Alternative proteins are increasing choice; not just for those who don’t eat meat, but for investors. They generally generate fewer greenhouse gases and use less land and water.
There are four main types of alternative proteins used as substitutes for meat: plant-based, cultured/cultivated, insect and microbial. Here, we look at the opportunities and challenges that lie for each of these.
Plant-based
Plant-based is probably the most well-known ‘alternative meat’ and falls into two categories: traditional and novel.
Traditional was first developed circa 900BC and refers to wheat and tofu-based products that require minimal processing.
Novel plant-based protein is far more complex in its processing and includes fake meat products such as burgers and sausages. According to the Good Food Institute, these products held 2.5% of market share last year but there have been concerns about slowing growth and demand over the past two to three years.
From a regulatory and technology standpoint, plant-based is the most advanced of the alternative meats and it’s fairly ‘trouble free’ compared to some others. Key challenges are price, taste, and health. The total price premium was on average 67% higher than traditional meat, and the most cited barrier to plant-based meat adoption is taste.
Cultured/cultivated
This is the Frankenstein meat – grown in a lab, but genetically identical to traditional meat. The process is complex; essentially one takes a small sample of cells from the animal to be replicated, isolates the relevant stem cells, and creates a line that can be replicated infinitely. The cells go in a medium with the ingredients essential for life: amino acids, growth factors, nutrients etc. and are allowed to proliferate in a bioreactor. Structure is added to the meat with different proteins and plant materials, to create anything from a structured product like a steak to less structured like mince meat.
The process takes two to three weeks, so price and scaling is a challenge. An Oxford-based biotech spinout we met last year aims to get the price of one kilo of minced beef below $500.
Main costs come from the use of specialised growth bioreactors, and growth factors which can be upwards of $80m per gram. One solution undergoing trials is to use standardised fermenting tanks, like the ones used in beer production.
Regulation is variable and not well developed, with certain products approved for the first time in the US last year. But equally, there are bans proposed across certain US states, Italy and Romania.
Insect
Edible insects can be used as pet food, animal feed, or for human consumption.
The nutritional composition of insects depends on the specific species and lifecycle stage, but has a protein content around 60% and like oily fish, insects are high in essential fatty acids.
Recent research showed Western cultures had quite a strong aversion to the concept: only 19% were willing to substitute meat for insects. However, 75% were happy for insects to be used in animal feed. Insect ingredient producer Ynsect recently received approval for insect-based pet food in the US.
Concerns include whether insects can feel pain, and the use of antibiotics. And regulation is underdeveloped and mixed.
Microbial
Microbial protein is produced by microorganisms such as algae, bacteria, and fungi, via fermentation. It’s existed in the human diet for thousands of years, mainly in the form of traditional fermentation; such as dough into bread, milk into cheese etc.
Then there is biomass fermentation, more akin to fungi-based harvesting, creating fibrous protein-rich structures, e.g. Quorn. And there is precision fermentation which takes place when microorganisms are grown in liquid suspension culture. The protein is extracted and purified from the culture, and can be used to make things like egg white proteins. These can further be altered through the addition of nutrients, fats and starches to recreate the textures and tastes of other more complex meat products. Beyond the genetic modification ethics, the ethical side of microbial is quite ‘clean’. Scalability is high because traditional large-scale fermenters are used and there are no requirements for expensive growth factors. The road to price parity should, in effect be a little shorter.
And equally, if cultured meats were to become the ‘winning’ alternative protein, microbial protein could still be relevant as it can be made into ingredients.
In conclusion, plant-based protein currently ‘ticks’ more of the areas we are concerned about, but that reflects the more mature nature of the plant-based market versus some of the risks of the others’ nascent technology.
As we get closer to price parity, and the environmental impacts of intensive agriculture are taken more seriously, it should bring opportunity. We feel that there is significant space for other alternative meats to capture market share in both the alternative market and in the traditional meat market. The precise winners are unclear at this point, but we’ll continue to monitor developments in this space as the market evolves.
