**6.6 Laws and regulations**

*Veganism - a Fashion Trend or Food as a Medicine*

from meat alternative products [26].

**6.5 Advantages and disadvantages**

various serious food safety issues.

added with proteins before extrusion. But still majorly meat analogues have poor color quality due to improper balance of pH between meat alternative products and color solution. This issue can be resolve by addition of appropriate acids alone or in combination like acetic acid, citric acid and lactic acids. Also, color retention agents like hydrated alginate or maltodextrin can be added to control the color migration

The expanding world's population facing the problem due to lack of food led to hunger issues along with preserving ecosystem. In 20th century, the drastic nutritional transition was developed and presents livestock as a major available protein source globally. However, consumption of animal products also reported with

Meat and poultry products are popular and consumed all over the world but many ethical, traditional and environment issues forced the production of meat analogues. Plant based many products were designed recently to substitute the conventional meat products. The basic criteria of protein for the meat analogue are essential such as oil and water holding capacity. During the slaughtering of animals, food animals were reared which is a conversion of vegetable protein to meat protein. This process required many resources like water, fodder, feed and so on. Also, crop production required low inputs comparatively. Thus, production of meat reported with inefficient compare to plant based meat analogue. As per Pimentel and Pimentel [39], meat production required more water in comparison with plant crops (approximately 100 times more). The requirement of water in human diets, for meat diets per person in a year was the double than the vegan diets per person in a year. Meat products greatly depend on meat analogue which further vary with consumer acceptability, cost and legal criteria of the country. Along with this, the current living style associated with health diseases encourages the production of plant based meat analogue. Broadly the major concerns with meat products are classified as environmental issues, animal welfare issues and public issues. The expenditure of huge amount of natural resources and emission of greenhouse gases by the meat productions enhances the ecological burden which led to deforestation also. Animal welfare issues involve the unethically torturing and slaughtering process. This sometimes led to forceful and cruel transportation of animals. Public health issues comes in picture when the over consumption of meat reported resulting in development of ischemic heart disease and cause of 1.8 million deaths every year [40]. Larsson and Wolk [41] reported the colorectal cancer risk associated with consumption of red meat (120 g red meat per day or 30 g processed meat/day). *Salmonella, Campylobacter* and *E.coli* pathogen outbreaks reported several times all over the world which is also found in meat products. These major issues raise the food safety and public health concerns and studies. Meat analogue have advantage of producing various shape and size like sheets, cubes, disk etc. with desired color. In terms of nutrition and sensory, still no plant based meat product was successfully developed which can completely replace the meat products. The plant based meat substitute lacks with the similar mouthfeel due to the hardy and rubbery texture of meat analogues. The other drawback reported for the plant based meat analogue is off-flavors. Aforementioned, sensory attributes of plant based meat analogue still lacking leading to the undesirable flavors in the end product. Due some allergic reactions, not all plants can be used for production of meat analogues which is an important health concern. Major disadvantage for the meat analogue is related to its production process which involves 4 steps starting from cultivation of plant crop followed by protein concentration. Further, formulation and texturizing

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The health importance in protein in diet is scientifically documented and in 1999, FDA (Food and Drug Administration, U.S.A.) also recognized soy protein as blood cholesterol ingredient when consume 25 g every day when included in regular diet. This statement led to utilization of plant proteins in different health and function food products [42]. In 2016, GPA (Green Protein Alliance: multistakeholder platform with other partners) in Netherlands, focused on protein consumption balance to 50:50 from 63:37(animal:plant sources) by 2025 [15, 16]. In a study, an American consume 112 g protein (77 g protein from animal source and 35 g plant source) in daily diet and RDA for protein in adult is 56 g from both type of diet (vegan and non-vegan). These data conclude that consumption of protein is twice than RDA [39]. Incorporation of plant based protein in meat analogue related products will be helpful in balancing the proteins by following standardizing the nutrient allowance.
