Wheat gluten stabilized coconut oleosomes: An emulgel-based fat alternative for meat analogue formulations

The quest for fat alternatives for the formulation of plant-based meat products has intensified due to growing environmental and health concerns. This study critically evaluates the stabilization of coconut oleosomes using wheat gluten (WG) to develop emulgels suitable for high moisture meat analogues (HMMA). Coconut oleosomes were extracted using aqueous method and structured with varying WG concentrations in the range of 2-10%w/w to form emulgels. Their structural and functional properties were assessed using droplet size analysis, zeta potential, FTIR, DSC, SDS PAGE, fluorescence microscopy, and rheology. Increasing WG concentration progressively improved emulgel structure, reflected by reduced surface charges from -26.53 mV to -1.57 mV at 10% WG, droplet transition from polydisperse to unimodal distributions, and development of a continuous network. Spectroscopic analysis confirmed that interactions were primarily non covalent. Thermal analysis showed a shift from multiple melting transitions in native oleosomes to a single, high temperature endothermic peak increasing from ∼94-108 °C to ∼116 °C at WG levels ≥6%, indicating improved thermal stability without impacting the protein profiles. Fluorescence imaging demonstrated increased protein adsorption and droplet immobilization, with clustering at 10% WG due to low electrostatic repulsion. Rheological measurements showed that all emulgels exhibited gel like behaviour, with WG strengthening the viscoelastic network in a concentration dependent manner. 2% WG emulgels at 1-3% oleosome levels, resulted in a homogenous structure with fibrous and meat like texture of HMMAs. Overall, these WG stabilized emulgels appear to be a promising clean label, plant-based fat alternative suitable for meat analogue products.