Fake Meat: Scientists Closer To Vegetarian Chicken

Time magazine reports on a team of scientists from the University of Missouri who may have finally cracked the code on vegetarian chicken.

Though fake-meat products like Tofurkey (and many more -- see photos of various fake meat products here) have been available for years, emulating the subtle, fibrous texture and taste profile of chicken is particularly difficult. But scientist Fu-Hung Hsieh and his partner Harold Huff have developed a complex formula to overcome chicken's peculiar challenges.

According to Time, after more than a decade, they have created:

"The first soy product that not only can be flavored to taste like chicken but also breaks apart in your mouth the way chicken does: not too soft, not too hard, but with that ineffable chew of real flesh. When you pull apart the Missouri invention, it disjoins the way chicken does, with a few random strands of "meat" hanging loosely."

Here's how the process is described:

First, you take a dry mixture of soy-protein powder and wheat flour, add water and dump it into an industrial extruder, which is essentially a gigantic food processor. (You have to climb a ladder to get to the hole at the top.) At first, the mixture looks like cake batter. But as it's run through the gears of the extruder and heated to precisely 346°F (175°C), the batter firms up and forms complex striations. It took Hsieh and Huff many years to get the temperature right, and it also took years to discover how to cool the soy cake very quickly, before it could melt.

Watch the process here:

Though this represents a breakthrough, some worry that these scientists might be solving some problems while creating others. Switching from meat products to plant-based products can be good for the body and planet. But, the process required to make the "meat" involves a series of heavy-duty laboratory procedures that seem more AstraZeneca than farm-fresh.

* See photos of existing fake meat products here *

Comments

[Chris Nicholson]

01:19 PM on 07/18/2010

I'm still not eating it.

[marik]

04:23 PM on 06/14/2010

I will never again look at wet cardboard in the same way!!!!!!!!!!

[Alice Radley]

12:13 PM on 06/12/2010

Not sure if this has been mentioned already, but Quorn is a fantastic brand of faux meat. It genuinely tastes like chicken, is low fat and high fiber. I'm not a veggie, but even I can enjoy the taste of Quorn. They also have a beef substitute. I've used the the grounds for making chili. We couldn't tell it wasn't real beef.

I'll probably be buying some soon. I'm in the hospital right now with pancreatitis. My orders are no meat for a few weeks. Gotta take it easy on my stomach and pancreas for a while.

[drama is a drug]

04:18 PM on 06/12/2010

thanks for the tip!

get well soon ; )

[VeggieLove]

07:13 PM on 06/11/2010

I'm a vegetarian and I would NEVER eat that crap. It's highly processed and made by Frankenstein. No thanks.

[thole489]

01:40 PM on 06/11/2010

It's People! Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!!!!

[Mama Grace]

02:36 PM on 06/09/2010

Yuck. The idea that a vegetarian processed chicken-like product is better for your health than the real thing is laughable. I'd eat beans and rice every day over the "food" described in this article.

[bungerman]

02:12 AM on 06/09/2010

if you were truly vegetarian why would you want to eat something that look or tasted like any type of meat?

Someone educate me in the world of vegetarianism, I'm a rookie.

[towre]

03:45 AM on 06/09/2010

This is why we need stop eating chicken:
http://www.mercyforanimals.org/hatchery/

Vegetarians love vegetarian food already. But we know that the transition will be easier for many if there's veg alternatives that are pretty similar in taste and texture to what they eat now (but without the torture and killing of animals in the process). There's nothing wrong with a specific texture or taste. The problem is what is done to the animals.

[bungerman]

06:31 PM on 06/09/2010

there are no factories that treat the animals humanly that can be supported?

[faithnj]

10:24 PM on 06/09/2010

these types of foods help meat eaters make the transition to vegetarianism. they are also (often) high in protein, but low in fat and have no cholesterol-- so some people eat meat analogs for those reasons, as well. (it also gives veggies something to serve to friends and family, without having to bring meat into the house.)

[MaurizioMaranghi]

01:29 AM on 06/09/2010

To each their own. For those who feel guilty eating chicken but still love it, can enjoy this instead...by all means. Some will definitely still opt out. Others will stick to what they have always known and love.

