Create vegetarian meat like real meat to save the Earth

More and more people are aware that the cost of a plate of meat on the table is a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions, affecting not only the air and water but also future generations. Vegetarian meat is expected to be an alternative.

Unlike the bean or grain burgers of decades past, this "vegetarian" variety - best known for the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat brands - is selling well to foodies. Traditional meat. The manufacturers are committed to recreating the taste and texture of vegetarian meat like real ground meat.

Beyond Meat Company's Vegetarian Burger

Stanford University biochemist Pat Brown founded Impossible Foods after asking himself what he could do to make the biggest difference to the environment. And his answer was to substitute meat.

To do that, Impossible Foods separated meat into its component parts, then created a similar product from plant-based ingredients.

Manufacturers start with plant-based proteins, mainly soy, potato, oat, or equivalent proteins for others.

They then add carefully selected ingredients to mimic real meat flavors, mostly coconut oil in place of animal fat, in addition to yeast extracts or other flavorings.

Impossible Meat's research technician, Alexia Yue, pours heme solution into a plant-based blend to create the meat for the burgers.

William Aimutis, a food protein chemist at North Carolina State University (USA), says all this requires quite a rigorous processing.

For example, soybeans are often ground into a powder, then the oil is removed. Proteins are isolated and concentrated, then pasteurized and spray-dried to produce relatively pure proteins.

But each step costs energy, raising the question: Are these meat alternatives really more eco-friendly?

In addition, "vegetarian meat" now costs an average of 43% more than real meat, which is also why "vegetarian meat" accounts for less than 1% of meat sales in the US. Advocates are optimistic that prices will fall as the market matures, but that is unlikely to happen in the near future.

And achieving economies of scale will also take a lot of work: Even growing to just 6%, the market will require an investment of $27 billion in investments. vegetarian meat factory.

Livestock production accounts for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, both directly (the amount of methane released by livestock, poultry and other herbivores) and indirect (the fossil fuels used in the environment). used to grow crops for animal feed).

If the global herds were a country, their greenhouse gas emissions would be second in the world, just behind China.

In particular, grazing animals such as cattle, sheep and goats have much larger greenhouse gas emissions than non-grazing animals such as pigs and chickens, largely because they emit methane, belching, and belching. a little bit.