Formulating for the Flexitarian

Widespread agreement on the health benefits of vegetarian and semi-vegetarian diets are reminding Americans that eating meat need not be an all-or-nothing proposition, giving rise to a whole new species of -tarianthe flexitarian.

Inside the flexitarian mind

A flexitarian is a part-time vegetarian who deliberately eats lessor almost nomeat. In choosing flexitarianism, health trumps ideology. Its more focus on personal health vs. animal rights, says Ron Pickarski, CEC, president and founder, Eco-Cuisine, Inc., Boulder, CO. He notes the real driving market behind flexitarianism is primarily people who are meat eaters eating vegetarian two, three, four times a week as part of a healthy diet, vs. vegetarians eating meat once in a while. And with prices for everything from flank steak to fried chicken trending ever upward, the prospect of cutting food bills by eating lower on the food chain only adds to flexitarianisms dividends.

Flexitarianism speaks to our craving for variety. Flexitarians dont want to sacrifice taste for nutrition, says Pickarski. They prefer less fat and lighter cooking preparations like steaming, baking and roastingand natural products. They want ingredient decks that read clean, he says.

Pickarski designed his line of products to fit the diets of all vegetarians: vegan, lacto, ovo, lacto-ovo. As formulated, they neither contain nor require any animal-derived ingredients. Yet they work for flexitarians, because they leave open the option of adding meat, cheese, eggsyou name it. For instance, a vegan chili product can go flexitarian by mixing it 50-50 with ground beef.

Making analogies

Of course, you could just do away with the meat entirely, and many flexitarians do from time to time. When in vegetarian mode, it stands to reason that theyd fill the meatless gap with something that mimics meatlike a vegetarian meat analogue, of which U.S. sales rose 63.5% between 2000 and 2005, according to Mintel, Chicago.

But will flexitarianswho can just as easily eat the real deal if they truly want itbe interested in mock meat?

They will if the analogues are good, Pickarski says. They wouldnt mind eating a vegetarian meatloaf that tastes really good and is similar to what theyre used to eating, or a meatloaf that is almost all vegetarian, but with a little meat in it.

Ultimate success depends on the consumers proclivities. The flavors and textures are all over the board, says Tom Katen, technical services specialist, meat, Cargill Texturizing Solutions, Minneapolis. A vegan who eats a veggie hot dog that tastes too meaty and has a firm texture is turned off, but a meat eater who eats a veggie dog that is close in every way to meat is excited. So, if the flexitarian is a fan of the occasional chicken breast, he says, then maybe a chicken breast analogue that is close to that texture and taste will be quite acceptable.

Functionality is perhaps equally important. If youre making a ground-beef analogue, Pickarski says, its got to function like ground beef. Different textured soy and other proteins function differently, he points out. Some collapse when you eat themthey dont have the structurewhile others have the structure. You want the ones with the structure, so that when you bite into it, you feel like youre eating a piece of meat.

Achieving that mimicry isnt always easy. Meat brings a lot to the functional table in formulation, Katen admits, and making nonmeat items requires parts and pieces to reassemble meatlike items. That means choosing a good, balanced protein source like soy protein and manipulating its texture. Meat starts as whole muscle, and we cut and grind it to a texture that we desire. But meat analogues need to be formed to create or mimic these textures, he says. Spun-type proteins, extrusion and lamination are all methods for achieving meaty mouthfeel in vegetarian analogues.

According to Gits Prabhu, Ph.D., principal, PHD Technologies LLC, Ames, IA, and consultant to Dairy Management, Inc. and the U.S. Dairy Export Council, high-quality meat analogues resembling whole-muscle poultry are entirely achievable using high-moisture extrusion techniques. The technology uses high moisture, temperature, ingredients such as dairy and other proteins, starches, fiber, oil, and some meat flavors that are stable to heat, and a specialized piece of equipment called a twin-screw extruder, she explains. This creates a fibrous, textured, meatlike product that can be flavored, colored and shaped to resemble cuts of chicken, beef, pork and other meats.

Prabhu notes that her company has developed analogues resembling chicken nuggets, burgers and breakfast sausages using 50% dairy ingredients. These ingredients include whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate, milk protein concentrate, texturized whey protein, along with wheat protein.

Animal-derived proteins can improve function and flavor in flexitarian analogues. Meat analogues should use nonmeat proteins and just enough meat to get the natural meat flavor that can woo both meat eaters wanting to eat healthier and veggie lovers wanting to eat a more-natural-flavored product, says Katen. A good veggie hot dog with soy protein isolate is much better with added egg whites to give it the snap of a red-meat hot dog.

Processed meat analogues, Katen says, need to be cooked to a higher temperature to make sure that nonmeat ingredients gel to form the desired texture. Some nonmeat ingredients, like the wheat gluten used in a veggie hot dog, need to be cooked and held at 190°F to develop a gel, vs. meat and meat ingredients that would be cooked to 165°F. Methylcellulose in veggie chicken patties also requires holding back formulation water for hydration so it can surround the ingredients to glue, or bind, them together, he adds.

With more water, freeze/thaw stability could be an issue. With meat items, we can extract the meat proteins, and they will hold the natural water and added water, Katen says. With meat analogues, we still look at the water-holding capacity of the formulation and add ingredients for freeze/thaw, purge control, improved texture upon reheating, and binding or gelling agents to keep it from crumbling or falling apart. As a result, he notes, ingredient statements on meat analogues are two to three times longer than a meat item.

One way to shorten ingredient statementsand improve the productsis to use all-natural dried plum paste as a processing aid. Many of those products are either extremely dry or lack a whole lot of flavor, says James M. Degen, CMC, consultant, California Dried Plum Board, Sacramento. The two things that dried plums have always brought to the party, whether as a fat replacer in meat products or meat analogues, is the ability to add and hold moisture naturally while the product is being cooked and through freezing. What dried plums do, is they take on all the flavors of the recipe. We rarely get above 3% of the raw meat block. Our goal is that you never use enough to change the flavor.

All in good taste

Nevertheless, flavor can limit the acceptance of some analoguesespecially those made with soy, which some consumers malign as having a beany flavor.

The growth in the meat analogue market will happen when the available products, like those containing soy, better resemble and taste like the products that they were intended to substitute, says Prabhu. Using soy proteins in combination with other proteins, like whey proteins and/or concentrate, and other milk-derived proteins and flavoring ingredients that provide a texture and flavor similar to meat, would help reduce the beany off flavors of soy.

Alternatively, flavor ingredients can help. Bold, well balanced flavors can be useful in offsetting what some find to be objectionable notes, says Susan Parker, creative flavorist, Kraft Food Ingredients, Memphis, TN. Another option is to use masking technology. She notes a flavor enhancer designed to work with beef flavor might help reduce the soy notes that the consumer doesnt like.

Parker notes that available flavors designed to replicate the cooking process, like grilling, roasting, frying, caramelizing and smoking, as well as those that emulate notes from pan drippings, do not contain animal protein, yet offer succulent, cooked-meat profiles. They can replace expensive or low-use manufacturing methods.

Baked and steamed seemingly would be the top contenders for flexitarians, as health and wellness are key drivers for them when choosing what to eat, adds Justin Young, executive chef, Kraft Food Ingredients. Steaming adds a little more complexity for the processor, but this type of application can be left to the consumer to finish the cooking of the application.

If those consumers are anything like Pickarski, theyll be happy to do so. As long as it tastes good, hes open to trying it. Its OK to eat meat. Its OK to be vegetarian, he says. Were not herbivores. Were not carnivores. Were omnivores. And I think flexitarianism is bringing us back to being omnivores.

Kimberly J. Decker, a California-based technical writer, has a B.S. in consumer food science with a minor in English from the University of California, Davis. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area, where she enjoys eating and writing about food. You can reach her at [email protected].