Mumsnet users share their thoughts on meat free options

[JustineBMumsnet]

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Whether you’re thinking of reducing your meat consumption for environmental or health reasons, or if you or a member of your family is vegetarian or vegan, the use of meat free options is on the rise. With this in mind, The Meatless Farm would like to hear your thoughts on reducing meat intake and meat-free options.

Here’s what The Meatless Farm has to say: “With an estimated 22m flexitarians in the UK seeking to reduce their meat consumption, there is an increased appetite for healthy, protein-rich alternatives. After years of research, the team behind Meatless Farm have created a range of products that not only deliver on nutrition, they also taste delicious.”

Are you considering reducing your family’s meat intake? What do you think about meat-free products? Perhaps you’re already including meat free products in your family meals? What influences your choice when it comes to meat free options?

All who post on the thread below will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight Terms and Conditions apply

My best friend is vegan and I have several friends and family who are vegetarian. None of them live in our house, but I do have to cook veggie fairly often for visitors and am trying to expand our recipes for my own family. The problem we have is finding new things that everyone will eat, we seem to just recycle a few things and that gets boring pretty quickly.
My issue with some of the more popular meat replacements is that they are often very high in salt and highly processed. I'm also sometimes not clear what the products are actually made of (like quorn - what actually is it?!?) So I worry that meat replacements can be unhealthy. We're also concerned about the environmental impact of food and some of these come in black non/recyclable plastic!

My 7 year old is such a carnivore lol. We are trying to reduce our red meat intake though. Meals where I'd once have used minced beef I tend to use turkey mince (or pork sometimes) to reduce fat intake. What I tend to do is rather than cutting out meat altogether I'm reducing how much meat is on the plate and upping the volume of veggies! Curries are now half meat half veg and he's still wolfing them down!

I would be willing to try meat-free products and have done in the past but im yet to find something i like.

My partner likes a few meat free products and we have tried my children with them but they dont like the ones we have tried either.

Id like to think that in the future we will find meat alternatives that we all enjoy

We're a mostly vegan family. We use meat substitute and Iceland's no bull vegan range is my fave at the moment especially the pizza. We have also tried quorn, Tesco and morrisons meat free range and linda McCartney but less so. Ido prefer to cook from scratch and try to cut back on the substitute as at the end of the day, it's all processed especially the more they taste like the genuine. But cost does play a factor.

Hi - we barely eat any meat but I do feed meat to my baby as I worry about her getting enough protein. Tasty meat alternatives are hard to come by so we're always on the lookout for new ideas.

I'm vegetarian so I obviously don't eat meat anyway and enjoy meat substitutes. I don't mind my family eating meat as its a personal choice to be vegetarian. They do eat a lot of meat free meals with me anyway because I cook, so they are all used to meat substitutes and don't mind them.

I get IBS. Quirk exacerbates the wind....

I am a vegan, my children are not, so i love trying new meat alternatives. They mostly can't tell the difference and they enjoy the taste of meat free versions of their fave meals.

Both my children are not keen on meat but love vegetables so I try to make vegetarian meals that my kids would eat

Last year I bought a cook book to make Mondays meat free which was reasonably successful, though since developing IBS I have found many vegetables trigger my symptoms including staple ingredients like onion!

We have reduced our meat intake from a animal welfare perspective - its harder with the kids as they don't love all the veg dishes we do but we have some success! It has to be tasty and not too fathy to make

I'm always looking for meat free options - but i don't like meals that try to 'taste'or look like meat - I'd rather have different options for cooking with vegetables etc

Vegetarian family here. We do use meat substitute sausages, 'chicken pieces' and mince, but we do try and have meals which don't involve these processed products as well.

We would happily have meat free meals but food that is designed to look like meat products is bizarre!

I was a pescatarian from 19 until 29 I am thinking of going back to this but trying new meat free products. I found the only substitute I enjoyed was meat free sausages. I'm going to get the kids to try also.

My husband and I are definitely conscious to try to reduce the amount of meat we consume. We are trying to replace meat with vegetables, beans and pulses rather than meat substitutes. I am not so concerned for our children, as I am just grateful to get food in them and we are not doing it for purely moral reasons.

No. No plans to reduce our meat intake. I did buy flexitarian burgers without a clue what flexitarian means. The label said 98% beef which sounded like the norm for a burger. My mother in law makes lasagne with Quorn instead of mince and its delicious. I can't tell the difference. And my youngest son declared he was a vegetarian and I thought, fair enough. "What would you like for your tea then?"
"Chicken Nuggets!" was his reply.

we are always actively looking for ways to eat less meat-
we have tried the Quorn prodycts and they have been a hit

I think plant-based is the way to go. We do not need as much processed food, so fruit, vegetables, pulses, nuts and seeds are the basis of the family diet with a B12 supplement.

I eat non meat meals. A few times a wee’ but rarely substitute the meat. I use quote mince for things like lasagne and have on occasions used quorum sausages in casseroles.

DD is vegetarian although I am not. I already have quite a few meat free meals but generally don't like many of the meat subs unless they are covered in sauce

I've been vegetarian for 26 years, but hubby & kids are all meat eaters. I use a lot of meat sustitutes, such as Quorn, as it makes it easy to adapt a meat based meal/recipe to a veggie one. Everyone in the family is happy to eat veggie food.

We do eat meat, but also have vegetarian meals because we like them. I have tried meat substitutes out of curiosity but didn't like them.

Yes, we have slowly been reducing the amount we eat. We now regularly have chickpeas, kidney beans and lentils. The kids love most of what I make quinoa being their favourite.

We haven't found many meat free products that we enjoy but would love to try the burgers from the Meatless Farm co.as they do look good and that's the one thing my eldest really misses and enjoys.

I don't really want to replace meat with meat free products but rather replace it with healthy alternatives but I would use things like burgers once in a while.

myself and hubby are already vegetarian but the children aren't because I've always thought it's important to let people make their own choices.
Over the years I've tried numerous meat free products however I then discovered that I was coeliac. Trying to find gluten free vegetarian products if extremely difficult! Most quorn products, apart from the mince, tend to have wheat included. Most supermarket home brands are the same. If I find a meat free, vegetarian product that is also gluten free I tend to snap up as many as possible because I can almost guarantee that the next time I try to find it, the supermarket will have removed it from sale.
I do understand that there probably isn't a huge market for meat free, gluten free products - but for those of us who need them, it would be lovely to have a choice rather than having to plump for the single thing on offer!