Maëlle Dumas opens a white plastic container and pours its contents into a large salad bowl.
The small flakes of beige color crackle in the bottom of the bowl: it is reminiscent of the Rice Krispies breakfast cereals!
“It's normal, replies the agricultural engineer from the Agrotec food processing technical center in Agen.
Because the manufacturer uses the same process as for cereals.
We did extrusion, here on pea proteins.
She pours water into it like others would pour milk... "We'll wait for the preparation to hydrate," continues the woman in a white coat.
We have just witnessed the first stage in the production of “vegetable meat” of the type sold under the Beyond Meat brand (literally “beyond meat”). After mixing the preparation with numerous powders, texturizers, flavorings (without animal matter) of meat and red coloring, what looked like a bowl of cereal becomes… a bowl of meat. All that remains is to add vegetable fat, made up in particular of coconut and rapeseed oils, emulsifier, and finally form small minced steaks. "It really looks like beef," says Maëlle Dumas herself. His copy is redder (and, we must say, visually more appetizing) than Beyond Meat's. “We had to use a different dye,” she explains. And after cooking? This first tasting is stunning.
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But, in our diet, is it better to opt for plant-based meat like this or stick to “real” animal-based steak?
We will review four criteria: animal suffering, taste, health and of course respect for the environment.
For this, we asked the creator of an application which, precisely, evaluates the environmental impact of products of all kinds.
"The ground beef has one of the largest environmental footprints," explains Christophe Girardier, CEO and co-founder of Glimpact.
First, because the digestion of cows emits an extremely powerful greenhouse gas, methane.
Then, because to produce meat, you must first raise an animal.
And to raise this animal, you have to produce its food.
So much so that a kilo of meat requires 7 to 15 kg of vegetable food.
The vegetable steak is then presented as an eco-responsible alternative since the plants grown for its manufacture will be directly consumed in the form of steak.
Score: 1 – 0 for the plant!
From a health perspective, however, the shoe pinches.
In a memorandum recently published by the WHO, we learn that "substitutes of plant origin, also called analogues, can be defined as ultra-processed foods" and can have "negative effects on health": overweight , obesity, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases.
New score: 1 everywhere, tied.
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And in terms of taste? A starred chef was asked to blind taste three minced steaks without telling him what they were. " That's flattering. It crisps. The texture is rather pleasant, describes Balthazar Gonzalez, head of Hedone, in Toulouse, about the Beyond Meat product. But it's funny because it doesn't really taste like beef. “Still blindfolded, he takes a bite of the vegetable steak of Beyond Meat’s French competitor, Happyvore (the New Farmers): “Oh the cow! It really tastes artificial. Is there meat in there? The last burger is a Charal. "That's beef. Not very expressive… but there is worse. In the ranking, this real meat (€16.50/kg) comes in at number 1, followed by Beyond Meat (€26.39/kg) and Happyvore (€19.19/kg)."I would never work with products like that in my restaurant," says the cook, pointing to the last two plates. I make it a point of honor to serve the purest products possible. It is better to have a meal with only plants rather than recreating a piece of beef that is not! »
Plant-based meat therefore does not pass the taste test.
So, 2 – 1 for “real” meat.
There remains the criterion of animal suffering and there, it is guaranteed: making a vegetable steak, even if it is ultra-processed, does not require an animal, therefore no animal suffering.
Final score: 2 everywhere, tied.
Unfortunately, the result is not clear cut but, at least, now, we have all the cards in hand to make our choice according to our own preferences!