Comes as figures reveal there are 1.2 million vegetarians in Britain

FEMAIL carnivore Anucyia Victor blindtested eight different foods over one week

Vegetarian food. Can it ever really taste good? There are meatless burgers, soya sausages, dairy-free ice cream, sweets without gelatine - the list is endless.

But for avowed meat-eaters, the question remains: can the taste or texture ever come close to the real thing?

FEMAIL carnivore Anucyia Victor puts them to the test...

I am an avowed meat-eater. I once attempted a vegetarian diet and lasted all of two days, conveniently forgetting, when presented with a sausage and bacon roll, that I had made a choice to abstain from meat.

But with so many of us becoming vegetarian (1.2 million in Britain alone), surely there must be something said for meat-free food

I blind tasted eight different foods throughout a week, eating my way through everything from chocolate and sweets to burgers, sausages and pies.

For sweets, chocolates and ice-cream I tasted two versions - regular and vegetarian.

When it came to meat options, I tested three versions - regular, vegetarian and vegan, as veggie products may still contain eggs or dairy and are not necessarily vegan-friendly.

Here's my verdict.

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BEEF BURGERS

Daylesford Organic (left) won the beef challenge beating Linda McCartney's veggie Peri Peri patty (right)

Normally served in a bap and with a dollop of mayonnaise or relish, a beef burger is seemingly a flavour that's easy to disguise. However, the texture is a different matter. Can a veggie burger really mimic meat?

CONTENDERS

Meat: Daylesford Organic beef burger (£4.54 for 454g)

Vegetarian: Linda McCartney Peri Peri patty, £2 for 227g

Vegan: Amy’s Kitchen Manhattan veggie burger (£4.34 for 270g)

WINNER: Daylesford’s organic beef Patty

There's just no denying it: you cannot replace the juiciness of a perfectly cooked beef patty. The vegetarian and vegan burgers could not stand up to the moist and flavourful meat. While I'm open to new experiences, I think when it comes to burgers, the vegetarian and vegan brigade can keep their soy proteins; I'll stick to the beef.

CHICKEN BURGERS

Fry’s Chicken Style burger (left) packed a flavourful punch unlike the bland Birds Eye offering (right)

CONTENDERS

Meat: Bird’s Eye Chicken burger (£1 for 200g)

Vegetarian: Quorn Southern Fried Chicken Burgers (£1.95 for 252g)

Vegan: Fry’s Chicken Style burger (£3.15 for 320g)

WINNER: Fry's Chicken-Style Burgers

The Fry's vegan version was a revelation; while there was absolutely nothing chicken-like about it, this was one of the nicest meat-free options; moist, succulent and packed a real punch. The vegetarian option was decent as well - serve me that and the real deal in a bun and I would struggle to tell the difference.

PIES

Pie wars: The writer was left disappointed with both the meat (left) and vegetarian pies (right)

When it comes to pies, I like mine beefy, with just the right amount of gravy clinging to the surface of the meat. I’m not a fan of overly ‘wet’ pies and agree with a friend who once described them as stews with pastry lids on.

CONTENDERS

Meat: Mini steak and ale pie from Square Pies, £1.25 for 4 x 60g

Vegetarian/Vegan: Linda McCartney Frozen Country Pie, £2.50 for 664g

WINNER: Linda McCartney Frozen Country Pie

I was hoping I would be impressed with the meat pie, but I was left disappointed. Both offerings were a bit of a let-down; I felt slightly more cheated by the meat pie, which had too much tough pastry and a lack of flavour. While the vegetarian version was drowning in gravy, there was a real punchy 'meaty' taste in the textured soya pieces, and the pastry encasing the 'faux beef' was light and fluffy.

SAUSAGES

When pitted against Dee's Vegan Sausages (left) The Black Farmer Premium Pork Sausages (right) won the sausage blind taste test

For this challenge I munched on sausages with mash, peas and gravy for dinner. I also had them the next day for breakfast, in a sandwich, reheating the leftover bangers in a pan.

CONTENDERS

Meat: The Black Farmer Premium Pork Sausages, £2.98 for 400g

Vegan: Dee’s Vegan Sausages with Ginger, Coriander and Pepper, £3.49 for 6 x 35g

Vegetarian: Quorn Chef’s Selection sausages, £2 for 240g

WINNER: The Black Farmer Premium Pork Sausages

It was an easy win. When it comes to foods like burgers and sausages, meat really is king. The pork sausages had more texture and flavour, plus were sturdier than their veggie and vegan counterparts. Dee's, which was the vegan option, was tastier than the Quorn sausage but that was down to the seasoning more than anything else. In the end, meat won.

