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Published on: June 15, 2016
Low-moisture extrusion exerts distinct effects on the dynamic digestion kinetics of proteins in plant-based meat
Zi Chen1, Aiqian Ye2, Tiantian Sun1
1School of Food Science and Biotechnology, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
Abstract:
Low-moisture extruded textured vegetable proteins (TVPs) are the most widely used ingredients in plant-based meat analogues, yet their dynamic digestive properties remain unclear. Using a dynamic model, this study investigated the gastrointestinal fate of low-moisture TVPs from soy protein concentrate (SPC) and wheat gluten (WG). Structural analysis revealed that extrusion increased β-sheet content and reorganised intermolecular forces-reducing hydrogen and disulphide bond proportions-to form distinct architectures: porous TVP-SPC and dense, well-defined fibrous TVP-WG. During oral processing, these matrices exhibited vastly different disintegration morphologies: the tough, cohesive TVP-SPC fractured into large, blocky chunks, while friable TVP-WG shredded into fine filaments. These contrasting bolus morphologies governed gastric kinetics and intestinal substrate delivery. At 60 min of gastric digestion, TVP-SPC showed 29.71% lower free amino acid release than its un-extruded control (N-SPC), reflecting slower gastric emptying and restricted enzyme access, whereas TVP-WG showed 32.47% higher release than its un-extruded control (N-WG) due to faster gastric emptying and greater accessible surface area. During intestinal digestion, TVP-SPC consistently released fewer free amino acids than N-SPC (10.89% lower at 120 min), due to reduced intestinal substrate availability and the structural resistance of dense chunks, whereas TVP-WG consistently released more than N-WG (16.93% higher at 120 min), mainly because rapid filament emptying increased intestinal substrate availability. This study reveals that TVP nutritional performance is governed not by fibrous structure alone, but by the exposure mode of these fibres during consumption, dictated by the material's mechanical properties and disintegration behaviour-an insight uniquely provided by dynamic digestion modelling.
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