Vegan fast food that looks like meat

[veganlookslikemeat]

E.g. all the new vegan options that chains have been coming out with recently. All the vegan fake meat burgers/subs/pastries etc (Burger King, Subway, KFC, Greggs etc)
They all look like the real thing they are trying to mimic so how can you actually tell you've been given the vegan option and not meat by accident?!
AIBU to want a vegan option that you can clearly tell is vegan... or can someone share how to differentiate these vegan items with the non vegan counterparts?

I’ve been a vegetarian for 25 years. I can’t remember what meat tastes like!

Me neither, but some of these new meat like substitutes make me worry I have been served the wrong meal.
If there is a choice between a bean burger style thing or fake meat, I'd choose the former. But I'm not going to starve over it.
There are quite a few falafel fast food places, which I'd choose over BK/McD/KFC 100% of the time.
Having said that, I do buy meat sub burgers for home, for convenience.

no one would ever be fooled by fake meat

Ironically, probably only veggies/vegans who can't remember the real taste or texture.

@NowtSoQueerAsFolk

I haven't been to BK in years but I did used to love their Bean Burgers, do they still do those or not?

Yes, they still sell bean burgers

Thanks

@bishbashbosh99

lol, it tastes nothing like it. It's actually half decent but really, no one would ever be fooled by fake meat

Huh really?

We did a blind taste, three of us, including a chef. He did know which was which - but only after tasting both. After just trying the plant based whopper, he wasn't sure, and was wedding towards meat, because he didn't think a plant based one could be so like a meatyl one.

My dog is on Hepatic Diet too.

For a liver issue I presume? Will you dog be on it long term? Hope he /she is ok.
My friends dog had a liver shunt so had months of no meat dog food, bless her. She actually loved the food. 🤣 And my dogs used to try to eat it. 🤣 Friends dog had an operation, liver shunt resolved, so is now back on meat.

OP, I fully understand your issue but I do think you are being overdramatic. You are not allergic to meat - eating it in error is very unlikely to make you ill, so I just want to put your worries to rest. I have, at various times in my life, eaten food that I had never eaten before - fruits, grains, veggies, strange sweets or drinks that didn't exist where I grew up. They didn't make me ill just because it was the first time I had ever eaten them.

Obviously I don't want meat in my vegan burger either, but if you choose to eat out, you are taking a chance that mistakes will happen. It's great that more outlets are offering options which do not involve animal cruelty and death, but your personal experience is only as good as the personnel at the restaurant you choose to eat in.

So - it's a risk. And for all those saying you'll know immediately - plenty of us really would not. I went out with my parents - both meat eaters - and they ordered the vegan burger just to try it. They said they could not tell the difference, not when it is covered in cheese and lettuce and sauce and tomatoes. They have stopped ordering the meat altogether now and eat the vegan option.

Also: Nothing is ever going to beat @MishMashMummy 's explanation of why vegans and veggies eat non-dead-animal, meat-a-like products. You are a genius.

I had a kfc vegan burger the other day and it was definitely vegan, you can tell straight away. It has been 3 years since I ate meat but I still know it wasn't chicken. I like meat and fish but I don't eat them for ethical reasons.

skirk64
I don't think it matters if the vegan product is indistinguishable from the real thing, the worst that can happen is that someone gets a real burger. If they notice, they can complain, if they don't notice then what's the harm?

Actually, after being veggie for so long, meat makes me really ill. GI upset, wind, stomach ache, nausea, diarrhoea, that hot and sicky feeling.

I became totally veggie in the end because of how ill meat made me feel.

So that would be the harm.

@Grumblesigh

OP, I fully understand your issue but I do think you are being overdramatic. You are not allergic to meat - eating it in error is very unlikely to make you ill, so I just want to put your worries to rest. I have, at various times in my life, eaten food that I had never eaten before - fruits, grains, veggies, strange sweets or drinks that didn't exist where I grew up. They didn't make me ill just because it was the first time I had ever eaten them.

Obviously I don't want meat in my vegan burger either, but if you choose to eat out, you are taking a chance that mistakes will happen. It's great that more outlets are offering options which do not involve animal cruelty and death, but your personal experience is only as good as the personnel at the restaurant you choose to eat in.

So - it's a risk. And for all those saying you'll know immediately - plenty of us really would not. I went out with my parents - both meat eaters - and they ordered the vegan burger just to try it. They said they could not tell the difference, not when it is covered in cheese and lettuce and sauce and tomatoes. They have stopped ordering the meat altogether now and eat the vegan option.

Also: Nothing is ever going to beat @MishMashMummy 's explanation of why vegans and veggies eat non-dead-animal, meat-a-like products. You are a genius.

As a PP has said, it would probably give me diarrhoea and make me vomit

As a PP has said, it would probably give me diarrhoea and make me vomit

It would almost certainly not do that. Not unless you have a medical intolerance to it, or an allergy. Which is statistically unlikely, and which you wouldn't know as you have never had meat. It is no more likely to make you ill than any other food you've never tried before.

I'm not being argumentative. Being served meat by accident is a legitimate concern, and of course I empathise. But there's no need to add unnecessary drama to the situation. It's an unfounded, emotive argument where one is not needed.

But how exactly would a burger or a sausage remind you of an animal? It's not as if those products fall off the cow or pig looking like that.

This! Your meat isn't supposed to ground up and mushed into the shape of a hockey puck. So why can't we do that to veg too?

I would never eat a vegan meal that looked like a hog roast, because its gross. But your meat doesn't look like meat, our meat alternatives also don't look like meat.

As a PP has said, it would probably give me diarrhoea and make me vomit

Not if you thought it wasn't meat, as thats a psychosomatic reaction.

