Establishing nutritional attributes for plant-based meats and alternatives: Development of literature review and validation plan

Plant-based meat alternatives are made using plant sources and which mimic meat in their appearance and texture. Vegan and vegetarian consumers prefer these products to meat, but many more Canadians stand to benefit from them as they transition towards diets relying more heavily on plant-based foods for ethical, environmentally sustainability, and health reasons. Consequently, the plant-based foods market is expanding rapidly. Plant-based alternatives have fewer calories, less total fat and saturated fat, and more dietary fiber than meat which may help to combat diet-related chronic diseases. However, they also have lower protein quality, can lack important nutrients, be ultra-processed, and high in saturated fat, salt, and sugar. There is no scientific basis to verify that plant-based meat alternatives are nutritionally superior. Companies, including The Very Good Butchers (TVGB), need support from the scientific community to clearly distinguish whether and how their products can be considered nutritionally superior. This project aims to determine the nutrition-related aspects of plant-based meat products and establish key criteria that can be used to deem them nutritionally superior and marketed accordingly. TVGB’s products will be examined and a plan developed to improve their nutritional profiles to meet these criteria. This project will be undertaken by a graduate student and academic supervisor from the Department of Human Health & Nutritional Sciences at the University of Guelph. The collaboration will help TVGB develop and market more nutritious products in comparison to other plant-based meat products and original meat products available in the Canadian market.

Faculty Supervisor:

Amanda Wright

Student:

Partner:

The Very Good Butchers

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Guelph

Program: