Veganuary 2024: I tried the new-to-supermarkets range that's redefining meat - from lamb kebabs to bratwurst

But if you've come from being an avid meat eater, you might find you're struggling a little or craving your familiar favourites by now. You might have even slipped up once or twice - and that's okay. There are so many great reasons to give Veganuary and plant-based eating in general a go this year, and one of those reasons is the number of cutting edge new meat alternatives now easily available to everyone.

Redefine Meat's pioneering range of 'new-meat' products - endorsed by renowned chefs like Marco Pierre-White and previously only available to restaurants - has now broken into the UK retail market. Available exclusively via online grocer Ocado, British shoppers can get their hands on six products; beef burgers, beef mince, bratwurst, pulled pork, pulled beef, and lamb kofta mix.

The company was founded in Israel in 2018, and after some time studying the unique properties of animal meat , it developed a wide range of high-quality products using cutting edge tech aiming to provide the full sensory experience of eating meat - while being kinder to animals and the planet. It is now produced in the Netherlands, and new products are expected to be added to the line-up in the next year.

When I was offered the chance to try the new range for myself this Veganuary, I naturally jumped at the opportunity. Here's what I thought:

The taste test

Redefine Meat was designed by self-described meat lovers, and it shows. Because I tried the whole range as opposed to just a single product, I'll try to just touch on each of them briefly.

The lamb kofta mix, which I whipped into kebabs, was probably my favourite of the bunch. It had a fantastic, meaty bite after a bit of grilling, and held its shape on the skewer. While it had its own lovely savoury flavour, it also really soaked up the spice mix (I used ras el hanout), which gave it a delicious, pungent spiciness that paired perfectly with a cooling tzatziki-style sauce - earning it a solid 8.5 out of 10.

I had the new-beef mince in a pot of chilli, which demonstrated the same ability to absorb seasonings while bringing its own meaty richness to the dish, while I cooked the pulled beef with a homemade adobo sauce for tacos. It retained its 'pulled' texture even after a decent stir frying while staying tender, and frankly took a lot less time to cook than real pulled meat would. It easily remained the star of the dish even with spicy pickled cabbage and guacamole to contend with.

The burger patties and bratwurst were enjoyed more simply, as a beef and blue cheeze-style burger, and on its own with some mixed veg respectively. Both were absolutely luscious and really looked the part. The bratwurst in particular had a really convincing 'sausagey' taste that I remember processed meats having from my childhood - an authentic blast from the past I truly wasn't expecting.

Overall, all of the products I tried were fantastic, and every one of them had a quality I find vegan alternatives are all too often lacking - they were juicy, even when cooked. All of the products are clearly very versatile too, and could stand in for meat in any of your favourite dishes. I don't think I'd rate a single one of them less than a 6.5 out of 10.

To very briefly touch on health, the entire range is cholesterol free - and advantage most meat products can't claim - while also being high protein. Important vitamins people on vegan and vegetarian diets, like B12 and iron, have also been added, giving them a meat-like nutrient profile too.

The cost to the planet

Trying to reduce their impact on the planet is a key reason many people choose to go vegan - or try out a challenge like Veganuary - and the Redefine Meat range boasts some pretty impressive environmental credentials. Switching to so-called new-meat can significantly reduce your environmental impact compared to eating animal meat, the company says.

It says its production processes are 20 times as efficient and use 96% less water per kilogram than a beef hamburger, based on a preliminary life cycle analysis of its beef burger/flank products. If every family living in an OECD country replaced just one meat meal a month with the Redefine Meat alternative, they would save the annual drinking water of China and India combined, the company said. Doing this once a week would save the equivalent of an entire year’s worth of drinking water for the entire global population.

Land use is another big environmental issue, and animal agriculture takes up more than its fair share of farmland - an estimated 75% - with 60% of agricultural land used for beef farming alone. Producing new-meat production requires 98% less land than its animal alternative, and the company calculates that if each family in a developed country replaced one beef meal with Redefine Meat each week. it would free an area 1.5 times the size of Spain - or 13% of the Amazon Rainforest.

Producing one kilogram of Redefine Meat creates just one-ninth of the greenhouse gas emissions of producing a kilogram of beef burger-meat. If every OECD family replaced one meal of beef per week with Redefine Meat, it would cut emissions as much as removing 86 million family-sized cars from the road.

While the company doesn't have exact data for its lamb-style kofta and pork alternatives yet, it estimates the environmental benefits will be in the same range.

The cost at the (online) till

I tested out two similar shops on the Ocado website, filling one cart with the entire Redefine Meat range, and the other with the six closest meat products I could find to compare costs.

A 250g pack of lean beef steak mince (the same weight as the new-meat package) costs £2.20, while a pair of premium beef burger patties - in this case the M&S 'Our Best Ever Beef Burger' - would have stung me for £5.25. Some of the products were a little tricky to find a direct equivalent for. The only pork-based bratwurst sausages available were the Unearthed brand bratwurst, which came in a four-pack as opposed to a two-pack, costing £4.60.

The Jolly Hog's British BBQ pulled pork would set me back £6, but admittedly it is pre-seasoned and you get 376g of it as opposed to 200g - almost double the amount. As I couldn't find a pulled beef product equivalent, I added it to my cart as a stand-in for both. I also couldn't find a pre-prepared, ready-to-cook lamb-based kofta mix, so I subbed in Ocado's British Lamb Mince at £5.70 - although once again it came in 500g packs, as opposed to the 250g new-meat pack.

The normal price for the Redefine Meat range is £4 per product, except for the pulled pork and pulled beef, which are £4.50 each. However, it's worth noting that in honour of Veganuary, the whole new-meat range has a 50% discount applied - making each product between £2 and £2.25 and the entire order half price. This meant that the vegan basket cost me just £12.50 - minus delivery.

The meat product shopping cart totalled £22.25 excluding delivery, making it notably pricier. However, after January, the new-meat basket's price will double to £25 - so there really is something to be said for giving them a go this month if you're particularly cash conscious.

With its usual pricing applied, you will get slightly more bang for your buck in terms of the meat products - with most offering up larger portions (or extra sausages) for a similar amount of cash. This is pretty in line with most vegan meat alternatives from what I have seen, which tend to be closer in price to premium alternatives than standard meat offerings.

The verdict

The world has just experienced its hottest year on record, scientists have confirmed. But Met Office experts are already warning that 2024 could be even hotter - unless the global community urgently slashes greenhouse gas emissions to limit the world's warming, while we still can.

The cars we drive and how we heat our homes are a big part of this, but so too is what we eat. As Sir David Attenborough said in a recent episode of the Planet Earth III series, using the vast majority of agricultural land to raise livestock is "very inefficient".

"If we shift away from eating meat and dairy and move towards a plant-based diet then the sun’s energy goes directly into growing our food. Because that’s so much more efficient, we could still produce enough to feed us but do so using a quarter of the land," he told viewers, adding that this would free up an area the size of the US, the EU, China, and Australia combined - which could then be "given back" to nature.

Redefine Meat's 'new-meat' is a whole range of mouth-watering, versatile alternatives you can actively use to make a difference for the planet in your own life. Using up to 98% less land and creating 91% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than their animal alternatives, there's a lot to love about this range environmentally.

I can vouch for the fact that the products all taste great, and have an umami punch and meaty texture that could get even the most avid carnivores in your life on side. But with the Veganuary discount meaning you can try for yourself at just £2 a pop, there's really nothing holding you back from giving them a go this month and making a difference at dinnertime - whether they end up being a long-term favourite, or just a delicious experiment.