Channel 4 viewers left feeling sick after documentary shows how vegan sausages are made

People have been left grossed out by how vegan sausages are made after Channel 4 show revealed the behind-the-scenes process.

The idiom that you don’t want to know “how the sausage gets made” has come into stark focus for viewers of Channel 4’s Supermarkets Unwrapped: The Vegan Aisle who were given a demo about how plant-based sausages are made.

The documentary saw presenter and former Great British Bake Off star John Whaite visit the Heck Foods factory in Yorkshire and meet with the innovations manager Callum Smith.

Speaking about the casing for the vegan bangers, Smith explained: “We use a textured vegetable protein and then we've developed some flavours to make it taste like a pork sausage.”

He continued: “We pump the meat-free sausage mix and a gel into this little head at the same time. This is alginate gel and it's made from a seaweed.”

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In the documentary, viewers saw how the seaweed gel reacts and becomes firm when it comes into contact with calcium chloride.

Whaite said: “The extruded veggie sausage mix passes under a curtain of calcium chloride solution, the skin is formed and it's ready to be cut into individual portions.”

The demonstration left some people disgusted, with some people questioning why those following a vegan diet would eat it.

One person tweeted: “Watching Supermarkets Unwrapped on C4. They're doing ‘vegan aisle’. Dear God, the extent that food manufacturers will go to produce UPF (ultra-processed food) crap to replace natural foods.

“If you want to be vegan eat actual plants not this synthetic shit!”

Someone else said: “This @Channel4 programme 'Supermarket Unwrapped' really showing some disgusting concoctions in the making of vegan food.”

While meat-free alternatives might not be for everyone, it’s clear that there is a market for them as alternative diets appear to be becoming more mainstream.

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