More and more plant-based products that replace meat have been gaining space on the hangers of supermarkets and stores around the world. In the case of Ecuador this is not the exception.
Environmentalists have promoted in recent years the substitution of meat of animal origin for vegetable meat as an option to avoid food waste and against climate change. However, regarding nutrition there is still debate among specialists.
What is vegetable meat?
Vegetarian meat is made on the basis of products of plant origin. It is usually shaped like a hamburger, and is made from soybeans or tofu. Sometimes it is manufactured as chicken cuts.
The latest advances in the matter include synthetic ingredients, such as heme, derived from hemoglobin, to give it a “bloody” flavor.
Another version has the favor of the agri-food industry: it is meat created in the laboratory, from the cultivation of animal cells, as well as microbial proteins and fungi.
What does it contribute against climate change?
These substitutes make it possible to reduce meat consumption considered excessive for health and the planet, particularly in the countries of the northern hemisphere.
At the beginning of April, the UN climate experts (IPCC) once again recalled the importance of the “transition to diets with vegetable proteins”, which would reduce the colossal impact of livestock farming, a sector that consumes large amounts of energy and releases a lot of CO2.
Replacing 20% of global consumption of beef and lamb with microbial proteins could halve deforestation and agriculture-related CO2 emissions by 2050, estimates a recent study published in the journal Nature.
Imitation meats “are not a magic bullet to solve all problems. Wheat or soybeans are already very problematic in terms of biodiversity or soil depletion”, explains Olivier de Schutter, co-chair of an international panel of independent experts IPES-Food of the UN.
Industrialization
“Vegetable” does not necessarily mean “natural”, and some experts highlight the industrial and ultra-processed nature of these products.
Many of the products sold in supermarkets contain large amounts of sugar, fat, as well as additives, dyes and agents to give them an appearance similar to that of meat. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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