Science and innovation is great, but sometimes there are complications to experiments (ex. BP Oil Spill...just another LITTLE ooopsy). I am concerned about everyone's health when new things such as this arise...and we all know about our Health Insurance Problem. "Let's all get really sick and then not be able to get any kind of aid for it."

- Maurizio Maranghi -

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

[EcoCatLady]

11:45 PM on 06/08/2010

Well... I just finished reading "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan, and I'm pretty sure this would not qualify as "food" under his rules. He suggests that if your great great grandmother wouldn't recognize it as food you shouldn't eat it. And I really don't think that this passes the Grandma Felicissima test!

[faithnj]

10:27 PM on 06/09/2010

it's not food, that's true. but for those looking to make the transition from a meat eating diet to a veggie one, these foods can be helpful. also, if you want to cut down on fat and cholesterol, most of these analogs fit that bill. (personally, I've been a veggie for 27 years now. I can't stand the taste of anything that really tastes like animal flesh, so this development creeps me out. but I don't mind the fact that others like meat analogs.)

[EcoCatLady]

04:09 AM on 06/10/2010

True, and I have eaten similar foods for many years. Recently, allergies to many of the additives that are frequently used in these sorts of products got me to give them up. And after reading Pollan's book, I'm beginning to wonder if a small amount of meat isn't a better option than these highly processed synthetic foods anyhow.

[mertb33]

09:56 PM on 06/08/2010

This grosses me out.

[emilytesskatz]

09:09 PM on 06/08/2010

this is so well written. can't wait to see more from this young iconoclast.

[nikanj]

05:28 PM on 06/08/2010

Well, of course, doesn't everyone know that shredded human 'tastes like chicken' ?

[3dtrix]

11:18 PM on 06/08/2010

The cannibals of New Guinea call human flesh "long pork"...

[inthelandoftheblind]

12:43 AM on 06/09/2010

A few days ago, out of the blue - I recalled hearing an old woman - a former cannibal - being interviewed - NPR probably.

In a giggle, she said she always liked the fingers - or was it knuckles...the best.

[sc978303]

05:09 PM on 06/08/2010

Who in the world would eat this stuff, if you want to eat chicken then eat chicken, if you want to be a vegetarian then eat vegetables. There is no way that chemically altered vegetable products can be good for you. People just need to leave the science experiments out of the kitchen.

[inthelandoftheblind]

12:44 AM on 06/09/2010

The thing is - the food chain is breaking down. Fake food - here we come...

[Ljilja]

04:20 PM on 06/08/2010

This picture looks so horrible, I have to turn away every time I come across it.

Unless famished and desperate, who could (or would want to) eat this stuff?

http://graciouslivingdaybyday.com/

[santiago sherwood]

06:33 PM on 06/08/2010

fake salt isn't salty, Fake sugar has a weird after taste. fake fat left me on the toilet for 3 days. I think fake food has gone too far. Try REAL food in Smaller portions. I agree there is not appealing about it from its looks.

[inthelandoftheblind]

01:32 AM on 06/09/2010

Agreed! Revolting!

[deluxebrand]

03:38 PM on 06/08/2010

why on earth would you want to eat something that tastes and has the same texture as chicken if you are a vegetarian????

[Baculus]

05:07 PM on 06/08/2010

For some folks, being a vegetarian isn't just about rejecting the taste of meat. There are plenty of vegetarians that grew up meat eaters, but reject its consumption for various reasons. But they still "crave" dishes that are "meat-like." An analogue meat allows them to fulfill such desires without eating the meat that they want to avoid.

It's like near-beer: some people want to taste beer, but the don't want to get drunk.

[thereisonlyoneparty]

09:35 PM on 06/08/2010

But does that not just affirm the validity of a diet based in meat.

"I do not like meat, but I want to eat things with the taste of meat."

It seems odd. Like homosexual females using phallic devices. There is a desire for that which is rejected, as long as it is not the specific thing rejected.

[SusanElizabeth1949]

11:07 PM on 06/11/2010

The only 'near beer' I ever drank tasted like a Coors that had sat open all night and thenn been put back in the refrigerator to get cold.