COLUMN: Real meat replacement is coming to a store near you soon

MEADE'S MENU - Gerry Meade

The subject has been avoided for long enough. Real meat replacement is coming to a store near you soon. Big Meat is in a tailspin as there are now companies in America locked and loaded to take them on at the biggest cowboy showdown in history by producing “clean meat”. They are even working on fish flesh so Big Fish better look out too.

These are huge hungry outfits like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods who have spent hundreds of millions to find the formula of replicating beef. With the surge in Vegan foods, the medics saying eat less meat, the greenhouse gases it produces, the financial costs and general conscientious eating from the first world, they are determined to be kings of the future ranch.
I tasted one of their earlier burgers in LA and it was pretty close I must admit. They are improving all the time however. Also it’s generally accepted that the current meat production formula is unsustainable. 

As soon as this new meat is able to undercut the old meat, it's game on. 
In fairness I have to agree with the Big Meat lobby on one valid point that it should not be termed “meat” but this is a battle for the courts which will be a huge verdict for which ever side wins. 
This name dilemma actually is a branding issue that must be addressed by all the new vegan foods.
The other problem facing the meat world is that defectors have started to see the light and are now buying up chunks of these new companies to hedge their bets on how the future of meat will pan out.

So how are they making this stuff? Well science is on a warp speed run in this field and is now able to reproduce the magic mix of meat, which are the minerals, amino acids, lipids and water. 
It’s done by using manipulated plant proteins to emulate the muscle in beef specifically, but the other animals will follow, they are already on to ducks.

It all seems so simple but its working and fifty thousand shops in the States are selling it to happy customers now. 

For myself I will still crave the juicy rare steak and I do not believe this can ever be emulated but in other dishes like burgers and meatballs it will be a challenge for big meat and maybe a halfway house is the long term solution with both sides working together to keep us all fed knowing we are not making a bad situation any worse from our actions so far with our mindless plundering of the earth’s resources!

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Now if you fancy having a personal restaurant recommendation for somewhere good to eat or you had a bad experience while eating out, having a topic covered here or maybe you have a culinary conundrum or recipe query that you want me to solve or even a catering career question or job advice, the Meade’s Menu mailbag is now open for business. 
If your communication is something that you would like shared with the public or I think it might be beneficial to the readers to know then I will also be happy to mention it on this page. I will reply to every mail, maybe not straight away but in time for sure. This contact is only by email and the address to use is food@meathchronicle.ie