Anais do Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciências de Alimentos
Anais do 14 SLACA - Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciência de Alimentos

The increased world population concerned with consuming healthier and sustainable products, and the growing number of vegan and vegetarian consumers has given rise to a worldwide megatrend food characterized called plant-based meat. Aiming to meet this new target audience and market power, consolidated companies have developed a lot of different products in this trend. Considering the nutritional impact from the total replacement of animal meat products and widespread consumption of these meat analogues, without an existing regulatory scope for the sector, this study aimed to evaluate, in detail, the labels of ten commercial brands of plant-based burger obtained in Campinas (Brazil). The products were checked for carbohydrate, total fat, saturated fat, protein, dietary fiber, caloric value, minerals and vitamins. Reported values were all adjusted to 100 g to allow for correct comparison. The results showed that the different protein sources (peas, wheat, chickpeas, lentils and soy) used indicated low caloric value burgers (134.40 to 257.50 Kcal/100 g) and a wide variation in the carbohydrates (5.13 to 59.70%), proteins (3.28 to 50%) and fiber (2.85 to 30%) content. Three brands can be considered as “high fiber content”. The total fat content was below 17.91%, with less than 8.13% being saturated fat. The low lipid content is due to different vegetable lipid sources normally used in the composition these products. The burgers had high sodium content (162 to 762.69 mg/100 g). On the other hand, two brands can be considered as "iron source" and "high vitamin B12 content" and one brand as “source of vitamin A”. It was possible to conclude that the different plant-based burgers that serve this new food market has a great potential to increase of the food industry portfolio, but they need to be they need to be submitted to regulatory standards aiming the nutritional safety of consumers.