Faux Meats Muscle In On Marketplace

The makers of meat substitutes, those foods long ridiculed as tasteless or just plain weird, are fighting back - challenging animal flesh and, sometimes, one another.

They’re tinkering with formulas in a quest for lower-fat or bettertasting vegetarian burgers, hot dogs and other “analogs.” They’re slowly working their way from natural-food co-ops and health-food stores to supermarkets, restaurant chains, fast-food outlets and ballparks.

Armed with charts and tables, they’re increasingly quick to quantify how their products stack up nutritionally - against real meat as well as their competitors’ imitations.

Judging from the varieties they displayed and the expansion plans they discussed at the Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore, they’re also confident that sales will keep growing.

But why, in this age of value-based eating and heightened concern about the environment and animal welfare, do so many companies try to replicate the taste, texture and look of meat, sometimes right down to the charcoal-grill stripes?

“People want something that’s familiar, something they can understand,” said John F. Swann of Asheville, N.C., a former manufacturer of tofu and tempeh who now is developing “value-added” foods like soy pizza. “The accessibility is the advantage these converted products have.”

“What we get sometimes is: ‘Why do you even want to eat something that reminds you of meat?’ I say, if it tastes good, eat it,” said Joanne McAllister Smart, managing editor of the monthly Vegetarian Times.

Even the loudest of the anti-meat groups, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, promotes veggie burgers and tofu dogs in its literature.

While an estimated 12 million to 15 million Americans call themselves vegetarians (some of whom undoubtedly just finished a chicken-salad sandwich), company officials say many more people are eating meatless meals strictly for health reasons.

But because many consumers regard the basic alternatives of tofu (soybean curd), tempeh (fermented soy cake) and seitan (wheat gluten) as too exotic, intimidating or time-consuming for regular use, they’re looking to the meat look-alikes.

“Sixty percent of our clients are meat-eaters,” said Frank Card of Wholesome and Hearty Foods in Portland, Ore., which makes the popular Gardenburger, a frozen patty based on mushrooms and brown rice.

President Yves Potvin of Yves Veggie Cuisine, a Canadian firm specializing in meat substitutes, estimates that 90 to 95 percent of his customers are not vegetarians.

They and other industry officials interviewed at the Expo said, without exception, that sales of their meat substitutes are up. Most reported increases of 25 percent to 50 percent a year.

What’s more, the number of meat-analog products on the market has “probably tripled in the last two years,” said a manager at Lightlife Foods of Greenfield, Mass., whose products include Foney Baloney and Fakin’ Bacon.

That’s a lot of tofu. But it also could be rice, oats, carrots, onions, peas, potatoes and much more, often with a pinch of paprika.

In general, meat analogs spare consumers the worst properties inherent in animal products (fat, particularly saturated fat, and cholesterol), things that may have been added to them (preservatives, antibiotics, hormones) and things that may be left behind (E. coli, salmonella), while delivering what meat inherently lacks (fiber and complex carbohydrates).

At their best, they do so without excessive sodium or fat and with a taste - whether intended to emulate meat or not - that keeps consumers coming back.

On this last point, company officials readily acknowledge the poor reputation that meat substitutes have had but insist it’s history.

As Yves Potvin put it, “Technology has evolved. Fifteen years ago you had to be a vegetarian; you had to believe in it. Now you don’t have to believe in it - it tastes good.”

The companies also are recognizing that adults aren’t the only ones looking for alternatives.

“A lot of parents are saying their kids don’t eat meat,” said Steve Demos, president of White Wave of Boulder, Colo., which in the past year has begun marketing meat analogs including pastrami-style slices and fajita strips.

Demos said he sees “strong interest in vegetarian food” among teenagers, who “are making the environment their issue” and eating lower on the food chain.

Lightlife Foods is taking the direct approach to a younger market, using cartoon characters to promote Wonderdogs, a soy-and-wheat wiener that the company says has a little more fat and a little less seasoning than its Smart Dogs for grown-ups.