UK food producer Heck, best known for its sausages, has launched a range of blended meat products combining 70% animal proteins with 30% vegetables and legumes, months after taking its plant-based chipolatas off the market.
The blended meat wave is sweeping over the UK now, too.
Heck, which bills itself as the country’s largest independent sausage maker, is getting in the ‘balanced protein’ grind by mixing 70% minced animal proteins with 30% vegetables and legumes.
The three-strong Easy Mince range is among a handful of blended meat offerings currently available in the UK, and takes a different approach by centring whole plants instead of processed plant-based or mycelium proteins.
The launch comes the same week discount retailer Lidl unveiled its own-label blended meat line, positioning it as a higher-protein alternative to 100% meat.
Heck leans into convenience with blended meat
Heck’s blended meat range is designed for ease of use, helping Brits whip up dishes quickly simply by adding a couple of cupboard staples to the pre-seasoned mince mixes, such as tinned tomatoes, kidney beans, mashed potato, or pasta.
The chilli con carne SKU features ground lean chicken breast and thigh blended with red pepper, kidney beans, onions, pea flour, citrus fibre, and a bunch of herbs and seasonings. It delivers 19g of protein, 4g of fibre and just 0.5g of saturated fat per 100g.
The beef and pork bolognese combines 42% and 28% beef with lentils, pea flour, oven-dried tomatoes, onions, basil, citrus fibre, mozzarella, oregano and seasonings, offering 17g of protein, 3g of fibre and over 3g of saturated fat in each 100g serving.
The beef cottage pie product blends beef with peas, carrots, onions, tomato purée, citrus fibre, pea flour, herbs and seasonings (including dried red wine). This packs 17g of protein, 2.5g of fibre and 3.5 of saturated fat per 100g.
“Mince can be one of the most useful and cost-effective ways to put protein at the heart of a family meal, but shoppers still have to decide what to make with it and then buy, chop and measure everything else. We wanted to do more of that work for them,” said Heck co-founder Jamie Keeble.
“Our new seasoned mince gives people a proper head start on the meals they already know and love. It removes the hassle without taking away the enjoyment of cooking, so even on the busiest evenings, dinner feels sorted.”
The perfect time for blended meat launches
Blended meat has several value propositions: it cuts saturated fat and cholesterol levels, adds fibre to a category that virtually has none, can often have more protein at cheaper or equivalent prices, and is associated with lower emissions, land and water use.
While supermarkets across Europe have ramped up their offerings of such products, most of the products opt for textured plant protein as a buffer, rather than whole vegetables and legumes. Heck’s approach is more in line with consumption habits in the UK, where sales of beans and veg-led products have boomed and those of processed proteins have contracted.
Part of the reason behind this is the drive to eat more fibre as well as protein, which 13% and 14% of Brits have been looking to do more of this year, respectively. A growing awareness around gut health and the rise of GLP-1 drugs, alongside the fact that 96% of consumers don’t meet the daily fibre requirement, has given rise to trends that encourage greater whole-food consumption, like fibremaxxing and the 30-plants-a-week movement.
Research also shows that around three in five people in the UK are open to trying blended meat products, so long as they taste good and are affordable. Sausages are the clear favourite, with nearly half of them favouring this application, followed by minced meat (33%) and burgers (15%).
This isn’t Heck’s first attempt at blended meat. In 2021, it launched a 60/40 flexitarian range of burgers, sausages, and mince, also going the vegetable route. But that was at a time when plant-based meat was peaking, so the market likely wasn’t there yet. Now, the tables have turned, as evidenced by Heck’s discontinuation of its plant-based chipolata sausages in December.
There has never been a riper time for these hybrid proteins. It’s why Lidl launched its private-label take on this category the same week, positioning the pea-protein-boosted range as High-Protein Meat that offers at least 20% more protein than conventional beef mince, meatballs, burgers, and pork sausages.
Heck may not be stopping at vegetables with its blended meat ambitions. In April, Heck boss James Feeble told the Times that the company was exploring a hybrid product that combines conventional meat with cultivated proteins.
