Dairy Protein vs. Plant Protein and Their Consumer Perception

Abstract

Proteins are crucial macronutrient for human health. Animal, dairy, and some plant proteins are considered high-quality proteins that provide health and metabolic benefits based on the digestible levels of essential amino acids they contain. Animal protein is rich in many essential amino acids, but excessive animal protein intake greatly increases fat intake. Therefore, due to the improvement in people's living standards and increase in protein intake, the animal protein supply is not sufficient to meet the increasing demand of people. Technologically, milk proteins are the most important component of milk due to their unique properties that allow milk to be converted into a wide range of products such as cheese or yoghurt quite easily. It is widely accepted that dairy products are excellent sources of highly digestible essential amino acids. Nowadays, plant protein is preferred because has advantages such as it is an abundant source, cheap, easy to obtain, preferred by special consumer groups such as vegan/vegetarian, does not contain cholesterol and preventing diseases. In the last decades, the increasing interest of both producers and consumers in plant proteins and the decrease in animal protein intake and inclination to plant protein intake with the innovations in the markets emphasize the importance of these alternative sources. In this review, information is given about the importance of milk proteins and plant proteins and the role they play in consumer preference is mentioned.