Miller Magazine Issue: 148 April 2022

75 COVER STORY MILLER / APRIL 2022 a long-term option for consumers around the world. If sales and penetration for meat and dairy alternatives continue to grow, our scenario analysis suggests that the plant-based food industry has the potential to become ingrained as a viable option in supermarkets and restaurants alike. Meat and dairy alternatives could even obtain 5% and 10% of their respective global market shares in the next decade” says Jennifer Bartashus, senior consumer staples analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Among the various factors that are driving the growth of the plant-based alternatives sector, environmental and nu- tritional aspects are two of the major reasons behind the trend. Some of the opportunities and challenges associated with the two factors are discussed below: • Environmental aspects: Livestock production is of- ten critiqued for various negative environmental im- pacts – greenhouse gas emissions, landscape deg- radation, overuse of water supplies, eutrophication potential, among others. The environmental impacts of plant-based alternatives are perceived as poten- tially less resource-intensive than livestock produc- tion. A 2018 study by Poore and Nemecek suggested that producing a glass of dairy milk requires almost nine times more land and produces three times more greenhouse gases than growing any of the plants needed for dairy alternatives. Many popular plant based alternatives are derived from legumes, which in addition to being nutritious also enrich soil fertility through nitrogen fixation. • Nutritional aspects : According to published liter- ature, plant-based diets tend to be associated with higher dietary quality and reduced risk for chronic metabolic diseases that are commonly linked to the consumption of animal-based foods. What are the typical constituents of plant-based alternatives? The protein sources typically used in plant-based alter- natives range from legumes to nuts, seeds, cereals and tubers. Another growing segment within the plant-based protein industry is mycoproteins, which are derived from fil- amentous fungi like Fusarium venenatum. The dietary fats in plant-based alternative products are usually derived from a variety of plant products (such as canola oils, cocoa but- ter, coconut oil and sunflower oil) often used in mixtures to achieve desired physicochemical and nutritional parame- ters. In plant-based meat alternatives, the plant proteins are bound together by methylcellulose. One of the major advantages of plant-based alternatives is the opportunity to use a larger variety of ingredients to ad- just the composition of the product to meet the technologi- cal, nutritional, functional needs and consumer preferences alike. Therefore, in addition to bulk ingredients and additives used to impart colour, form and texture, a number of these