Summary of clean-label alternatives to plant-based meat additives
- Clean-label demand drives reformulation despite additives providing important functionality
- Legumes can replace some methylcellulose functions while adding nutrition
- Whole grains improve texture but cannot replicate carrageenan gels
- Psyllium husk offers binding benefits though formulation challenges remain
- Alternative proteins may emulsify effectively yet differ from lecithin
Plant-based meat is, rightly or wrongly, often associated with ultra-processing.
The sector has faced significant scepticism from consumers who are attracted to clean-label ingredients and ‘natural’ foods.
There is some nuance to this – FoodNavigator found last year that plant-based meat contains, on average, fewer artificial ingredients than sliced white bread – but it is clear that additives are a common component of many alternatives.
But while creating clean-label plant-based meat is not easy, it can be done.
Additives provide specific functionalities that, in many cases, are very difficult to replace entirely. Nevertheless, some functionalities can be replicated through clean-label ingredients.
What is clean label?
First, we need to understand what clean label is, and what role it plays in the food industry.
Clean label is, broadly speaking, an industry and consumer term used to describe foods that use few ingredients, and ingredients that consumers recognise, explains the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT). It is not, strictly speaking, a scientific term.
This does not mean it doesn’t have enormous influence on the food industry. Clean-label foods are sought after by consumers who want transparency and ‘naturalness’ from their culinary choices.
This often translates into distrust for plant-based meat. But it is not impossible to make these products more clean-label. It just depends on the ingredients.
It is important to point out that not all additives are harmful to health, stresses Amy Williams, nutrition lead at non-profit think tank the Good Food Institute Europe.
While additives may have technical names, this should not distract from their potential benefits to products, says Valentina Gallani, health and nutrition research manager at advocacy organisation ProVeg International.
Yet substituting additives for clean-label ingredients can provide opportunities to choose replacements that are nutritionally valuable.
“We see an opportunity to move beyond simply removing additives and instead explore recognisable, nutritionally valuable ingredients that can also contribute useful technological functions,” says Gallani.
Clean-label ingredients exist that can play similar roles to many of the additives that are used in plant-based meat, although the roles they play are rarely exactly the same. They can replace certain functionalities of additives, but are not 1:1 replacements.
Common ingredient: Methylcellulose
Methylcellulose is used for binding plant-based meat, creating a firm, juicy texture, explains ProVeg’s Gallani.
When heated, it forms a gel, helping products like plant-based burgers or sausages keep their shape during cooking.
The ingredient is used widely in plant-based products. Plant-based proteins have low water retention capacity and can’t bind, making binders like methylcellulose of vital importance.
Methylcellulose has become something of a by-word for the ‘ultra-processed’ nature of many plant-based meat alternatives.
Potential clean-label alternative: Legumes and legume ingredients
Legumes can provide structure, body and water- and fat-binding properties, while at the same time containing protein and fibre, explains Gallani.
Ingredients like chickpeas, beans, soy and lentils have the potential to play these roles.
These ingredients are already being used in plant-based products. “Less-refined ingredients such as chickpea or bean flours are already being explored as functional components in plant-based meat products,” Gallani says.
However, while legumes can provide gelling properties, they are not exactly the same as those of methylcellulose. This must be taken into account.
“Methylcellulose has distinctive thermoreversible (reversible by heating) gelling properties and, in plant-based meat applications, can provide structure and meat-like elasticity as the product is heated. Some legume proteins and flours can provide gelling or elastic properties, but these gels do not behave in the same way. They are therefore not straightforward functional replacements”, says Luke Townsend, managing director at food ingredient specialist New Leaf Foods.
Common ingredient: Carrageenan
Derived from seaweed, carrageenan is a thickener and stabiliser, explains Gallani. It helps control water separation, and prevents ingredients from separating during storage.
Furthermore, it contributes to texture and stability for plant-based meat and dairy products. Getting the right texture is often considered vital for plant-based products to appeal to consumers.
Carrageenan has attracted controversy in recent years due to its lack of clean-label credentials.
Potential clean-label alternative: Whole grains and cereal ingredients
Whole grains and cereal ingredients like oats, barley and wheat can help contribute to texture and viscosity, providing a more substantial mouthfeel, explains Gallani.
Oats and cereals in particular can be useful where a creamy mouthfeel is desired.
Nutritionally, whole grains and cereal ingredients also have the potential to provide fibre, carbohydrates and micronutrients.
Yet cereal ingredients do not provide all the functionalities of carrageenan.
“A cereal ingredient may contribute texture, viscosity or water management, but that does not make it functionally equivalent to the gel provided by carrageenan. Substituting one for the other is not simply a matter of choosing a more familiar-sounding ingredient”, says New Leaf Foods’ Townsend.
Furthermore, ““Carrageenan’s gelling properties can help a product retain its shape and provide the structure necessary for slicing.” This, says Townsend, cannot be replaced by cereal ingredients.
Common ingredient: Xanthan gum
Xanthan gum is also used as a thickener and stabiliser. Xanthan gum performs well across a wide range of temperatures, pH levels and processing conditions.
The additive keeps ingredients evenly distributed and creates a smooth, consistent texture, says Gallani.
However, consumers are not necessarily wrong to distrust it. Xanthan gum has been embroiled in controversy recently, with one study linking the additive to gut inflammation.
Alternatives to xanthan gum can be used, says Townsend, although achieving equivalent functionality can pose formulation challenges.
“Xanthan is highly functional at very low inclusion levels. Suggested alternatives may require substantially higher usage rates to achieve the desired effect, and there simply may not be sufficient formulation space to accommodate them without affecting other characteristics of the finished product.”
Potential clean-label alternative: Psyllium husk
Psyllium, a type of fibre, has been much touted for its potential nutritional benefits, particularly in digestive health.
But it could also be used as a clean-label alternative to thickeners such as xanthan gum, as it can play the role of binding, thickening and moisture retention in place of an additive, according to Saurabh Gandhi, head of nutrition and wellness at market research company Grand View Research.
It is already used for binding in plant-based meat products, explains Nandini Roy Choudhury, principal consultant for food and beverage at market research company Future Market Insights.
However, the use of psyllium may impact the colour and appearance of the product, says Townsend.
Common ingredient: Lecithin
Lecithin acts as an emulsifier, helping oil and water-based ingredients remain evenly mixed.
Emulsification is particularly important in plant-based meat, according to ProVeg: plant-based emulsifiers are in demand for the sector to help challenges around texture and stability.
Unlike many of the ingredients above, lecithin actually is clean-label, and is derived from soybeans.
However, the additive is not perfect. Disruptions in Eastern Europe have put a strain on lecithin supply, causing sunflower lecithin prices to go up. Furthermore, soy lecithin has been linked to GMO and allergenicity concerns.
Potential alternative: Hundreds of other proteins
Luckily, lecithin is not the only plant-based emulsifier. A team of researchers at the University of Leeds recently developed an AI that can find proteins to use as plant-based emulsifiers, cutting down the cost of protein discovery.
To date, nearly 800 proteins have been discovered, and this is only scratching the surface of the technology’s potential.
The method can find more alternatives to widely used dairy emulsifiers, such as caseins and whey.
Yet Townsend makes clear that proteins cannot replace the functionalities of lecithins entirely, only its emulsifying functionality.
“Proteins and lecithin’s can both have emulsifying functionality, but that does not make them interchangeable ingredients. If protein alone could straightforwardly deliver the same functionality in every application, formulators would already be doing so.”
To remove or not to remove?
Many additives play crucial roles in food production, stresses Gallani.
There is no benefit, she says, to removing these ingredients from foods simply because they are unfamiliar to consumers.
Furthermore, many of these replacements cannot play exactly the same role as the additives they would replace, stresses New Leaf Food’s Townsend.
Yet the clean-label trend is widespread. Whatever the reason, consumers want more natural foods.
While some additives, such as xanthan gum, may have been linked to health issues, others have not been. Yet clean-label ingredients are what consumers want and some have significant functional potential.
Article updated on 14/9/2026 to include comments by Luke Townsend