Investments companies have also been attracted by seeing meat-free sales rising. Four companies in this guide are now owned by private equity investment companies, who, like meat companies, may not be in it for ethical reasons: But we already know that preparing our own food from scratch using fresh vegetables, beans and pulses and wholegrains and being moderate with salt and sugar is better for us. So, if you’re concerned about your health, it’s better to look for minimally processed meat-free products, like tofu, tempeh, or ones where you can still see the beans and the vegetables rather than the ones that look like meat. Sources soya from European farmers and states: “we work with plant breeders to create new tofu soybean varieties that are suitable for cultivation in our climes”

No Meat, Oumph! and Fry’s – Blue Horizon Ventures is a Swiss ‘mission-driven’ venture capital fund that has been a controlling shareholder of the Livekindly vegan collective since 2020. See Companies behind the brands box at the end for Livekindly Collective. Clearspot, Tofoo and Biona make tempeh, a traditional Indonesian food, made of fermented soya beans – although other beans can be used – and a fungus called Rhizopus. Unlike tofu, the beans remain whole giving it a chunky, chewy texture. It is less processed than tofu and has more fibre but, like tofu, it is high in protein, equivalent to meat, milk and eggs. Tofu For these reasons, we think it’s best to avoid South American soya, which many of the brands in this guide do.The name is a portmanteau of Doppelgänger and Substitute. This soy-free vegetable protein product has a slight hint of pork flavour but an unpleasant texture and prompted reactions ranging from “bad” to “vomit-worthy”.

Gosh! – Efanor Investimentos is a Portuguese investment group which owns food retail, clothing, electronics and telecoms companies. It bought Gosh! in 2021.Steve: "I half-welcome lab grown meat; I know the facts of climate impact of animal consumption, and plant based meat alternatives are highly processed and have problems of their own." Beef cows in the UK are often reared outdoors on grass, but are usually killed after one or two years. Across most of Europe, cattle are kept indoors and fattened on a high grain diet. Beef from outside Europe may have come from Brazilian cattle raised on deforested land. Below we highlight how the brands score for issues such as palm oil, carbon reporting, workers' rights and tax avoidance.

Developed as a collaboration between London’s Saatchi & Saatchi and Japanese agency Dentsu, the campaign will aim to drive brand awareness in the young adult category (18 to 34 years-old.) Soya has long been a staple of Asian and vegetarian/ vegan diets and it is the main ingredient in many of the products rated here. But soya bean cultivation remains linked to deforestation in South America. We look at how sustainable soya-based alternatives are in more detail below. Tempeh

Good to know

The environmental impact of meat analogues is not the only ethical issue. A review of literature on meat alternatives by the Nuffield Foundation considers the health implications of plant-based meats, pointing out that meat analogues may contain similar levels of calories and saturated fat to beef burgers, and may be high in sodium and sugar. Plus they may contain a whole list of other industrially produced ingredients. Still a popular ingredient largely because, unlike most other beans, soya protein is a complete protein containing all the eight essential amino acids that we need. Soya sausages were invented in Germany during the first world war to deal with meat shortages. YouGov found that 88% of people were vegan for animal rights reasons, 79% for environmental reasons and 40% for health reasons. There are still a lot of meat-free products made of soya, but most new products on the market are made from pea protein and wheat – both products that can be grown in the UK and Europe without South American rainforest destruction. Soya beans

The products in this guide vary considerably, from the very simple, such as plain tofu, to the meat analogues which tend to have long lists of ingredients and are more likely to be highly processed. In the context of an otherwise healthy diet, the occasional convenient, highly processed fake meat burger isn’t a problem.

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Vivera, Fridge Raiders and Richmond are owned by JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, some of whose suppliers have been accused of animal cruelty and which, in the case of JBS USA, had the highest total number of animal welfare violations at its slaughter houses of any meat company in the USA between 2016 and 2018. JBS bought plant based brand Vivera in 2021 and in May 2022 it became the majority shareholder in cultured meat company BioTech. A report in 2023 found that Barclays was the biggest financier of JBS over the last eight years.