Layered structuring of nutritional components in meat analogues by rolling droplet-interfacial polyelectrolyte...

Emulating farmed animal meat in sensorial properties is key towards enhancing consumer acceptance of alternative meats, underlining the need to develop processes for producing structured meat analogues that consumers are familiar with. There is a need to understand the effect of structure on the textural properties of these meat analogues, as well as the influence of incorporating a cellular component on their flavour. In the present work, we have devised a method for drawing and collection of rolling droplet interfacial polyelectrolyte complexation (RD-IPC) fibers to make a structured meat analogue with alternating fat and protein layers, as seen in pork belly. Two sources of proteins were incorporated- a commercial pea protein & cultivated porcine cells, to replicate plant-based and cultivated meat products, respectively. Texture profile analysis (TPA) comparing plant protein only, fat only, and the combination of both, revealed substantially higher chewiness and springiness for the plant protein only constructs, and differences in the mechanical properties when fat and plant protein were combined in homogenous, compared to layered constructs. However, cutting analysis of the cooked samples revealed that the control pork belly was significantly tougher than any of the RD-IPC constructs. Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to compare the organoleptic properties of plant protein and porcine cell-incorporated constructs versus commercial animal-based pork belly, with heat treatment and cooking. Compared to the other samples, hybrid fat-porcine cell constructs after heat treatment showed a closer flavour profile to raw pork belly. However, results indicated that a higher loading of porcine myoblasts (>10 % (w/v)) would be required to completely replicate the flavour of cooked pork belly. With further scaling up of the process for commercialization and finer optimization of cellular content, RD-IPC is poised as a process for creating hybrid meat products, with layered structures of desired nutritional components and appealing sensory profiles.