Plant-based burger patties are the most common meat-replacement products on the market.
Plant-based burger patties can be prepared and consumed in the same way as their meat counterparts – in a bun with the consumers desired toppings! This makes them less dauting and easier to use than products that cannot directly replace meat, such as legumes or tofu.
Plant-based patties can be split into two main categories:
- Meat analogues: aimed to taste like a meat product
- Traditional “Veggie” patties: not designed to taste like meat
There is a continuously growing range of plant-based patties available in our supermarkets, but what do they actually taste like? We decided to get more insight and invited 22 patty consumers along to Feast at Massey University to taste and chew over their sensory experiences of 10 plant-based burger patties and a beef patty in discussion groups.
What did they taste of?
There were so many different sensory characteristics, we’ve divided them by appearance, texture and flavour in the table below: the higher up the list, the more they were mentioned.
Meat analogue patties
Appearance
- Dark brown outside
- Meat-like
- Processed
- Moist
- Oily
- Dry
- Fibrous
Texture
- Meat-like texture/mouth feel
- Moist
- Chewy
- Soft
- Grainy/ granular
- Tender
- Crumbly
Flavour
- Savoury/ umami
- Smoky/grill
- Salty
- Weak beef
- Fat
- Strong beef
- Spices
Beef patty
Appearance
- Dark brown outside
- Meat-like
- Moist
- Processed
- Uniform light brown colour inside
Texture
- Meat-like texture/mouth feel
- Chewy
- Tough
- Cohesive
- Moist
- Hard/solid
Flavour
- Strong meat
- Peppery
- Smoky/ grill
- Spices
- Fat
- Salty
- Savoury/ umami
Traditional ‘veggie’ patties
Appearance
- Processed
- Moist
- Uneven colour inside and outside
- Fibrous
- Dry
- Vegetable chunks
Texture
- Soft
- Moist
- Pasty
- Grainy/ granular Tender
- Chewy
- Dry
Flavour
- Strong vegetable
- Spices
- Savoury/ umami
- Salty
- Legumes
- Peppery
- Smoky/grill
Meat analogue patties
Meat analogue patties are commonly made of soy, pea or wheat protein and aim to imitate the appearance, texture and flavour of a beef patty.
Meat analogue patties vary in how meat-like they are. Some products closely replicate the appearance, texture and flavour of meat while others miss the mark.
We also discussed the sensory attributes of a beef patty to see how the meat analogue patties compared.
The biggest difference between the meat analogue patties and the beef patty was flavour. The meat-analogues had a savoury/ umami and smoky/grill flavour while the beef patty unsurprisingly had a strong beef flavour. Beef flavour was also found in the meat analogue patties but wasn’t as strong. Other flavours like weak vegetable, soy, and wheat-cereal flavours were found in the analogues but not the beef sample.
The beef patty and analogue patties were similar in appearance with a dark brown outside and meat-like appearance. The analogues appeared highly processed and varied from moist to dry in appearance, the beef patty also appeared processed but did not look dry.
Both types of patties had a meat-like mouthfeel and were chewy and moist but the analogues were softer and more tender and had less desirable textures such as crumbly, and grainy/ granular.
Traditional ‘ veggie’ patties
Traditional ‘veggie’ patties are commonly made from vegetables e.g., mushroom, potato, kumara, cauliflower, kale and beetroot, and legumes e.g., beans, lentils, and chickpeas, and are not usually designed to mimic meat.
The sensory attributes of ‘veggie’ patties vary a lot. They can look moist or dry and, unlike meat analogues, are not usually brown in colour. Instead, colours like orange, brown, green, yellow and red/pink are common. They are sometimes heavily processed to the point where the ingredients are unrecognisable while others look more “natural” containing large chunks of vegetables and other ingredients like chickpeas, herbs, and seeds.
The texture of ‘veggie’ patties varies from soft and moist to hard/solid and dry and are often pasty or doughy when chewed. Ingredients like quinoa and seeds create a grainy/ granular texture and can make the patty crumbly.
As you would expect, they commonly have a strong vegetable flavour but are also heavily spiced and salted to provide more flavour. Like the meat analogue samples, the veggie patties were often savoury and sometimes smoky, however, the veggie patties did not have a meat-like flavour.
Further investigations
No doubt this range of different sensory attributes appeal to different types of consumers.
Next, we will invite over 100 consumers, to taste a range of meat analogue patties and traditional ‘veggie’ patties to investigate how the different sensory attributes make them feel (emotional response). Using this information, we will determine which sensory attributes consumers positively engage with and make recommendations for how these products can be made more appealing to different groups of consumers.
Rebekah Orr, 13 Oct 2022