Plant-based food for thought
Do plant-based meat substitutes actually taste like meat? And should they? These were some of the questions on the minds of guests at ‘Tasting the Future of Food’, a vegan meat-tasting event held at Lakeside Restaurant on campus.
The event was co-hosted by the Centre for Social Innovation Management (CSIM) and the research team of VeganmeatUP project, a large research project (£286,000) funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) studying “cultural entrepreneurship in vegan meat markets’.
The event featured presentations by vegan meat entrepreneurs and representatives from NGOs and marketing agencies involved in the development of plant-based meat substitutes.
Dr Yanfei Hu (Surrey Business School), the principal investigator, said, “The research team is thrilled that visionaries and enablers of the UK vegan meat markets are coming to Surrey to discuss how to create social value with disruptive food technologies; ESRC is funding our research as plant-based protein will be vital for the food systems to transition towards net-zero.” Dr Hu has worked with research team members Dr Lydia Certa, Prof Glenn Parry, and Dr Jonathan Chenoweth to organise this public engagement event aiming to use their research for real-world impact.
With 34 per cent of the population now being vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian or flexitarian, and a further 30 per cent being open to eating plant-based meats,* the plant-based meat market is on the cusp of a food revolution.
Guests sampled mouth-watering vegan sausages and frankfurters by Delishh!, porkie pies and empanadas from Cock and Bull (with the irresistible tag line of ‘meat pies and other lies’) and jackfruit chicken wings and Beyond Burger sliders. They then listened to the following speakers to hear their experience with plant-based food:
- Richard Fox, Founder, Cock and Bull
- Indy Kaur, CEO and Founder, Plant Futures Collective
- Alistair Currie, Policy and Public Affairs Manager, The Vegan Society
- Nikita Bilousov, Co-Founder, Delishh!
The speakers then formed a panel, joined by Linus Pardoe, Senior UK Policy Manager of Good Food Institute. The panel was moderated by Prof Andrew Godley (Sussex Business School) and Dr Hu.
The panel discussed the virtues of taste vs texture in plant-based food, social and environmental values and potential contradictions, a revolutionary versus an evolutionary approach, the concerns of ultra-processed food and how that affects animal meat versus vegan meat products, and how the plant-based sector should fight against misleading information.
The tasting was a real Team Surrey effort with VeganmeatUP project members introducing speakers, and students running the logistics of the event with amazing skills and efficiency.
A team of five postgraduate students from International Events Management programme were dedicated to running the logistics in the past eight weeks. Amin Saxena, team leader, commented: “we really enjoyed being entrusted with organising the event from start to finish. It was great to apply what we’ve learned in the classroom to a real ‘live’ setting where there were so many moving parts – registration, audio-visual requirements, catering, the access needs of guests, and photography. All in all it was a great experience and we took away so much from the event as a team and individuals as well.”
The photo of the student event management team shows Amin Saxena, Gita Papatsorn Boonyanakarn, Jiin Im, Ansar Ali Mohmed, Freddie Simpson posing in front of the banner with Dr Yanfei Hu and Dr Lydia Certa.
See here for more information about the UKRI/ESRC funded vegan meat research project.
*EU Smart Protein Project, 2021
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