Motif FoodWorks, a US-based ingredient company, has announced partnerships with two US universities with chemical and mechanical engineering capabilities – the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) – to better understand and design plant-based foods. The collaboration comes as the plant-based space evolves from a “modify and mask” approach to fine-tuning the eating experience and further boosting texture.

The material properties that govern the specific way in which these deformation or flow behaviors occur are called rheological properties. Researching the way plant-based foods break down under specific conditions will enable Motif to develop techniques that will ultimately improve the texture and mouthfeel of plant-based meat and dairy products. 

“The sensory profile of any food product is critical because it encompasses all the factors that make up a consumer’s eating experience of that product – including the taste, smell, texture and mouthfeel, from the first bite to the last,” Mike Leonard, Chief Technical Officer at Motif FoodWorks, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

“Everything from the juiciness of the first bite of a burger, to the melty, gooey texture of cheese in a grilled cheese sandwich define those products as beloved eating experiences in the mind of the consumer. All of those properties come down to the specific physical and chemical properties of food,” he explains. 

Industry frequently relies on decades-old tools and processes to solve novel problems facing the plant-based food industry, such as texture – a critical driver of overall taste, the most important factor in consumer acceptance. Developing a better understanding of the rheological properties of this growing category will enable greater precision in identifying sensory gaps and developing ingredients and products that deliver a better eating experience for consumers.

Sensory challenges
Plant-based products create an interesting challenge when it comes to the sensory experience because while they have, by design, very different physical and chemical properties from their animal-derived counterparts, yet consumers are looking for the same qualities in the eating experience. Unfortunately, many products currently on the market fail to fully meet, and rarely exceed, those expectations. 

According to Leonard, one of the biggest challenges in creating satisfying textures in plant-based foods is that the physical properties related to texture and mouthfeel – especially those that develop as food is consumed – are so complex. “Every change in the formulation of a product, from minuscule to large-scale, results in significant changes in texture and mouthfeel, even in cases wher certain measurable texture-related qualities [such as rheology, which our partnership with UIC and UIUC is focused on] remain the same,” he elaborates. 

“On top of that, the current drive in the food industry to create healthy and sustainable plant-based products is pushing developers into a formulation space wher many of the traditional food design rules no longer apply,” Leonard adds. 

Applying science to plant-based food
Motif believes that the possibilities for plant-based foods are endless, but industry needs to reinvent the way science is applied to plant-based foods and ingredient development in order to unleash their full potential. “For example, one of the things that drew us to partnering with UIC and UIUC was the opportunity to apply expertise from mechanical and chemical engineering disciplines that rarely overlap with food science to specific challenges in ingredient formulation,” states Leonard. 

Partnerships like these will help to enable a shift from the linear, limiting “modify and mask” formulation process frequently applied to ingredient development, and move the industry toward a multi-factorial approach that unlocks new and better answers to existing plant-based challenges, he asserts. “We don’t want to create more band-aids to cover inadequacies; instead we want to focus on ingredient development that is grounded in performance insights and biometrics to unravel food’s secrets,” Leonard adds. 

Motif’s research with UIC and UIUC aims to apply advanced rheological techniques to plant-based food formulation in novel ways that could uncover critically missed insights and unlock unprecedented possibilities for the texture of plant-based foods.

“Texture is a critical piece of the puzzle in plant-based food – and consumers who are open to trying plant-based foods will only return to them if the veggie burger breaks down into a juicy bite with every chew, or their vegan yogurt is silky smooth,” adds Stefan Baier, Motif’s Lead for Food Science. 

“To get these textures right in plant-based foods, we need to continue to evolve the way we approach food design, and that means looking at every single element that goes into the eating experience,” he notes. 

“Plant-based food is at a tipping point,” Leonard declares. “We’re seeing a number of factors drive incredible interest and opportunity in the plant-based food arena as consumers turn to plant-based options for the benefit of the planet and their personal health. But at the same time, they often aren’t satisfied by the current experience of plant-based products.”

Motif sees a long-term opportunity to fine-tune the eating experience of plant-based foods – honing the texture, taste and appearance of everything from plant-based burgers to animal-free cheese and yogurt – to drive deeper consumer acceptance by providing products that are better for people and our planet. 

This latest partnership builds on a period of overall momentum for Motif, on the heels of collaborations with several other academic collaborations, including the University of Guelph and University of Massachusetts Amherst.