Tackling Food Safety and Waste in Plant-Based Meat Alternatives

Noeleen Donegan, Global VP of Food Safety at Kerry

The plant-based sector saw impressive growth over the course of the pandemic as customers turned to meat and dairy-free options in search of more sustainable and healthy diets. Racing to meet this peaked interest for alternative proteins, famous names and fresh faces have released a deluge of new products into the market and in 2021 alone, plant-based start-ups raised $3bn of global investment – up 74% on the year prior – according to market data group PitchBook.

It's fantastic to see such innovation in the sector to explore the possibilities of plant based, however, with developing a new area of nutrition comes the need to solve new problems with regards to food safety and food waste. Some of the world’s largest brands are now faced with new puzzles that need solving efficiently and responsibly to keep up with the ever-conscientious consumer.

Building on vegetarian and plant-based options, the market is now abundant with meat-alternatives – where a product is designed to replicate its meat counterpart – in a nod to those consumers turning away from meat for sustainable or health reasons rather than on taste credentials. While there is ample food safety and shelf-life data for traditional meat products, and solutions in this area are well established across the industry, this is not yet the case for meat-alternative and plant-based products.

This is the challenge to which Kerry Group is applying its unrivalled expertise, offering a unique integrated approach to support brands in developing safe and sustainable plant-based and meat-alternatives. Kerry Group has over 20 years’ experience in supporting the development of plant-based products, working with global companies in ensuring food safety is embedded throughout their lifecycles. Our expert team understand the technical challenges of formulating safe plant-based meat products and making them last longer.

“Food safety and preservation is an incredibly important issue for brands and, alongside a tasty product, will be the key to the future development of plant-based and meat-alternative”

Just as the food industry is exploring this new area, so are consumers – and in getting to know the storage and cooking process of these new products they remain wary. Almost half of consumers voiced concerns over the food safety of plant-based meat alternatives, according to a survey carried out by Kerry last year, second only to the real deal. How do you know when a plant-based burger is cooked properly, or when its past its use by date? Can a plant-based meat pass or fail a gone-off sniff test? 

These uncertainties pose an issue for increased food waste as customers err on the side of caution, and research shows that food waste reduction can only be truly achieved by shelf-life extension and a change in consumer behaviour. Here is the opportunity for businesses to take an integrated approach – developing meat-alternatives that mimic the cooking process of real meat while educating consumers on their safe-handling and storage alongside industry progress in extending their shelf-life.

To help educate consumers and create a meat-alternative lifecycle that is familiar to them, Kerry’s solutions can ensure that refrigerated meat-alternative products have a shelf life that is convenient to consumer lifestyles and expectations. This is achieved by inhibiting the outgrowth of spoilage organisms that create off odours and flavours, and change the appearance of the product in an unappealing way and are often the source of the shorter shelf life seen in refrigerated meat-alternative products.

Another challenge facing the sector in meat-free innovation is that statistically, a consumer of plant-based alternatives has greater health-conscious needs and is extremely mindful of a product’s ingredients label. Traditionally effective preservatives such as salt and sugar are less desirable and may even dissuade some from purchasing a product. Yet, without sufficient preservation a products shelf life is shortened; their safety can be called into question and the risk for food waste once again increases. Kerry is working with its customers to solve these issues in innovative ways. One approach is to investigate the spoilage organisms in plant-based meat alternatives, levels of which tend to be higher than other food products. By minimising these through clean label solutions, a product’s shelf life can increase without the need for traditional preservatives.

Kerry’s continued research means the group is constantly building new technology into its products to support brands with sector-leading innovation and solutions in the plant-based space. Food safety and preservation is an incredibly important issue for brands and, alongside a tasty product, will be the key to the future development of plant-based and meat-alternatives.