Trends in plant-based substitutes for animal proteins

Abstract

The increasing world population requires a sufficient production of crops and animals for food use, and the production needs to be environmentally and socially sustainable. Meat analogues made from plant, fungal, and insect proteins are expected to serve as a substitute for animal meats. Plant-derived proteins (plant proteins), which are attracting great attention, are focused on in this review as meat and dairy substitutes, since plant proteins may help mankind as a substitute for animal proteins to achieve a secure supply of proteins worldwide while also responding to the demand for plant-derived products by vegetarians and vegans. Aspects discussed in this review also include the role of soybeans as one of the key plant protein sources; its recent production in the world has been increasing due to the extended harvest area of genetically modified soybean varieties. Plant proteins can be processed by extrusion to give meat-like textures. In addition, plant proteins from soybean, wheat, and other plants have traditionally been utilized via fermentation in Japan and other Asian countries. It is expected that the fermentation methods used for those traditional plant protein foods as well as other processing technologies could be applied to produce novel foods based on plant proteins.