Try to tempt a die-hard carnivore to eat vegetarian or vegan food and the response is usually very predictable; ‘it’s so bland, I’m not eating that rabbit food!’. It’s no secret to thousands of ethical eaters that meatless food tastes great, but now comes a study which shows that the issue of taste is all in the mind.

Michael W. Allen (University of Sydney), Richa Gupta (University of Nashville), and Arnaud Monnier (National Engineer School for Food Industries and Management, France) (see ref 42) carried out a number of experiments that examined the symbolic meaning of foods and drinks. They found that when it came to tasting meat, what influenced participants was what they thought they had eaten rather than what they actually ate.

The authors stated that “Heavy meat eaters claim that they eat meat because it tastes better than other foods, such as meat substitutes. Our results challenge that claim. Participants who ate the vegetarian alternative did not rate the taste and aroma less favorably than those who ate the beef product. Instead, what influenced taste evaluation was what they thought they had eaten and whether that food symbolized values that they personally supported”.

They went on to give ideas of strategies for changing the diets of meat eaters. Perhaps the most important is to change the cultural values associated with meat, such as power and strength, and to attribute these to fruits and vegetables. Another is to carry out further blind taste tests; which is something we can all do. Any vegetarian who hasn’t sneaked in a tray of veggie sausage rolls at the family picnic should be ashamed of themselves!