Alternative protein sources for meat – from techno-functionality to nutritional quality (Profunu) (PROFUNU)

Due to societal, ecological and health concerns, there is a current trend to, at least partly, replace animal protein in the diet with vegetable protein or other alternative protein sources. Hereby, not only the consumption of ‘meat analogues’ or ‘meat substitutes’ is on the rise, but also the consumption of ‘hybrid meat products’ is gaining popularity.

In this project, we will compare animal meat with alternative protein sources throughout the whole processing chain until in vitro digestion properties.  More specifically, we want to gain insights into the effects of different processing techniques for the fractionation and structuring of alternative protein sources, on their (1) techno-functional and (2) nutritional properties up to in vitro digestion.