Research on Development and Challenges of Forest Food Resources from an Industrial Perspective—Alternative Protein Food Industry as an Example

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of forest-based protein resources to address global food security and environmental challenges, highlighting opportunities and obstacles in the alternative protein industry.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive review of the development, opportunities, and challenges of forest protein resources from an industrial perspective.

Findings

Forest protein sources like insects, plants, and microorganisms offer diverse and sustainable food options.

Technological innovations in insect protein and cell-cultured meat show promise but face high costs and regulatory hurdles.

Consumer acceptance and cost reduction are critical for the market success of alternative protein foods.

Abstract

The forest food industry, as a typical low-carbon green ecological industry, holds strategic significance in addressing global food security challenges. This review takes forest protein resources as an example to analyze the current development status, opportunities, and challenges from a global industrial perspective. Research indicates that forests, as a vital food treasure for humanity, can provide diverse protein sources such as insects, plants, microorganisms, and bio-manufactured proteins. Currently, numerous technological innovations and market practices have emerged in fields such as insect protein (e.g., there are over 3000 edible insect species globally, with a market size of approximately USD 3.2 billion in 2023, projected to reach USD 7.6 billion by 2028), plant-based alternative protein (e.g., plant-based chicken nuggets by Impossible Foods in the United States), microbial fermentation protein (e.g., the production capacity of Solar Foods’ production base in Finland is 160 tons per year), and cell-cultured meat (e.g., cell-cultured chicken is sold in Singapore), demonstrating significant potential in alleviating food supply pressures and reducing environmental burdens. However, industrial development still faces practical challenges including insufficient resource exploration, incomplete nutritional and safety evaluation systems, low consumer acceptance, high costs of core technologies (e.g., the first cell-cultured meat burger in 2013 cost over 1 million USD/lb, and current costs need to be reduced to 17–65 USD/kg to achieve market competitiveness), and imperfect regulatory mechanisms (e.g., varying national standards lead to high compliance costs for enterprises). In the future, it is necessary to achieve efficient development and sustainable utilization of forest protein resources by strengthening resource exploration, clarifying the basis of nutrients, promoting multi-technology integration and innovation, and establishing a sound market access system, thereby providing solutions for global food security and high-quality development of the food industry.

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