Assembly of plant-based meat analogs using soft matter physics: A coacervation-shearing-gelation approach

High-energy processing equipment, like extruders or shear cells, are normally required to create fibrous plant-based meat analogs with textures and mouthfeels designed to mimic those of real meat. Here, we propose a simple low-energy method of creating fibrous structures using a soft matter physics approach, which involves complex coacervation, shearing, and gelation of protein/polysaccharide mixtures. A mixture of potato protein and gellan gum was used to create the chicken analogs. Initially, potato protein (10, 15, or 20 wt%) and gellan gum (3 or 4 wt%) were mixed to produce aqueous solutions under conditions where coacervates should form due to electrostatic attraction between the proteins and polysaccharides. This solution was then sheared to elongate and align the coacervates into fiber-like structures. Finally, the mixtures were heated (90 °C, 30 min) to induce thermal denaturation of the proteins, which stabilized the fibrous structures by gelling the proteins. The textural, rheological, and thermal properties of the chicken analogs were characterized and compared to those of real chicken. The texture and rheology of the chicken analogs became increasingly close to real chicken as the protein content of the plant-based chicken was increased from 10 to 20 wt%. Differential scanning calorimetry showed that the thermal denaturation of the potato proteins in the chicken analogs occurred over a similar temperature range as the myosin proteins in real chicken. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the chicken analogs containing 20 wt% protein behaved the most similarly to real chicken during heating. Analysis of the appearance and microstructure of the chicken analogs showed they had aligned fibrous structures like those found in real chicken. This study suggests that soft matter physics approaches can be used for the creation of fibrous structures and the development of plant-based meat analogs.