Energy use in soy‐bean meat analog manufacture: A comparison with beef

Beef cattle production in the USA required 2200 to 16 000 kcal kg −1 of product and a further 500 kcal kg −1 to process into meat. A typical US production total is 8700 kcal kg −1 at an energy intensity of 1100 × 10 3 kcal ha −1 of land employed. Typical US soy‐bean production has an energy subsidy of 950 kcal kg −1 at an energy intensity of 1500 × 10 3 kcal ha −1 . Soy‐bean processing typically requires 710 kcal kg −1 for solvent extraction, 1300 kcal kg −1 for refining and hydrogenation of oil and 760 kcal kg −1 for assembly into a meat analog product. A dried egg albumin binder for the analog, with 40 000 kcal kg −1 energy subsidy, comprises almost half the total subsidy of 2700 kcal kg −1 to a model analog, though comprising only 3% of the ingredient total. A soy‐bean isolate based analog would usually require a total of 5200 kcal kg −1 . Other land use, input and by‐product considerations make beef appear more favourable than the straightforward comparison with the analogs might indicate.