From flexitarians to flexiburgers?

Y et another burger created by a western fast-food chain has recently debuted declaring it is not meat but looks like it and is cooked on the same grill. The target customers are those who eat mostly vegetarian food but occasionally also consume meat, fish, poultry or eggs. They have thus been dubbed ‘flexitarians’ but in oldspeak, they would just be called sensible eaters. Be that as it may, with the plethora of ‘plant-based’ concoctions attempting to emulate meaty flavours while remaining vegetarian (if not strictly vegan), the good old veggie burger that once sated meat-averse palates appears to the consigned to the backburner, at least in the west. In the nottoo-distant future, those longing for an identifiably vegetarian burger there may have to seek out the odd maverick diner or speakeasy for their fix rather than a regular burger chain.

Anyone who wants to go vegetarian for one burger should be able to simply opt for those time-tested combinations of corn, potato, carrots and other real vegetables and legumes rather than laboratory-created approximations of them. Depending on what they identify as — omnivore flexitarians or guilt-ridden meat eaters who can’t kick the habit — there is no need for consumers to console themselves that they are (or are not) eating meat when they order a burger. What’s next, a flexi-burger?