Effect of mixing and hydrating time on the structural properties of high-temperature shear cell products from multiple plant-based ingredients

Mixing and hydrating plant-based ingredients to form a dough is an essential step to produce meat analogues using high-temperature shear cell (HTSC) technology. In this study the effect of mixing and hydrating time on the structural properties of soy protein concentrate (SPC), pea protein isolate (PPI)-wheat gluten (WG) and soy protein isolate (SPI)-WG doughs and HTSC products was investigated. Our results showed mixing and hydrating time minimally affected the structural properties of the dough and corresponding HTSC products of SPC. For both PPI-WG and SPI-WG mixtures, longer mixing resulted in tougher doughs. Additionally, for PPI-WG, mixing the dough to the optimal dough development time led to higher tensile strength of HTSC products. The same effect was not observed for SPI-WG, which showed the importance of ingredient properties in determining structural properties of plant-based meat analogues. These findings offer insights for optimizing processes for meat analogue production through tailored mixing strategies.