Butchers accept fake meat growing in popularity

Source: Xinhua | 2019-05-13

Slicing through juicy cuts of pork belly alongside rarer delicacies of ox brain and sheep intestine, young butchers at a Frankfurt trade hall cast a suspicious eye toward the so-called fake meat products on display.

Puzzlingly, for the butchers, the fake meat seems to be popular. “It just can’t be that we have to get into plastic!” said Paolo Desbois, an 18-year-old French butcher, referring disparagingly to the synthetic burgers, sausages and nuggets at the IFFA meat industry convention.

The concept that animals are meat — and plants are not — never used to be challenged.

But increasingly plant-based protein products are trying to muscle in on the meat market.

Derived from sources like soy, peas or beans, synthetic products are being manufactured without using animals.

Desbois, who placed second in a young butchers competition at the convention, feels they undermine “the essence of the profession.”

“It’s just not possible to work with synthetic meat,” he said.

Another budding elite butcher from Switzerland, 20-year-old Selina Niederberger, agreed. “I’m for real meat. I think a lot of people would see it the same way,” she declared.

Non-“real” meat products have been making headlines lately, backed by investors with an appetite for supplying plant-based burgers and sausages to the trendy diet-conscious masses.

The vegan burger start-up Beyond Meat made a sizzling Wall Street debut on May 3 when it more than doubled its share price. Backed by Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the firm and its competitors aim to turn plant-based foods mainstream and capture a huge potential market.