The protein transition from animal towards plant proteins, is driven by the growth of the world’s population combined with a rising standard of living. Over the last five years, this has already resulted in a 7-fold increase in product launches with a plant-based claim or notification. This manuscript gives an overview of current, emerging and future protein sources and their use to replace protein in dairy and meat products as well as egg proteins. Currently, a major focus is on the development of products that mimic the original product the most, for example the best meat alternative. However, the question arises if this is enough to change the overall balance between animal and plant proteins? The outlook discusses the demand for a better understanding of consumer needs and preferences.
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Whether going fully vegan or embracing a more ‘flexitarian’ lifestyle, consumers are switching to plantbased food options in ever-increasing numbers. With 9 billion people to feed in the world in 2050, there are many reasons why: from perceived benefits for people’s own health and wellbeing, to concerns about animal welfare and the environmental impact of meat farming, or just the desire to be ‘on trend’.Interview with Fred van de Velde, professor and researcher at HAS University of Applied Science.
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Rationale: The goal of the PROVE (Protein enriched vegan products to fight malnutrition) project is to innovate the assortment of plant-based energy and protein enriched products for dietary treatment of (risk of) malnutrition. We aimed to explore preferences of dietitians for plant-based products in the treatment of malnutrition.Methods: In this design-based research project, the Double Diamond model was applied. Contextual interviews were performed with 9 dietitians experienced in treating clients using a vegan diet (1 omnivore, 3 flexi-vegetarian, 1 vegetarian, 1 pescetarian, 3 flexi-vegan). Interviews focused on preferences regarding product type, size, nutrients, taste, packaging, price. Affinity mapping was used to code and analyze the transcripted interviews. The results were summarized into concept products.Results: Four product concepts were developed that represent preferences of dietitians for a plant-based energy and protein enriched product for clients with (risk of) malnutrition. Overall, pea or soy were preferred as a protein source and addition of vitamins and minerals was not preferred.Conclusion: Preferences of dietitians for plant-based protein and energy rich products for patients with risk of malnutrition largely vary. Within PROVE, we will enrich these results with patient perspectives, as basis to develop and deliver plant-based energy and protein enriched products for treatment of (risk of) malnutrition.
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Micro and macro algae are a rich source of lipids, proteins and carbohydrates, but also of secondary metabolites like phytosterols. Phytosterols have important health effects such as prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Global phytosterol market size was estimated at USD 709.7 million in 2019 and is expected to grow with a CAGR of 8.7% until 2027. Growing adoption of healthy lifestyle has bolstered demand for nutraceutical products. This is expected to be a major factor driving demand for phytosterols. Residues from algae are found in algae farming and processing, are found as beachings and are pruning residues from underwater Giant Kelp forests. Large amounts of brown seaweed beaches in the province of Zeeland and are discarded as waste. Pruning residues from Giant Kelp Forests harvests for the Namibian coast provide large amounts of biomass. ALGOL project considers all these biomass residues as raw material for added value creation. The ALGOL feasibility project will develop and evaluate green technologies for phytosterol extraction from algae biomass in a biocascading approach. Fucosterol is chosen because of its high added value, whereas lipids, protein and carbohydrates are lower in value and will hence be evaluated in follow-up projects. ALGOL will develop subcritical water, supercritical CO2 with modifiers and ethanol extraction technologies and compare these with conventional petroleum-based extractions and asses its technical, economic and environmental feasibility. Prototype nutraceutical/cosmeceutical products will be developed to demonstrate possible applications with fucosterol. A network of Dutch and African partners will supply micro and macro algae biomass, evaluate developed technologies and will prototype products with it, which are relevant to their own business interests. ALGOL project will create added value by taking a biocascading approach where first high-interest components are processed into high added value products as nutraceutical or cosmeceutical.
The global market for the industrial manufacturing of recombinant proteins (RPS) is steadily increasing and demand will keep rising in years to come. Currently, RPs are already an integral part of disease therapeutics, agriculture and the chemical industry and RP manufacturing methods rely heavily on host systems such as prokaryotes and, to a lesser extent, mammalian, yeast and plant cells. When comparing these host systems, all have their specific strengths and weaknesses and numerous challenges remain to improve protein manufacturing on an industrial scale. In this project, GLO Biotics proposes an innovative plant-based RP expression platform with the potential of significantly reducing costs and process requirements compared to the current state-of-the-art systems. Specifically, this novel concept is based on the use of coconut water as a natural, cell-free ‘protein production factory’. Coconut water in nuts aged 4-6 months is composed of free-floating cell nuclei devoid of cell walls, and it has been demonstrated these nuclei can express foreign proteins. Compared to existing platforms, the relative ease of delivering foreign protein-coding genes into this system, as well as the ease of recovery of the produced protein, potentially offers an innovative platform with great commercial attractiveness. In summary, the aim of this project is to provide a proof-of-concept for coconut water as a novel and competitive RP production platform by demonstrating the production and recovery of several commercially available RPs. To this end, GLO Biotics intends to collaborate with Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (Zuyd) and the Aachen Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM) in demonstrating the potential of the ‘GLO-Conuts’ expression system. As a consortium, Zuyd and GLO Biotics will utilize their shared experience in molecular engineering and DNA vector technology and AMIBM will bring their expertise in plant-based RP production and recovery.
Voor een efficiënte opfok van vleeskuikens, met behoud van gezondheid van mens en dier, moet aan de dieren een kwalitatief voer met daarin een hoogwaardige eiwitbron worden verstrekt. Om aan de vraag naar eiwit te voldoen, gebruikt men in de veevoederindustrie doorgaans soja. Sojaproductie gaat echter gepaard met een grote ecologische voetafdruk en de vraag naar meer duurzaam geproduceerde eiwitbronnen neemt toe. De meeste eiwitbronnen hebben echter een eiwitverteerbaarheid die lager is dan soja. Bij gebruik van deze bronnen vindt daardoor meer microbiële afbraak (eiwitfermentatie) in de dikke darm en blinde darmen plaats, wat resulteert in darmschade t.g.v. giftige afbraakproducten en bacteriële groei van Clostridium perfringens. Groei van Campylobacter spp. leidt tevens tot gezondheidsrisico voor de consument. Naast een duurzaam productieproces, moeten eiwitbronnen daarom ook een hoge eiwitverteerbaarheid hebben. Uit gesprekken die gevoerd zijn door onderzoekers van de HAS hogeschool met nutritionisten van Agrifirm, het Feed Design Lab (FDL) en leveranciers van eiwitbronnen en voederadditieven, blijkt de noodzaak tot investering in duurzame eiwitbronnen. Hiermee voldoet de veevoederindustrie ook in de toekomst aan de vraag naar hoogwaardige grondstoffen, die door vleeskuikensector, de consument en de maatschappij wordt gesteld. Kansrijke eiwitbronnen worden beoordeeld door bestaande kennis m.b.t. duurzaamheid van het productieproces te centraliseren en in-vitro verteerbaarheidsonderzoek uit te voeren. In dit project werken HAS hogeschool, Wageningen Universiteit (WUR), Agrifirm en FDL samen in een consortium. In een eerste werkpakket leidt literatuuronderzoek tot een selectie van kansrijke duurzame eiwitbronnen. In een tweede werkpakket wordt middels een Boisson-analyse de verteerbaarheid van deze eiwitbronnen bestudeerd. In een volgend project wordt met dierproeven het effect van de meest kansrijke eiwitbronnen op darmfunctie, -gezondheid en dierprestatie bestudeerd.
