Mix insect, plant and cultivated proteins for healthier, greener, tastier food, say experts

Reducing the use of industrial animals can help reduce our carbon footprint and stimulate health, but this means that we need nutritious meat alternatives which are also tasty and affordable.

It is according to a new Science borders Article in which researchers reveal how hybrid foods, which combine proteins from different sources, could be part of the solution.

Researchers say that by using combinations of different plant proteins, fungi, insects, microbial fermentation and cultivated meat, we could create tasty, nutritious and durable alternatives to animal products.

In addition to attacking environmental concerns, hybrids could also help approach the health and ethical impact of farming such as animal welfare, zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial resistance.

“Hybrid foods could give us a delicious taste and texture without breaking the bank or the planet,” said the first author David L. Kaplan at Tufts University in the United States. “The use of protein alternatives does not necessarily need to have financial, taste or nutrition costs.”

For example, based on the fibrous texture of mycelium, the sensory and nutritional qualities of cultivated meat, nutrition and sustainability of insects, proteins, pigments, enzymes and flavors of microbial fermentation, and the abundance and the low cost of plants, hybrids could combine the best source of proteins.

But to get there, researchers call for regulatory examination and academic and industry cooperation to overcome obstacles and find the best possible protein combinations for our health, sensory, environmental and cost needs.

“To succeed, we need research and cooperation through science, industry and regulators to improve quality, production scale and gain consumer confidence,” added Professor Kaplan.

More than the sum of their parts

Researchers have studied different protein sources: plants (for example, soy products such as tofu), insects (transformed into flours and mixed in food), mycelium -based products (such as vegan commercial meat analogues), cultivated meat cultivated in bioreactors and microbial fermentation products (such as proteins, enzymes and enzymes flavors).

They evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of each source of protein and considered how to exploit the best qualities of each, both with and without animal meat. For example, although vegetable proteins are inexpensive and scalable, they often lack flavor and texture of meat. Meanwhile, cultivated meat imitates animal meat more closely but is expensive and difficult to evolve. Mycelium can add a natural texture, while insects offer high nutrition with a low environmental footprint.

The researchers examined various combinations to compare their sensory and nutritional profiles, acceptance of consumers, affordability and scalability.

They found that even if each protein source has drawbacks, combining them can overcome many of these limitations. In the short term, plant-cycelium hybrids seem the most economically viable because they are scalable, nutritious and already used in commercial products.

In the longer term, vegetable cultivated meat hybrids can become more desirable, because even small amounts of cultivated cells can improve taste, texture and nutrition once production costs fall and capacity increases.

They also underline the first studies which revealed that substantial fractions of meat in burgers or sausages can be replaced by vegetable proteins without reducing consumer acceptance, and even small additions of cultivated meat or mycelium can improve the taste, texture and nutrition of plants based on plants.

“No source of unique alternative protein is perfect, but hybrid products give us the possibility of overcoming these obstacles, creating products that are more than the sum of their parts,” said principal professor David Julian McClements of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States.

Overcome obstacles

In addition to the advantages, each source of protein has its own limitations which must be treated before their resulting hybrids can become traditional meat alternatives, according to researchers.

The treatment necessary for the cultivation of meat or the combination of proteins leads to high costs and difficulties in increasing production. Some protein sources need more coherent and less fragmented regulation and others, such as insect proteins, are faced with high consumers’ skepticism.

Many edible insects are very nutritious and more friendly to raise than animals, and more than two billion people in the world already regularly eat insects – but consumers in developed countries are often less ready to do so.

Another concern is that many current alternatives based on meat of plants require many ingredients and in-depth transformation, and are therefore classified as ultra-tangle food (UPF), which consumers can consider as unhealthy.

Observation studies show correlations between high UPF consumption and unwanted health results, although causality has not been established. However, the authors note that hybrids – based on the natural advantages of each source – could help reduce our dependence on additives and intensive treatment.

Researchers therefore strive to ensure that these products are healthy and acceptable to consumers. Future research, they say, should focus on optimizing protein sources, the development of evolutionary production methods, carrying out environmental and economic analyzes and the use of AI to identify new hybrid combinations and treatment methods.