Chicken Egg Analogues: Advancements, Technological Hurdles, and Sociological Barriers Limiting Their Development and Adoption
Summary
As the alternative protein industry grows, alternatives to animal products are becoming increasingly sophisticated and available to consumers. Despite their associated health, environmental and ethical benefits, egg analogues are still relatively underdeveloped compared to their meat, seafood and milk counterparts. Plant-based and precision fermentation derived ingredients are the most relevant to egg analogue production at the time of writing. Continued development and widespread adoption of egg analogues is limited by several technological and sociological barriers. Formulating plant-based analogues is difficult because plant-derived ingredients seldom perform comparable to egg proteins. Improvements in plant processing techniques and utilizing novel plant sources will expand the repertoire of high-performing plant-based eggs available to producers and consumers. Precision fermented egg proteins perform comparable to native proteins, but commercially relevant titers have not yet been widely achieved. Even if process optimization at scale is accomplished, global fermentation capacity will be a bottleneck to widespread commercialization. Other technological hurdles to developing plant-based and precision fermented egg analogues are identified. Should these be overcome, several sociological barriers to their sustained commercial success might persist. Restrictive labelling requirements and cumbersome food approval frameworks must be adjusted to reflect the necessity of egg analogue development. In addition, little is known about the consumer perception of egg analogues, a necessary factor when informing product development and commercial investment. A framework detailing the challenges and proposed solutions facing egg analogues manufacturers is laid out. This framework will help ensure the continued development and widespread uptake of next generation egg analogues so that their benefits to society can be realized.