Subway Plant-Based Teriyaki Steak Costs the Same As the Meat Version

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

Source: Insider

Subway stored the plant-based meat at the counter alongside the vegetables and plant patties and away from the meat and fish. I’m not a huge fan of steak, but producing the same texture in a plant-based equivalent can be challenging, 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 Subway spokesperson told Insider that the steak was made of “plant 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-based products – at Walmart, for example, many brands of vegan cheese slices cost twice as much per ounce as their dairy equivalents. And restaurants typically order them in smaller quantities, meaning 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 seem to want to help make fake meat more affordable, which could help to get rid of the so-called “vegan tax.”

Sources: Insider, Insider, Insider, The Guardian