The breaded shrimp has all the flavours you would expect: salty, sweet and with a slight fibrous feel. However, despite looking and tasting the part, the dish served by Nestlé at a showcase of its newest products last week is called “vrimp” and it does not include any seafood. Among its ingredients are seaweed and peas.
Imitation dishes such as this are springing up on supermarket shelves across the world as rapidly growing demand for alternatives to animal products drives a shift at the world’s biggest food makers. Whereas once “meatless burgers” and dairy-free milk were limited to challenger brands such as Beyond Meat and Oatly, global giants are now ploughing hundreds of millions of pounds into playing catch-up.
At Nestlé, this includes launching Wunda,