If you've never eaten meat before I definitely think you'd, or most people would, notice. And it would probably make someone ill that doesn't eat it, like alot of unfamiliar food makes us ill.

@KaleSlayer

My dog is on Hepatic Diet too.

For a liver issue I presume? Will you dog be on it long term? Hope he /she is ok.
My friends dog had a liver shunt so had months of no meat dog food, bless her. She actually loved the food. 🤣 And my dogs used to try to eat it. 🤣 Friends dog had an operation, liver shunt resolved, so is now back on meat.

Yes .. thank you so much.. for asking.. she is a yorkie and has extreme fits 🥺 sometimes 3 or more a day .. it was terrifying.. but since going Hepatic after tests at the Vet she has maybe one every few months.. which is fantastic if still very distressing.

I do hope your friends dog recovered well.. 🌸

Quorn gives me the shits, which is why I avoid any pretend meats, and only eat veggie/vegan food that I know isn't made from it or anything similar, hence my hatred of, "plant based".
Tell me what its made from!

You could send it to the lab before you eat it? Or maybe set up your own lab in a shed or utility room if you eat a lot of fast food.

@skirk64

I don't think it matters if the vegan product is indistinguishable from the real thing, the worst that can happen is that someone gets a real burger. If they notice, they can complain, if they don't notice then what's the harm?

I agree with the PP that vegan options should not try to imitate meat though. "Burgers" and "sausages" and, above all, "chicken" are by default meat. If a vegan wants to eat something that looks and tastes like meat that is an admission that meat is a perfectly acceptable thing to eat. The closest thing to a vegan "sausage" would be a carrot.

This is the most ignorant comment!

How can you not understand that some people want to eat things that are like meat but they don't want to support the torture and murder or billions of animals a year?

Why does people choosing not to eat meat upset people so much?

Actually, after being veggie for so long, meat makes me really ill. GI upset, wind, stomach ache, nausea, diarrhoea, that hot and sicky feeling.

I have a friend who's like that with dairy. She's not vegan, or even veggie. She avoids dairy but not to the standard a vegan does. Occasionally she'll get ill, and discover she ate dairy.
It's not all dairy either, she's ok with chocolate.
It's not psychosomatic.

Yes .. thank you so much.. for asking.. she is a yorkie and has extreme fits 🥺 sometimes 3 or more a day .. it was terrifying.. but since going Hepatic after tests at the Vet she has maybe one every few months.. which is fantastic if still very distressing.

Bless her. My friends dog had fits too, I witnessed one and it really was awful to see. She had tests and the liver shunt was found but luckily it was operable and she is doing so well now. Thank you.
I’m sorry to hear your girl still has fits, but that’s a big improvement to go from a few a day to one every few months. Give her a little cuddle from this random person on the internet. 😊 I love dogs. Yorkies are beautiful.

@Grumblesigh

OP, I fully understand your issue but I do think you are being overdramatic. You are not allergic to meat - eating it in error is very unlikely to make you ill, so I just want to put your worries to rest. I have, at various times in my life, eaten food that I had never eaten before - fruits, grains, veggies, strange sweets or drinks that didn't exist where I grew up. They didn't make me ill just because it was the first time I had ever eaten them.

Obviously I don't want meat in my vegan burger either, but if you choose to eat out, you are taking a chance that mistakes will happen. It's great that more outlets are offering options which do not involve animal cruelty and death, but your personal experience is only as good as the personnel at the restaurant you choose to eat in.

So - it's a risk. And for all those saying you'll know immediately - plenty of us really would not. I went out with my parents - both meat eaters - and they ordered the vegan burger just to try it. They said they could not tell the difference, not when it is covered in cheese and lettuce and sauce and tomatoes. They have stopped ordering the meat altogether now and eat the vegan option.

Also: Nothing is ever going to beat @MishMashMummy 's explanation of why vegans and veggies eat non-dead-animal, meat-a-like products. You are a genius.

Thanks

@KaleSlayer

thank you 💕

@TiredSloth

I agree with the PP that vegan options should not try to imitate meat though. "Burgers" and "sausages" and, above all, "chicken" are by default meat. If a vegan wants to eat something that looks and tastes like meat that is an admission that meat is a perfectly acceptable thing to eat. The closest thing to a vegan "sausage" would be a carrot.

@skirk64 seriously? So if someone discovered that human flesh was tasty that would be an admission that it was an acceptable thing to eat?

Why do things like veggie sausages & burgers bother you?

If some one served me 'I can't believe it's not human', fake human-meat, I'd vomit in the bowl I guess some omnis expect vegans to feel that way about fake meat. And some do, it seems. I've read that fake meat burgers are mostly eaten by omnis who just want to cut back on meat.

Also: Nothing is ever going to beat @MishMashMummy 's explanation of why vegans and veggies eat non-dead-animal, meat-a-like products. You are a genius

It's a great comment. I think it's unlikely that mishmashmummy was the person that first penned it, but whoever, I would take my hat off to them. If I was wearing one.

There's also convenience if you're eating out/ordering in as a family/group.

2 of my dc love burgers. The third is a non meat eater. I'm not veggie, but am suspicious of minced meat items because I have a horror of gristle - I'll happily eat a steak, but don't much like sausages/burgers.

So if we're getting a lazy delivery & it's one of the burger lovers' turn to choose, we order from a chain that does Beyond Meat burgers, so dd2 & I can avoid beef burgers & everyone's happy.

Tbh I'd rather have a veggie curry & dd2 would rather have sushi, but we're hardly going to order from 3 different places, so we rotate round who gets to choose, with the caveat that everyone has to be able to find something on the menu they want to eat. When it's burgers, Beyond Burgers are that option for two of us...when it's sushi, the sushi hater in the family gets teriyaki etc etc.