, which mimics that stringy texture naturally (I’ve had both Kelley Farms’ barbeque sandwich and commercial jackfruit BBQ versions and would happily eat either again); and a burger patty that’s their own mix of chickpeas and black beans.

2. Don’t overcomplicate it.

It’s also worth noting that there is a more literal approach to eating a plant-based diet that’s already the standard in many other countries — that is, rather than replacing meat products with fake meat products, just eat more plants. If you feel like you’re missing out on protein, beans, lentils, tofu, and certain grains like quinoa, farro or teff, have high amounts.

Highly engineered meat substitutes are often more expensive than the animal products they are replacing, so if you’re struggling with hunger, have specific dietary requirements, anxiety around food, or an eating disorder, concerns about emissions shouldn’t even enter the picture.

For that matter, just reorienting your approach to eating meat saves a lot of carbon on its own. Kelley told me he reaches for meat replacements when he’s craving something specific, while Cecchin prefers meat alternatives when he’s eating out.

SAVOR THE MEAT-FREE FLAVORS!