Understanding the alternative protein movement

Date posted: January 8, 2020

First there were veggie burgers. Then came Better Burgers, Impossible Burgers, Beyond Burgers and more. Tiffany Lee, Director of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs for the North American Meat Institute shared her inside perspective on the alternative protein movement currently catching consumers' attention with delegates to the 2020 Banff Pork Seminar in Banff, Alta.

"Alternative proteins are divided into two types. Plant-based and cultured, or cell-based proteins," says Lee. "I prefer the term cultured because all living materials are made of cells."

The plant based alternatives appeared many years ago and were foods geared towards those who didn't want to eat meat but wanted something that would fit with the menu of the rest of the family. The tofu and veggie burgers of early years have evolved over the years into a whole class of more sophisticated products available broadly in retail and restaurants.

These are made in a number of ways but generally vegetables, including soybeans, carrots, celery, peas, mushrooms, among others, are combined with oil, and other ingredients such as nuts, potato flakes, or flour are used to create the burger patty. These products do not attempt to mimic the taste or texture of meat, but provide a plant-based alternative to those who follow a vegetarian diet.

"Recently, a few food-production companies set out to target more omnivorous consumers by improving the sensory qualities of plant-based proteins, especially imitation burgers. Several methods for improving the taste, smell, and texture of plant-based proteins are being used," says Lee.

A few of these companies are focused on trying to recreate the eating experience of beef: using things like beet juice to mimic the blood in real hamburgers; or heme, an iron-containing molecule that carries oxygen in animals and plants. Leghemoglobins responsible for nitrogen fixation in plant species are very similar to hemoglobins in animal tissue (which give it is characteristic meaty taste) and can be used to produce heme in plant-based burgers. One company is producing heme via genetic modification.

Perhaps the newest and most challenging territory for this industry and the meat industry is cultured protein. This practice involves what many have loosely described as laboratory produced protein. It involves in vitro muscle cell production which requires fetal bovine serum for the complex process. This is expensive, difficult to obtain in adequate quantities and would raise issues with any opposed to animal slaughter. As well, the process must also produce fat cells, which are different from muscle but are essential for the proper flavour and textures of meat products.

Cultured meat will have unique challenges to marketing and production compared to plant based protein, says Lee.

Level playing field

It is easy to see the lines are becoming blurred between what is plant and what is animal for consumers, Lee says. While a few of these products are already on the market, others have a way to go before becoming an affordable, easily accessible meat alternative.

As well, the few life cycle assessments completed of these products - used to determine their impact on things like climate change and human health - have yielded a wide range of results that position "fake meat" as either significantly better or significantly worse when compared to animal protein.

That leaves consumers more confused as ever.

The critical issue for the meat producing sector according to Lee is finding a way to ensure these products are all competing on equal terms, especially when marketing to consumers. In the United States there are different regulating bodies that oversee different areas of the food supply. Getting them to collaborate on what can and cannot be called meat, what claims can be made and where it can be sold are all issues in the process of being resolved.

Lee says "As the meat industry we are simply asking for a level playing field. That will be critical to ensuring consumers understand what they are buying and to ensure these products are competing on the same criteria as animal-based proteins."

To have common food safety criteria or to call something greener, cleaner or healthier will require significant research and scientific discussion, Lee says. "Healthy competition makes us all better. But we would like to see the same rules in place for everyone and then we can let the market decide."

Return to the News Release Index