The alternative protein industry has made rapid progress in just a few short years.
Plant-based burgers are increasingly indistinguishable from their ground meat counterparts, microorganisms are converting biomass into larger volumes of protein and other key ingredients, and cultivated meat is moving from the lab to pilot production facilities, attracting interest from researchers, food majors and investors.
Some novel proteins are further along in their development than others.
Plant-based food products using soybeans and tempeh are well-established, with these items taking up more space on supermarket shelves and restaurant menus. Studies and research show that consumers are demanding foods that benefit their own health as well as minimising environmental impact.
Additionally, consumers are becoming more open to food made with different ingredients. Healthier reformulations using lentils, faba beans and even avocado oil have been a hallmark of recent activity as food businesses adapt to evolving health and wellness trends.
This consumer demand fuels food producers to experiment with mouthfeel, taste and nutritional profile of their alternative products. Still, the meat market is valued at more than USD 1 trillion in 2024, GlobalData calculates, while the meat substitute market, despite the great strides made in recent years, is worth an estimated USD 8 billion.
Will alternative proteins ever come of age?
From lab to scale: key hurdles
The industry is still immature, but success is highly valuable – not just in terms of profits for individual businesses and investors, but also for society at large. The food system is currently responsible for between a quarter and a third of global human-caused GHG emissions[i] depending on the methodology and calculations used. A study in 2018 by scientists Joseph Poore and Thomas Nemecek[ii] found that of these, more than half (56% to 58%) came from animal products comprising meat, aquaculture, eggs, and dairy products, with beef having the highest environmental impact share, including GHG emissions and land use.
Yet the global appetite for protein is enormous and growing.
The world population is surging toward a projected 10 billion by 2050. By 2032, latest projections from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are that demand for poultry will grow 15% from 2023 levels, 11% for pork, 10% for beef and 15% for lamb around the world[iii].
New solutions based on alternative proteins are needed to push the agrifood system towards a climate-friendlier path. An increasing number of stakeholders – from consumers, to investors, food companies, equipment manufacturers, scientists and policymakers – believe that alternative proteins, if produced and consumed on a large enough scale, could accelerate progress towards multiple climate, environmental, animal welfare and food security goals.
Already, alternative proteins are becoming a valuable pillar of our food supply, produced using sources such as plants, algae and insects, or through processes like fermentation or cell cultivation.
But for the alt. meat and alt. protein industry to reach scale, significant steps in technology and manufacturing innovation will be needed, says GEA, a food technology firm and food processing specialist. In a report called New Food Frontiers, available to download above, GEA experts together with investors in alternative protein startups and industry innovators discuss some of the biggest obstacles and levers to scale up alternative proteins and meat substitutes.
One major challenge is cost of production. The report says that the current cost of producing plant-based proteins is twice as much as conventional protein and price parity for consumers must be achieved. “As it turns out,” the GEA report argues: “The primary levers for improving cost efficiency can also boost product quantity, quality and sustainability.”
Bringing down the cost of industrial processing
GEA suggests optimising plant-protein crops, such as soybean and yellow peas, which are currently suboptimal for producing large quantities of tasty, nutritious human food. Soybeans especially are still used primarily for animal feed. Breeding these crops for better taste and higher protein content would enhance both quality and scalability.
Each protein crop has its own unique composition and properties, and matching machines to the raw material can improve protein extraction (quantity), reduce off-flavours (quality), reduce the need for additives, and streamline capital-intensive steps like separation and drying. More effective processes leads to better capture and use of byproducts such as starches and oils, reducing wastage and boosting profitability for producers.
Another key efficiency lever, says the Düsseldorf-based firm, is optimising the harvesting and purifying of precision fermentation proteins, a multi-step process from microorganism growth to the final protein extract.
Centrifugation, filtering and drying are among the steps critical to efficient extraction; this is also where advances in industrial technology can decrease the cost of liquid-solid separation and have a major impact on product quality and scalability. Using low-cost feedstocks, such as byproducts from other industrial processes, can further reduce production costs and enhance sustainability.
GEA has test centres around Europe to pilot processes, technology, and products accelerating the shift to plant-based foods, cultivated meat and microbially produced dairy proteins. A new facility in the U.S. aims to create groundbreaking new food products.
Beyond technology manufacturing advancements, skilled and effective government regulation will be key to ensuring high standards and industry growth, and consumer acceptance of cell-based meat.
“If all these factors come together – innovation, manufacturing efficiency, consumer acceptance, and government leadership, alternative proteins could truly transform mankind’s impact on the planet,” says Frederieke Reiners, who leads GEA’s New Food activities.
Download GEA’s New Food Frontiers report for insights into the future of food and learn how GEA assists food manufacturers in transitioning their laboratory concepts and pilot trials to market-ready products.
[i] https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/food#:~:text=About%20a%20third%20of%20all,emissions%20is%20linked%20to%20food
[ii] Science Journals — AAAS (josephpoore.com)
[iii] https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/agriculture-and-food/oecd-fao-agricultural-outlook-2023-2032_f01f6101-en#page9
