Meat substitutes or mock meal is touted as healthier, sustainable and cruelty-free. It is evolved from protein extracted from a variety of products including chickenpea, legumes, peas and soya to recreate a fleshy, meat-like product.

In India, eating meat is a celebration. In the West, eating meat twice a day is no big deal. In India, it could happen twice a week. Therefore, those companies which want to operate in this field have to give consumers a very close replica of the real deal — in terms of texture, feel and flavour.

However, plant-based meat too is processed food product. Can processed food be that healthy? It has a lot of soy protein, gluten and emulsifying agents. It could be more inflammatory than natural chicken meat from grass-fed chicken.

Burgill, a fast food chain, has introduced green meat pounder by collaborating with Greenest. They have created a vegetable patty that resembles chicken. KFC collaborated will Beyond Meats to launch plant-based meat nuggets in the US. ITC has introduced Incredible burger patties and Incredible nuggets as plant-based products. GoodDot is one of the earliest players in this market. Blue Tribe Foods have introduced plant-based chicken nuggets.