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Why are vegan and gluten free items more expensive?

So I shop around to get some bits and pieces for a good home made meal, and I notice some items say, a pack of vegan burgers, these are more expensive than regular burgers!

I’m not a vegan but I’m curious as to why these items are priced as such, it’s a bit of a pain for people who can only eat gluten free food as those items are priced high too. The bread we get for me grandpapa is pricey for what you get.

Is it different production methods that make it pricey? You’d think with healthier, easier to get ingredients would be cheaper than producing regular non vegan items.

Treczoks ,

You’d think with healthier, easier to get ingredients would be cheaper than producing regular non vegan items.

Where do you get the idea the ingredients would be healthier or cheaper? Have you ever read the ingredient list of a typical vegan food item? They are some of the highest processed foods the industry can provide, with long lists of chemical additives to make a vegan food item resemble … food. In the US, they even use food colorings for that stuff that are illegal for ages in other parts of the world.

Take that vegan burger, for example. It typically starts with TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein), already highly processed stuff made from soy beans, wheat, or peas. And it gets downhill from there. Watch this guy and learn: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ND4lUi-i2s - if you cannot make sense of his German, just skip to 4:36 where he shows what kind of chemicals one needs to make a “vegan burger patty”.

hendrik ,

Though red meat isn't healty either. Same for salted meat. I'm not sure how it compares to highly processed food. You might be better off with that... But we're comparing two things here that both aren't ideal. Ultimately you'd be better off eating neither of them.

BestBouclettes ,

You’re right for processed veggie stuff, but OP’s statement also works for tofu, seitan or tempeh. It’s usually way more expensive per kg than meat, be it chicken or beef.

Bgugi ,

It’s worth noting that vegan and gluten free foods are not more expensive… Substitute foods are

AdNecrias ,

Beans and rice are pretty cheap by the bag. It’s all about marketing.

NeoNachtwaechter ,

The supermarket does not care how it was made.

Vegan is a feature, so they want to make you pay extra for it.

ghostdoggtv ,

Meat and dairy are subsidized so that consumers pay below market value for those products, the market is not fair and it’s not free either.

That’s why.

HeckGazer ,

Economies of scale and subsidies/successful lobbying.

cradac ,
@cradac@feddit.org avatar

Adding to all of this: the meat and dairy industry are heavily subsidised in the US and many european countries, meaning the government pays a lot to keep the cost of the products down.

Papanca ,

At one time vegan shoes were cheap. And suddenly, everywhere the non-leather shoes disappeared and vegan shoes popped up and were advertised at ridiculous prices. They just changed the wording and adjusted the prices. It’s just a marketing tactic and one they use often for whatever stuff you can buy. It’s not so much that people are willing to pay. It’s just that vegan friendly, decently quality at decent prices are very hard to find now. At least here in the european country where i live.

BlastboomStrice ,
@BlastboomStrice@mander.xyz avatar

I was thinking something similar too:

Why almond/soy milk is more expensivs than cow milk? To make almond/soy milk you just need to maintain the plants. To make cow milk you need to have cow food, take care of the cow etc. and generally it seems much more inefficient than making plant-based milk. I dont know if they use the whole almond/soy etc to make the milk or only part of them, but still.

On this wikipedia article, under Nutrition and Sustainability, you can see for example that while Soy and oat milks have around half (almond has around ¼) the calories of cow milk (plant based milks seem to be healthier too, due to lower saturated fats and sugar contents), they are much more efficient to produce. Like, oat milk seems to be around 6-7 times more efficient to produce than cow milk which counters the fact that it may have half the calories.

Some may consider cow milk as byproduct of the meat industry, but since baby cows need to feed from it and cows already spend energy to make it, I dont think of it that much as byproduct, it’s necessary.

As someone people said though, it probably is due to the financial incentives given to the cow milk industry🤷

pooberbee ,

You can make vegan milk at home and it’s way cheaper than cow’s milk. Oat milk is SUPER EASY: 1 cup oats/2 cups water, soak for 15 minutes, blend and strain. Others are similarly easy and there are plenty of recipes online.

BlastboomStrice ,
@BlastboomStrice@mander.xyz avatar

Wut👀 wow, thanks

Might check it soon

nokturne213 ,

Home made vegan milks have a very short shelf life compared to the supermarket version. But as said, are super cheap to make.

When making almond milk, I add the left over almond milk pulp to my bread dough.

BlastboomStrice ,
@BlastboomStrice@mander.xyz avatar

Yeah it makes sense that they dont last long enough

ForgotAboutDre ,

Its subsidies that keep it cheep. Producing beef doesn’t provide free milk. Typically different varieties of cattle are used for dairy and beef. But dairy cows may end up in low grade beef - except when they are put to pasture after their useful life and given a year to rest (this beef is more expensive).

AdNecrias ,

Vegan =/= health, salted fries, palm oil and ketchup is all vegan and I doubt you think of it as healthy.

But anyways, only reason healthy food would be cheaper than non healthy one is if there’s taxes on the non healthy stuff. Non healthy stuff is sold because it’s cheaper or tastier. If they can add the healthy label to sell more they will.

Have a friend that did a masters in psychology which paper was about Biological food. Anything you see with that label gets a price hike. Rarely the on the actual products tested there were feasible differences because biological isn’t a well defined concept.

Father of a friend plants biological tomatoes for himself. For his peers, you just need to not add chemicals and treat that plant biologically. He however only accepted produce as biological if the seeds came from a platelet treated as such, so his biological stuff is second generation onwards.

Since the concept isn’t clearly defined, it’s bs and companies use whatever they can to make a buck.

Nougat ,

biological

I suspect you mean “organic”?

