Plant-based Burger Patties

Processes and Techniques

• Based on a research study, one of the current challenges in producing plant-based meat revolves around the process and technology needed to duplicate the texture of real meat.
• Currently, several methods are being explored to address this challenge.
• This include improving methods to pull spherical plant proteins to transform them into string-like forms and to allow them to stick into each other like fibers.
• Another method is to grow cells from real meat such as cow tissues.
• Muscles from these tissues were then cultured and allowed to grow.
• Meat grown this way were found to be leaner than regular meat.
• The team is now experimenting with fat cells culture that can be grown and combined with the cultured muscle tissues.
• The study also mentioned that using " standard biotechnology and engineering techniques" could improve the process to make it more cost-effective.

Added Ingredients

• Majority of the meat substitutes that are currently in existence are formed from a combination of soy and wheat gluten that is commonly referred to as "texturized vegetable protein."
• This protein substitute appears as "thin and spongy patties."
•  Brown food dye is often added to this ingredient to make them beef-like.
•  Breading were also added if the target final product is a chicken nugget.
• Food scientists combine ingredients such as "soy sauce, mushroom extracts, or yeast extracts" to bring out the meaty umami taste.
• Givaudan, one of the key players in the flavor and fragrance sector has released a series of masking solutions that can mask the off-notes tastes of plant-based proteins such as soy, pea, fava, rice, oats, algae, and whey.
• The solution can be combined with the company's smart masking tool to protect the taste and the ideal texture of the products that will be made from these plant-based ingredients.
• The Lightlife brand recently released its refrigerated plant-based burger that uses ingredients such as "pea protein, coconut oil, and beet powder."