It seems like every month there's a new plant-based meat alternative on the market. In 2020 the world-wide plant-based meat market was $5.6 billion and is expected to grow by 15% through 2027. Since 2015, plant-based meat substitutes that mimic the taste, texture, and appearance of animal products have exceeded 4400 products worldwide. Veggie burgers have been around for years – since 1982 when London-based natural foods restaurant owner Gregory Sams introduced the "VegeBurger." The first veggie burgers were made from lentils, a variety of vegetables, nuts, and seeds and didn’t taste anything like a beef burger. Today the focus is on replicating the taste and texture of meat using plants plus the latest technology, moving away from the traditional veggie burger and toward highly-processed foods.What Ingredients are in Plant-Based "Meats"?Manufacturers use a variety of ingredients to make plant-based "meats," including:
Wheat gluten
Wheat seitan
Soy
Pea protein
Potato starch
Various types of oils
Different types of starches (these act as binders to hold everything together)
Vegetables
Legumes
Nuts
Seeds
Commercial flavoring and colors
Fermented, genetically engineered yeast
But are these meat alternatives better for your health than actual meat? Find out in the post Are Plant-Based "Meats" Healthier than Meats?By Lynn Grieger, RDN, CDCES, CPT, CHWCReferences:
Curtain F, Grafenauer S. Plant-Based Meat Substitutes in the Flexitarian Age: An Audit of Products on Supermarket Shelves. Nutrients. 2019;11(11):2603. Published 2019 Oct 30. doi:10.3390/nu11112603
Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, Springmann M, Lang T, Vermeulen S, Garnett T, Tilman D, DeClerck F, Wood A, Jonell M, Clark M, Gordon LJ, Fanzo J, Hawkes C, Zurayk R, Rivera JA, De Vries W, Majele Sibanda L, Afshin A, Chaudhary A, Herrero M, Agustina R, Branca F, Lartey A, Fan S, Crona B, Fox E, Bignet V, Troell M, Lindahl T, Singh S, Cornell SE, Srinath Reddy K, Narain S, Nishtar S, Murray CJL. Lancet. 2019 Feb 2; 393(10170):447-492.
Stephanie Ronco has been editing for Food and Health Communications since 2011. She graduated from Colorado College magna cum laude with distinction in Comparative Literature. She was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 2008.
What Are Plant-Based "Meats"?
It seems like every month there's a new plant-based meat alternative on the market. In 2020 the world-wide plant-based meat market was $5.6 billion and is expected to grow by 15% through 2027. Since 2015, plant-based meat substitutes that mimic the taste, texture, and appearance of animal products have exceeded 4400 products worldwide. Veggie burgers have been around for years – since 1982 when London-based natural foods restaurant owner Gregory Sams introduced the "VegeBurger." The first veggie burgers were made from lentils, a variety of vegetables, nuts, and seeds and didn’t taste anything like a beef burger. Today the focus is on replicating the taste and texture of meat using plants plus the latest technology, moving away from the traditional veggie burger and toward highly-processed foods.What Ingredients are in Plant-Based "Meats"?Manufacturers use a variety of ingredients to make plant-based "meats," including:
But are these meat alternatives better for your health than actual meat? Find out in the post Are Plant-Based "Meats" Healthier than Meats?By Lynn Grieger, RDN, CDCES, CPT, CHWCReferences:
Stephanie Ronco has been editing for Food and Health Communications since 2011. She graduated from Colorado College magna cum laude with distinction in Comparative Literature. She was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 2008.
Go Inside the MIND Diet
Are Plant-Based "Meats" Healthier than Meats?