It might taste like chicken, but the new meat product hitting shelves is made from peas.

An Auckland-based company is about to launch a product that is made from peas but is said to taste like chicken.

The arrival of the product, called Chicken Free Chicken, in some North Island supermarkets on Saturday, comes just a few weeks after Beef + Lamb announced it was looking into the potential impacts of alternative protein.

Beef + Lamb chief executive Sam McIvor told 1 News the issue was "on farmers' minds".

The project was about understanding where it was likely to compete with the meat industry. "And what do we need to do about it," he said.

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Along with the development of synthetic protein, another movement involving food was that among sophisticated and high-paying customers "the farmer is becoming the hero for them".

"Do they want a relationship with the factory? No, actually they want a relationship with the farmer."

Bolton Hotel executive chef MacLean Fraser was asked for his opinion on the alternative chicken product and said it was "great".

"It's made from peas? You're punking me," he said. "No, it doesn't taste like peas. It tastes like chicken."

Shama Lee, chief executive of Sunfed Meats, which is making the product, said one of the benefits of pulses - such as peas - was that they were nitrogen fixing. "So they don't need fertiliser, and one of the biggest pollutants in our rivers at the moment is nitrate."

Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy told 1 News he hadn't tried a synthetic burger "... because nothing beats delicious New Zealand red meat naturally produced, in my opinion".