What the Boom in Plant-Based Proteins Means for Food Safety

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said in a 2019 report on food processing that the processing in itself is not a good way to assess the food quality scientifically, because today, nearly all food is processed in some way. But, consumers and companies competing in the meat and meatless markets do use the term “processed” with a negative connotation to mean the food isn’t in a natural state.

There is a conflict about processing, says David Ervin, vice president of emerging proteins at Tyson Foods in Chicago. He was part of a webinar on plant-based foods last September hosted by the Center for Food Integrity in Gladstone, Mo., a nonprofit that works to help the food system gain consumer trust. “The processing is required to get the taste and texture, from pulling isolates out of peas and processing them with heat, moisture, and pressure to develop textures,” he says. “Taste is important, and to get that taste there are certain things we have to do.”

Tyson Foods, the largest meat producer in the United States, initially had invested in the plant-based meat company Beyond Meat, but now has its own line of alternative protein products. Ervin says that using the words “plant-based meat” causes controversy among meat producers, so Tyson opted instead to call its foods “plant-based proteins.”

White Castle, an eastern United States restaurant chain, sells a variety of plant-based burgers in its 140 locations. They include Dr. Praeger’s veggie burgers, black bean burgers, and the Impossible Slider. “The Impossible Slider looks like, sizzles like, and tastes like beef,” said Jamie Richardson, vice president of corporate relations at White Castle, during the same webinar. The Impossible Burger has coconut oil and sunflower oil in it to help create that sizzle.

Meatless burgers have often been touted by their makers as more healthy than conventional beef, with less fat and more fiber, but, on the downside, they have more salt for taste. “People are reading the labels on all of their food, including plant-based foods,” says Emmett.

But, compared with conventional hamburgers, plant-based proteins have more ingredients, some of which, such as the additive soy leghemoglobin, aren’t familiar to the average shopper. Soy leghemoglobin, or “heme,” is a color additive. Impossible Foods, the maker of the Impossible Burger, petitioned FDA last year to approve the additive, which the government agency did in July 2019. The company said the additive optimized flavor in its meatless products. Before FDA’s approval for direct-to-consumer sales of uncooked, red-colored beef analogue products, Beyond Beef had been selling products in cooked form that consumers could eat in a restaurant.

“We are in the midst of a revolution in food technology that in the next 10 years will likely lead to more innovations in food and ingredient production than there have been in the past half century,” says Dennis Keefe, PhD, and director of FDA’s Office of Food Additive Safety, when heme was approved. “As these new products and ingredient sources come to market, FDA has a responsibility to provide the appropriate regulatory oversight to protect public health by ensuring that these new foods and food ingredients are safe,” he adds.

Food Safety for Plant-Based Meats

Because plant-based foods are relatively new to the food system, aspects from ingredient processing to potential allergic reactions to how to store and cook the foods still need to be reviewed under FDA’s Food Code for public health, according to panelists at last November’s Nation’s Restaurant News Food Safety Symposium.

Many of the plant-based meat products contain pea proteins and other ingredients that raise concerns about glyphosate residue levels from the broad-spectrum herbicides that are used to produce them, the panelists said. Soy, a frequently used ingredient in plant-based burgers, is a common allergen. As with conventional foods, plant-based foods can contain other ingredients that possibly could cause allergic reactions.