In just a few months, vegan foods have invaded supermarkets. They are aimed at consumers who wish to ban from their food all products derived from animals or related to the exploitation of animals. Vegan products have become a fad and many are embracing the vegan / vegan trend. They sometimes believe they are doing well for themselves and for the planet, but you have to be sure that the remedy is no worse than the poison.

The vegan is an incredible financial windfall. The growth rate has gone to double digits for 5 years. In 2016, sales of vegan / vegan products increased by around 90% in France. Everyone is grabbing it and processed, very expensive, low-end products at the antipode of the first vegan ambitions are arriving on the market.

Meat substitutes

Meat and even cooked products, “faumon”, foie gras, vegetable tuna, “hawks”, “hawks” … are full of promises but unfortunately with false tastes. Manufacturers are trying to copy textures, but it is very disappointing.

Many products are classified ultra-processed nova 4, that is to say at the bottom of the classification, such as nuggets, frozen pizzas, burgers, etc. These products contain the same characteristics, water as the first ingredient , palm and coconut oils, organic additives, protein isolates, those from food cracking, starch, flavors, hidden sugars such as dextrose etc…. It is the quintessence of the worst that ultra-processed industrial food can do, and, in addition, at sometimes indecent prices.

Often low prices are synonymous with poor quality. Some vegan products are not only expensive but the quality is not there.

Dairy product substitutes

They have indecent prices like 70 euros per kilo of “faux-fromage”, a Camembert made from crushed cashew nuts, water, salts and ferments … fake slices of cheese, or even mozzarella that looks like a bouncing ball with 4 additives.

Plant milks

It’s over 85% water, ground almonds, rice or soybeans, sometimes sugar. Beyond nutrition, the carbon footprint of these products is catastrophic.
To grow cashews, macadamia, almonds or soybeans, you need a lot of water. These products come from the 4 corners of the world cultivated with water, also mixed with a lot of water, transported with water… all in partially recyclable packaging. The quantities of water involved are enormous.

If you want to use plant milks, make them yourself. You also avoid additives (corn maltodextrin, almond drink) and sugar.

• A handful of cooked rice or almonds.
• 1 l of water (filtered tap), and a blender.

Egg substitutes

Substituting eggs is a real challenge because in the kitchen, they provide binder, they foam, they coagulate when hot…. These proteins (ovoalbumins) have many functional properties. In this case, we must forget about the good taste of the eggs, we should look only at the texture.

“Copy” an egg white.

• Take water (there is also some in egg white).
• You need a foaming agent, a methylcellulose, a synthetic additive.
• It also has to be a little slimy, so you have to beat. Take a thickening gum such as natural gum such as guar or locust bean gum, or obtained from the laboratory such as xanthan gum (it is bacteria that make it from various sugars).
• It must then gel, hot or take a starch which will thicken and give this illusion of thickness.
• Finally, a little protein to have a suitable nutritional profile and add flax meal.

Here is how to replace a product (an animal protein for example), using 3 or 4 ingredients including 2 additives. Synthetic chemistry, water that is very expensive per liter to make substitutes for products. The worst part is that it works and that it even creates a buzz. The false egg market is exploding.

Products with little flavor

Organic, vegan, etc… can be very good products and full of good attention, as well as very bad. Vegan Buddhist cuisines are delicious and very constructed, in Japan as in China, Indian cuisine is 90% based on vegetables. These are interesting sources of inspiration, but copying “junk food” and putting it in vegan sauce just doesn’t make sense.

The problem encountered in Europe in particular is that vegan has become a fashion, and therefore business. A label or a nice logo is absolutely not a guarantee of quality, the price of the product is not a guarantee of quality either.

We must not look at just one facet of a problem, that’s the whole difficulty. When you buy a product, you have to look at its nutritional impact, its environmental impact, its social impact, and see if the flavors and tastes are also there. Food is like a religion, everyone believes in what they want until they try to convert their neighbors.