Alternative Proteins

Extracted Attributes

• Market Drivers

  Environmental sustainability, Ethical concerns, Health trends, Food security

• Common Ingredients

  Soy (tofu, tempeh), Wheat gluten (seitan), Pea protein, Mycoprotein, Water (50-80%)

• Primary Categories

  Plant-based, Fermentation-derived, Cell-cultivated

• Regulatory Oversight

  FDA (Food and Drug Administration)

• Technological Methods

  Precision fermentation, Tissue engineering, 3D scaffolding, Computational modeling

Timeline

• Tofu is invented in China as an early meat alternative. (Source: Wikipedia)

  0200-01-01

• During the Middle Ages, chopped nuts and grapes are used as substitutes for mincemeat during Lent. (Source: Wikipedia)

  1000-01-01

• Startups like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat begin popularizing commercial plant-based meat substitutes. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2010-01-01

• A systematic review on consumer acceptance of alternative proteins (pulses, algae, insects, and cultured meat) is published. (Source: Nature / Appetite Journal)

  2021-01-01

• The industrial insect industry receives 1.2 billion USD in funding, with 95% directed toward the animal feed market rather than human food. (Source: Nature)

  2022-01-01

• Research highlights significant improvements in achieving sensory and nutritional parallels between plant-based analogues and animal-derived meat. (Source: ScienceDirect)

  2024-01-01

Meat alternative

A meat alternative or meat substitute, also referred to as a plant-based meat, mock meat, or alternative protein, is a food product that is made from vegetarian or vegan ingredients and is consumed as a replacement for meat. The objective of meat alternatives is to replicate the qualities of meat, including its mouthfeel, flavor, and appearance. Plant- and fungus-based substitutes are frequently made with soy (e.g., tofu, tempeh, and textured vegetable protein), but may also be made from wheat gluten as in seitan, pea protein as in the Beyond Burger, or mycoprotein as in Quorn. Alternative protein foods can also be made by precision fermentation, where single cell organisms such as yeast produce specific proteins using a carbon source; or can be grown by culturing animal cells outside an animal, based on tissue engineering techniques. The ingredients of meat alternatives include 50–80% water, 10–25% textured vegetable proteins, 4–20% non-textured proteins, 0–15% fat and oil, 3-10% flavors/spices, 1–5% binding agents, and 0–0.5% coloring agents. Meatless tissue engineering involves the cultivation of stem cells on natural or synthetic scaffolds to create meat-like products. Scaffolds can be made from various materials, including plant-derived biomaterials, synthetic polymers, animal-based proteins, and self-assembling polypeptides. It is these 3D scaffold-based methods that provide a specialized structural environment for cellular growth. Alternatively, scaffold-free methods promote cell aggregation, allowing cells to self-organize into tissue-like structures. Meat alternatives are typically consumed as a source of dietary protein by vegetarians, vegans, and people following religious and cultural dietary laws. However, global demand for sustainable diets has also increased their popularity among non-vegetarians and flexitarians seeking to reduce the environmental impact of animal agriculture. Meat substitution has a long history. Tofu was invented in China as early as 200 BCE, and in the Middle Ages, chopped nuts and grapes were used as a substitute for mincemeat during Lent. Since the 2010s, startup companies such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat have popularized pre-made plant-based substitutes for ground beef, burger patties, and chicken nuggets as commercial products.

Web Search Results

• An Extension Guide to Alternative Proteins

  NC State Extension Publications ## Related Publications # An Extension Guide to Alternative Proteins ## What are alternative proteins? Skip to What are alternative proteins? Our bodies need protein to stay healthy. Protein helps build muscles, heal injuries, protect from illness, and keep our bodies working properly. "Alternative proteins" are made to look and taste like conventional animal protein products, such as burger patties, chicken nuggets, dairy products, and even fish and eggs. They are used in traditional main course foods like conventional meat and seafood, or consumed like dairy. What makes these proteins “alternative” is that they are not made from farmed or wild-caught animals or fish. Instead, they come from: [...] Rather than replacing conventional livestock production, alternative proteins can serve as a complementary approach that expands the scope of protein availability and market opportunities, as alternative protein processes utilize U.S.-grown agricultural inputs, such as corn and soybeans. Additionally, these technologies may offer new opportunities for utilizing agricultural side streams like straw, leading to new revenue streams (Charteris & le Coutre, 2025; Zhang et al., 2024). Open and ongoing dialogues between policymakers, farmers, and industry will be essential to creating a food system that respects agricultural heritage while embracing innovation. ## Will alternative proteins replace traditional livestock products in the food supply? [...] Farm-grown crops, such as beans or peas Fermentation processes using microbes and ingredients from plants Animal cells that are cultivated in food production facilities Among the three main types of alternative proteins, plant-based and fermentation-made products are already available on the market (e.g., plant-based burgers made from pea protein). Cell-cultivated products (e.g., cell-cultivated salmon) are still emerging and only available in a select number of restaurants in the U.S. Overall, the products available in stores today can complement other conventional proteins on our plates to diversify our diets. Alternative Protein Sources

