Can seafood made of plants boost interest in food alternatives and reel in consumers? | CBC News

by english_major

21 Comments

  1. I’d love to be able to go to a vegetarian sushi restaurant. We tend to avoid sushi as we have tired of avocado and cucumber rolls.

  2. Sure, if they sell it at a reasonable price.

    [“Vegan Zeastar”](https://veganfinestfoods.com/product-category/vegan-zeastar/) makes a variety of “seafood” products that look and taste like the real thing. But it is insanely expensive right now.

    The “Vegan Zeastar Zalmon Sashimi 230g” costs about 6,50 euro or nearly 30 euro’s for a kilo.

    I have eaten it and its awesome, but that price…..

    https://preview.redd.it/uar31mj0efja1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=8bc6b340a97c40413c7b56fcbe4c243a8fcb78bb

  3. I just hope they recreate the texture & not the “seafood” flavor. Most people use lemon & seasoning to mask the flavor so I don’t see the use in trying to recreate it.

  4. Ok_Competition_4810 on

    Well… it doesn’t visually look great but might try it in sushi or as a topping in a salad

  5. I think the answer to this question is Yes.

    I also think this is an eventuality brought on be necessity, the mother of invention. As we deplete the seas we’re going to need an alternative source of food. We already have moved on to eating fish that we didn’t used to. Over-fishing will make this more profitable than conventional methods and in a capitalist world (for better or worse) that’s the most important factor.

  6. antigoneelectra on

    For me, no. One of my biggest reasons for being a vegetarian was fish and seafood. I just can’t stomach the smell, taste and texture. Even “faux” fish and seafood products, I just can’t. Looking at them, even knowing they aren’t meat, just makes me ill. I am fine with most faux chicken, burgers and sausage type products, so long as they aren’t too texture or visually like meat (and that red, not cooked through look). If these kinds of products, though, turn people to a more vegetarian lifestyle, then I’m all for it, so long as it’s a healthy and has less negative environmental impact compared to animal products.

  7. Any of the false seafood things I have ever tried were pretty ungood. Hope they can improve on that.

  8. jessiecolborne on

    I have no interest in anything that looks or tastes like meat/fish. I’m a vegetarian because I want to avoid those things.

  9. Sympatheticvillain on

    Can they make plant based shrimp? I developed an allergy in my late 20’s and I miss shrimp a bunch.

  10. There’s a vegetarian sushi place in Markham Ontario Canada called Tenon Sushi and man oh man, it’s some of the best I’ve ever had. I have no idea how it could taste similar but not? I end up feeling more full too!

  11. >These startups come at a tricky time for the sector. Plant-based meat alternatives launched amid much hype, with U.S. grocery store sales growing 45 per cent in 2020, according to the Good Food Institute, a U.S. non-profit that promotes alternatives to animal products. Since then, consumer enthusiasm has waned, leading to a drop in supermarket sales. Industry analysts say some consumers didn’t want to pay the premium prices of many of the products, while others may not have been convinced by the taste.

    I think the current inflationary prices for food explain why Beyond Meat Stock is down. I don’t think taste has anything to do with it. Some plant based meat alternatives have been getting great reviews.

    Here is a blind taste test where 5 of 8 meat eaters preferred the taste of the Impossible burger over the one made of cow.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYOCv-y8ckM

    Here is where meat eaters at the Meatopia Festival were fooled, and loved the plant based chikn.
    https://youtu.be/6o6DAZTp1pk?t=331

    Show original message

  12. Honestly, of all of the currently, readily available vegetarian products that try to imitate a meat option, those imitating fish and seafood products are at best unconvincing at at worst utterly foul.

    I’m just over 30 (holy fuck) and have been vegetarian for over 20 years since I was told what meat was – it was an awful situation of back and forth manipulation and removing and pretending to re-add animal products one by one in between myself and my family until they finally let me live without eating dead animals. Took a few years.

    But seafood and fish were the last things I ate as meat and also the things I liked the most. Prawns. Tuna. Scampi etc were the things I liked the most when I ate meat and actually were (?are) my favourite foods ever. But I’ve not eaten them in over 20 years. Recently I’ve tried a lot of vegetarian and vegan subs, especially as they seem to be becoming much more popular but honestly, none of them are usually remotely good. The must be a market for these things that actually have good fishy (sour plum vinegar and kelp flakes?) flavour and aren’t just something made of starch in the shape of some sort of seafood and coated in breadcrumbs and called it.

    I’m honestly so disappointed with all of the options atm. And if I’ve not eaten it in 20 years or more and I’m disappointed, meat eaters aren’t going to be swayed.

    On that note. The vegan prawns I got recently were culinarily offensive to my veggie open family recently. They only ate them because I made a Marie Rose. I could barely stomach them myself. And they were expensive and highly regarded as fuck.

  13. hareofthepuppy on

    I tried plant based salmon sushi (nigiri) last week for the first time. I’m pescatarian so I also ordered salmon nigiri, and although I could tell the difference, I was amazed how close it was.

  14. I’ve never had veggie fish, but I must say, it sounds pretty gross. I’d love to try any hood recommends anyone might have for the good stuff. The price doesn’t matter as I want the first impression to be a good one.

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