How New Technology Is Making Plant-Based Foods Taste And Look Better by John Cumbers
Plant-based foods are a more sustainable and environmentally friendly option compared to animal products that require significant energy, land, and water to grow. However, the taste, texture, and appearance of many plant-based foods need improvement to gain greater acceptance from consumers. Now,Motif FoodWorks, a food technology company, announced it has gained exclusive access to technology that can change consumers’ experience of plant-based foods.
Motif is on a mission to make plant-based food taste better while improving its nutritional value. The company is working with Professor Alejandro Marangoni and the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada to develop plant-based cheese that stretches and melts through prolamin technology, and plant-based meat with healthier, marbleized fat through extrudable fat technology. Both these qualities are often lacking in plant-based foods, which reduces their appeal to many consumers. But if plant-based cheeses can stretch like dairy cheese or if plant-based meats could properly bind fats and proteins, it could increase the consumer interest in sustainable alternatives to popular foods.
Extrudable Fat Technology: Making Tasty and Marbleized Meat
Extrudable fat technology mimics animal fat in plant-based meats, which allows for more authentic fat textures, such as marbling. The technology allows you to run fat through an extruder and then combine it with protein to create a better ingredient where the fat and the protein are physically linked together. Otherwise, fat normally would turn into a liquid at those pressures and temperatures.
“We have optimized the technology, so you do not get fat separation from the protein. This is all about getting the fat and the protein to be integrated, and the result is a lot more like a marbleized piece of meat,” says Jonathan McIntyre, CEO of Motif FoodWorks.
By balancing the relationship between fat and protein in a way that mimics what you would normally get in a marbleized piece of meat, such as beef, the result is better flavor release, texture, taste, and moisture retention.
Read more here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johncumbers/2021/05/13/how-new-technology-is-making-plant-based-foods-taste-and-look-better/?sh=712ec37b585e
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