Americans still are not meeting the recommended intake levels for dietary fiber, a nutritional failure that can lead to the development of a number of health issues down the road. The shortfall is so critical that the new “Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025” has designated dietary fiber as “a dietary component of public health concern.”
Plant-based seafood offers a dietary choice to those who follow vegetarian and vegan diets, are allergic to fish or shellfish, or want to reduce their consumption of animal products.
Organic and “natural” foods and beverages continue to gain appeal, driven in part by more consumers cooking at home and increased interest in health and safety. In an online consumer poll of “likely organic” shoppers conducted last spring by the Organic Trade Association (OTA), 90% of respondents said organic is “more important than ever.”
The explosion of plant-base meat and dairy analogs has created a paradigm shift in the ways food product developers are considering fats and oils. There’s plenty of innovation around plant-based meat alternatives, especially as they expand beyond burgers, sausages, and poultry into mimics of bacon, pork, and even such specific items as turkey burgers.
Optimizing the texture, flavor, appearance, cooking experience, and other qualities of these and other items to be as close to their animal counterparts as possible to meet increasingly exact consumer expectations has pushed innovation to new levels.