John Myers
Vegetarian means without meat, but not necessarily without animal suffering.
“Vegetarian” means without meat, but not necessarily without animal cruelty. Because if you look at the list of ingredients, you often discover eggs on the list.
Eggs are an important source of protein. They are particularly good at providing strength and structure – better than vegetable proteins. Eggs are also often preferred to vegetable proteins in terms of taste. Therefore, many veggie products often contain a lot of eggs.
In the spring of 2017, the consumer advice centers examined 127 meat, sausage and cream cheese alternatives nationwide in a market survey. Their result: The sausage substitute products examined were mainly based on wheat, soy and chicken protein. The egg content in the veggie sausage varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some contain no egg at all – so they are vegan. Some consist of up to 70 percent egg white.
Egg Production: Laying hens live short lives, male chicks are shredded
The crux: Animals also have to die for eggs. According to the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food, a laying hen lays around 290 eggs a year on average. After about 18 months it is usually slaughtered due to decreasing productivity. The laying hen then ends up as a soup hen in the food retail trade or is further processed into sausage. In addition, according to the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, around 45 million male chicks are killed each year in the breeding of laying hens in Germany. The reason: They do not lay eggs and are not good broilers. So: Animals also (indirectly) die for vegetarian sausages.
Research is being carried out into substitutes for eggs
According to ProVeg Germany (formerly Vegetarian Association Germany), around eight million people in Germany eat vegetarian food. According to the Max Rubner Institute, around 20 percent of all households in Germany bought meat substitutes in 2015. So the vegetarian products industry is a significant market. And meanwhile, scientific research is picking up speed. For example at the University of Hohenheim. There, a working group of meat scientists is working on the production of vegan sausages – i.e. without eggs. Their goal: to make vegan sausage even more meat-like.