Doll_Tow_Jet-ski ,
@Doll_Tow_Jet-ski@fedia.io avatar

@Nougat

Indeed. My guess is that @AdNecrias speaks a germanic language where the English word 'organic' translates to 'biological'

Nougat ,

Oh, yes, I meant no shade at all.

AdNecrias ,

Latin one! And in this context in Portuguese, yeah they do translate to that.

But we still see both labels being used, sometimes in the same product. I’m saying label here because I don’t think what companies use the word as and what it actually means aligns.

AdNecrias ,

It means that, but both labels appear in Portuguese here. Orgânico and biológico.

Given your question I assume in English the term has a more biohazardy connotation?

Nougat ,

In English, "biological" is a relatively neutral word when used by itself. It just means "of material caused by life." Organic, in the context of food products, carries the notions of "natural purity" and "without laboratory-made additives/pesticides/fertilizers."

But, as you say, "organic" doesn't really mean that, the US guidelines for what qualifies as "organic" are far looser than most people think, and will vary between different kinds of products. Kind of like how "cage free" eggs are not necessarily any more humane, and could arguably be less humane depending on the farm.

AdNecrias ,

I was now informed by my friend that over here the term biological sometimes refers to more a non-gmo nature of the product, and organic the non use of chemicals. It’s still pretty messy with how they used but what she saw defining it tended to that distinction.

mkwt ,

A large part of food cost is processing.

A regular burger patty is processed by butchering a cow, running meat through a grinder, and then pressing the grind into patties.

A vegan burger patty has to combine multiple ingredients and seasonings with different preprocessing steps, and then it still has to be pressed into patties.

Out of this, cow butchering is by far the most intensive and costly processing step, but the cost of that is amortized over many cuts of meat, not just the hamburger.

The vegan patty has more things to process in it. And if you’re looking at Beyond or Impossible, then some of those things are fancy lab grown proteins.

RobotToaster ,

Burgers (at least supermarket ones) are made from offcuts and other bits that can’t be sold as expensive cuts of meat, so are essentially a byproduct. Pretty much the same for milk. Vegan products usually have to bear the entire cost of production in their price.

lath ,

Yeah. Healthy food is expensive to make, maintain and transport. It’s a luxury in our current state.

UndercoverUlrikHD ,

Neither vegan nor gluten free food is “healthier” than other food. It’s a question of scale and target demographic.

tiredofsametab ,

People with Cron's or celiac would beg to differ on the gluten free part. But, yes scale and other factors definitely matter

meepster23 ,

That’s not “healthier” in the general sense, that’s like saying peanuts aren’t healthy because some people have allergies to them.

Gluten isn’t inherently not healthy because a sub set of the population can’t process it correctly.

spacesatan ,

Red meat and processed meat are classed as carcinogenic and have plenty of LDL cholesterol. Its not that hard to be healthier than that.

UndercoverUlrikHD , (edited )

But now you’re cherry picking food. Fish and chicken is good and healthy food, why didn’t you mention those instead. Pure sugar is both vegan and gluten free, but you wouldn’t call that healthy would you?

There is nothing unhealthy about gluten if your body can tolerate it. So vegan, gluten free and the opposite are all perfectly valid options for a healthy diet. You could also have an unhealthy diet within those 3 categories as well.

spacesatan , (edited )

from the OP

a pack of vegan burgers, these are more expensive than regular burgers!

I don’t think they meant fish burgers when they said regular burgers. And sugar isn’t generally considered a vegan substitute for an animal product.

Feyd ,

It’s straight up just because people will pay the price they’re asking…

fine_sandy_bottom ,

This is contrary to basic economic principles.

If a beef burger and vegan burger cost the same to make, but people will pay more for the vegan, that world attract more vegan producers to the market, and more competition would reduce the price.

commie ,

“basic economic principles” is handwaving. you’re storytelling, not making a scientific postulate

fine_sandy_bottom ,

It’s a lemmy comment.

commie ,

it’s storytelling, not science

Feyd ,

That is a very rudimentary understanding of the system that doesn’t always pan out in a particular time frame or due to external factors.

  1. It takes time for that effect to occur
  2. It doesn’t take into account barriers to entry, of which there are many for food
  3. It doesn’t take into account that there are are actually a small number of companies that own the bulk of our food supply chain and it’s in their financial interest to keep prices high for things that are perceived as luxury
fine_sandy_bottom ,

It’s not rudimentary, it’s a complex system reduced to a few sentences.

  1. Vegan patties have been around forever.
  2. There aren’t significantly more barriers to entry for food products than other industries.
  3. Yes vendors want high prices, but that applies to any product, not only vegan products.

The answer is, as everyone else has pointed out, economies of scale. There’s a larger market with more participants producing more beef burgers than there are vegan patties.

31337 ,

For the things you mentioned, the vegan and gluten-free options are processed much more. Beef, for example, is arguably a “whole food.”

Gluten-free isn’t healthier unless you have specific conditions. Most people can handle gluten fine, and some vegan foods are primarily gluten (such as seitan).

Vegan isn’t inherently healthy, especially if your eating mostly processed foods. A primarily whole-food vegan diet is likely healthier and cheaper than most people’s diets though.

EABOD25 ,

You can buy everyday items that are gluten free and vegan friendly as well. Look at the ingredients and if they don’t have wheat, barley, rye, or triticale then there’s a good chance it’s gluten free. There are some exceptions to that like canned soups or broths, but you don’t have to strictly get items from a gluten free section for it to be gluten free. And your wallet will thank you.

But to answer your question, some GF products have ingredients that are more expensive than wheats. Like tapioca flour for example. But most of it falls under the “healthy” food tax

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