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An exciting and fast-growing trend is being observed worldwide with consumer decision to reduce or eliminate the consumption of animal products and proteins and a shift towards plant-based animal protein alternatives.
While the number of consumers describing themselves as vegans is growing, the most influential consumer group driving this trend is not due to the increase in vegan consumers but driven by groups concerned about healthy foods and ethics and a sustainable environment. Within this group of consumers, the youth and Millennials constitute a significant part.
Raised consciousness of these health and environmental concerns and the sustainability aspects of foods has led to innovations such as plant-based animal protein alternatives in many nations. People frequently defined as ‘flexitarians’, who are vegetarians that sometimes include meat in their diet regimen, are dramatically increasing in numbers.
History to the Modern Trend
The arrival of animal protein alternatives in food products, also referred to as ‘fake meat’, is not a new phenomenon; it began in the mid-1900s. Commonly, soy protein was adopted as the popular component alternative in making foods such as tofu and tempeh. These foods have been prepared by basic fermentation methods and consumed for centuries as the typical recipe in the Orient. In addition to these specific Eastern foods, the dry texturised vegetable protein was the first launched meat alternative product, which emerged in the mid to late 1900s (King and Lawrence, 2019).
In the early 2000s, animal protein alternatives entered the mainstream as a result of the move towards healthy and balanced foods. In addition, sustainability implications of consumer’s diet continued to increase in concurrence as alternatives to conventional meat. In the last years, modern advancements in food science and new innovations have introduced animal protein alternative products that can mimic the taste, texture, look and capability of traditional meat-based products. This article is a lot more focused on the simple development of non-traditional protein resources such as plant-based ‘meat’ and relevant novel alternatives, such as cultured meat.
Currently, the plant-based meat market has mainly concentrated on developing foods such as burger patties and sausages. Main meat cuts such as steak haven’t had much research and development R & D attention due to the known intricacies in structural make-up. Several firms in Western nations have successfully created plant-based meat alternatives such as Beyond Burger and Impossible Hamburger. The components used for these items may differ, but nearly all of them consist of soy, egg, wheat, gluten, or milk proteins.
An additional novel plant-based meat product is Quorn meat, which was released in the UK as far back as 1985. This food makes use of fermentation technology from the fungus Fusarium to develop mycoprotein: A filamentous protein selected as a plant-based meat alternative because of its coarse meat-like texture. Today, a number of products made from mycoprotein are readily available on the market.
The Major Factors Driving the Trend
Overall, the growing food industry, on account of increasing population and consumer awareness, is propelling the protein market and the need for alternative protein ingredients. Often, alternative nutrition styles are environment or health motivated –which is driven by the persuasive array of evidence that embracing a plant-based diet confers a multitude of health benefits for the individual, the environment and the planet and is better for the welfare of animals.
Environment
Issues of food system environmental sustainability have received considerable attention within the national and international community. There is a global challenge to address food security and preserve land and water resources due to climate change, population growth, and changing diets. Accordingly, interest in sustainable and bio-diverse food systems is on the rise.
Diminishing the proportion of animal-based foods within the diet is of great importance for establishing sustainable food supply structures. As far as sustainability is concerned, meat production is detrimental to the environment and drives the exhaustion of natural resources. Livestock production requires an estimated 40% arable land, produces 14.5% greenhouse gases, and uses 29% agricultural freshwater (Mottel et al., 2017).
From a consumer’s point of view, purchasing habits that can improve the environment are gaining prominence. Consumers are seeking transparency and sustainability in the diet regimens. Consequently, food product developers are interested in commercialising products formulated with ingredients derived from environmentally sustainable sources.
Health
In a very general sense, plant-based foods have a better health performance than their animal alternatives. Despite some insufficiency in essential amino acids, they have a similar vitamin profile. Plant-based proteins can also be said to far healthier than their meat counterparts because they pack more nutrients into fewer calories and contain fibre which is entirely lacking in animal proteins. Furthermore, animal products have saturated fat and higher levels of cholesterol than sources of plant protein. Available evidence on epidemiology indicates that the health risks and adverse impacts of plant-based products or ingredients are lower and generally perform better in reducing disease burden, improving human well-being and are likely associated with longevity (Naghshi et al., 2020).
Developing and innovating a new food product that meets consumer needs can be very tasking. Quality, value, nourishment, and organoleptic attributes should be prime considerations prior to developing any plant-based protein diet.
The Challenges Facing Plant-Based Animal Protein Alternatives
Studies have demonstrated that ingredients involved in the animal protein alternatives are lacking nutritionally (Crawford, 2015). Plant-based protein products contain insufficient micro-nutrients, making it more challenging to develop a product that imitates the meat nutritional values. Many animal protein alternatives available on the market today miss crucial trace and fortified elements. So far, adding components by chemical synthesis or extraction from natural resources has not provided an ideal solution. There are increasing deliberations among environmentally aware consumers regarding the fittingness of the many processes involved.
The adoption of plant-based diets may also be problematic for some consumers. Kown obstacles include The heavy beany flavour of the popular soy-derived products, limiting the use of soy-based protein as an animal protein alternative. Allergenicity concerns of food proteins from legume sources such as soybeans, lentil, peas, etc., have also led to the constrained development of products from these sources. Furthermore, protein from cereals such as wheat, barley, etc., is also dangerous to some consumers due to gluten intolerance.
