Increasing concerns for climate change call for radical changes in food systems. There is a need to pay more attention to the entangled changes in technological development, food production, as well as consumption and consumer demand. Consumer and market interest in alternative meat and milk products—such as plant based milk, plant protein products and cultured meat and milk—is increasing. At the same time, statistics do not show a decrease in meat consumption. Yet alternatives have been suggested to have great transitional potential, appealing to different consumer segments, diets, and identities. We review 123 social scientific journal articles on cell-based and plant-based meat and milk alternatives to understand how the positioning of alternatives as both same and different in relation to animal-based products influences their role within the protein transition. We position the existing literature into three themes: (1) promissory narratives and tensions on markets, (2) consumer preferences, attitudes, and behavioral change policies, (3) and the politics and ethics of the alternatives. Based on our analysis of the literature, we suggest that more research is needed to understand the broader ethical impacts of the re-imagination of the food system inherent in meat and milk alternatives. There is also a need to direct more attention to the impacts of meat and milk alternatives to the practices of agricultural practices and food production at the farm-level. A closer examination of these research gaps can contribute to a better understanding of the transformative potential of alternatives on a systemic level.

对气候变化的日益关注要求粮食系统发生根本变化。有必要更加注意技术发展，粮食生产以及消费和消费者需求方面的纠结变化。消费者和市场对替代肉类和奶类产品（例如植物性牛奶，植物蛋白产品以及培养的肉类和奶类）的兴趣正在增加。同时，统计数据并未显示肉类消费量减少。然而，已经提出了具有巨大过渡潜力的替代方案，以吸引不同的消费群体，饮食和身份。我们回顾了123篇社会科学期刊上有关基于细胞和基于植物的肉和奶替代品的文章，以了解与基于动物的产品相关的替代品的相同和不同之处如何影响它们在蛋白质转化中的作用。我们将现有文献分为三个主题：（1）市场上的承诺性叙事和紧张局势；（2）消费者的偏好，态度和行为改变政策；（3）替代方案的政治和道德观念。根据我们对文献的分析，我们建议需要做更多的研究，以了解对肉类和奶类替代品固有的食物系统进行重新构想所产生的更广泛的伦理影响。还需要更加关注肉类和牛奶替代品对农场一级的农业实践和粮食生产的影响。仔细研究这些研究空白可以在系统水平上更好地理解替代品的变革潜力。