In charts: Can alternative proteins be the food of the future?

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In the world of alternative proteins, August was a month of milestones. India’s government approved the Biotechnology for Economy, Environment and Employment (Bioe3) Policy, with manufacture of “smart proteins" as a key focus area.

Singapore approved eight more insects as edible sources of protein. In the US, the Impossible Whopper, the trail-blazing Burger King product with a plant-based patty, completed five years. Alternative or smart proteins, aka alt proteins, are proteins extracted from unconventional sources (algae, fungi, insects) or manufactured using new methods (fermentation, lab cultivation of cells).

They mimic the taste and nutrition of dairy, meat and seafood, without actually breeding animals. Policies that support alt proteins can help the push for net zero: plant-based meat production uses 72-99% less water and 47-99% less land, causes 51-91% less water pollution and emits 30-90% less greenhouse gas emissions, data from Good Food Institute (GFI) India, a think tank, shows. Also read: Diet dilemma: Why India struggles to eat right As people get richer, they derive more of their calorie needs from proteins.

For India, proteins’ share in calorie consumption rose from 9.7% in 1991 to 11% in 2021, in step with rising incomes, as per calculations by Our World in Data using numbers from the Food and Agriculture Organization. Alt proteins are a sustainable way to meet this growing protein demand. They offer food safety (no risk of zoonotic disease from animal meat), and many see it as a more humane and ethical way to consume protein.