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Safety of Alternative Proteins: Technological, Environmental and Regulatory Aspects of Cultured Meat, Plant-Based Meat, Insect Protein and Single-Cell Protein

Food security and environmental issues have become global crises that need transformative solutions. As livestock production is becoming less sustainable, alternative sources of proteins are urgently required. These include cultured meat, plant-based meat, insect protein and single-cell protein. Her...

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Autores principales: Hadi, Joshua, Brightwell, Gale
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8230205/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34071292
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods10061226
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author Hadi, Joshua
Brightwell, Gale
author_facet Hadi, Joshua
Brightwell, Gale
author_sort Hadi, Joshua
collection PubMed
description Food security and environmental issues have become global crises that need transformative solutions. As livestock production is becoming less sustainable, alternative sources of proteins are urgently required. These include cultured meat, plant-based meat, insect protein and single-cell protein. Here, we describe the food safety aspects of these novel protein sources, in terms of their technological backgrounds, environmental impacts and the necessary regulatory framework for future mass-scale production. Briefly, cultured meat grown in fetal bovine serum-based media can be exposed to viruses or infectious prion, in addition to other safety risks associated with the use of genetic engineering. Plant-based meat may contain allergens, anti-nutrients and thermally induced carcinogens. Microbiological risks and allergens are the primary concerns associated with insect protein. Single-cell protein sources are divided into microalgae, fungi and bacteria, all of which have specific food safety risks that include toxins, allergens and high ribonucleic acid (RNA) contents. The environmental impacts of these alternative proteins can mainly be attributed to the production of growth substrates or during cultivation. Legislations related to novel food or genetic modification are the relevant regulatory framework to ensure the safety of alternative proteins. Lastly, additional studies on the food safety aspects of alternative proteins are urgently needed for providing relevant food governing authorities with sufficient data to oversee that the technological progress in this area is balanced with robust safety standards.
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spelling pubmed-82302052021-06-26 Safety of Alternative Proteins: Technological, Environmental and Regulatory Aspects of Cultured Meat, Plant-Based Meat, Insect Protein and Single-Cell Protein Hadi, Joshua Brightwell, Gale Foods Review Food security and environmental issues have become global crises that need transformative solutions. As livestock production is becoming less sustainable, alternative sources of proteins are urgently required. These include cultured meat, plant-based meat, insect protein and single-cell protein. Here, we describe the food safety aspects of these novel protein sources, in terms of their technological backgrounds, environmental impacts and the necessary regulatory framework for future mass-scale production. Briefly, cultured meat grown in fetal bovine serum-based media can be exposed to viruses or infectious prion, in addition to other safety risks associated with the use of genetic engineering. Plant-based meat may contain allergens, anti-nutrients and thermally induced carcinogens. Microbiological risks and allergens are the primary concerns associated with insect protein. Single-cell protein sources are divided into microalgae, fungi and bacteria, all of which have specific food safety risks that include toxins, allergens and high ribonucleic acid (RNA) contents. The environmental impacts of these alternative proteins can mainly be attributed to the production of growth substrates or during cultivation. Legislations related to novel food or genetic modification are the relevant regulatory framework to ensure the safety of alternative proteins. Lastly, additional studies on the food safety aspects of alternative proteins are urgently needed for providing relevant food governing authorities with sufficient data to oversee that the technological progress in this area is balanced with robust safety standards. MDPI 2021-05-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8230205/ /pubmed/34071292 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods10061226 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Hadi, Joshua
Brightwell, Gale
Safety of Alternative Proteins: Technological, Environmental and Regulatory Aspects of Cultured Meat, Plant-Based Meat, Insect Protein and Single-Cell Protein
title Safety of Alternative Proteins: Technological, Environmental and Regulatory Aspects of Cultured Meat, Plant-Based Meat, Insect Protein and Single-Cell Protein
title_full Safety of Alternative Proteins: Technological, Environmental and Regulatory Aspects of Cultured Meat, Plant-Based Meat, Insect Protein and Single-Cell Protein
title_fullStr Safety of Alternative Proteins: Technological, Environmental and Regulatory Aspects of Cultured Meat, Plant-Based Meat, Insect Protein and Single-Cell Protein
title_full_unstemmed Safety of Alternative Proteins: Technological, Environmental and Regulatory Aspects of Cultured Meat, Plant-Based Meat, Insect Protein and Single-Cell Protein
title_short Safety of Alternative Proteins: Technological, Environmental and Regulatory Aspects of Cultured Meat, Plant-Based Meat, Insect Protein and Single-Cell Protein
title_sort safety of alternative proteins: technological, environmental and regulatory aspects of cultured meat, plant-based meat, insect protein and single-cell protein
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8230205/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34071292
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods10061226
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