Hi everyone! This week, I wanted to look into a topic where AI would definitely bring up lots of different opinions – food, especially plant-based meat. I’ve been a vegetarian my whole life and have never tried meat, so it’s been interesting for me to hear from my friends about how closely plant-based meat replicates the taste of the same foods that were made from meat. Recently, there’s been many more beyond meat options available at places that typically wouldn’t serve vegetarian options, which shows there is an increased need/popularity for these products. There has been more research to show AI and its use in both production of the plant-based meat products and also how AI works with creating a taste similar to meat. This post will be looking into the way that AI could be a resourceful development for the plant-based meat industry.
Source: https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/global-plant-based-meat-market-to-be-worth-us35-by-2027-due-to-rising-health-concerns/
Background and Information on Plant-Based Meat
Source: https://www.unileverfoodsolutions.us/chef-inspiration/plant-based-eating/trends/meat-alternatives.html
From my own experiences, the main priority that was surrounded by finding good alternatives to meat was to ensure getting good nutritional value without eating meat, which is known to be one of the important food groups to get a lot of different nutrients from. Although there are amazing, nutritional vegetarian options including beans, tofu, and eggs, they wouldn’t necessarily be considered replacements for meat like plant-based meat would qualify as. Aside from providing a new alternative for people who don’t eat meat, plant-based meat has also had numerous different studies about how it might be healthier. According to Unilever Food Solutions, “Swapping meat for plants reduces saturated fat, and increases the fiber and vitamin content of dishes. Studies show that this leads to reduced risks for diabetes, cancer, and heart diseases”. This shows that plant-based meat has a variety of benefits even for people who not only can’t eat meat, but also need to incorporate better foods for themselves for health purposes. Additionally, Unilever Food Solutions states, ” Also, plants require fewer environmental resources like water and space, which can offset climate change”. It’s great to see how plant-based meat is impacting the environment, and this is something that has been focused on more in most industries recently.
AI and Plant-Based Meat Production
Source: https://www.foodlogistics.com/software-technology/ai-ar/article/22159641/aryballe-enhancing-plantbased-food-manufacturing-with-machine-learning
The different components and flavors that come from meat can be hard to try to relate to something that is created through plants, and additionally another thing that might add to that would be that people have very different preferences and tastes when it comes to the food that they eat. In my opinion, this is a good situation where AI can have a non-bias perspective and be useful in simply trying to mimic what already exists. According to Food Logistics, “As more brands roll out plant-based meat alternatives, we’ll see a growing number of manufacturers leverage smart technologies, like AI and ML, to work faster and smarter. Not only does leveraging the power of texture, flavor, and odor data through ML enable manufacturers to improve operations, cut costs and ensure quality products, but it also helps address challenges within today’s struggling supply chain environment”. It’s important for resources like AI and ML to be used in the production of plant-based meat because it’s a way to try to get as close to what people are expecting the taste of real meat to be like, but also at a quick pace. Additionally, I think that another benefit with using AI and ML in plant-based meat production would be that the companies creating the products will be able to experiment with different flavors after getting customer feedback without having to waste time by immediately starting over.
AI and the Taste of Plant-Based Meat
Source: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/ai-and-new-meat-the-diets-of-the-future-will-be-personalized/
The most important aspect of testing if plant-based meat is valid would be the taste, and it’s interesting to think about how AI could contribute to the taste of plant-based meat. As previously mentioned, because of how complex it can be to figure out how to create flavors that a majority of people will like, it’s hard to figure out what companies can do to make their plant-based meat products appetizing for the many different people who will be either trying plant-based meats for the first time or regular customers. According to Analytics Insight, “With artificial intelligence, it is becoming possible to break down the molecules of each edible plant. Then, again with the assistance of AI, databases can be created of what combinations are not only delicious but also nutritious”. I think it would be worth trying to see what take the artificial intelligence would have on this. The AI might be able to help provide options that we wouldn’t typically expect, and this could lead to learning about so many new flavors and combinations of ingredients.
Conclusion
I’m excited to see what influence AI will continue to have on the plant-based meat industry. It was interesting to learn more about how AI helped with producing and modifying plant-based meats. Would you be willing to try plant-based meats/AI generated plant-based meats?
Thanks,
Jhanvi Desai