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Published on: August 13, 2014
Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Design of Plant-Protein Meat Analogues: Integrating Nutrition, Functionality, and
Amir Amiri1, Klaudia Masztalerz2, Srishty Maggo1
1Food, Nutrition, and Health, Faculty of Land & Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety
|July 13, 2026
Summary
Developing plant-based meat alternatives requires optimizing nutrition, texture, and sustainability. Artificial intelligence (AI) can accelerate the creation of convincing, scalable, and nutritious plant-protein meat analogues by integrating various design factors.
Area of Science:
- Food Science
- Biotechnology
- Sustainable Agriculture
Background:
- Plant proteins offer nutritional benefits but form isotropic gels, unlike anisotropic animal muscle.
- Designing plant-based meat analogues is complex, needing optimization across nutrition, digestibility, functionality, texture, sensory aspects, scalability, and sustainability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review plant protein characteristics, modification strategies, and texturization technologies for meat analogue development.
- To explore the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in optimizing plant-protein meat analogue design.
Main Methods:
- Summarized nutritional aspects of plant proteins (amino acid balance, digestibility, allergens, anti-nutritional factors).
- Reviewed extraction and techno-functional modification techniques.
- Examined fibrillation-based texturization methods (e.g., high-moisture extrusion, shear-cell processing, 3D printing, spinning, amyloid-like fibril formation).
Main Results:
- Plant proteins present challenges in achieving the fibrous, anisotropic structure of animal muscle.
- Various processing technologies can modify plant proteins for improved texture and functionality.
- Artificial intelligence offers a framework to integrate diverse design parameters for analogue development.
Conclusions:
- AI-assisted workflows can accelerate the development of plant-protein meat analogues.
- Optimizing nutrition, digestibility, functionality, texture, and sustainability is key for successful meat analogue design.
- The integration of AI is crucial for creating structurally convincing, nutritionally credible, and industrially scalable plant-protein meat analogues.
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