If I eat a burger made from crushed insects, will I notice the difference? Does it matter if my veggie sausage has been ultra-processed? Why will some people eat a prawn but not a cricket? Is lab-grown meat as nutritious as the real thing – and is it safe?
Such questions about new “alternative proteins” will be answered, it is hoped, by a new multimillion pound venture to try to get more insects, fungi, and cultivated (formerly known as “lab-grown”) meat onto our plates.
The global population is growing dramatically, and so is its appetite for animal protein like cheese, ham and burgers.
But animals raised for food can be terrible for the planet – destroying rainforests, adding to climate change and guzzling water – as well as for animal welfare and for our health in terms of fat and processing.
Keeping everyone nourished without eating up more land that’s needed to slow climate change and protects ecosystems is a dilemma that has fuelled the growth of the “alternative protein” sector.
This covers a range of proteins that need much less energy and land, including insects, fungi, algae, microbes brewed like beer, cultivated meat, and even veggie sausages made from something like mushrooms.
But the sector has hardly got off the ground – only 9% of protein sold in UK supermarkets comes from plants rather than animals, according to WWF, and cultivated meat hasn’t yet been approved for human consumption.
But alternative proteins could be worth £6.8bn a year and create 25,000 jobs by 2035, one analysis by the thinktank Green Alliance suggests, and boost food security.
That’s why the UK’s innovation agency, UKRI, has just dished out £15m to the newly formed National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC), launching today.
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The collaboration between different research groups is also backed by a further £23m from other stakeholders including business, farming groups, regulators and the third sector (charities, social enterprises and community groups).
“We want to make alternative protein mainstream, for a really sustainable planet,” said Professor Anwesha Sarkar, a food material scientist from Leeds University and NAPIC project leader.
The aim is to build up more evidence about the health benefits and risks, how to keep farmers in work and how to test out what the British public will stomach.
It will also look at how to unblock barriers to getting the products onto shop shelves, like outdated regulatory systems or slow testing processes.
They hope to be the “catalyst” to scale up proteins and make the UK a “global superpower” in alternative proteins, Prof Sarkar said. The UK is striking out alone while the EU shies away from it, and Italy has even banned lab-grown meat.
But the total £38m funding a drop in the ocean of the global industry, which raised $1.6bn (£1.2bn) last year alone.
Many UK start-ups are trying their hand in the sector, with Better Dairy brewing milk protein to make cheese in a process called precision fermentation, or Oxford’s Ivy Farm taking a tiny sample of animal stem cells that it can then stimulate to make them replicate indefinitely.
But not everyone is on board already.
Some animal farmers fear yet another threat to their livelihoods, while others are worried that many alternative proteins are “ultra-processed foods” (UPFs) – a somewhat controversial term that has been the subject of much recent debate.
But it “all depends on what you are comparing it with”, said Professor Tim Spector, co-founder of the ZOE nutrition project and an expert on the health risks of ultra-processed food.
He said ultra-processed alternative proteins are “probably slightly better” for you than UP meats, because they can contain more fibre and nutrients, he said.
“Probably the choices we make on our food are the biggest single factors we can do as individuals to help our planet… so that’s why I’m generally in favour of alternate proteins.”
It will take some years before the project starts to deliver, and it will be up to government to translate the evidence into policy and legislation.
A government spokesperson said: “Everyone should have access to a varied, healthy diet and make their own choices about what they eat.
“This government is committed to supporting a food system that produces sustainable, healthy and affordable food, while ensuring the right outcomes for consumers, farmers and food producers.”