John Nguyen
Not long ago, if you wanted a vegetarian meal, most restaurants offered at least one option – as long as you weren’t in a tiny village or France. If that veggie option involved cheese, then all the better. If it involved a bean burger, well at least you knew roughly what you were eating. Today, vegetarians are starting to get annoyed. The once trusty meat-free option, they say, is being replaced by a vegan one. The Vegetarian Society has been receiving complaints from members who are peeved to find veggie dishes……Continue reading….
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Source: Telegraph
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Some vegetarian meat alternatives are based on centuries-old recipes for seitan (wheat gluten), rice, mushrooms, legumes, tempeh, yam flour or pressed-tofu, with flavoring added to make the finished product taste like chicken, beef, lamb, ham, sausage, seafood, etc.
Other alternatives use modified defatted peanut flour, yuba and textured vegetable protein (TVP); yuba and TVP are both soy-based meat alternatives, the former made by layering the thin skin which forms on top of boiled soy milk, and the latter being a dry bulk commodity derived from soy and soy protein concentrate. Some meat alternatives include mycoprotein, such as Quorn which usually uses egg white as a binder.
Another type of single cell protein-based meat alternative (which does not use fungi however but rather bacteria) is Calysta. To produce meat alternatives with a meat-like texture, two approaches can be followed: bottom-up and top-down. With bottom-up structuring, individual fibers are made separately and then assembled into larger products. An example of a meat alternative made using a bottom-up strategy is cultured meat.
The top-down approach, on the other hand, induces a fibrous structure by deforming the material, resulting in fibrousness on a larger length scale. An example of a top-down technique is food extrusion. Both bottom-up and top-down processing can be used alone or in combination to offer various benefits. As discussed later, different meat alternative products have varying nutritional values.
A notable advantage of the bottom-up approach is its ability to provide precise control over the composition and characteristics of the end product, allowing for optimized nutritional profiles. On the other hand, meat alternatives produced by top-down approaches may have limited malleability but are more scalable and can utilize available agricultural resources and infrastructure effectively.
According to a study by Wageningen University & Research titled “Structuring Processes for Meat Analogues,” Techniques that follow the bottom-up strategy have the potential to resemble the structure of meat most closely.”. A cross-national survey conducted among meat-eaters with varying degrees of meat alternative consumption showed that those who consumed higher quantities of meat were more willing to switch to meat alternatives if they resembled authentic meat more accurately.
Which can be accomplished through bottom-up approaches. The study concludes that sensory experience plays a crucial role in utilizing plant-based alternatives for heavy meat eaters. The types of ingredients that can be used to create meat substitutes is expanding, from companies like Plentify, which are using high-protein bacteria found in the human microbiome, to companies like Meati Foods, that are cultivating the mycelium of fungi—in this case, Neurospora crassa—to form steaks, chicken breasts, or fish.
Soy protein isolates or soybean flour and gluten are usually used as foundation for most meat substitutes that are available on the market. Soy protein isolate is a highly pure form of soy protein with a minimum protein content of 90%. The process of extracting the protein from the soybeans starts with the dehulling, or decortication, of the seeds. The seeds are then treated with solvents such as hexane to extract the oil from them.
The oil-free soybean meal is then suspended in water and treated with alkali to dissolve the protein while leaving behind the carbohydrates. The alkaline solution is then treated with acidic substances to precipitate the protein, before being washed and dried. The removal of fats and carbohydrates results in a product that has a relatively neutral flavor. Soy protein is also considered a “complete protein” as it contains all of the essential amino acids that are crucial for proper human growth and development.
After the textured base material is obtained, a number of flavorings can be used to give a meaty flavor to the product. The recipe for a basic vegan chicken flavor is known since 1972, exploiting the Maillard reaction to produce aromas from simple chemicals. Later understanding of the source of aroma in cooked meat also found lipid oxidation and thiamine breakdown to be important processes.
By using more complex starting materials such as yeast extract (considered a natural flavoring in the EU), hydrolyzed vegetable protein, various fermented foods, and spices, these reactions are also replicated during cooking to produce richer and more convincing meat flavors. In 2020, the world retail value of meat substitutes was 10.9% of the combined meat and substitutes market. The remaining 89.1% was meat. Average price of meat substitutes worldwide from 2013 to 2021 with projections to 2026.
Includes vegetarian and vegan meat substitutes. Projection made in October 2021. Prices were converted to USD using average exchange rates of the first year. Meat substitutes represent around 11% of the world’s meat and substitutes market in 2020. As shown in the graph, this market share is different from region to region. From 2013 to 2021, the world average price of meat substitutes fell continuously, by an overall 33%. The only exception was a 0.3% increase in 2020, compared to 2019.
