News

Campaign looks at what’s inside ‘plant-based meats’

A new campaign aims to educate consumers on what’s inside “plant-based meats”.

Will Coggin with the Center for Consumer Freedom—the group behind the effort—says they want to show the truth behind “fake meat” and its supposed health benefits.

“These products, unbeknownst to many people, are heavily processed and they’re formed in industrial settings,” Coggin says. “So what we’re telling people is, a veggie burger is not the same thing as a salad. This is a highly-processed concoction made in an industrial setting.”

Coggin says market research has found that almost 40 percent of plant-based protein consumers say they’re trying to avoid processed foods.

“A lot these consumers who are trying to eat healthier and eat less processed foods may actually be, unbeknownst to them, consuming more processed foods if they’ve started working these products into their diet,” he says.”

Ads running in the Wall Street Journal and New York Post feature a side-by-side analysis of the ingredients in real meat versus plant-based bacon and sausage.

“On the one side we have real bacon or really sausage and we say, ‘hey, here are the ingredients’—and it’s a pretty short list,” Coggin says. “On the other side, you have this fake bacon and fake sausage, and the ingredient list might be 40 ingredients long.”

In addition to the ads, a website (CleanFoodFacts.com) provides educational videos and articles on “plant-based meats”.