A systematic review of food safety risks in plant and seaweeds as emerging alternative protein sources
- From
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Published on
13.11.25
- Challenges
Alternative plant and seaweed protein sources other than soy and pea have gained significant interest as sustainable replacements of animal proteins in the last decades.
However, despite a large food safety literature base, there are concerns about their food safety risks.
Therefore, this study aimed to synthesize the existing knowledge and gaps on safety risks associated with brewers’ spent grain, grapes, hazelnuts, potatoes, pumpkins, and seaweed.
A systematic review was carried out of publications in the PubMed database from 2003 and 2023 to identify microbial and chemical hazards, mycotoxins, heavy metals, and allergenic risks in the key commodities.
The review is published in the Journal of Applied Food Technology (Nov 2025). International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)-affiliated scientist Delia Grace is a co-author.
The records obtained were exported into an online reference management platform, screened by inclusion and exclusion search strings, and the duplicates were removed.
Finally, two reviewers assessed the eligibility of the full-text articles.
A total of 9127 papers were identified, of which 1639 were assessed for eligibility. Finally, the study reviewed 144 articles.
Amongst the commodities, most safety studies were on grapes (55 papers), followed by potatoes (38), seaweed (21), hazelnuts (19), pumpkin (9), and brewers’ spent grain (2).
Based on the risk type, heavy metals were the most studied, with 49 papers, followed by mycotoxins (31), microbial risks (23), chemical contaminants (21), and allergenic risks (20).
To meet the growing need for plant and seaweed proteins, their food safety aspects should be extensively studied to deliver safe, healthy, and affordable substitutes based on robust safety standards.
Citation
Mehdizadehtapeh, L., Bancalari, E., Grace, D., Acharya, P., Paciulli, M., Alinovi, M., Sogari, G., Stathers, T., Ennahli, S., Uçak, S., Tainsa, M., Ajal, E.-A., Andaç, S., Al-Baarri, N. and Tekiner, I.H. 2025. A systematic review of food safety risks in plant and seaweeds as emerging alternative protein sources. Journal of Applied Food Technology 12(2): 105–122.
Photo: Plantation-ready potatoes in Ethiopia (credit: ILRI/Liya Dejene).