The price will continue to decrease, according to projections by Statista (see average price graph). The motivation for seeking out meat substitutes varies among consumers. The market for meat alternatives is highly dependent on “meat-reducers”, who are primarily motivated by health consciousness and weight management. Consumers who identify as vegan, vegetarian or pescetarian are more likely to endorse concerns regarding animal welfare and/or environmentalism as primary motivators.
Additionally, some cultural beliefs and religions place prohibitions on consuming some or all animal products, including Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Jainism, and Buddhism. Vegan meats are consumed in restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, vegan school meals, and in homes. The sector for plant-based meats grew by 37% in North America over 2017–18. In 2018–19, sales of plant-based meats in the United States were $895 million, with the global market for meat alternatives forecast to be $140 billion by 2029.
Seeking a healthy alternative to meat, curiosity, and trends toward veganism were drivers for the meat alternative market in 2019. Sales of plant-based meats increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. The book The End of Animal Farming by Jacy Reese Anthis argues that plant-based food and cultured meat will completely replace animal-based food by 2100. Meat alternatives have lower amounts of saturated fat, vitamin B12 and zinc than meat products but higher amounts of carbohydrates, dietary fibre, sodium, iron and calcium.
Meat alternatives are rated as ultra-processed foods under the Nova classification, however, when the UK nutritional profiling system is used, not all products classified as ultra-processed are rated as unhealthy. In 2021, the American Heart Association stated that there is “limited evidence on the short- and long-term health effects” of plant-based meat alternatives. The same year, the World Health Organization stated that there are “significant knowledge gaps in the nutritional composition” of meat alternatives and more research is needed to investigate their health impacts.
A 2023 review concluded that replacing red and highly-processed meat with a variety of meat alternatives improved quality-adjusted life years, led to significant health system savings and reduced greenhouse gas emissions; replacement of meat with minimally-processed vegetarian alternatives, such as legumes had the greatest effect. Another review found that meat alternatives are likely to be healthier than meat products and more environmentally friendly but are more expensive.
A 2024 review found that plant-based meat alternatives have the potential to be healthier than animal source foods and have smaller environmental footprints. Companies producing plant-based meat alternatives, including Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, have been criticized for their marketing and makeup of their products as well as their use of animal testing. Dietitians have claimed they are not necessarily healthier than meat due to their highly processed nature and sodium content.
John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods, and Brian Niccol, CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill, have criticized meat alternatives as ultra-processed foods. Chipotle has claimed it will not carry these products at their restaurants due to their highly processed nature. CNBC wrote in 2019 of Chipotle joining “the likes of Taco Bell … and Arby’s in committing to excluding meatless meats on its menu.”
In response, Beyond Meat invited Niccol to visit its manufacturing site to see the production process. Chipotle later developed its own “plant-based chorizo”. In September 2022, Taco Bell also began adding plant-based meat alternatives to its menu. Some consulting firms and analysts demand more transparency in terms of the environmental impact of plant-based meat. Through a survey, analysts from Deloitte discovered that some consumers negatively linked meat alternatives to being “woke” and politically-left leaning. These ideas emerged in response to Cracker Barrel’s introduction of Impossible Sausages in their restaurants in August, 2022.
In 2021, 68% of consumers who purchased plant based meats believed it was healthier than animal meat. The number dropping to 60% in 2022, demonstrating a decline in consumers beliefs in the healthiness of these meats. Some states have instituted legislation stating that meat alternatives are not allowed to label themselves as “meat”. In Louisiana, the so-called, “Truth in Labeling of Food Products Act” was challenged by Tofurky, complaining of free speech violations and was successful on those grounds.
Alternative meats companies Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have attempted to appeal to meat eaters. University of Oregon marketing professor Steffen Jahn thinks that this has run afoul of human psychology, saying “the mimicking of real meat introduces that comparison of authenticity.”Jahn argues that marketing plant-based meats with traditional meats leads to an artificiality that many consumers do not love.
Consumer psychologists split foods into categories of “virtue” and “vice” foods, which ultimately guide how products are marketed and sold. Virtue foods are those that less gratifying appealing in the short term, and typically healthier, whereas vice foods are the opposite, having more long term consequences. Many ready-made meat alternatives combine these categories with their long list of ingredients.
Consumers who are likely to want to be “virtuous” by avoiding damage to the environment or animals are also likely to want “virtuous” food in the form of simple ingredients.
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