Vegetarian smoked sausages tested: the verdict isn’t kind
FavorFlav’s Sabina held her breath when the stick-shaped vegan ‘smoked sausage’ appeared on the table… What she ultimately thought of it can be read in this article about her mashed potatoes with vegetarian smoked sausage experience. And to properly map out the world of plant-based sausages once again, another study was recently conducted, starting with the question: does tasty vegetarian smoked sausage exist?
Because, like many people, we too love traditional Dutch food, and think mashed potatoes without smoked sausage are rather sad. (And smoked sausage is also absolutely delicious in, for example, potato and leek soup!) But yes, we do need to think about the future, and eating less meat (less often) is part of that. So we were also very curious to find out whether there is now a vegetarian smoked sausage on the market that comes close in taste to the real deal…
Seven isn’t always a lucky number
The Consumers’ Association conducted a test with a tasting panel of 60 fans of meat substitutes (so people who aren’t inherently ‘against’ them), and not necessarily all vegetarians. They tasted seven different sausages. The substitutes were also assessed for how healthy they could be considered in terms of saturated fat, protein and salt. And they looked at how sustainable you are being when choosing these sausages instead of smoked sausage made from real meat.
Very mediocre (to poor) scores
If you’re somewhat familiar with the Consumers’ Association’s tests, you may know that there is always a ‘Best in Test’ (the best result) and a ‘Best Buy’ (the best price-quality ratio). Surprisingly, none of these seven sausages earned the honor of being named ‘Best in Test’. The results were simply too mediocre; no sausage scored higher than 7 because of the low taste ratings.
Ouch
Hmm, that doesn’t bode well. And what about the ‘Best Buy’? In the end, that went to Garden Gourmet, because the only two sausages that just managed to receive a barely passing score for ‘taste’ (5.6 and 5.7) didn’t quite measure up nutritionally.
Salty bite
If you want to watch your salt intake, you won’t be much healthier with most vegetarian sausages, which contain around 2 to 2.5 grams of salt per 100 grams of sausage, than with a meat sausage. Only HEMA’s vegetable version and the aforementioned Garden Gourmet smoked sausage are more modest in this respect, with 1.4 and 1.6 grams of salt per 100 grams of sausage, respectively.
Pros and cons
And what about sustainability? Generally speaking, you are indeed being more sustainable with a vegetarian alternative to meat. But Valess sausages consist largely of milk (which of course requires cows), and that is pasture milk; a label that imposes no additional environmental requirements and only modest animal-welfare requirements. The eggs used by Valess have no certification at all; the other sausages containing eggs use eggs with the Beter Leven 2-star certification. The only completely plant-based smoked sausages are those from De Vegetarische Slager and Albert Heijn’s own brand. A caveat: the former contains palm fat, while the latter scores the lowest of all on taste (4.2).
Choose consciously
Good grief, this doesn’t exactly make choosing a vegetarian version of smoked sausage very appealing, does it? Still, it is commendable that so many manufacturers are responding to the ever-growing demand from conscious consumers for meat substitutes for everyday meals, even though it still seems not to be working out very well to make meat imitations genuinely healthy. The Consumers’ Association also offers this tip: if you do choose meat with your mashed potatoes, you can make a big difference by not choosing beef smoked sausage. Chicken and pork production emits considerably less CO2, and if you choose a chicken or pork sausage with three stars from the Beter Leven certification scheme or an Organic, Demeter or EKO certification, you are making the most future-conscious choice.
Also read:
- Hold on, what: cooking potatoes in the bag?
- 5x endive dishes without mashed potatoes
- Want: HEMA’s mille-feuille and smoked sausage hat
Source: Consumentengids
