Plant-Based Ingredients Could Relieve Stress On Resources Caused By Meat Production

Meat consumption in developing nations is on the rise, but scientists worry that the increasing demand for meat will put a heavy strain on natural resources, especially available farmland. The problem is that meat production requires a lot of land: 40 square meters to produce a kilogram of meat. That same amount of land, however, will produce 120 kilograms of carrots and 80 kilograms of apples. According to Dr.-Ing. Peter Eisner of Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, plant-based food ingredients could play an important role as protein and fat substitutes in the years to come. Eisner, for example, has developed a "milk substitute" from lupin proteins that works well in foods such as ice cream and cheese, but contains no lactose or cholesterol and is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids.