What Exactly Is Vegan Bacon?

[piggynose]

I am just wondering if it tastes anything like bacon!

has anybody on here actually tried it?

tia

[Vagus]

I once bought veggie (not vegan) bacon for some vegetarian relatives we had round for Christmas dinner one year, to wrap round their vegetarian sausages. The bacon was difficult to wrap as it was quite stiff and snapped. I don't know what it tasted like but the vegetarians ate it.

[barry1010]

The ingredients in one brand of vegan bacon

Water, Soya Protein Concentrate (22%), Soya Protein Isolate (7%), Flavouring, Pea Protein Isolate (4%), Vegetable Extracts (Radish, Beetroot, Carrot, Paprika), Salt, Potato Starch, Rapeseed Oil, Maltodextrin, Iron, Vitamin B12, Acid: Citric Acid

Fancy it? 

[Old_Geezer]

It's bacon that comes from a vegan pig.

[webbo3]

Not bacon

[webbo3]

barry@17:45

\\

The ingredients in one brand of vegan bacon

Water, Soya Protein Concentrate (22%), Soya Protein Isolate (7%), Flavouring, Pea Protein Isolate (4%), Vegetable Extracts (Radish, Beetroot, Carrot, Paprika), Salt, Potato Starch, Rapeseed Oil, Maltodextrin, Iron, Vitamin B12, Acid: Citric Acid

Fancy it? 

 

Sounds healthy.

[drmorgans]

 

I can see the strap-line "it looks a bit like bacon, it tastes a bit like bacon but with all the healthy goodness of soya protein"

 

[Canary42]

I tried one - it looked like bacon, tasted more like kippers.

 

[Vagus]

Mmm, some veggie bacons think that putting a smoke like taste in it, makes it like smoked bacon. Not everyone likes smoked bacon, me and OH for two, we really dislike that Smokey taste.

[New Judge]

I've looked at some of this stuff when browsing in a supermarket. Almost without exception, I found that I could identify nothing in them that was something that I recognised as an unadulterated foodstuff. More than that, some of the ingredients sound positively dangerous. Take "Maltodextrin", an ingredient of this concoction:

"Maltodextrin is a type of carbohydrate, but it undergoes intense processing. It comes in the form of a white powder from rice, corn, wheat, or potato starch. Its makers first cook it, then add acids or enzymes to break it down some more. The final product is a water-soluble white powder with a neutral taste."

Why on Earth would you eat something like that? But more than that, the age old (and still unanswered) question prevails: why, if you don't want to eat meat and other animal products (which entirely one's privilege) would you call a concoction of chemicals and powdered daffodil bulbs after a meat product?

[andres]

No idea what it tastes like but the ingredients look healthy enough.  

[Vagus]

Maybe some vegetarians like the taste of meat but don't want to eat a dead animal, which I think is acceptable. We eat far less meat than we used to but I don't personally like 'pretend' meat products, I just enjoy a lot of foods which don't contain meat.

[drmorgans]

 

Aren't daffodils mildly poisonous?

 

[New Judge]

"...but the ingredients look healthy enough."

What?

Every one of the ingredients of this stuff, bar water, rapeseed oil and salt, is highly processed. That stuff which is simply billed as "Maltodextrin" is a mixture of ultra-processed ingredients which end up as a tasteless white powder, the only function of which can be to bulk up the volume and weight of the product.   

Ultra processed food is notoriously unhealthy. Couple this with the fact that a vegan diet is deficient in vital vitamins, minerals and trace elements which only come from a normal diet and it is the perfect a recipe (no pun intended) for health problems.

[Redhelen72]

Something for certain meat eaters get their knickers in a twist over!

[Atheist]

I'm vegetarian, not vegan. I prefer not to buy veggie or vegan ready-made meals, as they're full of rubbish, but I think that new converts find it easier to cope with (just as meat-eaters prefer Mc Ronalds etc to properly made dishes). As for the vitamins, that's our business, just as the meat-eaters don't care too much about them anyway and wouldn't like to be lectured about them.

Eat fresh, varied and unprocessed as much as you can.

I don't choose veggie stuff which is pretending to be meat there's no need.

[pastafreak]

As far as I'm concerned, the more ingredients something contains, then the further it is from real, healthy food. Also, if you can't pronounce those ingredients, that's another reason not to eat it.

Almost every food that hasn't just been picked or butchered...is processed. What's bad, is how much. Give me real bacon anytime.

Back years ago, I tried Quorn products...so I'd know what my 13 year old "vegetarian for 6 months" daughter was eating...and continued to use the mince on occasion. Until I realised just how much unnecessary stuff was in it.

[Atheist]

Don't forget that loads of non veggie food is processed. Cheese, suasages, black puddings, meat pies, burgers, all ready-made meals, most bread and pastries......

[New Judge]

“Maybe some vegetarians like the taste of meat but don't want to eat a dead animal,…”

That’s their prerogative. But they won’t get the taste of meat unless they eat er…meat. But that doesn’t mean they should call processed vegetable matter “meat.” It’s confusing. And if you think not, I was in a rush a while ago looking to pick up a pack of bacon and picked up a packet of this:

https://tinypic.host/image/FFVRZ

It wasn’t in amongst the usual “plant based” or “free from” rubbish – it was in among proper bacon. Fortunately I noticed it before I had checked. I also spied a manager roaming about (a rare sight in Tesco’s) and told him what I thought.

“Aren't daffodils mildly poisonous?”

I think they are considerably poisonous (though the symptoms, whilst very unpleasant, are not usually life threatening). I was being flippant. But I don’t think that it makes much odds. It seems all this stuff is processed to death and I imagine all of the original attributes (either healthy or unhealthy)  are pummelled out of them during their journey through the factory.

[Togo]

//What Exactly Is Vegan Bacon?//

A much less enjoyable way of killing yourself than eating the real stuff. 

[pastafreak]

New Judge @19:42...I find myself getting extremely annoyed when the pretend, looks-like meat products are displayed along with the real thing. They could at least be on a separate shelf.  Even online shopping is a pain because you may search for "chicken"...and get all sorts of none chicken imitations.