Cereal and animal proteins share a certain past (the Experience of Beccari in 1728, Liebig's Hydrolysats, etc). However most new synthetic meats appearing in the U.S. are not derived from cereals but from a vegetable plant : soja. Huge milling groups have created and put on the market these new <r vegetable meats ». These products were presented in France at the Salon des Industries de l'Alimentation (S.I.A.L.) in 1966 and 1968. The making of <r vegetable » meats consists in the production of protein fibres from a concentrated extract to which a structure similar to that of meat is given. This is done by spinning out and by shredding. The makers are well aware that they cannot compete with meat, but they want to creat new money- making products completing their ever-expanding range or convenient foods.