Paving the Way for Alternative Proteins

The Good Food Institute Europe works with scientists, businesses and policymakers to promote the benefits of plant-based and cultivated meat.

In the latest of our post-COP26 conference blogs, the institute’s policy manager Alex Holst explains how developing consumer confidence through evidence-based regulation is central to its alternative protein mission.

Last November, all eyes were on Scotland as the UK hosted the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow. Negotiations, renewable energy and frontline communities rightly dominated global news agendas as governments worked towards an agreement. But one sector that causes 20% of global carbon emissions was virtually absent from the high-level discussions – and it’s a sector that food regulators could help to transform for the better: meat, eggs, dairy, and seafood production. 

Fifteen years ago, the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation found that farming animals is driving the world’s most serious environmental problems, from climate change and deforestation, to air pollution and water shortages. These findings have been confirmed again and again. Yet, on a global scale, meat production is growing.

People from all walks of life want our food system to be more sustainable, secure and just. But most people don’t want to stop eating meat. So at the Good Food Institute Europe, we’re working to make plant-based, fermentation-made and cultivated meat as delicious, affordable and accessible as their animal counterparts. We work with scientists, businesses and policymakers to advance alternative proteins – and ensuring consumer confidence through evidence-based regulation is central to that mission.

Veggie burgers have been around for decades, but the new generation of animal-free foods is using novel approaches to appeal to meat-eaters. Plant-based companies are breaking down meat into its component parts – proteins, fats, minerals – and delivering the same flavours and textures using only plant ingredients. 

Fermentation companies make food that looks, cooks and tastes like meat, through a process similar to the way products like tempeh are made. And precision fermentation has been developed so that micro-organisms such as yeast can produce real egg or dairy proteins (like whey and casein), and other ingredients that provide the familiar flavour and texture of foods like animal products, without using animals. 

Cultivated meat companies are producing exactly the same beef, pork, chicken and seafood people enjoy eating today – but grown directly from cells. This new method of meat production enables the natural process of cell growth but in a more efficient environment. The result is an abundance of cultivated meat, identical to conventionally produced meat down to the cellular level. 

Making meat from plants and cultivating it from cells presents enormous opportunities to provide consumers with familiar foods, but at a fraction of the external cost on the environment and planetary health. Plant-based meat production emits up to 90% less greenhouse gas emissions and uses up to 99% less land than farming animals. When produced with renewable energy, cultivated meat could cut the climate impact of meat by 92% and use up to 95% less land. These sustainable proteins are also free of antibiotics and involve no risk of the emergence of zoonotic diseases.

Already today, consumers across Europe are hungry for plant-based products. Market research shows that retail sales of plant-based foods reached £3 billion in 2020 – 28% higher than 2019, and 49% higher than 2018. Germany leads the market, with sales totalling £845 million in 2020, with the UK in second place at almost £640 million. Plant-based meat sales alone accounted for £1.2 billion in 2020 – up 63% compared with 2018.

In recent years, governments across the world have begun to recognise the potential of sustainable proteins to fight climate change and reduce public health risks. In 2020, Singapore became the first country to approve a cultivated meat product for sale. Canada launched a national Protein Innovation Supercluster with the aim of positioning itself as a global leader in plant protein production. And just last year, the U.S. government awarded $10 million to create a National Institute for Cellular Agriculture, a cultivated protein research centre of excellence.

Of course, no single solution addresses all the urgent and complex needs of a growing global food system. There are, as they say, no silver bullets – and that’s especially true with something as complex as global food systems. 

But for sustainable proteins to play their part in creating a more sustainable, secure and just food supply, consumers need to be confident in the food they eat.

Companies that want to sell cultivated meat – as well as certain plant-based and fermentation-made foods – must first apply to regulatory authorities for their products to be approved. 

European countries have some of the world’s leading and most robust food safety standards. In the UK and EU, many sustainable protein products requiring pre-market approval will follow regulatory frameworks for novel foods and – in some cases – genetically modified foods.

Given the early stage of development of the sustainable protein sector, regulators can play a crucial role for innovative plant-based, fermentation-made and cultivated proteins to come to market. 

What regulators can do:

The main task for regulators is to ensure an efficient regulatory path to market without compromising on food safety standards. It starts with learning: regulatory agencies are well-positioned to build out their in-house expertise on how sustainable proteins are produced and where the crucial food safety considerations lie. 

Then comes dialogue: regulators should welcome conversations with sustainable protein companies and sector experts to gain a clear understanding of industry developments and to convey expectations to future applicants.

Learning and dialogue can lead to more clarity. This should culminate in creating bespoke guidance documents on the preparation of a safety dossier for novel plant-based food products, foods produced with biomass fermentation and precision fermentation, as well as cultivated meat. Improved guidance will not only help companies in preparing their food safety dossiers but also save regulators time and resources when assessing applications. 

It is clear that ensuring safe and high-quality food is paramount. A more efficient and clear regulatory approval process for sustainable proteins would help on both of these fronts - helping both regulators and food businesses operating in this new terrain. This would allow us to reap the societal benefits of those products faster and help address climate change, deforestation, and zoonotic disease risk.

Alex Holst was a panel member at last October’s ‘Global Conference for Food Safety Regulation & Sustainability’ in Edinburgh, jointly held by FSS and the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

* In December 2021, the FSA commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct an online survey to understand consumer awareness and perceptions of alternative, or novel, sources of protein.