Comparing the potential of meat alternatives for a more sustainable food system

This scoping review presents a comprehensive multidimensional assessment of four alternative protein sources, plant-based meats, cultivated meat, insects, and single-cell proteins, evaluating their potential contributions to a more sustainable food system. While existing research often examines alternatives through a single dimension, overlooking important synergies and tensions between different aspects, our study employs a holistic framework evaluating each option across four critical dimensions: environmental impact, production scalability, consumer acceptability, and animal welfare implications. Additionally, the literature typically compares alternatives to conventional meat without systematically comparing them against each other, despite these alternatives potentially competing for the same market segments and funding resources. This comparison gap risks promoting suboptimal solutions with inherent limitations compared to other alternative proteins. Our analysis reveals that plant-based meats emerge as the most promising alternative, offering substantial environmental benefits, established production infrastructure, growing consumer acceptance, and minimal animal welfare concerns. Single-cell proteins demonstrate significant potential despite uncertainties regarding scalability. While cultivated meat could potentially complement other alternatives if it captures unique consumer segments reluctant to adopt plant-based or single-cell proteins, significant technical and economic challenges remain. Insect-based proteins face considerable barriers across all dimensions, including limited environmental advantages compared to other alternatives, significant scalability hurdles, widespread consumer rejection, and ethical concerns regarding insect sentience. These findings inform several policy recommendations, and highlight the importance of embracing a multidimensional perspective when evaluating pathways toward more sustainable food systems.