EXPLAIN: Exploring plant-based meat analogues for their Impact on intestinal health

Diets with little or no meat are considered healthy and sustainable by the general public and consequently, consumers are increasing the use of plant-based meat analogues in their diets. This project entails a comprehensive dietary controlled intervention study aimed at investigating the impact of daily consumption of plant-based meat analogues on the functionality of the intestinal microbiome and cardiometabolic health, in comparison to a meat-based diet.

We will investigate key health aspects of meat analogues like protein digestibility and quality, the content in process-induced contaminants (e.g. N-nitrosamines, heterocyclic amines (HAs), advanced glycation end-products (AGEs)) and the complex interaction with the intestinal microbiota (modulation of the gut microbiome as well as type and amount of microbial metabolites produced).

The outcomes of this project will contribute to health driven design rules for next generation plant-based meat analogues.

The aim is to evaluate plant-based meat analogues on human
intestinal health. Intestinal health is defined as microbiome functionality.

We are offering thesis projects suitable for BSc or MSc students interested in intestinal health, microbiome epidemiology, bioinformatics, and statistics.

Potential projects may involve:

• sample collection
• laboratory work
• analysis of microbiome data

Oral, fecal, and environmental microbiome samples will be collected and analyzed using e.g. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and shotgun metagenomic analysis.

Would you like to contribute to this research? Note that the start date is
flexible until 2026. Please contact the researcher: Annelies Kers (annelies.kers@wur.nl), or the group leader Hauke Smidt (hauke.smidt@wur.nl)

This project is funded by TKI Agri & Food, additional information can be found here https://projecten.landbouwwatervoedsel.nl/project/improving-plant-based-meat-analogues-by-evaluating-effects-on-human-health/