The increase in world population and the reach of higher income levels in growing countries has changed dietary patterns. One of the consequences is the increased demand for animal protein. And although until not long ago, talking about eating meat without having to continue killing animals was a total absurdity, this reality has made today a trend that sounds more and more force in the food and hospitality industry, known as ‘ fake meat ‘ or ‘ meatless meat ‘. But do we really know how they are obtained and what effect they can have on our body?
Replacement foods: vegetable meat
In many countries the vegetable-based hamburger that not only looks, but tastes – and even bleeds -, like the hamburger of a lifetime. Its story began in 2009 when the current Impossible Foods founder, Patrick Brown, decided to focus on reducing meat consumption and started with the most iconic dish in the United States. , the burger, creating the Impossible Burger .
This company made a very interesting finding, and it is that one of the components of hemoglobin , the heme molecule that gives blood its characteristic color, is what makes this fake meat taste and smell like meat. Thanks to that, this effect has been replicated using vegetables. The launch of this ‘burger’ is expected to revolutionize the meat industry as alternatives are being sought to steak, cheese, bacon, sausage, and bluefin tuna.
The Impossible Burger is made with water, wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein, natural flavors and other substances such as yeast extract, soy protein isolate, xanthan gum or salt. The balance of all these, and many more, manage to simulate a conventional hamburger.
Impossible Foods’ competition is the company Beyond Meat , which, although it does not have the same fame as the first, has grown brutally in in 2019. Their ‘mock meat’ is a blend of primarily soy protein, pea protein, and yeast; and products that mimic chicken meat are made from a blend of soy protein, peas, fiber, and other ingredients. But it was only in 2016 when it launched one of its star products, the Beyond Burger: u a vegetable burger made from pea protein that provides 20 grams of protein, It does not contain soy, gluten or GMOs, or cholesterol, and provides half the saturated fat of a traditional beef burger.
Advantages ? Beyond protecting animals and the real taste and texture it has, it is projected as a product that will help combat malnutrition as costs continue to fall. In addition, its creators highlight that, compared to what is necessary to produce a cow hamburger, the vegetable version will help care for the environment since it requires 95% less land, produces almost 90% less greenhouse gases and saves more than 70% water.
In relation to safety in the consumption of this product , the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has endorsed that it is safe for human consumption. Of course, there are some discrepancies: the Center for Food Safety has raised doubts about the use of genetically modified soybean leghemoglobin as an additive. The CFS alleges that the FDA did not request testing of the raw product and that studies supporting its safety were conducted in part by workers at Impossible Foods.
Printed vegetable meat
Just as you read it. In 2018 a meat substitute was created using a plant-based paste with syringes placed in a 3D printer and with AutoCAD software to imitate the natural structure the tissue of the meat. The manager is a food technology startup that works with plant-based meat substitutes called NovaMeat , in Spain. Its creator, Giuseppe Scionti, points out that this vegetable pasta manages to reproduce the protein properties of a beef fillet through amino acids obtained from pea and rice proteins.
Although I have only mentioned a few, there are many companies that are currently entering this rising market. Another issue is laboratory meats , which are still in the phase of regulatory approval and cost improvement.
Cultured meat
Also known as clean meat, laboratory meat or in vitro meat , it is a project that came to light in 2013 at the hands of the Dutch scientist Mark Post. This project combines science and technology in order not to have to kill animals. C onsists in extracting cells from the skin of chickens, cows, fish or pigs, and adding plant nutrients to make the muscle tissue multiply .
By the nature of the process, Post notes that it takes about 9 weeks to produce a hamburger, and when the project began, it cost more than $ 10,000 to make 1 pound. However, by 2021 cultivated meat could start to be in supermarkets with a value of around 9 euros. The Good Food Institute , a non-profit company in charge of producing in vitro meat, is evaluating options to carry out this process on an industrial scale through bioreactors that improve the rate at which stem cells transform into muscle fibers.
We help the planet, but what about our health?
Another of the great doubts with fake meat is the effect it can have on health. And while at an environmental and animal level many of the benefits mentioned are indisputable, the consequences they may have on our body are highly in doubt. At a nutritional level, meat that is not meat is very similar to the product it replaces , however, many nutritionists question the impact that this type of so processed and modified products may have in our cells. While its effect is not known in detail, the ideal is to give priority to natural products such as grass-fed cows. The aim is to avoid ultra-processed meats made up of a large amount of sulfites or from hormonal cows that have been given antibiotics.
Additionally, some vegetable meats such as Impossible Burger and laboratory meats use genetically modified organisms (GMO) in some of the stages of making fake meat, which is why this product has not reached the European market. There are many doubts about GMOs due to their way of obtaining, in which the genetic code is manipulated to obtain what is desired.
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