Meat-free Sausages and Burgers

Recent surveys suggest that one in three people in the UK are trying to reduce their meat consumption. About 1.2 million people are now vegetarian, around half of these are vegan. The number of UK vegans has quadrupled in the last four years.

Although it is hard to get reliable figures for many countries, this does not appear to be just a UK phenomenon. The European meat alternatives market grew by 451% in the four years to February 2018. The US meat alternatives market grew by 8.1% in the 12 months to August 2017, compared to 0.2% growth for all foods.

In an effort to feed this hungry rabble, many new brands have leapt onto the scene. We couldn’t cover all of them, so we’ve tried to cover those that are more widely available, and some which sell interesting new fake meats including jackfruit and pea protein. 

Sainsbury’s has recently started placing meat alternatives in the meat section. Some vegans are pleased as they think that it may encourage switching, although the evidence isn’t in. 

Sustainability of meat-free alternatives

Soya sustainability

Rating soya sustainability is difficult. However, given how dangerous Bolsonaro is making the situation look at the moment, we decided to give a Product Sustainability mark ([S] on the table above) to any product that is non-soya based, or made by a company that states that it sources its soya from outside Brazil. A company must have this mark to be a Best Buy or Recommended buy.

See our feature 'Is Soya Sustainable?' for more information on soya and deforestation. 

Palm oil 

All those who got our best rating for palm oil are palm oil-free. They either state it, or list the ingredients of their products on their websites, allowing us to check for any palm oil or anything that looked like a palm derivative. 

No supermarkets are palm oil-free, although Iceland is working towards it with regard to their own-brand products. 

What are meat alternatives made of?

Gone are the drab days when nearly all veggie burgers were made of soya. 

Seitan

With the explosion in gluten-free foods and gluten-free restaurants, some people have commented that gluten is starting to be thought of as Satan. But this is wrong: gluten is not Satan, gluten is seitan. 

Seitan is made by washing wheat flour dough with water until all the starch granules have been removed, leaving just the protein. Seitan-based products can be bought from Upton’s Naturals and Sojade. 

Nutritionally, the drawback with seitan is that the protein isn’t ‘complete’ – it doesn’t contain the full range of essential amino acids.
 

Lupin beans

Lupin or lupine beans are sometimes called the ‘soya bean of the north’. They contain a similar amount of protein to soya, with the full range of essential amino acids. But, unlike soya, they grow in cool climates. Vivera and the Vegetarian Butcher both make some meat-free products out of lupin beans. 
 

Jackfruit

Jackfruit are a new big thing in meat substitutes. They are enormous fruit that grow on trees in India and surrounding regions. They contain very little protein, so they aren’t really nutritionally a meat substitute, but when they are unripe they have a chewy texture that is somewhat like pulled pork, and they absorb flavour very well.

Jackfruit-based meat substitutes can be bought from Upton’s Naturals. Jackfruit has fans in scientific institutions who call it “miracle fruit”, “drought resistant”, and other terms of endearment.  

Mycoprotein

Mycoprotein means ‘protein from fungi’. It is the basis of Quorn, which is a type of soil mould that is grown in fermentation vats. It was invented deliberately in a drive to find new proteins to feed the world’s growing population in the mid-eighties. 

Although the patent on it has now expired, Quorn Foods is still the only company that makes it.
 

Other ingredients 

The Beyond Burger is made from protein extracted from peas, dyed red with beetroot. The beetroot makes it ‘bleed’ somewhat like meat, which has been talked about a lot in the press, although the company says that that wasn’t deliberate.  

Goodlife Food’s burgers are made from other beans, and vegetables. 

Too much salt in processed meat alternatives

Action on Salt has raised concerns about the amount of salt in some meat substitutes. 

It surveyed meat-free products in 2018 and found that 28% had missed the voluntary maximum salt target set by Public Health England for the end of 2017. It also found that meat-free burgers on average contain somewhat more salt than meat burgers (0.89g per serving v 0.75g per serving). 

There is, however, a wide variation in the products. Two of the saltiest were Tofurky’s Hickory Smoked Deli Slices and Tesco’s Meat Free Bacon Style Rashers, with 3.5 and 3.2 grams per 100g respectively.

In comparison, Quorn vegetarian ham and bacon only contained 0.9g and 1.2g per 100g. And Tesco meat-free mince only contains 0.2g/100grams. 

Action on Salt also point out that 20% of products have no front of pack colour-coded labelling, including Linda McCartney’s entire product range.

If you are concerned about your salt intake, it is worth checking the full list from Action on Salt to get an idea of what products to look for. 

The environmental impact of soya versus meat production

If choosing between meat and soya, it is important to keep the environmental impacts of soya in perspective. Analyses nearly always suggest that meat is substantially worse in environmental terms than the alternatives. 

Not eating soya directly does not mean that you are not eating soya at all. Per 100 grams, animal products contain the following amounts of embedded soya, from the soya used in feed:

• Chicken – about 109 grams (more than the weight of the actual meat) 
• Farmed salmon – about 60 grams.
• Eggs – about 64 grams 
• Pork or beef – about 50 grams
• Cheese – about 25 grams
• It wasn’t possible to find figures for sheep, although they may also be fed soya. 

   

Climate impacts of meat and meat alternatives:

These figures are best estimates based on a review of all of the life-cycle assessments out there. The huge variation in the figures is because it depends how production is done. 

One study by Center for Industrial Ecology, Department of Mechanical Engineering suggested that, if deforestation happens for soya, the numbers can be significantly higher, Its estimates were 0.1 kg CO2 eq/kg if soya is produced sustainably, to 16.5 kg CO2 eq/ kg if produced on deforested land in the Amazon. 

However, the overall consensus is that meat, particularly red meat, should be assumed to be worse for the climate. 

About the companies producing meat-free sausages and burgers
 

Tax avoidance

Many of the companies in this area are too small to have subsidiaries in tax havens.

However, the following companies were given our worst rating for likely use of tax-avoidance strategies: Hain Celestial (Linda McCartney), Nestlé (Tivall), Unilever (the Vegetarian Butcher), Beyond Meat, Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Lidl, Waitrose, Morrison and Marks & Spencer. 

The following got our middle rating: Iceland (No Bull) and Aldi. 
 

Vegan and vegetarian companies

The following companies get a positive Company Ethos mark for being entirely vegan: Taifun, Tofurky, Upton Naturals, VBites, Dragonfly, Beyond Meat and Fry’s.

The following are entirely vegetarian, and so avoid getting marked down for selling meat: Vivera, Wicken Fen, and Sojade.

Vegan brands are marked with [Vg] on our score table.

Those that are marketed as vegan get an extra half mark in the Product Sustainability column whilst those certified as vegan by the Vegan Society get an extra whole mark.