ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Food Chemistry
This article is part of the Research TopicAlternatives to Traditional Animal-Based Foods: Production, Characterization and Comprehensive EvaluationView all 3 articles
Fatty Acid Composition of Ground-Beef Products and Their Plant-Based Meat Substitutes available in Hungary
Provisionally accepted
- 1Pecsi Tudomanyegyetem Egeszsegtudomanyi Kar, Pécs, Hungary
- 2Medical School, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary
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Background: In recent years, plant-based diets have gained popularity. The food industry has responded by introducing a range of alternative products that significantly differ from whole-food, plant-based diets in terms of their composition and processing levels. This study aimed to compare the fatty acid composition and fatty acid-based nutritional quality indices of ground beef-based foods with those of their plant-based counterparts available in the Hungarian markets. Methods: This study examined six plant-based and four beef hamburger patties, along with one plant-based and one beef minced meat product, each with three distinct expiryation dates. Following homogenization and lipid extraction, the fatty acid composition was analyzed by gas chromatography. Based on the fatty acid values, several nutritional indices were calculated, including the unsaturation index (UI), atherogenicity index, thrombogenicity index, and hypocholesterolemic/hypercholesterolemic index (hHI). Results: Significant differences (p<0.01) in fat content were observed between plant-based and animal-based products, based on both label information and gravimetric measurements (plant-based: 10.25% [8.60%; 14.87%], animal-based: 19.67% [16.16%; 26.68%], median [Q1; Q3]). Distinct fatty acid composition profiles were identified between and within the product groups for both animal-and plant-based products. Except for one product, plant-based alternatives exhibited higher UI and hHI (UI: 129.62 [96.84; 146.10]; hHI: 50.13 [45.69; 54.14]) than beef-based products (UI: 8.18 [3.13; 11.59]; hHI: 1.35 [1.23; 1.43]). Conclusions: The findings indicate that plant-based meat alternatives (except those containing coconut oil) have significantly differentlower fat contentssaturated and higher polyunsaturated fatty acid compositions than beef-based products, leading to variations more beneficialin their nutritional value. Further analytical and clinical studies are necessary to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the long-term health effects of these food items.
Keywords: fatty acid, lipid content, Nutritional index, Plant-based diet, Plant-based meat alternatives, polyunsaturated fatty acid, Vegan products
Received: 25 Oct 2025; Accepted: 04 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Koczka, Marosvolgyi, Szabó, Dergez and Szabó. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Tamas Marosvolgyi
Éva Szabó
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