Plant-based meat analogues have both nutritional strenghts and challanges

As the consumption of plant-based meat analogues increases, their nutritional quality becomes an increasingly important issue. The recently published study is the first systematic survey of the nutritional quality of meat analogues on the Swedish market.

Overall, the study shows that meat analogues in the Swedish market have potential strengths but also challenges, in terms of their ability to contribute to a healthy diet. Strengths are, for example, that meat analogues generally have a low content of saturated fat and a relevant content of fiber, in relation to the recommended intake. Among the challenges can be mentioned that meat analogues can contribute to a significant intake of salt, even if they in some cases have a lower salt content than the corresponding meat-based product. The protein content was usually similar or slightly lower, compared to meat-based alternatives.

The study shows that there is variation both within and between categories of meat analogues, in terms of both the content of individual nutrients and the overall nutritional assessments according to the Keyhole and Nutri-Score.

The variations suggest that there is potential for nutritional improvements through product development of future healthy plant -based meat analogs. We hope that the results and our discussion about them will contribute with guidance in this work, says Susanne Bryngelsson.

A total of 142 meat analogues were identified, belonging to 24 different brands. Sausages, pieces/fillets and burgers were the most common product categories. The most common sources of protein were soy and pea.

Link to the scientific paper