Foie gras alternatives on the rise in France for those fed up with force-feeding

Foie gras is often part of a festive French meal, but the way it is made – force-feeding ducks or geese to fatten their livers – is making some people think twice before eating it. Alternatives are picking up steam.

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Ducks on a farm in western France. Foie gras, made from duck or goose livers, is a festive part of many French holiday meals. But the way it is made is increasingly pushing people to look for alternatives. © Georges Gobet/AFP

Sales of vegetarian or "faux" foie gras are on the rise in France, as people are looking to avoid force-fed birds, and as the delicacy is increasing in price because of a massive bird flu outbreak that has hit duck and bird farms and reduced supply.

“Most of the people who came to buy some weren't even vegan or vegetarian,” says chef Julie Bavant of the 200 packages of her sans foie ni gras (neither liver nor fat) she sold last year.

“They just didn't want to take part in the foie gras industry because it's really ugly.”

Find this story in the Spotlight on France podcast: 

Spotlight on France, episode 86 © RFI

Bavant's recipe – based on cashews, white miso, coconut oil, yeast extract and agar agar – yields a pate that has the texture of cooked foie gras,

“It's not the same thing, but why not try it?” asks Bavant, sitting at a table at the Café Klin, the restaurant and grocery whose kitchen she runs, and where she makes her vegan foie gras.

It has convinced many people – most importantly her daughter, who loved eating meat but decided about a decade ago to become vegan for ethical reasons.

One Christmas, Bavant’s daughter had trouble holding back from eating foie gras, which drove her mother to help.

“I thought, you're making all these efforts and you ruin everything just for a bit of foie gras, because you really like it and you don’t want to miss it at Christmas? It’s a waste.”

Ethical dilemnas

Going vegan is one way to avoid the ethical dilemmas of foie gras, which involves gavage, or force-feeding geese or ducks to get them to store fat in their livers, which sometimes double in size.

Some see this process as animal cruelty. Under the European Union animal rights convention, force-feeding would be considered abuse and therefore illegal, but there are exceptions for countries who have traditional links with the process, like France.

Traditional foie gras farmers argue that geese and ducks are migrating birds that naturally store fat, so the force-feeding is natural.

Remy Burcelin agrees that storing fat is natural, but he has found a way to get birds to store it without the need to force food down their throats.

A duck being force-fed with corn on a farm in southwestern France. © Bob Edme/AP

Foie gras without force-feeding?

A researcher with the Inserm health and medical research institute, Burcelin has been looking into the interaction between gut bacteria and metabolism.

After seeing a link between gut bacteria and fatty livers in humans and rodents, he turned to geese, and he has been developing a mixture of bacteria to feed to newborn chicks that makes their livers fatten up over the course of several months.

The result is a foie gras that is the size of a normal liver.

“We don't have livers twice the normal size like those in response to force feeding. It’s still full of fat, but at a size that matches the biology of the host,” explains Burcelin, who co-founded a company, Aviwell, to develop the process on an experimental farm in southwest France.

Jars of foie gras, which is often served at festive occasions in France. © Loic Venance/AFP

Burcelin eats all foie gras, and he avoids weighing in on the ethics of force-feeding, saying just that he wants to “propose an alternative”.

Chefs have responded well to the result, finding the non-force-fed livers less bitter and firmer when cooked.

“The structure of the liver is stronger, because the liver cells had time to grow correctly and to store fat over time, while during force-feeding, which is roughly one to two weeks, the fat cells do not have time to reshape themselves,” explains Burcelin.

“Therefore when you cook it, most of the time it melts on the pan if you fry it. Ours do not.”

Aviwell is still experimenting with what it calls "naturally fatty liver", because it has not been authorised to call it foie gras.

Burcelin has tried to assuage traditional foie gras farmers, saying he is making a more luxury or niche product, and will not threaten their way working.

However, foie gras without the ethical baggage of force-feeding, and that has impressed chefs with its taste and quality, might seem to be the dream product.

“We propose an alternative way,” Burcelin says simply. “Everyone will consider by himself whether it makes sense to buy our alternative options or the traditional one.”

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Listen to interviews with Burcelin and Bavant in the Spotlight on France podcast, here.