In recent years, consumers' increasing concern for health has been driving the development of global healthy eating trends. Healthy eating is gradually becoming a trend of the times, and more and more consumers prefer "healthy" and "health preserving" foods. In today's increasingly diversified and personalized food requirements, new protein foods are gradually becoming a healthy choice in the mainstream food market.

What is the new protein?

The term 'new protein' originates from the English word 'alternative protein', which can be directly translated as a substitute protein. The essence of new proteins is to partially "replace" traditional meat, egg, and dairy products on people's dining tables by promoting product research and technological innovation.

New protein research

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States analyzed data from a prospective cohort study involving over 400000 people followed up for 16 years.

The results indicate that an increase in protein intake in the diet is associated with a decrease in overall mortality rate. If 3% of animal protein is replaced with plant protein to provide energy, the risk of premature death for both men and women decreases by 10%, while the risk of cardiovascular disease decreases by 11% and 12% in men and women, respectively.

Factors influencing the popularity of new protein foods

There are many factors behind the popularity of new protein foods, including consumers' considerations for human health, environmental protection, and cost control. At present, there are three main factors for consumers to choose plant protein products:

Plant protein plays a very positive role in sustainability, environmental protection, and animal conservation.

The health benefits of plant protein include heart health, cholesterol reduction, and extended lifespan.

Plant protein symbolizes a more natural, healthy, and trendy lifestyle, and people are more interested in products with clean labels and natural health.

Under this trend, plant proteins will also benefit from the continuously growing market demand in the future.

New Food Revolution?

Nowadays, new protein is no longer a marginalized concept, it has truly appeared in our important dietary choices now and in the future. As an incremental market, new protein is like a food revolution for traditional protein products, just like new energy vehicles are for traditional cars.

According to a recent survey by DuPont Nutrition&Health, 52% of consumers in the United States are consuming more plant-based foods; The prospects for plant-based meat in China are also promising. According to the China Plant based Food Industry Alliance, Beyond Meat, the first listed artificial meat company, has officially joined the alliance. According to the Markets and Markets market report, the global plant protein market was worth $18.5 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14.0% starting from 2019, reaching $40.6 billion by 2025.

Selenium Holy Plant - Microalgae Protein

At present, the traditional mainstream plant protein sources on the market, such as soybeans, wheat, peas, etc., require additional blending of fats due to their insufficient oil content. The algae derived plant protein provided by selenium holy plants not only contains abundant polysaccharides, but also has a protein content of up to 50% to 70% by dry weight, far exceeding traditional animal and plant proteins.

More importantly, it is rich in natural Omega-3s oils and various essential amino acids for the human body. Omega-3s are unsaturated fatty acids that the human body cannot synthesize on its own. They not only mimic the taste and texture of meat fat, but also have extremely high nutritional value beyond meat fat.

Algal derived protein - food applications

Despite the health and sustainability benefits of algal derived proteins, their food applications still face many obstacles, and the taste, especially flavor, remains the primary consideration for consumers.

With the continuous efforts of many domestic and foreign brand manufacturers represented by Selenium Sage Plant in the development of new products, high-quality plant protein ingredients have been developed and applied, and many technical advantages of neutral taste and mass production have expanded the application of algal protein in food. It can not only be added to cereal food as a nutritional enhancer, such as bread, cake, noodles, nutritional Rice noodles, but also be added to western meat products such as ham sausage, red sausage as a meat substitute, which can compete with animal protein in taste and taste.

At the same time, the growth trends of big health, clean labels, allergen free, plant-based foods, and vegan diets are constantly increasing the market demand for algal protein.

New Breakthrough - Seafood Meat Protein

At present, plant-based protein products mainly enter through meat and livestock products, milk, and cheese products, but this does not prevent the plant-based market from penetrating other protein source markets, such as protein substitutes for seafood products. The latest research report from Mintel shows that while recognizing the importance of sustainable production of seafood products, consumers also seem to have a potential demand for plant-based seafood products. In fact, many international giants are also entering the plant-based seafood product market.

In September 2019, a plant based product manufacturer in the United States developed the first plant based shrimp food, which is mainly made of seaweed, soybean protein and natural essence. The addition of algae extract is used to give the product a certain salty taste and marine flavor, soybean protein is used to construct and simulate the unique texture composition of shrimp, and natural and safe essence is used to imitate the inherent flavor characteristics of shrimp, so as to meet consumers' stringent requirements for flavor. The product also contains eight essential amino acids commonly found in fish meat, no allergens, zero cholesterol, and lower calorie and salt content than real shrimp food.

However, as of now, the variety of vegetarian alternatives for seafood products in the market is quite limited. Developing and industrializing more vegetarian alternatives for seafood products based on algal protein is also one of the future development directions for selenium holy plants.

The continuously rising consumer demand continues to drive the research and development of plant-based protein foods, which will bring huge business opportunities to food manufacturing. With the continuous expansion of industrial production of microalgae by selenium holy plants, algal protein will help more food producers develop more promising new health foods.