Plant based meat products for treatment of iron deficiency

Iron deficiency is the most common global nutritional disorder.

It is the only nutrient deficiency that is not only prevalent in non-industrialized nations, but also in almost all industrialized countries.

Despite this, present treatment for the disease is inefficient and associated with severe side-effects such as constipation and nausea.

In recent years, several studies have clearly identified the difference in bioavailability between iron salts and iron present in heme containing proteins.

Heme iron thus has a higher bioavailability, which enables lower concentrations to fulfill the iron demand in deficient patients. Today, meat is the most common source of heme iron but it is also present in plants to some extent.

Due to climate change and the unfavorable health consequences associated with meat consumption, meat is not an optimal iron source. There is a clear gender perspective associated with this.

Women show the highest prevalence of iron deficiency and are more prone to exclude meat from their diets.As a response to reduce the prevalence of iron deficiency and to develop a product with shorter treatment periods, reduced side-effects and reduced environmental impact, this application focuses on investigating the potential of using plant hemoglobins as an alternative iron source.

Different production systems for these proteins will be evaluated.

The obtained plant hemoglobins will be characterized and their potential to be used as food additives will be determined.