Veggie burgers in the EU market: a nutritional challenge?
View/Open
Publication date
2021-07-02ISSN
1438-2377
Abstract
Nutritional information of burgers launched in the EU market during 2020 was retrieved from their labels. Products were initially classified into four types: i.e., veggie, red meat-, fish- and poultry-based. Gluten, wheat, and soy were the most declared allergens regardless of the burgers type. Veggie burgers showed levels of energy, fat, and saturate fatty acids (SFA) similar to fish- and poultry-based burgers, but lower than red meat burgers. Compared to conventional burgers, veggie had higher amounts of carbohydrates and sugars and a lower content of proteins, but no difference in salt. Due to the high compositional intra-variability in the veggie burgers, vegetarian and vegan burgers were further analyzed separately. Vegan burgers had higher levels of energy, fat, SFA and protein than vegetarian burgers, but lower carbohydrates and sugars. Once again large differences in the nutritional parameters were observed in both vegan and vegetarian burger categories due to the wide range of ingredients and formulations employed in these types of products. A clear and comprehensive informative labeling is especially needed for vegan and vegetarian burgers to allow the consumer to make a rational decision based on the nutritional facts of these products.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Accepted version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
663/664 - Food and nutrition. Enology. Oils. Fat
Pages
16
Publisher
Springer
Is part of
European Food Research and Technology
Citation
Boukid, Fatma, and Massimo Castellari. 2021. "Veggie Burgers In The EU Market: A Nutritional Challenge?". European Food Research And Technology 247 (10): 2445-2453. doi:10.1007/s00217-021-03808-9.
Program
Funcionalitat i Seguretat Alimentària
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2687]
Rights
Copyright © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature