GREEN FOODS AS SUSTAINABLE MEAT ALTERNATIVE: A REVIEW

Abstract

Green food is a term related to plant-based food having properties similar to meat. The rising environmental and health concerns are the main driving forces of consumer preference for sustainable plant-based meat over animal meat around the world. Proteins needed for meat analogue development can be of plant, algae, fungi or bacterial origin. The ingredients like hydrocolloids, smoke flavourings and spices can be added to improve texture and flavour profile of products. Though commercial meat analogues of isotropic nature are manufactured by conventional extrusion technique, advanced technologies like shear cell and electrospinning can make fibrous yet tender anisotropic products that resemble very close to animal meat. The rising consumer demand for meat analogues allows a great market opportunity for manufacturers to sell products with various positioning claims like plant-based, vegetarian, high in protein, environment friendly etc. This review elaborates on ingredients and technologies used for the development of meat analogues. Also, the market potential and the feasible solutions for challenges and constraints faced by industries are discussed