This works for me because I can then validate what is returned from the function by checking what is in $rep.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $file = "myfile";

open(FILE,$file);
my $rep = &replace_text_1;

foreach (<FILE>) {

    $_ =~ s/\<REPLACE_TEXT_1\>/$rep/ if $_ =~ m/\<REPLACE_TEXT_1\>/;
    print "$_";

}
close(FILE);

sub replace_text_1 {

    #some stuff
    #print "foobar";
    #some other stuff
    return("foobar");
}
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