Global Provisioning of Red Meat for Flexitarian Diets

Abstract

Although not always labeled as such, flexitarianism is the default lifestyle for much of the world, whereby meals based on plant materials provide the bulk of people's calories. The rich nutrition of meat and animal products is often the lynchpin of these diets, even when only consumed occasionally. It provides forms and concentrations of essential proteins, lipids, and micronutrients that are otherwise scarce. However, the production of this meat is resource intensive. It requires large quantities of arable land and water, and typically has lower conversion efficiency of farm inputs to edible outputs compared with crops, poultry, aquaculture, dairy, and eggs. An additional complication is that the quantity of ancillary products produced during slaughterhouse operations is large and underutilized. Each year, approximately 190 million metric tons (MMT) of red meat, including pork, lamb, sheep, veal, beef, and goats are produced globally, half of which will be consumed by less than 25% of the population living in developed countries. With demand for meat expected to exceed 376 MMT by 2030, an increase in the adoption of plant-based diets presents an opportunity for the world to re-evaluate how meat can be sustainably produced, with greater emphasis on animal welfare, nutritional value, product safety, better utilization, and distribution channels. In this article we consider the role meat plays in the modern diet, its production and consumption, opportunities to improve utilization of the animal, the benefits of incorporating a diverse range of red meat into diets, and the strategies that the meat industry should consider in response to flexitarianism.

Keywords: flexitarian; food security; nutrition; offal; production; red meat; waste.

Figures

Figure 1

Global production statistics for various meats and offal in million metric tons (MMT), from 1990 to 2013 (18). Total meat does not include seafood or shellfish.

Figure 2

Percentage of meat lost and wasted from various stages of the food supply chain for different regions (62).

Figure 3

Typical content of key nutrients in lean muscle meat, heart and liver, shown here as the averaged values of lamb, beef, and pork sources (78) and expressed as a proportion of the adult male RDA (66) that would be provided by a 100 g raw serving. Items within nutrient classes are ordered by their increasing dietary requirement: amino acids 5–42 mg/kg bodyweight/day, minerals 55 μg−1,200 mg/day, vitamins 2.4 μg−14 mg/day. Calculations were based on the materials' raw native state, therefore water content is higher and nutrient concentrations are concomitantly lower than would be expected in the cooked versions of these foods.

Figure 4

Typical content of key nutrients in grains, legumes and tree nuts, shown here as the averaged values of 7–8 sources (78) and expressed as a proportion of the adult male RDA (66) that would be provided by a 100 g raw serving. Items within nutrient classes are ordered by their increasing dietary requirement: amino acids 5–42 mg/kg bodyweight/day, minerals 55 μg−1,200 mg/day, vitamins 2.4 μg−14 mg/day. Calculations were based on the materials' raw native state, therefore water content is much lower and nutrient concentrations are concomitantly higher than would be expected in the cooked versions of these foods.

Figure 5

Organ meats on display in a retail cabinet in a market in Izmir Turkey. Almost all parts of the carcass are being utilized for human consumption. Small quantities of these nutrient-dense organ meats can significantly contribute to a flexitarian diet.

Figure 6

Forms of organ meat cooking and utilization. (Left) Shows sheep intestines being roasted for slicing and incorporating into fast-food meals in Izmir Turkey. (Right) Shows lamb meat and testicles barbecued side by side, demonstrating a possible combination of muscle and organ meats in a meal.