The Plant-Based Subway Teriyaki Steak Costs the Same as the Meat-Based Version

I had previously tried Subway’s vegan chicken tikka sandwich, which I found delicious.

Source: Initiated

Subway has stored plant-based meat at the counter next to veggies and plant-based patties and away from meat and fish. I’m not a huge steak fan, but producing the same texture in a plant-based equivalent can be tricky, and I was intrigued to see how Subway’s version stacked up.

The plant-based steak is made by The Vegetarian Butcher, a Dutch fake meat brand now owned by Unilever. A spokesperson for Subway told Insider that the steak was made of “vegetable structure” – which itself consists of water, soy protein, wheat gluten and wheat starch – as well as other ingredients like onion, herbs, spices and yeast extract.

I could tell the meat was fake because of the buttery flavor I often notice in plant based meat. The texture was great and the teriyaki sauce helped disguise the fact that it wasn’t real meat.

Plant-based meats, cheeses, and milks cost more to produce than animal products — at Walmart, for example, many brands of vegan cheese slices cost twice as much per ounce as their dairy counterparts. And restaurants typically order them in smaller quantities, which means they don’t benefit from economies of scale.

Sources: pizzeria menu, Starbucks menu, walmart

By pricing plant-based items the same as their meaty counterparts, fast-food chains like Subway, McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King appear to want to help make fake meat more affordable, which could help get rid of the so-called “vegan tax.”

Sources: Initiated, Initiated, Initiated, The Guardian