In just two years, food technology has shifted consumers from browsing the "vegetable patties" in the frozen aisle to choosing fresh "vegetable burgers" to sell next to ground beef.
Behind the scenes in the supermarket, there is a fierce battle: Meat producers are suing to limit the words "meat" and "burger" to their own products. As large companies such as Tyson and Perdue join the competition, manufacturers of meat alternatives such as meat and impossible food are competing for the global fast food market. Environmental and food scientists insist that we eat more plants and less processed foods. Many vegetarians and vegans say that the purpose is to eliminate meat eating habits, not to replace them with meat.
"I still want to eat things that aren't laboratory produced," said Isa Chandra Moskowitz, chef at Modern Love, an Omaha vegetarian restaurant, whose own burger is the most popular dish on the menu. "But anyway, it's better for humans and the planet to eat a burger than meat every day."
New refrigerator enclosure "meat" products have formed one of the fastest growing segments of the food industry.
Some of them are proud of high-tech products made from a range of starches, fats, salt, sweeteners and synthetic umami-rich proteins. They can be achieved with new technologies, such as whipped coconut oil and cocoa butter into tiny white fat globules, giving Beyond Burger's ground beef a marbled feel.
Others are very simple, based on whole grains and vegetables, and compared to predecessors such as frozen vegetable burgers, reverse engineered with ingredients such as yeast extract and barley malt are crispier, browner and more delicious. (Not only because of the taste, but also because they are usually made from highly processed ingredients, so some consumers are moving away from those familiar products.)
But how are all newcomers performing at the table?
Times restaurant critic Pete Wells, our culinary columnist Melissa Clark, and I lined up in two new vegan burgers to blindly sample six national brands. Although many people have tasted these burgers in restaurants, we want to replicate the experience of home cooks. (For this, Melissa and I tied our daughter: my 12-year-old vegetarian and her 11-year-old burger fan.)
Each burger is scorched in a hot pot with a teaspoon of canola oil and placed in potato bread. First, we taste their original flavors and then add our favorites to the classic toppings: ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, pickles and American cheese. Here are the results, based on a 1 to 5 star rating.
Behind the scenes in the supermarket, there is a fierce battle: Meat producers are suing to limit the words "meat" and "burger" to their own products. As large companies such as Tyson and Perdue join the competition, manufacturers of meat alternatives such as meat and impossible food are competing for the global fast food market. Environmental and food scientists insist that we eat more plants and less processed foods. Many vegetarians and vegans say that the purpose is to eliminate meat eating habits, not to replace them with meat.
"I still want to eat things that aren't laboratory produced," said Isa Chandra Moskowitz, chef at Modern Love, an Omaha vegetarian restaurant, whose own burger is the most popular dish on the menu. "But anyway, it's better for humans and the planet to eat a burger than meat every day."
New refrigerator enclosure "meat" products have formed one of the fastest growing segments of the food industry.
Some of them are proud of high-tech products made from a range of starches, fats, salt, sweeteners and synthetic umami-rich proteins. They can be achieved with new technologies, such as whipped coconut oil and cocoa butter into tiny white fat globules, giving Beyond Burger's ground beef a marbled feel.
Others are very simple, based on whole grains and vegetables, and compared to predecessors such as frozen vegetable burgers, reverse engineered with ingredients such as yeast extract and barley malt are crispier, browner and more delicious. (Not only because of the taste, but also because they are usually made from highly processed ingredients, so some consumers are moving away from those familiar products.)
But how are all newcomers performing at the table?
Times restaurant critic Pete Wells, our culinary columnist Melissa Clark, and I lined up in two new vegan burgers to blindly sample six national brands. Although many people have tasted these burgers in restaurants, we want to replicate the experience of home cooks. (For this, Melissa and I tied our daughter: my 12-year-old vegetarian and her 11-year-old burger fan.)
Each burger is scorched in a hot pot with a teaspoon of canola oil and placed in potato bread. First, we taste their original flavors and then add our favorites to the classic toppings: ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, pickles and American cheese. Here are the results, based on a 1 to 5 star rating.