LEDE: By most estimates, only about 2 or 3 percent of Americans are vegetarians. But more than forty percent of Americans aged eightenn to twenty-nine choose to eat meatless at least once a week. That's the market the food industry is going for with new vegetarian products that mimic the flavor… and the texture… of meat. Harvest Public Media’s Jeremy Bernfeld (“BURN-fell-d”) has the story.

Script:
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Bob Sholar is a lot like most vegetarians, except for one big difference: sometimes he eats meat.

Sholar 918 (Thanksgiving) It’d just be Thanksgiving, Christmas, maybe a birthday, something like that thrown in – just the special meal times of the year. Other than that we don’t go out of our way to eat meat.

Sholar is part of a growing new trend the food industry is looking to tap into.

They’re called “Flexitarians” – health conscious, mostly young consumers who are cutting back on meat in their diets.

Sholar lives in Parkville, Missouri, outside Kansas City – legendary barbecue country and home of the North American World Series of Barbecue. We’re talking serious meat. But Sholar cut meat mostly out of his diet because he was worried about his cholesterol.

Sholar413 (Salad) You try not to eat salad every day. You look at what you can do with pasta, what you can do with certain casseroles, what you can do with beans and nuts and mixtures of things. Sometimes you’re looking to make something taste a bit like meat, a lot of times you’re not – you’re just realizing you just don’t eat meat.

Morgan (alternatives) “I would say that a lot of our customers tell us that they’re looking for some alternatives and they’re looking for new ways to think instead of this standard American diet that’s very animal protein focused.”

Sarah Morgan is a healthy eating specialist for the Whole Foods supermarket chain.

Morgan (comfort) “They say that there are a lot of ways and different foods out there that kind of allow them to eat in a way that they still get maybe those comfort foods .”

That’s the new holy grail for some food companies. Vegetarian foods that replicate the carnivore’s food experience so they don’t feel that they’re sacrificing while giving up meat.

Vegetarian options like Boca Burgers and Tofurky recently started touting their “flame grilled” taste and a new, juicier faux frankfurter.

And even in the heart of the meat and potatoes Midwest food scientists are all over the trend.

[Extruder Tour Ambi]

You hear that? That’s the sound of chicken being made. At least, vegetarian fake chicken.

I checked out the food science lab at the University of Missouri in Columbia that is run by Harold Huff, a research scientist, and Dr. Fu-Hung Hsieh, a professor there. The team recently developed a soy-based vegetarian product meant to mimic the taste, texture and look of real chicken.
Taste isn’t an issue – food companies have had meat flavorings down for years.

Huff (fiber): “The trick is the fine-ness of the fiber.”

The fiber, researcher Huff says, is what makes the texture just right.

Huff-winner: “The mouth-feel and appearance in a product is sometimes just as important as the taste. If it looks bad, people do not want to eat it. If you can make it look like something they’ve already accepted, you’ve got a winner.”

That’s what Ethan Brown is betting on. He’s the president and CEO of Maryland food production company Savage River Farms. His company is working with the University of Missouri and hopes to bring the veggie chicken product to market beginning next month.

Flexitarians won’t flock to rubbery meat forgeries.

Brown (replicating): “I think that’s why you’re seeing people focus on replicating meat.”

Humans have eaten meat for thousands of years, Brown says, there’s no reason to throw that accumulated knowledge out, even if you’re trying to be more of a vegetarian.

Brown (mimic): “Why not create something from plants that mimics the taste, texture and appearance of meat to allow us the terrific culture and recipes, etc., that we’ve so come to enjoy.”

Even with the product’s launch imminent, Brown is having trouble settling on a name for the veggie strips. On the one hand, he wants it made clear they are fully vegan. On the other, he wants to attract meat-eaters. For now, I’m splitting the difference and going with the oxymoronic ‘Veggie Chicken.’

[Cooking Ambi]

Standing in my kitchen, I’m about to satiate both my hunger and my curiosity. Some friends and I are going to throw the veggie chicken into some fajitas.

[Cooking Ambi]

The regular chicken fajitas we made were definitely better. But once you smothered the veggie strip in some sauce, it could probably pass for real chicken pretty well. That’s what the food companies are going for – giving consumers another option.

Bob Sholar, our flexitarian, says he’s skeptical that any vegetarian product can truly mimic the taste, feel and look of
meat.

But like any good Midwesterner, he wouldn’t mind if they kept trying.

Sholar 1755 Barbecue, you just can’t find a replacement for barbecue. You can put barbecue sauce on lots of things, but you haven’t replaced the barbecue, so that’s a tough one. If they can come up with a good barbecue sandwich then I think that’ll sell.

Half a slab of soy ribs? Maybe one day.