• Alternative proteins; A path to sustainable diets and environment

  With a growing global population and the resulting pressure on natural resources, the supply of high-value protein has become increasingly limited. The rise of environmental and ethical concerns has led to the emergence of meat analogues as a credible alternative to traditional animal-derived meat. Growing demand for plant-based protein sources has gained attention as viable alternatives to conventional animal proteins. This article reviews commercially available plant proteins for meat replacement and evaluates recent research on producing meat analogues, highlighting their advantages and limitations. Beyond production, an examination of the physicochemical, textural, and structural attributes of the meat alternatives is conducted, highlighting the improvements made in achieving sensory [...] Skip to article My account Sign in View PDF ## Current Research in Food Science Volume 9, 2024, 100882 # Alternative proteins; A path to sustainable diets and environment Author links open overlay panel, , , , , , , rights and content Under a Creative Commons license Open access ## Highlights • The various plant-based proteins and their potential to meet consumer expectations are assessed. • An analysis of the latest innovative processing technologies for meat analogs is presented. • An in-depth analysis of the physicochemical, textural, and structural attributes of plant-based meat alternatives is conducted. • The environmental impacts of plant-based proteins versus animal-derived proteins are compared. • [...] highlighting the improvements made in achieving sensory and nutritional parallels with animal-derived meat. Furthermore, this article explores the current commercial applications of meat alternatives, highlighting the challenges faced in their widespread adoption and suggesting future research directions. The comparison of the environmental impacts of plant proteins and animal proteins is also presented. The ultimate goal is to develop meat substitutes that closely mimic the sensory, nutritional, and aesthetic qualities of real meat. Despite promising innovations in processing technologies, challenges remain that researchers are actively addressing to close the gap between plant-based meat analogues and animal-derived counterparts.

• Current challenges of alternative proteins as future foods - Nature

  Article Google Scholar 9. Onwezen, M. C., Bouwman, E. P., Reinders, M. J. & Dagevos, H. A systematic review on consumer acceptance of alternative proteins: pulses, algae, insects, plant-based meat alternatives, and cultured meat. Appetite 159, 105058 (2021). [...] (Fig. 3) to create the visual, structure, and sensation of being derived from animals84."),89."). Based on their formulation, alternative products are often classified as ultra-processed foods83."). Although a number of observational studies show a link between ultra-processed foods and diet-related adverse health effects83."), further causational investigation is required to address this point. In addition, given that the health benefits of plant consumption are from biometabolites, (e.g., polyphenols), the extensive protein extraction and food processing may greatly influence their presence along with other bioactivities89."). Hence, whether the alternative products are healthier diet choices than conventional animal-based proteins requires further scientific evidence. [...] The objective of this review is to systematically analyze the peer-reviewed scientific literature on the four categories of APs in terms of environmental impacts, challenges to utilization, future trends, and opportunities. The primary selection criteria include the published years between 2010 and 2023, the type of documents (i.e., original research and review article), and the search keywords (i.e., plant-based protein, plant-based meat analog, meat analog, insect protein, microbial protein, single-cell proteins, culture meat, lab-grown meat, cultivated meat and seafood). The reports with any risks of misleading results due to study design or conduct were excluded. Other materials, including news, regulations, standards, guidelines, and statistical information were further looked up for

• Beyond the buzz: insect-based foods are unlikely to significantly ...

  Article Google Scholar 20. Cottrell, R. S. et al. The overlooked importance of food disadoption for the environmental sustainability of new foods. Environ. Toxicol. Water Qual. (2021). 21. Onwezen, M. C., Bouwman, E. P., Reinders, M. J. & Dagevos, H. A systematic review on consumer acceptance of alternative proteins: pulses, algae, insects, plant-based meat alternatives, and cultured meat. Appetite 159, 105058 (2021). Article CAS Google Scholar 22. Anusha, S. et al. Consumer acceptability of plant-, seaweed-, and insect-based foods as alternatives to meat: a critical compilation of a decade of research. Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 63, 6630–6651 (2023). [...] Article Google Scholar 105. Bashi, Z., McCullough, R., Ong, L. & Ramirez, M. Alternative proteins: The race for market share is on. (2019). 106. WHO. Plant-based diets and their impact on health, sustainability and the environment: a review of the evidence. (2021). 107. Hodge, S. Beetles for sale: could insect farming feed us all and help save the planet? (The Wētā, 2022). 108. de Jong, B. & Nikolik, G. No Longer Crawling: Insect Protein to Come of Age in the 2020s. (2021). Download references ## Acknowledgements Not applicable. This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. ## Author information ### Authors and Affiliations 1. The Insect Institute, Philadelphia, PA, USA [...] In contrast, the vast majority of Western industrial insect production aims to produce animal food, such as livestock feed and pet food70."),79."). In 2022, 95% of the industrial insect industry’s funding, amounting to 1.2 billion USD, was directed to the feed market. This means that only 5% of funding is for insects as human food. Even within this 5%, less than 10% is for meat substitutes specifically, meaning they represent less than 1% of the overall insect market82."). Insects are routinely labelled as “alternative proteins” and included in debates on the topic of meat replacements21."),38."). However, insect farms in Western countries are more often used as a source of input for conventional proteins, such as livestock feed. ### Limitations and future directions

• Tips for eating more plant-based proteins

  Edamame Green peas Legumes, such as garbanzo, kidney, black, pinto or cannellini beans Lentils Nutritional yeast Nuts and nut butter Quinoa Seeds Seitan (wheat gluten-based), tofu and tempeh (both soy-based) In addition, processed plant-based meat alternatives, including "meat" balls, burgers, crumbles, "chicken" tenders and "fish" filets, have come a long way in texture and flavor. But it's not clear if replacing animal protein with processed plant-based meat alternatives provides the same benefit as whole-food, plant-based protein options. ### How do I add plant-based proteins to my diet? #### To increase whole-plant proteins, start with what's familiar: