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Keeping plant-based meat alternatives clean

12 June 2023

Suzanne Gill reports on the challenges facing food processors looking to create plant-based meat alternatives, and the benefits that thermal processing technology can offer.

Euromonitor International’s ‘Voice of the Consumer: Health and Nutrition survey’ highlights some of the challenges facing the plant-based meat alternatives market today. It found that producers are being increasingly challenged over healthiness. Key criticisms include the level of processing involved – for example how far away from ‘natural’ these products are considered to be. 

As a result, companies are moving to emphasise the health credentials of their products, both on pack and through public studies, which marks a move away from relying just on ‘plant-based’ to be seen as healthy. In addition, more producers are emphasising protein levels, attempting to communicate that a switch away from meat will not mean a protein deficit. All of this, whilst having to balance the need for sustainable and cost-effective manufacturing.

A common complaint shared by non-eaters of plant-based meat is that they do not enjoy the taste. This outstripped any other motivation by a ratio of almost 3:1. The addition of new flavourings/texturisers to overcome this complaint, however, increases the ingredients list and moves products further away from being seen as natural and clean label. 

So, a big challenge facing food manufacturers keen to enter the plant-based alternatives market is that the often bland and unappealing base material needs to be worked to give the final product flavour and a profile that the customer will accept. Further, some of the labels on vegan meat alternative products do not always look particularly healthy or natural.

There is a requirement for many vegan offerings to include chemical thickeners or binding agents to ensure the product will maintain its form during the final consumer cooking process. 

A good solution
Chris Holland, Managing Director at Holmach believes that thermal processing can offer a healthy and sustainable solution, giving the ability to create tasty and clean label products without compromise. He said: “Because of the nature of plant-based base protein materials, thermal processing can help create umami flavours in the product and caramelisation within the cooking process, in a similar way to the double-cook phenomenon experienced in foods such as curries and casseroles. It’s able to inhibit the enzymatic reactions of raw ingredients which can impart texture changes and improved mouthfeel, both of which are vital to ensure that consumers repurchase.”

The high levels of salt and sugar, alongside other binding agents, stabilisers and preservatives that are commonly used in plant-based meat alternatives can also be removed if the product is thermally processed.  

So, the use of thermal processing enables food processors to offer clean label vegan products. For example, it allows wheat or corn flour to be used as a thickener in place of the traditionally used modified starches that are employed as a thickening solution in alternative production processes.

Most plant proteins used as a base material are robust and can cope well with being heated to temperatures of up to 120°C without destroying flavour. “Take, for example, a plant-based corned beef alternative. The raw base material is often quite pale and glutenous so after it is mixed and flavoured and extruded into logs, a retort process – basically a large pressure cooker – can help develop a texture which will then allow the product to be sliced. It also helps the product develop flavour and imparts a more appetising colour, achieved purely by heating the product,” explained Chris.

Batch or continuous
There is one question that needs to be answered when looking to create plant-based meat alternatives – is it going to be a batch or a continuous process? “Batch processing tends to offer a good solution for products that are already packaged,” said Chris. “Using retort heating on a batch of already packaged products will help add a cooked flavour to the product. It will also help improve the texture and because the product is already sealed into its packaging it also gives a naturally longer shelf life because the micro bacteria inside the pack is destroyed, which stops the product spoiling.”
 
Holmach is now also able to offer retort equipment that allows retorting of sealed paper pulp-based trays. This would tick another important box for consumers – reducing the use of plastic packaging. It is a 90°C for 10 minutes process that can create a product with a shelf life of up to 30 days, simply by cooking it in a sealed tray.

Holmach can also offer continuous cooking process solutions which allow for the rehydration, cooking and cooling of beans and pulses and microproteins to create a base material for plant-based product offerings from dry raw ingredients. The Lyco cooker and cooler, for example, enables food processors to create their own base protein from pulses, legumes or grains. The continuous process cooker and cooler can be integrated into existing lines with capacities ranging from 200kg to 5 tons per hour. The solution is also able to remove the pungent odour that emanates from soya beans during the cooking process.

“We have already supplied several such solutions to food processors who are using them to create a base protein material that they are using themselves to create plant-based meat alternatives,” said Chris.

The key takeaway for food processors looking to enter the plant-based meat alternative market is that thermal processing solutions can help develop products with great flavours and positive mouthfeel. In addition, it can create the clean label plant-based meat alternatives that consumers are demanding, with the increased distribution opportunities presented by a longer shelf-life.


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