Smart proteins in plant, medical, animal and industrial application

Smart Proteins (also known as ‘alternative proteins’) are being developed globally as an alternative to animal-derived meat, eggs, and dairy, with vast implications for food security, public health, and planetary health. The smart protein sector will be important in India too as over 70% of the 1.3 billion population identify as non-vegetarian, but cited income rather than religion as the reason for not eating meat. There are many reasons why India can and should take the lead in this sector. The sector covers a range of different methodologies to produce smart proteins but can broadly be defined as plant-based products, cultured meat products and fermented biomass. This elective will look at the ways in which crops such as soy, wheat, pulses and legumes (peas, mung beans), and millets can be made into meat alternatives that are acceptable and attractive to ‘veg’ and to ‘non-veg’ consumers alike. The sessions will cover areas of interest for students of plant, environmental and industrial biotech as this sector has enormous potential for the agricultural and food technology industries. We will go on to discuss the methods involved in culturing animal cells in vitro as a means to generate alternative meat products that do not involve harvesting living animals with the attendant costs to the climate. So, students will gain insights in protein structure, animal cell biology, stem cell biology and tissue engineering (relevant to medical and animal biotech). Finally, fermentation-derived alternative proteins can be derived from the cultivation of microbial cell factories to make either a primary source of food protein (whole-cell biomass) but also as to derive specialized food ingredients (e.g. flavouring). Smart protein-derived foods seem likely to use less land, water, and energy and emit vastly fewer emissions. However, it will be important in all of these sectors to discuss the economic, environmental, health, and ethical issues. What is the market size, can products be produced cheaply and sold at price levels that allow populations to change eating habits, can the food industry pivot in this direction? What are the environmental impacts, considering the whole-life process of production, is it sustainable? How do these products which are ultimately processed foods impact on human health (salt, sugar, additives etc)? In a country like India which has a culturally plant-based agricultural economy are smart proteins needed? We would like to air some of these debates in this elective.