At Cremona International Livestock Exhibitions an open dialogue on alternative meat market: is it really healthier?
The Exhibition, taking place at Cremona Exhibition Centre from November 26th to 28th , features also a rich events programme, such as the seminar Meat.it (November 26th from 2.30 pm to 5 pm) that offers an extensive overview on animal food productions.
Cremona, November 19th – It was 2013 when a lab-grown-meat was first eaten in London in a hamburger. Since then, technologies – and consequently market – have taken giant steps.
In 2019 on the Russian space station in orbit, a hamburger was produced with a 3D printer, starting from biological tissue of cells formerly cultivated on Earth. Since 2020, in Singapore it has been possible to buy synthetic chicken nuggets and this year in Tel Aviv a new restaurant serving only lab-grown food has opened.
How about tomorrow? How will the market of “meat-without-meat” products evolve? It is clear evidence, that over the last years, animal meat consumption has been decreasing all over the world due to a higher sensitivity of consumers towards animals and for a raising awareness of the environmental impact of livestock farms.
However, vegan and vegetarian consumers equals only 10% of the population, but the number of the so called flexitarian is constantly growing. Flexitarians are people who follow a plant-based diet, but sometimes eat animal proteins in a way of exception, thus representing a great potential consumer base for “meat-without-meat”, as long as it is tasty, nutritious and cheap.
But the real question for consumer should be: is “fake” meat really healthier? In fact, thinking that eating a steak-not-steak is like eating salad is not correct. These are anyhow processed food products that try to imitate as much as possible real meat in terms of macro-nutrients and calories.
This and other questions will animate the debate on one of the hottest topics of nutrition during the traditional Meat.it appointment organized by CremonaFiere and AITA (Italian Association of Food Technology)in the framework of next edition of Cremona International Livestock Exhibitions, taking place in Cremona from November 26th to 28th.
The Cremonese Exhibition clearly is a priviledged observatory both on the agro-livestock sector, being one of the most important events for this sector in the world, and on human nutrition, dealing with consumer-oriented topics.
