Accelerated by the pandemic and driven by environmentalists, we look to 2021, in which delicious alternatives such as plant-based kebabs, eggs and other ‘mock meats’ were launched.
Pea protein mince, soy meat patties, legume-based eggs, plant-derived fish fingers… the meat platter is on the rise.
“India has a huge tailwind for plant-based meats,” says Abhishek Sinha, CEO of Gooddot, a plant-based meat company based in Udaipur, which introduced unmutton keema on World Vegetarian Day, November 1. It made his company almost Three- a year and a half to develop the product and the R&D team is in the final stages of launching plant-based scrambled eggs, omelets, fish fingers and shrimp cutlets.
Similarly, to celebrate the day dedicated to vegetarianism, Chirag Kenya, Founder, Urban Platter, a platform for all gourmet and culinary needs, also introduced meatless plant-based burger patties. “The plant-based market in India is hungry for a variety of options, especially in protein options, and we are just getting started,” he says.
Last month, Imagine Meat, founded by Bollywood actors Riteish and Genelia Deshmukh, launched a range of nine plant-based products that include keema, seekh kebabs, nuggets and sausages as well as complete meals such as Afghan and Chettinad biryani.
A year old in this space, Mumbai-based Blue Tribe Foods also introduced a range of “Look Like, Feel Like, Smell Like, and Taste Like” plant-derived chicken nuggets and sausages. The market is innovating with products like legume-based liquid eggs by Kartik Dixit and Shraddha Bhansali’s Evo Foods in Mumbai.
Industry watchers say a love for animals, the impact of the meat industry on the environment and a conscious move to eat healthier, is driving the trend globally and the focus of food innovation shifting to Asia. Is.
Karthik emphasizes the fact that the egg likeness is made entirely from Indian legumes such as chickpeas, moong And peas, adding to that nutrition is their focus. Plant-based eggs contain 11 grams of protein, he says, and that’s the equivalent of an organic egg with protein of anywhere between 10 and 12 grams. A 500ml liquid egg bottle equals 10 or 11 eggs. “Trials are ongoing to make the product more baking friendly,” he says.
Karthik became a vegetarian five years ago and believes that if the pandemic made people realize the damage done to the environment by animal agriculture, it could have made him more closely involved in raising animals, leading to zoonotic transmission, antibiotic resistance and malformations. Forced to think about who can wipe us out. It’s the race.
new developments
Chirag estimates that “flexitarians”—people who are vegetarians, carnivores, and vegetarians—have increased by 15% to experiment with and choose more plant-based options. After becoming a vegetarian four years ago, she incorporated more plant-based options into her diet. According to him, the pandemic gave time to people to think consciously about their diet and e-commerce made it possible to deliver these curated food items to the homes.
Abhishek agrees, pointing to the huge jump in awareness over the past year: “It’s skyrocketed, an increase of about 500 to 800%.”
A non-vegetarian, Abhishek’s interest in the region stemmed from his love for animals. While he was doing his engineering in 2003, he came upon cultured meat made from tissue in a study called In Vitro Meat by three Dutch inventors – Willem Van Allen, Willem Van Kooten and Viette Westerhof. “It fascinated me and made me think, we can make meat using plant tissue; It was the perfect solution for someone like me, who enjoys eating meat but doesn’t want to hurt or kill any animal,” says Abhishek. He founded the company in 2016 along with his friend Deepak Parihar.
Blue Tribe’s CCO Sohil Wazir believes this trend is driven by two factors: the anti-cruelty to animals movement and the growing awareness of the meat industry’s high carbon footprint. “About 2-3% of the population is aware of the impact of the meat industry on the environment,” he says. Animal agriculture contributes to the second largest carbon emissions after fossil fuels.
Genelia reveals a defining moment in her family’s turn towards a plant-based diet, recalling a comment that was casually made by her son: ‘We can’t have a pet dog and have a dog at the same time. You can eat chicken. “It hit me hard,” she says, adding that meat lover Ritesh also wanted to eat guilt-free meat.
overcome obstacles
The development of plant-based meats is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry working together with food and ingredients scientists, chefs and investors. Abhishek says the second biggest challenge is to create awareness about the product but the pandemic has helped in this.
Proteins extracted from plants are converted into meat analogues by the process of denaturation where the protein linkages are changed using heat and pressure. It is then rearranged to match the structure of the meat.
It took Chirag and his brother Dhaval, who founded Urban Plater as an e-commerce platform in 2015, nine months to develop the burger from “textured soy protein”. Currently working on developing vegan mayonnaise and butter, the company sources approximately 90% of its ingredients locally.
what’s Cooking?
Working in the laboratories of Blue Tribe, Chef Nirvana Thakar, partner at QSR, Zaatar and Moza in Mumbai, talks about the challenges of cooking with mock meats.
“Peas and soy are fundamentally different; meat reacts differently when used in a lighter preparation like Bolognese sauce or broth. We are working towards addressing these factors,” says Nirvana He says the pace of development of the ingredients has increased over the past six months and with every trial, he’s been able to improve the product. By Christmas, he says, he’ll be able to easily mince meat from working with it. May go into larger portions of, perhaps roasted chicken.
Transitioning to a vegetarian lifestyle, Pune-based Raina Joseph tries the plant-based mince with parathas. She says, “Despite being a non-vegetarian, I couldn’t differentiate between meat keema and unmutton keema. The texture was chewy, stretchy, the way meat is supposed to. The spice and heat levels were also appropriate. I found it to be Felt great.”
Nearly 40 people who indulged in the legume-based egg relish at Candy & Green at Breach Candy in Mumbai were impressed by the experience, and Nirula in New Delhi has started serving burgers made from plant-based minced meat.
Kartik says that he gets angry messages on social media that the product should be launched soon. “We’ll be there before the year is over,” he says.
With much buzz in this new area of food innovation, 2021 could go down as a year that launched the maximum number of plant-derived meat products.
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