Four’n Twenty launches new meat-free, plant-based pie

news.com.au

The classic Australian brand is selling a meat-free Four’n Twenty pie that contains a plant-based filling, which the company promises will taste exactly the same as its meat version — but not everyone is convinced.

While meat-free, the item isn’t technically vegan either. Four’n Twenty wrote on Facebook that while the pies contained “absolutely no animal products as ingredients” they were “made on a line that also produces non-vegan products, so we will not make any vegan-friendly claims at this stage”.

The new meat-free, ahem, meat pie got a mixed reaction from those on social media, with many saying the alternative was long overdue.

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“Yes, finally cut out the 25 per cent of ingredients it doesn’t need. Welcome to the future of Aussie Pies,” one person wrote on Facebook.

“Yay I can eat a pie at the footy! Awesome thanks,” another added.

Meanwhile others joked that the meat-free option wasn’t any different from the classic Aussie pie.

“They were only 5 per cent meat anyways,” one person quipped, while another commented: “I wasn’t aware that there (was) actually any meat in them anyway.”

Of course, there were some who feared the pie meant the end of the world as we know it.

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“Should be released on 1st of April, what a joke,” one disgruntled customer wrote, while another described the decision as “pathetic”.

Patties Food Group marketing and innovation general manager Anand Surujpal told Nine newspapers the pie was the result of eight months of testing to make sure the taste was near identical to its other Four’n Twenty pies.

“If I hadn’t told you it wasn’t a meat pie, you wouldn’t know,” he said.

“It’s got the same colours, textures, the taste profile, the mouth feel, you’ve got all those elements.”

The pie will be available at a slightly higher price point from March and is set to go on sale at the MCG — just in time for the start of the footy season.