MADRID, Dec 20 — With foie gras prices on the rise in the run-up to the holidays, vegan alternatives to the famous French delicacy are enjoying a moment in the spotlight. Indeed, the growing number of brands in the sector are focusing on lower prices to seduce consumers in an alternative approach to focusing solely on animal welfare.

In Spain, the Hello Plant Foods brand is proud of its latest innovation. This specialist in plant-based alternatives to meat — which became known for its burger patty composed of only 10 ingredients — even boasts of having developed the very first vegan foie gras available to restaurant suppliers. Made with cashew nuts, coconut oil, lentil flour, Armagnac and beet extract, this foie gras took a year of development for the Spanish brand to perfect the recipe of its product, called Hello Fuah!, which it claims to be "hyper realistic.” Consumers will be able to make up their own minds as the in-store launch took place at the very beginning of December, following the product’s announcement via the brand’s Instagram page.

This novelty lands just a few days after the arrival of an alternative from the food industry giant, Nestlé. Through its Garden Gourmet brand, the multinational is entering the vegan foie gras market with a product currently available in Spain and Switzerland, where it is sold for CHF 7.95 per 180g, or about US$8.50. While the production of the famous delicacy is banned in various countries, such as Denmark, the United Kingdom and Australia, food brands are coming up with new products to try to seduce consumers with their alternatives. As King Charles III banned the famous French specialty from British royal tables, research is underway to provide better vegan recipes that can truly replace foie gras without creating frustration. For Garden Gourmet’s "voie gras,” the composition was developed by a German laboratory, and is based on miso, yeast, toasted sesame and truffle.

At the latest SIAL international food industry trade fair, which brought 265,000 food industry professionals from all over the world to Paris, the plant-based offer—accounting for a quarter of food innovations—featured recipes for animal-protein-free foie gras alongside vegan tuna and chicken. In the start-up section, a French company called Aberyne made mouths water with its plant-based formula, billed as the "first top-of-the-range plant-based foie gras,” to be eaten cold or served pan-fried. And, for the holidays, even the French frozen food specialist Picard has got in on the game, with its cashew nut and mushroom based offering priced at €5.99 or US$6.35 per 220g box, forming part of a complete plant-based menu.

The distributor has opted not to called its product "faux gras,” the name used by one of the precursor brands on the shelf. Based on water, coconut oil, potato starch, sunflower proteins, tomato pulp and champagne, according to the label listed by the Open Food Facts database, the Brussels-based company Gaia has launched its "faux gras” 10 years ago.

The story of vegan foie gras is indeed not new. But, in a context of changing eating habits, with a quarter of French people limiting their meat consumption (source: FranceAgriMer), the rise of "fake” foie gras comes at a time when the price of the original product is twice as high this holiday season. France’s Interprofessional Committee of Foie Gras (Cifog) trade body warned in March that prices would rise. Food to feed ducks and geese is more expensive (+22 per cent over one year, at the end of March 2022) and producers have had to invest in adapting their buildings and equipment in response to the bird flu epidemic. This historic health crisis has led to the loss of 17.3 million poultry birds in France alone, including 3.8 million ducks for the foie gras industry. In Spain, the Hello Plant Foods brand is therefore not shy about reaching out to new consumers with the argument of price. It says that its Hello Fuah! product is 50 per cent cheaper than a regular foie gras.

It remains to be seen how successful vegan foie gras will be on holiday menus. Still, in a year’s time, another type of alternative foie gras could be making its way onto festive tables, in the form of a synthetic foie gras, cultivated in a lab by the French start-up Gourmey, which has planned to install a 4,300 m3 facility in the Paris region by 2024. Its retail price is yet to be confirmed. — ETX Studio