Market Overview and Outlook
Within the UK and most Western markets, old products are becoming increasingly popular, and new brands and product offerings are being pioneered.
Below we present a categorisation of plant-based protein product food offerings within the UK market into defined groups:
- Soy-based: e.g.tempeh, tofu, edamame, Impossible Burger, soy milk, soy crumbles, etc
- Pulse or bean-based: e.g. lentils, peas, kidney beans, chickpeas, black beans, Beyond Burgers, bean burgers, egg-free eggs, etc
- Grain or wheat-based: e.g. rice & wheat milk, seitan, spelt, teff, etc
- Nut- and seed-based: e.g. walnut meat, almonds, cashews, chia seeds, flax seeds, quinoa, etc
- Veggie-based: e.g. potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach, broccoli, asparagus
- Minimally processed: e.g. tofu, tempeh, lentils, peas, chickpeas, etc
- Ultra-processed:e.g. Impossible Burger, Beyond Burgers, Quorn, etc
- Hybrid: e.g. Waitrose harissa chicken cauliflower rice & chickpea meatballs, Sainsbury’s love meat & veg!, etc
- Other: e.g. mushrooms, mycoprotein (Quorn, etc), algae protein (spirulina, etc), etc
- Novel: e.g. cultured meat, insect protein, etc
The evidence is striking and overwhelming that plant-based protein is a popular alternative with a thriving market. In Europe: Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Sweden are among the top nations leading R & D efforts of animal protein alternatives. Based on the estimated meat alternative product sales in the USA, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium alone, the global animal protein alternatives market is likely to dominate and projected to be equal to £1 trillion by 2029 (Richter. 2019).
It is clear that the development of meat alternatives, the so-called ‘fake meat’, will reach new and groundbreaking heights in the times ahead. Big companies are eagerly enlarging their market share to match the towering demand. The animal protein alternatives market is also competitive with the presence of numerous small players. Even for small players, there is a real breakthrough potential for developers that find a unique and competitive place in the market. One such peculiar area with significant demand in the current market is the need for functional, nonallergenic ingredients that can replace synthetic ingredients (such as synthetic emulsifiers) as part of the healthy label efforts.
At present, most of the plant-based animal products are principally focused on Western nations. There is a lower uptake of animal protein alternative foods in some Asian and African nations. However, uptake is expected to increase over time. This is evidenced by a survey of consumers’ acceptance of meat alternatives conducted in three nations -the USA, China, and India. Acceptance rates were estimated to be China [95.6%] and India [94.5%] as compared to the USA [74.7%] (Bryant et al., 2019). United Nations The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO, 2011) has long said the consumption of plant-based meat in developing nations is continually rising and is expected to increase up to 73% by 2050.
Final Thoughts
The global demand for plant-based animal protein alternatives is projected to continue to grow. Protein quality and functionality differences remain between animal and plant proteins. The science and technology involved in developing these products will catch up with the exponential increase in plant-based and related novel protein sources.
As scientists and food product developers race to create alternative meat products, new regulations are also being applied within Europe and elsewhere. All novel food products must be tested and approved to ensure their health safety before reaching the market. Functioning food regulations are vital to protect human life, health, well-being, and consumer interest and ensure just practices business. The EU has classed all recently developed foods under the Novel Food Regulation, including all foods that were not in existence or consumed within the region before mid-1997. Three principles of regulation of novel foods have also been laid down: All such foods must be; 1) safe for consumers; 2) appropriately labelled to avoid misleading the consumers, and 3) not nutritionally disadvantageous as a replacement food.
The market for plant-based animal protein and novel meat alternatives is still in the initial phases, and many new product developments are expected. Given the novelty of the research area, there is copious room for future R & D efforts.
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References
Bryant C, Szejda K, Parekh N, Deshpande V, Tse B. A survey of consumer perceptions of plant-based and clean meat in the USA, India, and China. Front Sustain Food Syst. 2019;3:11.
Crawford E. Alternative proteins gain popularity, but long-term viability of some questioned[Internet].2015. https://www.foodnavigatorusa.com/Article/2015/10/21/Alternative-proteins-gain-popularity-long-term-viability-questioned
FAO. World Livestock 2011: livestock in food security [Internet]. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations;http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/i2373e/i2373e.pdf
Lee King T, Lawrence S. Meat the alternative-Australia’s $3 billion opportunity [Internet].2019.https://www.foodfrontier.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/09/Meat_the_Alternative_FoodFrontier
Mottet A, de Haan C, Falcucci A, Tempio G, Opio C, Gerber P. Livestock: on our plates or eating at our table? A new analysis of the feed/food debate. Glob Food Sec. 2017;14:1-8.
Naghshi, S., Sadeghi, O., Willett, W. C., & Esmaillzadeh, A. (2020). Dietary intake of total, animal, and plant proteins and risk of all cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality: Systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. The BMJ, 370, 2412.
Richter F. Alternative meat market poised for growth [Internet]. 2019. https://www.statista.com/chart/18394/meat-substitute-sales-in-selected-countries
