Flexitarian Meat Matters

According to Tom Katen, technical services specialist, meat, Cargill Texturizing Solutions, Minneapolis, the trick is “trying to make food products that contain meat, vs. being all meat.” Flexitarians “are looking for a balanced meal with just enough meat to provide nutritional protein, and they’re maybe willing to pay more for the option.”

Stephen Giunta, CMC, culinary director, Cargill Meat Solutions, Wichita, KS, sees opportunities in letting consumers scale their meat consumption. “You’ve got a skewer kit where you can grill up some skirt or flank steak, and the individual can put as much or little meat on the skewers as they choose,” he says. “And they can pass that around with different sauces to enjoy as much of that impact as they want.”

Skirt and flank steak are the kinds of lean, quick-cooking cuts that flexitarians can live with—thinner meats suited to stir-frying, skewering or scattering atop pasta. “It’s really that convenience that everyone wants,” Giunta says. For beef, the entire round, bottom round flat, top round, inside round, beef brisket, sirloin flap (part of the bottom sirloin similar in taste and texture to the inside and outside skirt) and flank steak work, he says. “Those are traditionally called ‘thin meats,’ and that whole category is phenomenal for the flexitarian.”

In the pork category, Giunta cites inside and outside round, the eye of round, knuckle, and pork brisket as smart choices. Seafood and poultry appeal to flexitarians, too, and value-added options like sausages, crumbles, tenders, nuggets and strips grant flexible control over just how much to add to a dish.

Using “accent” amounts of highly flavored meats fills the need for both high-impact profiles and moderation. Giunta calls this “the blue-cheese factor,” whereby just a few crumbles on top of a salad or potato quench the yearning for savory decadence.

Giunta cites the cuisines of Southeast Asia as a flexitarian model. “They’ll have a bowl of rice, and then they’ll have a topping or garnish of protein—it might be a little shrimp or chicken or pork or what-have-you.” It shifts meat from its center-of-the-plate position. “But I look at it this way,” he says. “If you offer more variety that more cultures can tap into, you’ve actually expanded your appeal across the board.”

Just make the meat’s presence transparent. “People don’t want any hidden surprises,” Giunta says. That means that a turkey sausage should make clear if it’s in a natural pork casing. “People want to know what’s in their product and what they’re eating,” he says.

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