Search

Summary: Positioned midway between traditional meat and plant‐based options, hybrid alternatives cater to a broader consumer category due to the intersection of flavours, textures and ethical considerations. This review aims to provide a current landscape and forthcoming challenges of hybrid options, exploring their formulation, processing, distinctive features, consumer acceptance and sustainability aspects. Even though there is no standard definition of the 'meathybrid concept', scientists and industrials explored different ingredients including purified proteins or whole vegetables/grains/seeds to formulate palatable hybrid products maintaining comparable sensory features to meat. Consumers' attraction to hybrid meat products is mostly related to taste, sustainability and nutritional aspects. Future challenges for hybrid options may include optimising production scalability, ensuring consistent quality and taste and effectively communicating the benefits of hybrid products to diverse consumer segments. Additionally, ongoing research and development efforts will be crucial in enhancing hybrid alternatives' sensory attributes, nutritional profiles and environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microalgae are booming as a sustainable protein source for human nutrition and animal feed. Nevertheless, certain strains were reported to have robust cell walls limiting protein digestibility. There are several disruption approaches to break down the cell integrity and increase digestive enzyme accessibility. This review's intent is to discuss the digestibility of microalgae proteins in intact cells and after their disruption. In intact single cells, the extent of protein digestibility is chiefly related to cell wall structural properties (differing among strains) as well as digestion method and when added to food or feed protein digestibility changes depending on the matrix's composition. The degree of effectiveness of the disruption method varies among studies, and it is complicated to compare them due to variabilities in digestibility models, strains, disruption method/conditions and their consequent impact on the microalgae cell structure. More exhaustive studies are still required to fill knowledge gaps on the structure of microalgal cell walls and to find efficient and cost-effective disruption technologies to increase proteins availability without hindering their quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nutrient composition of plant-based burgers is a key factor when making their purchase/consumption decision to maintain a balanced diet. For this reason, ingredient list and nutritional information of burgers launched in the global market were retrieved from their labels. Products were classified based on the technology development, market position and region of the manufacturer. From the ingredient analysis, we observed a high heterogeneity in the ingredients used, a predominance of soy and wheat as main sources of proteins, and the increasing use of new protein sources (e.g. peas, other types of beans and pseudo-cereals). Oil was the most cited ingredient followed by salt. Nutritional composition varied mainly depending on the region with no clear pattern among countries. To less extent, technology development resulted in traditional products with lower amounts of protein and higher amounts of carbohydrates. Vegan and vegetarian products showed limited differences due to the high intra-heterogenicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the role of Food Industry 4.0 in enhancing food sustainability amidst global challenges such as climate change and resource scarcity. Topics discussed include the integration of digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) in food systems, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security and supply chains, and the potential of these technologies to reduce food waste and improve efficiency in various food sectors.

There is a growing criticism of meat-based products over environment, animal welfare, and public health. Meat lovers are keeping and adapting their habits, while other consumers are increasingly shifting toward meat alternatives considered as healthier and more sustainable options to replace the animal-based products. This transition gives room in the market to plant-, seaweed-, and insect-based meat products alternatives. Nevertheless, these emerging markets are still facing the challenge of consumers' acceptance and the uncertainty in terms of preferences. This paper focuses on in-depth understanding of consumer perception and acceptability of plant-, seaweed-, and insect-based meat products to get insights on their current situation and future implementation. The main factors and motives influencing the consumer perceptions toward meat alternative products are reported. Further, the consumers' motives and drivers to consume alternative products were highlighted. This review, provides a better understanding of motives and drivers of consumers' acceptance to improve the acceptability of meat alternatives, considering product and country origin of the consumers of meat alternative foods. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2022.2036096 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]