Plant Based Meat and Dairy

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Last week, meat and seafood retailer Licious forayed into the marketing of “mock” chicken and mutton under a new UnCrave brand.

Plant Based Meat

• Plant-based” refers to products that bio-mimic or replicate meat, seafood, eggs, and milk derived from animals — by looking, smelling, and tasting like them.
• The variety like mutton samosas and also chicken nuggets, momos, and fries with the same prefix. 
• Beyond Meat’s patties, apart from using coconut oil to copy the melty beef fat of a real hamburger, apparently even bleed as they cook the “blood” coming from a beetroot juice-based liquid.
• Plant-based dairy products include ice-cream that isn’t simply frozen dessert that replaces milk fat with vegetable oil. 
• Even the proteins and other solids-not-fat ingredients are sourced from plants.

How are these made?

• Animal meat contains protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water, just like plants. 
• This biochemical similarity allows for finding analogues in the plant kingdom or making them through mechanical, chemical, or biological treatment of such ingredients.
• The challenge lies in replicating muscle tissue that plants don’t have.
• The unique spatial arrangement of proteins in these tissues is what creates the distinct texture of animal meat. 
• That’s why plant-based mutton samosas, kebabs or keema, having a simpler texture, are easier to make than larger whole cuts of animal meat such as chicken breasts and pork chops.
• As for plant-based dairy, the main products are milk from oats, almond, soyabean, coconut, and rice. 
• Among these, oat milk is considered the closest to regular milk in taste and texture. It is also thicker and creamier, as oats absorb more water than nuts or rice during soaking, and more of the grain gets strained for incorporation into the final product. 

How big is the industry?

• According to the Good Foods Institute at Washington DC, retail sales of plant-based animal product alternatives in the US stood at $7.4 billion in 2021. 
• While the industry has grown from $4.8 billion in 2018, it hasn’t lived up to the initial hype. 

What is the scope in India?

• Due to India’s significant vegetarian population, plant-based meat does not see much potential in India.
• Plant-based meat can have only a niche market relevant for the top 1%.”
• Most Indians take naturally to milk, which is a classic “superior food”.
• Both milk (which includes ghee, curd, butter, ice-cream and other dairy products) and, to a lesser extent, meat (which includes fish and prawn) are superior foods — unlike cereals and sugar, whose share in the value of consumption reduces with increasing incomes, making them “inferior foods”.
• Digestive concerns like lactose intolerance aren’t very serious in India and, at any rate, pale in comparison to the perception of milk as a wholesome food.
• “Plant-based beverages cannot compete with real milk either on nutrition, taste, or affordability.