Engineering artificial casein micelles for future food: Preparation rate and coagulation properties

Artificial casein micelles (ACM) could play a key role in producing animal-free dairy products from recombinant casein, although their coagulation and curd functionality are currently unexplored. Moreover, efficient processes are required to cost-effectively engineer ACM for food applications. In this study, ACM were prepared from bovine casein at various preparation rates and their structure and functionality were compared to natural bovine casein micelles. Overall, the micelles were comparable, although ACM were larger, more polydisperse, and more mineralised. ACM showed similar coagulation behaviour as bovine micelles and their curd grains could be plasticised. ACM prepared at increased preparation rates showed an increased size, polydispersity, and miner-alisation. These micelles required longer coagulation times and showed no plasticisation behaviour. Therefore, casein micelle self-assembly is a time-sensitive process, for which we found a characteristic time of about 18 min. Our findings highlight that ACM prove a feasible route to produce future cheese alternatives.