Replacing Animal Meat with Plant-Based Meat Alternatives: The Impact of Protein Quality on Protein Adequacy in the Dutch Diet

Background: A shift to more plant-based consumption patterns may lower the protein adequacy of diets. Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine how replacing animal meat with plant-based meat alternatives impacts protein adequacy in the Dutch diet by considering protein quality data. Methods: Habitual total and utilizable protein intakes were calculated from meal-based food consumption data from 1633 participants aged 18 to 70 y of the Dutch National Food Consumption Survey 2012–2016. Utilizable protein intake was calculated as the sum of protein intake per meal adjusted for protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score and compared to the estimated average requirement for Dutch adults to calculate the percentage of the population with an adequate protein intake. In the modeling scenarios, all animal meat was replaced gram-for-gram with meat alternatives from various protein sources currently available on the Dutch market. Results: Replacing all meat with meat alternatives decreased the intake of animal protein from 59% to 36%, median total protein intake from 1.14 g/kg/d to 1.09 g/kg/d, median utilizable protein intake from 0.94 g/kg/d to 0.86 g/kg/d, and protein adequacy from 93% to 86%. Additional scenarios indicated that the protein adequacy was mostly impacted by total protein content, lysine content, and protein digestibility of the meat alternatives. Conclusions: This modeling study indicated that when all animal meat was replaced by plant-based meats, total and utilizable protein intake remained adequate for the majority (86%) of the Dutch adult population. Individuals relying primarily on plant-based protein should ensure a sufficient total protein intake from a variety of sources.