skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Alternative Meat Products' Benefits, Concerns Cited

play audio
Play

Tuesday, January 14, 2020   

AMES, Iowa -- Going into 2020, there's continued excitement for alternative meat products and their benefits. But an Iowa-based expert says consumers should learn more about them.

Over the past year, the food world buzzed over items such as plant-based hamburgers, which are designed to taste like meat but have less impact on the environment than animal-based products. There's also a perception they are healthier to eat.

Ruth Litchfield is a professor of food science and human nutrition at Iowa State University. She said the environmental benefits are there, but the health benefits may not be.

"My biggest concern about some of these products is not what the constituents of them are, so it's not the ingredients that are of concern to me, but it's the consumer perception that these are going to be nutritionally very similar to the traditional product," Litchfield said.

For example, Litchfield said some plant-based burgers on the market are higher in saturated fat and sodium than the meat they are meant to replace. She said they also have less protein and a lower-quality protein.

She said much of the perceptions mirror what happened when many different styles of milk hit the market in recent years.

The Impossible Foods company recently unveiled plans for an alternative to pork. That has some worried about how it might harm producers in Iowa, which is the leading pork-producing state in the U.S.

But Litchfield said it's too early to say how the new products might affect existing industries.

"It really could go either way, and it's really going to depend on the consumer demand and the acceptance of these products," she said.

Despite some of the hype and popularity surrounding alternative meat products, research has shown the U.S. consumption of traditional meats has rebounded in recent years.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021