Comparing the nutritional value and prices of meat and milk substitutes with their animal-based benchmarks across six European countries
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Date
2024-12
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Journal Article
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yes
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Abstract
Since overconsumption of animal-sourced foods is directly linked to multiple environmental and health issues, a dietary shift is imperative. One approach to facilitate this change is the production of substitutes for animal-sourced foods based on plant-based or novel ingredients. However, to be a valid alternative, substitute products must match animal-sourced foods regarding their nutritional value while being price competitive. To understand where substitutes currently stand in that regard, this study presents a novel dataset containing the prices, main ingredients, and nutritional composition of almost 2600 substitute products as well as prices of approximately 7500 conventional products sold in major supermarket chains in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Although comparative analyses (non-parametric two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum tests at a 5 % significance level) of the results indicate that the meat substitutes generally contain a higher level of dietary fiber with lower saturated fats, these meat substitutes often also have lower protein quality and higher salt and sugar levels than the conventional products. On average, meat substitutes were found to be 24 to 115 % more expensive compared to conventional meat, except for the German samples where price parity has been reached. Among milk substitutes, only soy-based products have favorable macronutrient profiles. The average price premium charged for milk substitutes compared to cows’ milk is 35 to 58 %. In general, fortification rates of substitutes should be increased to ensure sufficient supplies of micronutrients, particularly among meat substitutes where fortification rates are below 20% except for the Netherlands. Following these results, certain individual products already provide high nutritional value at low costs. However, further improvements are required for substitutes to become a compelling alternative at each scale.
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published
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Journal / series
Volume
197
Pages / Article No.
115213
Publisher
Elsevier
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Subject
Meat and dairy substitutes; Alternative proteins; Market research; Product prices; Nutrition
Organisational unit
09571 - Mathys, Alexander / Mathys, Alexander
03780 - Siegrist, Michael / Siegrist, Michael
Notes
Funding
101059632 - Gab resolutIon in sAfety, NuTritional, alLergenicity and Environmental assessments to promote Alternative (SBFI)