FISH FINGERS

VBites Making Waves Fish Style Fingers (left) beat Bird’s Eye Omega Fish Fingers (right)

I never eat fish fingers. I find them rather strange and completely pointless but there are many who would disagree with me. And as I was in for the ride, I decided to give these a go.

CONTENDERS

Meat: Bird’s Eye Omega Fish Fingers, £450 for 840g

Vegetarian/Vegan: VBites Making Waves Fish Style Fingers, £2.99 for 215g

WINNER: VBites Making Waves Fish Style Fingers

The winning faux-fingers tasted so real that I thought I had picked up the wrong ones. While they didn't actually taste of fish, textually they were spot on, right down to the flakiness of the white flesh. The breadcrumb coating was perfectly seasoned and the fingers tasted fantastic in a sandwich.

MAYONNAISE

Granovita Mayola (left) was claggy and unappetising whilst Delouis mayonnaise (right) was rich and creamy

I don’t mind mayonnaise but it’s not my condiment of choice. I tried this in egg mayonnaise sandwiches, pitting regular Delouis mayonnaise against vegan option Granovita Mayola, made without eggs or dairy.

CONTENDERS

Regular: Delouis Mayonnaise, £2.62 for 200g

Vegan: Granovita Mayola, £2 for 310g

WINNER: Delouis Mayonnaise

While visually there was no difference, when it came to taste, the regular mayonnaise was miles better than its alternatives. It was less claggy and much richer and creamier than the vegan option.

SWEETS

Winning sweets: Jealous sweets (left) took the writer by surprise. They were bursting with flavour and tasted of actual fruit flavours rather than synthetic, unlike her previous favourites, Haribo Tangfastics (right)

This test was a real eye-opener. Haribo Tanfastics and its ilk, while satisfying my sweet tooth, were nowhere near as good as the vegan versions, which don't contain gelatine, which comes from skin, tendons, ligaments and bones of pigs and cows which are boiled in water.

CONTENDERS

Regular: Haribo Tangfastics. 97p for 250g

Vegetarian/vegan: Jealous Sweets Grizzly Bears. £2.50 for 50g

WINNER: Grizzly Bears from Jealous Sweets

The vegan version tasted much better than the gelatine-containing chewy sweets. They taste less synthetic and are bursting with flavour. There was also a distinct lack of greasy oiliness; something I would not have noticed before.

CHOCOLATE

Maca Vanilla Cacoa Nibs from Doisy & Dam (left) and Montezuma's Organic Very Dark Chocolate (right)

Not one for a Snickers or Kit Kat, I’m of the 'higher the cocoa content, the better the chocolate' school of thought. All the chocolates I tried had a 70 per cent or over cocoa content so this wasn’t going to be too tough.

CONTENDERS

Regular: Montezuma’s Organic Dark Chocolate, £1.79 for 100g

Vegan: Maca Vanilla Cacoa Nibs from Doisy & Dam, £3.75 for 100g

WINNER: Vegan Maca Vanilla Cacoa Nibs from Doisy & Dam

While the regular chocolate tasted ever so slightly better, the clear winner was the vegan option.

Doisy & Dam's maca, vanilla and cacao nibs chocolate was perfectly bittersweet, had a good mouthfeel and a punchy vanilla kick that saw me devouring the 100g bar in less than half an hour; a record even for me.

ICE-CREAM

Booja-Booja’s Hunky Punky Chocolate Dairy-free Ice-Cream (right) beat Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Raspberry-Chocolate brownie ice-cream (left)

I usually stick to sorbets, although I have been known to dip my spoon into Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup when I feel like living life on the edge.

CONTENDERS

Regular: Dairy Milk Raspberry-Chocolate brownie ice-cream, £4 for 400ml

Vegan: Booja-Booja’s Hunky Punky Chocolate Dairy-free Ice-Cream (£5.99 for 500ml) and Snowflake vegan gelato range (prices start from £3.40 for 500ml, available at Selfridges Foodhall throughout the summer).

VEGETARIAN/VEGAN SHOPPING The food for this feature was supplied by Ocado's new one- stop Vegetarian shop. The online supermarket was votedBest Online Retailer for Vegetarians in the 2015 Veggie Awards. Advertisement

WINNER: Booja-Booja’s Hunky Punky Chocolate Dairy-free Ice-Cream

I couldn’t tell which of the ice-creams were dairy-free, which was a result, but Booja-Booja’s heady creaminess and depth of flavour, combined with the slightly nutty texture made it a clear winner.