Audio By Carbonatix
A woman in Miami, Florida, unwittingly purchased a cut labeled “mock meat” at a Publix grocery store. Now she’s warning people against making the same mistake.
TikToker and Publix shopper Barbie (@barbiefrommiami) posted about her mock meat experience on July 16. She was clearly dissatisfied.
“Look, this is mock meat,” she says.
“It’s $11 vs. the real,” Barbie adds, panning the camera to a chuck roast that costs $33.
The so-called mock meat is $5.99 per pound, while the real thing is $8.69 per pound.
The text overlay on her TikTok reads, “Mock meat!!!! Read your labels @publix.”
Barbie further refers to the mock meat as “fake,” giving many the impression she’s suggesting it’s either lab-grown or plant-based.
Her post generated significant discussion about fake vs. real meat and whether Publix is selling the former.
Is ‘Mock Meat’ The Same As ‘Fake Meat’?
Lab-grown meat isn’t the same thing as fake meat, like Beyond Burger. It is true that it was never part of a living animal, but it is meat on a cellular level.
Fake or plant-based meat is created with materials from plants along with additives to make it look, smell, and taste like meat—or an approximation thereof.
Lab-grown meat, on the other hand, is essentially a clone of real meat. Also known as cultured, cultivated, or cell-based meat, it’s created using cells from an actual animal.
As the European Food Information Council (EUFIC) explains, lab-grown meat is created via a four-step process. First, a sample of stem cells is taken from an animal. These cells are put into bioreactors that contain “culture media” that essentially recreates the conditions in which tissue grows. That culture media is manipulated to create the three components of a cut of meat: muscle, fat, and connective tissue.
In the final step of the process, EUFIC reports that those cells “are separated and arranged to ‘build’ the type of meat that is being produced” via a process called scaffolding.
This process debuted for the public in 2013. Since then, it’s generated controversy and intrigue but filled very few stomachs.
As many people pointed out in comments on Barbie’s post, lab-grown meat hasn’t hit grocery stores in the United States. And it was actually outlawed in Florida last year.
So What Was In The Package?
The pack of meat that Barbie says she bought and later returned clearly states what’s actually inside.
Its label reads “mock tender roast/boliche francés.” Boliche francés refers to a cut called the chuck tender or French chuck.
This is not precisely the same cut as a chuck roast, hence the qualifier “mock.” It comes from the outer portion of the shoulder of a cow and, while similar in shape to a tenderloin, is a tougher, leaner cut.
The chuck roast, on the other hand, comes from an adjacent area of the cow’s shoulder. It is a fattier cut than the chuck tender, which owes to its deeper flavor.
The chuck tender is sometimes substituted for the tenderloin, in which case the package may refer to it as “mock tenderloin” or “mock tender steak.”
“Mock” is simply a qualifier that means it’s not the same cut of meat but may have some similar properties.
‘It’s Plant-Based Meat’
Most people pointed out with varying levels of politeness that Barbie was mistaken. The meat isn’t fake; it’s just a different cut.
“It’s a lean cut from the shoulder area of the cow (the chuck primal) and resembles a tenderloin roast in shape,” one person wrote.
A second jested, “Did you return the eye round roast, too? It’s literally eyes.” (It isn’t.)
Others were convinced that Publix is selling fake meat. (It isn’t.)
“It’s plant-based meat,” one wrote. “Vegetarian food.”
Wrote another, “I thought mock meat was plant-based meat.”
Barbie didn’t respond to BroBible’s direct message sent via TikTok Wednesday morning.
Content shared from brobible.com.