New meat options are being developed using 3D printing
Group of researchers have developed a new combination of herbal ingredients tailored to meat options for 3D printing, and their most successful recipes require the addition of cocoa butter derived from chocolate-famous cocoa beans.
From animal welfare to environmental sustainability, there are many reasons why people choose to avoid eating animal meat. Many current meat options are based on plant-based proteins, mostly soy and wheat, which can easily mimic the structure and nutritional value of a real product. Although 3D printing has already been tested for meat alternatives, none of the current formulations contained proteins from these particular plants. So, Songbai Liu and Shanshan Wang wanted to come up with an approach to making a meat “dough” from soy and wheat protein that could be efficiently produced with a 3D printer.
The researchers used a 3D printer to test soy and wheat proteins in formulations containing several other ingredients. They evaluated their mixes based on the accuracy with which the printing press was able to count the dough and how well it held its shape. They also study its structure and microstructure. The experiments revealed the importance of several excipients, including the emulsifier Tween-80 and sodium alginate to regulate the structure. The heat-sensitive cocoa butter proved to be a particularly important ingredient, making the dough more fluid for printing at warm temperatures, but then curing at room temperature, leaving the dough in its printing form.
One downside, however, was that people who could not eat wheat gluten or soy due to allergies or celiac disease could not enjoy the new options. To solve this problem, the researchers tried to replace the soy protein with pea protein, but the resulting dough was too soft to print. Yet these experiments have found a new strategy for formulating meat alternatives with this versatile technology, according to researchers.
The authors provided funding from the National Key Research and Development Program, the Zhejiang Public Welfare Technology Research Program, the Qinghai Science and Technology Program, and the Zhejiang University Fuli Institute of Food Science Foundation.
Source: ANI