Page 9 - National Poultry Newspaper

Are Australians being duped by plant-based meats?
AUSTRALIA'S reputa- shelves, arguing words One respondent said
Fable Food Co chief ex- products used by the meat convinced there is a fine portunities for Australia's
tion as a meat-loving na- tion may be changing, as the past year saw a boom in sales of plant-based meat alternatives that seek to mimic the taste, texture and appearance of animal products.
such as ‘meat’ and ‘beef’ or images of livestock on product packaging dupe customers into mistakenly buying what they think is meat.
it was “very confusing when images of animals are on packaging, when manufacturers try to make the product look like an animal product and when they name their products with very similar-sounding names to meat products.”
ecutive officer Michael Fox echoed the sentiment.
industries in their sur- vey, Mr Tattam felt it was “pretty obvious” that the products were plant-based, given they were all labelled as such.
line between what they view as verging on false advertising and what the plant-based industries pro- claim products to be.
farmers and exporters. “Australia, as a food ex- porting powerhouse, can and should leverage exist- ing trade channels and the strength of our premium brand to increase the over- all volume and value of our protein exports with new protein categories,” the APC said in a statement on
However, Australia's meat industry has hit out at the slew of plant-based alterna- tives entering the market for what it claims are the misleading ways they are presented to customers.
Another indicated the tendency for the products to display the “meat words significantly larger and more prominent than the plant-based words” also confuses matters further.
“We don't want to con- fuse consumers...
They have accused the plant-based protein makers of “a deliberate strategy to unfairly trade on the repu- tation of Australia's meat and livestock industries,” Beef Central reported.
the inquiry.
With the global demand
Plant-based meats, or plant-based proteins, are meat alternatives that take the form of many familiar meaty favourites, such as burger patties made from pea protein and braised ‘beef’ made from shiitake mushrooms.
Australia's meat, poul- try and seafood industries argued the survey shows people who mistook at least one plant-based meat prod- uct for animal meat were more likely to be elderly, those who use English as a second language or those who are low-income con- sumers.
“We want to do the com- plete opposite and make it very clear that our product is not made from animals,” Mr Fox said.
“Their product is a sub- stitute for chicken, so you have to make the reference in some way – otherwise, people wouldn't understand it.”
According to the report, Red Meat Advisory Coun- cil chair John McKillop complained in a letter to the Australian govern- ment of plant-based meats piggybacking off the bil- lions of dollars invested by the meat and livestock sector to establish their reputations.
for meat projected to rise 73 percent by 2050, the alternative proteins body warned against mischarac- terising the inquiry as con- ventional proteins versus new proteins.
Valid concerns over the environmental and health implications of eating meat have seen these imitation products take off globally in recent years, particularly in the US and China – the two nations that are the world's largest meat con- sumers.
In France, plant-based products have been prohib- ited from using meat-relat- ed terms such as ‘sausage’ and ‘steak’ since 2018.
However, the plant-based proteins sector disputes the legitimacy of the findings, with a spokesperson for the Alternative Proteins Coun- cil claiming the survey “uses questionable method- ology that doesn't replicate an in-store experience.”
Using the example of Fable Food's plant-based “meaty mushroom burg- er”, Mr Fox suggested the words ‘burger’ and ‘meaty’ help to describe to consum- ers what the product is, and how they can expect it to taste, while clearly includ- ing the fact that it is made from mushrooms rather than meat.
The alternative proteins sector counters this argu- ment, saying that leverag- ing such a reputation is in Australia's best interests, as the sector presents new op-
The inquiry is expected to present its report by Feb- ruary 2022.
First appeared on kyodonews.net
Seafood Industry Aus- tralia chief executive offic- er Veronica Papacosta said: “More and more of these plant-based products are being sold in supermarkets right around the country and it's clear their labelling is becoming increasingly deceptive.”
“Our whole value propo- sition is that our product isn't made from animals,” said Fox, whose company uses shiitake mushrooms as the base of their alterna- tive meat products.
“I don't think it's mislead- ing,” he said of a product emblazoned with the words “chicken-free chicken” alongside an image of the bird.
The tactics being em- ployed moreover are more devious, they argue.
The Australian Broad- casting Commission re- ported similar challenges to labelling plant-based proteins in the US and Eu- rope.
Instead, he said the la- belling descriptors are nec- essary to communicate to customers what the product is and how they can con- sume it.
Evidence submitted to the Senate inquiry by the Aus- tralian Competition and Consumer Commission regulatory body showed that of the more than half- million complaints it re- ceived over 18 months, only 11 were related to plant- based product labelling, most of which were from meat industry representa- tive bodies.
“The success of both in- dustries will be necessary to meet the clear challenge ahead – to feed a world of 10 billion people by 2050 with finite resources,” the APC said.
The concerns prompted a recent Senate inquiry into the labelling standards of plant-based proteins and their alleged appropriation of Australian meat brand- ing.
Still, meat lobbyists are
According to a report by alternative proteins think tank Food Frontier, Aus- tralia – one of the world's highest per capita meat con- sumers – saw a 46 percent growth in sales of plant- based meat in the fiscal year 2020, with a doubling of the number of products available to consumers.
In August, a national survey of 1000 people commissioned by the Aus- tralian meat, poultry and seafood industries showed six in 10 consumers are de- ceived by the current pack- aging used for plant-based proteins.
Similar research by Food Frontier found that out of 252 plant-based meat prod- ucts reviewed, 100 percent use one or more terms on front-label packaging to in- dicate they are meat-free, and only 8 percent use an ‘unmodified’ meat term such as ‘beef’ or ‘chicken’.
“It's in that burger for- mat you can eat up like a burger, it's made from mushrooms and its taste is meaty,” Mr Fox said.
However, traditional meat industries have tak- en umbrage at the plant- based proteins popping up on Aussie supermarket
Respondents to the sur- vey pointed to the use of animal imagery and the emphasis on meat descrip- tors when labelling plant- based products as the key sources of confusion.
The APC spokesperson said: “The plant-based nature of products is the motivation for consumer purchases.”
Sydney resident Sebastian Tattam, a regular consumer of plant-based meat offer- ings, failed to see how the meat alternatives could be dubbed ‘misleading’.
“That, in my view, and I think in any reason- able person's view, is very clear.”
When shown the five
www.poultrynews.com.au
National Poultry Newspaper, November 2021 – Page 9