Scientific Consensus on Plant-Based Foods (2022 Edition) released

Reporter of this newspaper Lian He

The proposal of "big food view" has pointed out the direction
for the high-quality development of China's food industry in the future.
Plant-based foods effectively meet the requirements of the "big food view" in terms of
raw material sources and from meeting the health needs of the people.
In order to clarify the characteristics and direction of the development of plant-based foods in China, guide the healthy development of the plant-based food industry, and gain insight into the development needs of the plant-based food industry, under the guidance of the Chinese Society of Food Science and Technology, the Plant-based Food Branch of the Chinese Society of Food Science and Technology organized 21 authoritative experts and industry representatives in the industry to repeatedly polish and discuss extensively through on-site inquiries, literature retrieval, special research, etc.
, and formed the Scientific Consensus on Plant-based Foods (2022 Edition) (hereinafter referred to as the Scientific Consensus) for one year.
It was officially released
at the 2nd Plant-based Food Innovation and Development Forum.

Consensus 1

Plant-based foods are a new category with animal-like quality characteristics and meeting the nutritional needs of consumers

The concept of plant-based food is obviously different from China's traditional vegetarian, fasting and other plant foods, which is an inevitable product of the development of food processing technology to a certain extent, with plant protein replacing animal protein as the main feature, while meeting the consumption demands of vegetarians, further expanding the consumer group
of "flexitarians".
Plant-based foods pay more attention to meeting people's sensory characteristics and nutritional needs for animal-derived foods, and their purpose is to serve as a beneficial supplement or partial replacement of corresponding animal-derived foods, giving consumers more choices and better consumption experience
.

Consensus 2

Plant-based food is an important way for the food industry to achieve efficient resource utilization and green and low-carbon development

In the food chain, only a small percentage of plant protein can be converted into animal protein
after the animal ingests the plant.
For the human body, direct intake of plant protein is more bioavailable
.
The development of plant-based foods has certain potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the development of plant-based foods can help reduce carbon emissions and reduce environmental pressure
.

Consensus 3

Plant-based foods help optimize the diet and improve nutritional health

As an important supplement or alternative to animal foods, plant-based foods are usually rich in plant protein and a certain amount of dietary fiber, and are low
in saturated fatty acids.
Plant-based foods also pay attention to nutritional design from the perspective of nutritional complementarity to better meet the nutritional needs
of the population.
For nutrients or some essential amino acids that are easy to lack in plant raw materials, targeted additions can be carried out, or the amino acid composition and proportion
can be optimized through the reasonable combination of different plant protein raw materials.
In plant-based food processing, it is also necessary to properly control the amount
of salt, oil and sugar added.

Consensus 4

The processing of plant-based foods should achieve high-quality protein, rich nutrition, realistic texture, excellent flavor and similar color

One of the important characteristics of plant-based foods is to provide a certain amount of high-quality protein, and amino acid balance and digestion and absorption rate are key indicators
to evaluate the quality of protein.
The correlation between protein structure changes and the digestibility, absorption and metabolism of plant proteins was studied, and the supply and composition of essential amino acids were regulated on the basis of the ratio of different protein raw materials to achieve the amino acid balance
of plant-based foods.
The processing of plant-based foods should also pay attention to the balance of other nutrients, control the loss of nutrients during processing and reduce the activity
of anti-nutritional factors.
Improving the structure of plant-based foods and achieving texture fidelity are key requirements
for plant-based food processing.
Animal-like flavors that consumers are familiar with and expect are another important feature
of plant-based foods.
The flavor of plant-based foods can be enhanced
by flavoring or seasoning.
The perception of flavor is also related to food texture, and further control of the selective combination of flavor substances and food matrix and the interaction of flavor substances with proteins and other components is also the focus of
breakthroughs in plant-based food flavor improvement technology.
Color is an essential organoleptic property
of plant-based foods.
The color of plant-based foods can be obtained
by adding natural colors and colored proteins.
During processing, these plant pigments may change color due to oxidation or Maillard reactions, and this can also be used to produce the color that plant-based foods should have when cooked
.

Consensus 5

The normative development of the plant-based food industry requires the support of corresponding policies, regulations and standards

In terms of the supervision of plant-based foods, there are still certain controversies in product classification and commodity attributes, naming and label identification, and the application of new food raw materials, and the pain points of lack of standards have gradually emerged
.
As a new food category, plant-based food has not yet been included in China's national food safety standard classification system
.
Therefore, the government, science and technology and industry should also pool their forces to update and improve the standard and regulatory system of plant-based foods in a timely manner, in order to further clarify the definition and market positioning of plant-based foods, promote industry innovation and technological progress, so as to better regulate corporate behavior and protect the legitimate rights and interests
of consumers.

(The full text of Scientific Consensus has been published in the Journal of Chinese Food Sciences, Vol.
22, No.
10, and was first published
on CNKI on October 11.
) ）

China Food News(November 30, 2022, Version 04)

(Editor-in-charge: Gao Na).