Foods for Special Dietary Needs: Non-dairy Plant-based Milk Substitutes and Fermented Dairy-type Products

A growing number of consumers opt for plant-based milk substitutes for medical reasons or as a lifestyle choice. Medical reasons include lactose intolerance, with a worldwide prevalence of 75%, and cow's milk allergy. Also, in countries where mammal milk is scarce and expensive, plant milk substitutes serve as a more affordable option. However, many of these products have sensory characteristics objectionable to the mainstream western palate. Technologically, plant milk substitutes are suspensions of dissolved and disintegrated plant material in water, resembling cow's milk in appearance. They are manufactured by extracting the plant material in water, separating the liquid, and formulating the final product. Homogenization and thermal treatments are necessary to improve the suspension and microbial stabilities of commercial products that can be consumed as such or be further processed into fermented dairy-type products. The nutritional properties depend on the plant source, processing, and fortification. As some products have extremely low protein and calcium contents, consumer awareness is important when plant milk substitutes are used to replace cow's milk in the diet, e.g. in the case of dairy intolerances. If formulated into palatable and nutritionally adequate products, plant-based substitutes can offer a sustainable alternative to dairy products

Organic meat quality

The present chapter briefly describes the international basic standards in use for the organic farming of meat animals. The situation of the two main organic meat markets (viz. oversupplies in EU and fast growth in USA), where demand and supply are both developed, and the potential development in other countries, where the internal demand is limited and the production is export-oriented, is then examined in terms of commercial value, number of meat animals, price premiums for farmers, and price to consumers. Consumer price represents the main limit to the expansion of organic meat purchasing; possible strategies to overcome this constraint are also discussed. An ample discussion is dedicated to the effects of organic farming (e.g. extensive rearing system, appropriate breed and feeding based on pasture) on meat quality (e.g. pH, colour, instrumental texture, sensory tenderness and flavour) and on differentiation from conventional products. Finally, we describe safety problems possibly arising in conventional meat (e.g. hormone, antibiotics and other growth promotant administration), and in organic products (limited use of conventional medicine to prevent and cure bacterial and parasitic infections). The reasons for possible increased healthiness of organic meat are also illustrated