SHARE
COPY LINK

MEAT

Famed veggie burger resembling real meat comes to Germany

Germany is known for being a meat loving country, thanks to its abundance of Wurst (sausages). But the tide is changing.

Famed veggie burger resembling real meat comes to Germany
The Beyond Burger looks and tastes like a real meat burger. Photo: DPA/Lidl

The Beyond Burger, billed as the world's first plant-based pattie that looks, cooks and tastes like a fresh beef burger, has been snapped up by Lidl, signalling that the food culture in Germany is changing.

The supermarket giant announced it had secured exclusive sales rights to US brand Beyond Meat's plant-based food. But anyone interested in trying the meaty non-meat burger will have to be quick as it’s initially a promotional product only available “while stocks last”.

SEE ALSO: 'They're not sausages!' Butchers at Frankfurt trade fair hit back at synthetic meat

The vegan burger, which has received high profile support from rapper Snoop Dogg and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, will be stocked in branches across the country in the coming weeks.

The fake meat is made of plant-based protein, which gives it a texture, smell and taste that's similar to real meat — and it even 'bleeds' beetroot juice. 

Amid health and ethical concerns over meat consumption, 'fake meat' products, such as those made by Beyond Meat, have gained high profile support and investment in recent months.

And the move by Lidl is a sure sign that the vegetarian market is expanding in Germany, a country famous for its meat presence.

According to the Vegetarierbund Deutschland, 1.3 million people in Germany are vegans, while around 8 million are vegetarians. 

SEE ALSO: The Local's meaty vegan guide to Berlin

Jan Bock, purchasing manager at Lidl Germany, said the company had been following the country's food trends.

“We closely monitor food trends and innovations and are delighted to be the first food retailer in Germany to offer our customers the popular Beyond Meat Burger,” he said.

“For vegetarians and vegans we regularly have new products in our assortment, as well as a large selection.

“With the vegan burger patties, which have a fleshy consistency as well as the smell and taste of a conventional burger patty, we offer meat lovers an almost perfect alternative. We are very excited to see how the campaign will be received.”

German supermarkets don't shy away from carrying untraditional burgers. The chain REWE became the first supermarket in the country to carry insect burgers, made largely of buffalo worms, last summer.

SEE ALSO: The complete German supermarket survival guide

Beyond Meat was launched on the US stock exchange in February. The company raised around 240 million dollars at the IPO (initial public offering) and was valued at almost 1.5 billion dollars (€1.3 billion). The firm was founded in California in 2009 and offers plant-based meat substitutes such as burgers and tacos.

Vocabulary

Sales rights – (die) Verkaufsrechte

Promotional product – (das) Aktionsprodukt

German Vegetarian Union – (der) Vegetarierbund Deutschland 

Smell and taste – (der) Geruch und (der) Geschmack

The campaign/promotion – (die) Aktion

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY

German word of the day: Grenze

From national borders to personal limitations, this German word is a great one to add to your active vocabulary.

German word of the day: Grenze

Why do I need to know Grenze?

Because Grenze is one of those nifty words that has multiple uses beyond its most literal meaning, and which can also be used in verb form.

As with many German nouns, it also functions well as a compound noun (i.e. paired with other nouns to create a new word) so learning this word could add several new words to your vocabulary at once. 

What does it mean? 

Die Grenze (pronounced like this) can be best translated as border in English, but can also mean limit or boundary, depending on the context.

When you hear the word in a geographical sense, it’s usually used to discuss national borders, such as Germany’s borders with nine other countries.

Of course, borders don’t have to be national: a Stadtgrenze would refer to the city limits, while Bundeslandgrenzen are the borders between Germany’s federal states. Want to know where the border crossing is? In that case, you’ll need to locate the Grenzübergang (also a feminine noun). 

An Abgrenzung, meanwhile, is any kind of demarcation. 

In the list of useful compound nouns that can be made using Grenze, one particularly interesting one is Phantomgrenze. This word is used to describe borders that don’t physically exist but that take the form of cultural, political or economic divides – a prime example being the East/West divide that still exists in Germany more than three decades after reunification.

READ ALSO: How does Germany’s ‘phantom border’ still divide the country?

Less literally, you can use Grenzen to discuss physical or emotional limitations, or to talk about being pushed to the limit (an die Grenzen gestoßen sein). In a similar sense, there may be political boundaries (politische Grenzen), or scientific ones (wissenschaftliche Grenzen) that haven’t yet been crossed. 

You may have recently learned to set boundaries in your personal life, which can be described in German as “Grenzen setzen”. In that case, you may also want people to respect those boundaries (Grenzen respektieren). 

In fact, almost any well-known English phrase that refers to limits, borders or boundaries can usually be translated using Grenzen. For example, “Meine Leidenschaft kennt keine Grenzen” means “My passion knows no bounds.” 

Of course, this being German, there are countless other ways you can adapt Grenze not just into compound nouns but also into verbs or adjectives. 

Grenzen, of course, means “to border” while angrenzen means “to border on” and begrenzen means “to limit”. Speaking of which, if you’re hoping to snap up a discounted deal, you may well be warned: “Das Angebot ist stark begrenzt.” That tells you that the offer is limited, so you’d better hurry while stocks last!

Where does it come from?

Interestingly enough, the word Grenze has Slavic roots and stems from the Polish word granica, which also means border.

Geography buffs may well observe that Germany shares a fairly long border with Poland (along with eight other countries), so the etymology of the German word seems incredibly fitting. 

READ ALSO: Five German words that come from Polish

Use it like this: 

Es ist wichtig, die Grenzen anderer Menschen zu respektieren.

It’s important to respect other people’s boundaries. 

Wie viele Länder grenzen an Deutschland? 

How many countries border Germany?

SHOW COMMENTS