What’s In That? Inside Processed Vegan Foods
In a world of exponentially increasing technologies, production becomes more efficient, devices are more innovative, and execution of ideas is more streamlined. There are issues with technology, of course, as with anything, but I will leave that debate for another day. In this article I want to discuss food technology – more specifically, the technology and production process of vegan food replacements. It’s exciting to witness breakthroughs that improve the taste and quality of things like Match Meats or vegan cheeses. And it’s equally encouraging to see the potential that vegan foods have (because of this technology) to further integrate into mainstream food industries.
Artwork by Balint Zsako. Photograph by Tom Schierlitz for TIME.
I’ll start with the story that inspired this post. Here’s your question: University of Missouri students got a lot of press for: A) Chemistry building explosion, B) Covering the Black Culture Center with cotton balls, or C) Creating a food that closely mimics the texture of real chicken? Okay, trick question, they’re all true. (Read more here and here). But this is about a team of scientists at MU that have amazingly created:
“The first soy product that not only can be flavored to taste like chicken but also breaks apart in your mouth the way chicken does: not too soft, not too hard, but with that ineffable chew of real flesh. When you pull apart the Missouri invention, it disjoins the way chicken does, with a few random strands of ‘meat’ hanging loosely.”
This kind of food technology is an exciting thing, though they still have to license technologies and work on manufacturing. So, speaking of manufacturing, here’s how the process is described:
“First, you take a dry mixture of soy-protein powder and wheat flour, add water and dump it into an industrial extruder, which is essentially a gigantic food processor. (You have to climb a ladder to get to the hole at the top.) At first, the mixture looks like cake batter. But as it’s run through the gears of the extruder and heated to precisely 346°F (175°C), the batter firms up and forms complex striations. It took Hsieh and Huff many years to get the temperature right, and it also took years to discover how to cool the soy cake very quickly, before it could melt.”
Read more about this story in detail at Time.com or watch the process here. The thing to be aware of is that, unless they are made with whole-foods, fake “meats” are often highly processed, containing things like soy protein isolate, hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) and textured vegetable protein (TVP). And watch out for neurotoxins in your veggie burgers.
Beloved Daiya (vegan cheese) is made with tapioca, among other things, but does not contain casein, soy or other common allergens. Its success is due to its “proprietary manufacturing process” according to Daiya creators Andre Kroecher (“the mad-scientist inventor of Daiya”) and “co-founder of the company with business-savvy” Greg Blake in an interview with Super Vegan.
Another MUST READ article that plays devil’s advocate is entitled “Why Eating Meat-Shaped Vegetarian Food Is Like Having Sex With A Blow-Up Doll” by Anneli Rufus (Alternet). While discussing vegetarian food production, this article also posits the theory that eating meat-like foods is essentially still giving the meat industry credence as a natural pursuit. The article states, “fake meat is fast now, and fake meat is easy, and fake meat is everywhere.” Worthington Foods created Soyameat in the 1960′s using spun soy fiber, when the vegan lifestyle was still considered a very fringe movement. Then there were Tofu Pups using tempeh. It wasn’t until after the 80′s that things took off with Tofurky brand fake meats. When LightLife brand rolled around, fake meats were damn near the real thing. David Lee, LightLife’s creator, raves about seitan,”the old-school wheat-protein food,” and to his fake meats, “Lee adds wine, herbs, garlic and vegetables whose farm-freshness, he says, is the secret to his products’ success.” He disavows frozen fake meats and claims that “instead of spending our time trying to recreate the sinew and flavor of animal flesh, we just make a great product. It’s easier than making a fake animal.”
And now, the dissonance. Anneli Rufus would disagree (and does) with David Lee and others saying, “we’re living in a time when you can eat fake meat that tastes so real you’d swear an animal had to die for it.” If we are eating meat “in spirit” than what’s the point? She further argues that anti-meat absolutists would argue hypocrisy and that vegans should shun not only meat but the “very idea of meat…the noblest/purest/kindest of all shun even every gesture commonly associated with meat, such as dipping long objects into tartar sauce and placing flat ones between buns.” Is it our intentions that matter or puritanical actions?
TALK TO US
Do you think advancing food technology should be praised for helping vegan to become more mainstream, or do you think vegans are better off leaving these meat and dairy substitutes alone? Perhaps some things are only good in moderation…
