Plant-based Meat Incorporating C

Plant-based meat has been making progress every day and that infusion of cell-cultured protein into plant-based protein products will gain momentum to enhance the taste and texture of alternative meat to the appeal of consumers, said Shirley Lu,  Managing Director - Asia and Chief China Representative of ProVeg International in an online seminar conducted in Shanghai today.

East Just's chicken steak approved to be sold in the Singaore market in late 2020 was in fact 70 per cent plant-based protein and 30 per cent cell-cultured protein, she noted.

Responding to the writer’s question on some media articles’pessimistic observations about the plant-based industry, Shirley said she was actually highly optimistic about the industry’s future, arguing that in terms of sustainability for the environment, plant-based industry is the way to go, and that all manufacturers in the field are striving toward improving the quality and lowering the prices relative to conventional protein, adding that already plant-based hamburgers and plant-based tunas from a particular brand are cheaper than the real thing in Europe.

As an highly encouraging sign, in cell-cultured meat, Believer Meat from Israel has set up a factory in the US and its cost of meat has come down to USD 20 per kilo, she said.

The alternative protein has many subsectors and plant-based milk has defied the market challenges and has kept a growing trend, she said.

“In the US, plant-based protein benefited from the Covid outbreak in 2020, but the benefit dissipated in 2022, leaving plant-based meat stagnating in growth but plant-based milk still enjoyed growth,”she said.

Proveg is a not-for-profit institution with offices also in Berlin and Washington to promote alternative protein worldwide.

Cargill scientist Zhang Yifang spoke about the benefit of pea protein as an ingredient in plant-based food. Using Innova’s data as evidence, he said that the number of new products using pea protein has grown 30.8 per cent CAGR during 2018-2022 to reach 738 while new products using soy protein and apricot protein has witnessed single-digit declines.

Worldwide, the number of products using coconut milk has grown at 1.2 per cent CAGR in the past five years to reach 795, according to Innova.

Speaking in the seminar were also Dao Foods’Investment Director Wu Ruoyu and Professor Li Jian from Beijing University of Industry and Commerce. About 2,000 people joined the seminar online.

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