It is well known that the world population is increasing at an incredible pace; subsequently, worldwide food production without compromising the ecosystem is an enormous challenge for the global community. From the beginning of human civilization, meat plays a vital role in acquiring proteins and other nutrients. Despite the indispensable part of the meat in the human diet, it is also considered a critical factor in environmental alterations, greenhouse gas emissions, animal welfare, and land water usage. The excessive use of natural resources and extensive animal production causes greenhouse gas emissions, which triggered reduced meat consumption and the need for more novel meat alternatives. To overcome the extraordinary demand for red meat, the phenomena of meat alternatives or meat substitutes evolved. Subsequently, meat analogs express a higher trend with low cost, safe consumption, and meaty structure and texture. Meat substitutes are predominantly vegetable centered food products that comprise proteins from pulses, cereal, microorganisms, and other fillers and flavorings mediators. Moreover, Meat products with texturized vegetable protein, mushroom, wheat gluten, pulses are considered an excellent source of as a substitute for animal protein. Additionally, mycoprotein had an impressive profile, including higher protein, low fat, health-promoting agents, with good taste and texture. However, there remains a gap in research articles focusing on the regular consumption of meat substitutes. In the current review, an attempt has been made to summarize various types of meat substitutes, different protein sources, production preparation methods, nutritional, functional properties, including current and future perspectives of meat alternatives.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of gender on meat quality traits and sensory characteristics of pork loin. A total of 90 pork carcasses (180 days old, 45 barrows and 45 gilts, each gender group was consisted of fifteen 1+, 1 and 2 carcass grades) were selected and loin cuts were excised to investigate meat quality, electronic tongue measures and sensory panel test. There were significant differences in drip loss (1.66% vs 1.21%), released water (12.19% vs 10.68%) and cooking loss (23.67% vs 21.04%) between loins from barrow and gilt (p<0.05). However, no significant differences in meat color (CIE L* a* b*) and shear force were observed between gender groups (p>0.05). Umami and richness values of barrow were significantly higher than those of gilt, while barrow had significantly lower sourness value compared to gilt (p<0.05). On the sensory evaluation, barrow scored higher in flavor, juiciness and tenderness both, and as a result, barrow (5.51 points) also scored significantly higher than gilt (4.86 points). These results suggest that the umami intensity and sensory taste of barrow loin are superior to gilt loin due to its high water-holding capacity.