Why do vegetarian products have to look like real meat?

Question

I find that disgusting and sometimes confusing, because it look so real. I like the taste of veggie meat though, those sausages, burgers and stuff are really nice.

But why can't they make them pink (e.g. coloured with beetroot), blue, green or yellow with red dots and give them a heart shape or something, to make it different from real meat?

Answer 1

Well the purpose was to make it look like real meat so veg@ns and veggies would find it more attractive. For us veggies and veg@ns who use to eat meat its kinda like the good old days wothout any of the guilt and tourture of animals. If it was all those weird colors it wouldn't sell as much!

Answer 2

Then the only way is to be a RAW VEGAN?.

But is that too early for you?

Your question is just for a "transition" period.

Get used to it.

Answer 3

Because that'll look unnatural, there are no other food stuffs in the world that look like that anyway. Although it's a bit confusing that veggie replacement 'meat' looks like meat, smells like it (Quorn ham does which I don't like) it should look like it but not taste or smell like it as who cares what it looks like? That's not it's purpose. Remember most people eat meat cos it doesn't look like a bloody corpse etc it looks ok. It's manufactured anyway, think about burgers!

They'd look a bit stupid in heart shapes, that's just ridiculous what you suggested, the point is for it to go in the stomach not to look pretty! As it definitely won't be when it comes back out again!

Answer 4

Making them look like real meat does attract meat eaters and since us vegetarians are a minority, the food companies aim to make more money this way. And another reason is to help people who have become vegetarian, for example I haven't been a vegetarian all my life and eating veggie meat which still has the texture of meat and looks like meat made it easier for me to stick to my new lifestyle...

Answer 5

They aren't made just for vegans, many people who have had heart attacks and strokes eat them too. Also everyone likes the taste of protein, and I'm told that is why they have a meaty taste.

If you want something different make your own.

Answer 6

To convert meat eaters.

Answer 7

Money. The business is trying to attract meat eating consumers.

If it was say green with pink hearts, it wouldn't be conventional enough for most consumers.

Personally I think it'd be adorable!

Answer 8

It doesn't all look like that but I don't like the look of it it when it does look very like meat. I think it's because the companies that make it need to entice as many people to buy it as possible. For example, I think they think veggies are going to buy it anyway because it's veggie but meat meaters may avoid it if it isn't presented like the the meat they're used to. I don't know for certain but I think that's why they do it.

Answer 9

Sausages, (whether meat or veggie) are not actually in the shape of meat/animals they are in the shape of courgettes. So it is actually the meat eater that is shaping their meat like vegetables rather than the other way round.

And burgers, meat or veggie, are shaped to fit easily into a bun. There's nothing 'meat' about the shape of a burger.

Ironic really.

But would you really want to eat a veggie burger covered in blue dots? I'm not sure I would! lol

Answer 10

Meat made me literally sick as a child, so have never eaten it and cannot stand the taste of anything that manufacturers make to taste like real meat.  Even if I pick up a crisp and not notice that it is smoky bacon or something, I have to spit it out, as I start to gip.

I cannot eat anything that is made from soya or similar that tastes anything like meat.

However, I do eat fish occasionally but only a little, and my stomach is picky with which.

Answer 11

For most of them it's to fit the buns. Sausages and burgers and stuff like that only have certain shapes of buns and rolls.

It's also because they wish the customer to replace the meat item the use with the non-meat item so they market them as similar as possible. It's the producer's choice to make them that way, not the consumer's.

Answer 12

For most of them it's to fit my buns. Sausages and burgers and stuff like that only have certain shapes of buns and rolls.

It's also because they wish the customer to replace the meat item the use with the non-meat item so they market them as similar as possible. It's the producer's choice to make them that way, not the consumer's.

I love the sausage.

Answer 13

well its too expensive too colour them and when they finish making the veggie burgers.... thas how they turn out

Answer 14

That is what has always confused me.  I know the pat answers that the veg*ns always give but were I to give up meat because of ethical reasons or did not like the looks/taste of real meat I certainly would not eat substitutes.  If I gave up for health reasons I could some what understand fake meat.

Answer 15

if i want to eat a burger i don't want it to be heart shaped and pink lol  i want it to look like a burger and taste like one, just not be made of dead animal!  i guess if you think about it.... it doesn't look like real meat... i mean... beef must be made into the shape of a circle, it doesn't come off the cow like that... and there is no veggie chicken that actually looks liek a chicken leg.  it's just shapes your used too (nuggets, patties, etc.) but they're not the shape of the actual meat itself...

Answer 16

If you make it yourself you can make it what ever shape and colour you want!  But if you are imitating something it's just plain commonsense to make it look as much as possible to the real thing!  I won't eat fake meat that doesn't look similar to the real thing cause I would suspect it to be spoiled!

to make your own fake meat: canned pumpkin, oatmeal, wheat germ, soya sauce,

seasoning salt or barbecue seasoning blend all together!

Answer 17

It's because they're convenient shapes to form the centrepiece of a meal - or as someone has said, to fit buns and rolls.

They don't resemble animals in any way - you never saw a flat, round animal, or an animal shaped like a sausage or a rasher did you? Even when they're made of meat they're formed into these non-animal shapes, and  they're so heavily spiced and flavoured, as well as mixed with other stuff like soya, that they no more resemble the pig or cow they came from than they do a soyabean So vegetarian imitations certainly don't resemble meat.

Manufacturers don't make them blue or spotted etc because they aren't appealing to people - quite the opposite. I recall a children's party where the kid's mum had made a marble type cake in pink and blue - the same sponge cake but coloured with unflavoured food colouring. Every single kid ate only the pink bits, nibbling carefully round the blue bits which they left on their plates.

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See /'s cut and paste post? It's (**) - different name, same troll. S/he changed it after a particularly offensive cut and paste yesterday , which angered a lot of people and which you can read about here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

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YA employee Sam has agreed it's abuse and has asked for as much detail as possible to be included when reporting it.

The specific violation is Cheating:

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"Cheating

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Thanks

Edit*  look at that - changed his/her name to ?. Two name changes in one day. Draw your own conclusions