Alternative proteins are gathering more attention from start-ups, investors, and the overall food industry. While consumers are only accustomed to plant-based products for now, the future relies heavily on proteins created in labs. To learn more about this, I recently spoke to Dr. Nils Borchard, head of Research and Innovation at the German Agricultural Society (DLG).
FFE: What is the current state of the alternative proteins industry?
DLG: At DLG we established last year an expert committee, and there we bring those who know better what we talk about. I guess there are several sources, insects, algae, plants – n nowadays we also talk about cellular agriculture as a source of alternative proteins.
And all these different, let’s say, value chains differ in their acceptance as well as in their technological readiness. When we talk about the alternative ones, based on plants, the market is rather well developed and accepted by the customers. It’s a market which is growing.
There is a fear for the agronomists when such a market increases. What happens with farmers focusing on pigs and poultry and cattle? There is a specific fear. And we look at the development specific when we talk about the younger consumers. They already prefer the change to plant-based products, and this may have an impact, let’s say, in the future also to the primary production, it may reduce the consumption and that triggers down to the farmers, as they must reduce the number of animals they have on their farms.
How can the market handle this type of transfer from the current situation to the situation of the future – the lower number of cattle, the lower number of pigs? It’s a transformation that needs to be considered. This transformation also goes hand in hand with cellular agriculture.
FFE: Are consumers willing to test and adopt alternative proteins?
DLG: Here in Europe, people are not adapted to eating insects. When you say, “let’s put forward a patty based on insect proteins”, the people would say, yeah, it looks fine, but I won’t taste it. So, when you note on the package “it’s based on insects”, there might be a reluctance.
In case you put it under these E numbers, nobody may know that it’s based on insects. But when you note on the package, it might be very challenging to attract the customers. It differs completely to the plant-based stuff, that market is established, it works.
Another value chain that may also work because there is no challenge with the customers is cellular agriculture. Now we talk about cellular meat. They did some research in Netherlands and Denmark to check at the customer sites. Having two burgers, can they identify the one produced based on cellular meat? They cannot. It’s the same. Taste, texture, everything, it’s the same, so acceptance will be given. It’s a very emerging market currently.
It’s not a market at all, because the regulations currently do not allow that the stuff to be sold in the European Union. Here, in Europe, even tastings are not currently allowed. In the Netherlands, Dutch companies, they can organize tastings, but there must be some regulation behind that. But there, at least it’s allowed at least to taste, but it’s just Dutch companies that can offer their products for tasting.
FFE: What’s the reasoning behind that?
DLG: It’s a type of novel food, and the Commission will assure you that this food is in accordance with safety regulations, so it doesn’t harm the people who eat it. That requires specific assessments. It’s like when you study the performance of a medical drug. This type of study must also be applied for these products.
So, it’s quite costly if the Commission asks you to do that. But we know that the technology works, it’s quite expensive, a lot of investors and accelerators put a lot of money into the development, and now they realize it’s not as cheap as thought and we’re still stuck in the regulation issue.
FFE: We have recently seen a downward trend in terms of sales of plant-based products. What can that be attributed to?
DLG: Let’s talk about plant-based milk products. In the beginning, a one-liter box was quite expensive. But this market is now at a major stage, per liter the price dropped down, but the amount of sold products increased. So, in the end, the total turnover, if we talk about the money flow, is the same.
Consumption increased, the price dropped down, but this is a very natural development in a major market. When we talk about these plant-based alternatives, let’s say a steak or even a patty based on plant-based, it’s true, it slightly dropped down, but you may distinguish between the age cohorts.
The younger ones still prefer to eat that stuff, so the proportion of those who grab these products at the grocery is still quite high. It’s just a matter of their income elasticity due to the inflation in Europe. The money which is available to buy and purchase these rather expensive products isn’t that available anymore. That’s the basic reason behind the decreased selling of these products.
But the interest in these products, specifically in the younger ones, is still very high. They see it has some advantages. The taste is the same. But also, if the older consumers are still there, meat consumption will be quite dominant.
FFE: Does freezing alternative protein-based products affect the quality in any way?
DLG: The freezing may have an impact on the texture, that relates probably to the water content, and the structure’s capacity to, let’s say, absorb or even integrate, may have an impact on the texture itself. So, you probably need different technology then, it’s not like normal meat or anything, or even use specific ingredients that prevent the separation of the water from the biomass.
Even when you cook and fry that stuff, it’s the same, so it must be designed to mimic real meat. And this is where the challenge lies. It’s a challenging process, it’s a trial-and-error process, despite the properties of the ingredients. Cellulose is a product that can absorb water, but it may have an impact on the product when you fry it. So those who design this food need to consider all these issues. It’s rather complex. An animal you just need to slaughter and separate, and then you sell it, and here you must design.
FFE: The biggest issue in lab-grown meat is adding the right amount of fat to mimic the taste. Do you think this issue has been solved by now?
DLG: In principle, when you have a steak, it’s a mixture of protein per se, fat, and some other compounds keeping the meat stable. And another issue is highly relevant, you need to cultivate both, or even all these three things: the protein cells, the fat cells, and collagen cells, etc. Then you can mix that stuff, but in the end it’s just a burger patty, nothing more.
In addition, because some flavor may not come out of this mixture – just the proteins, the fat, and the collagen – in the US, there is a company that designs the compounds responsible for the taste, as well as for the VOCs given up while you fry these products. So, you can smell in the kitchen, ‘ah, it’s a steak in the pan”. And this is based on specific compounds released during this frying process. They design these compounds, you can mix them into these products to mimic the taste, as well as how it smells.
And another issue when we have a steak, or even something from a kettle, from pig, or even something from poultry, the fats differ in their molecular structure and pattern. So, it’s not just one molecule that creates the fat, these are several molecules, and their composition has an impact on the properties. And that needs to be copied as well. You need to understand at first the composition of a steak per se, and then you can put everything together at a specific ratio, like a Lego toy.
FFE: From your knowledge, are there many companies right now that can create such products?
DLG: In principle, there are some, it’s a question of what many means. There are at least some, but all of them focus on the production of cells. There is no structure per se. When you talk about a T-bone steak, there is bone, there is meat, there is some fat. Nobody focuses currently on that. You probably can’t create something like that.
But some companies, they try to figure out how it might be possible, and the knowledge comes from the medicine sector, because there they try to develop, or even create procedures to create kidneys, livers, heart muscles. So, the knowledge of how such structures can be developed will be based on research that has been done already in the medical sector, I guess. We do not talk about the bones. It’s probably quite simple, but how can you assure that the meat is sticking on the bone? That needs to be considered as well.
3D printing is one option or having a type of basic structure made of collagen, where the cells can grow inside. It’s another approach, but I’m not sure at what stage the companies are. Money is not an issue in development, but when we talk about the T-bone steak, it couldn’t cost EUR10,000, nobody would buy meat. So, there is a lot of research still necessary to come up with a technical approach which can produce an affordable product.
FFE: Which part of alternative proteins do you think will gather the public’s interest in the following years?
DLG: Fermentation. It is a rather old process, but very simple. You have your pot, put the yeast in, some nutrients, water, et cetera, and the mushroom. Today, this is a process called precision fermentation, like precision farming. The major aim is not to precisely apply some fertilizer on the soil, it’s to have a very precise process, aiming to stimulate the mushrooms, the microorganisms to build a specific compound, and this compound will be harvested. For instance, you can use it for cheese production.
This article is featured in the Frozen Food Dossier Spring 2024 edition, which you can access for free at https://www.frozenfoodeurope.com/.