Researchers at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) in the Netherlands are the first to develop a quantitative method that can compare the textures in meat with variations in meat substitutes. 

Their technique, which involves measuring the stiffness of food at various pressure points, may hold promise in helping the food industry improve the mouthfeel of meat alternatives.

The commercial success of meat substitutes is not only related to their price and taste, the researchers note. Texture retains its significance among the most highly sought after attributes among consumers, as the basis of one of Innova Market Insights’s Top Trends last year, “Tapping into Texture.”

“Now that the demand for [meat alternatives] is increasing, there is an increasing need for better quality of these products,” says Sven Boots, a researcher of the project.

“Reproducing the texture of real meat appears to be a particular challenge. To be able to do that properly, you have to be able to measure it properly.”

How do you measure texture?
The texture of meat substitutes, Boots explains, is related to their “mechanical structure.”

To test the mechanical structure of a final product, he and his colleagues from the Department of Physical Chemistry and Soft Matter at WUR designed a system that can press meat and meat substitutes into a grid of pressure points.

“We call this multi-point indentation,” Boots explains. “We can use it to measure local stiffness in many different places. The distribution thereof differs between products, for example chicken, beef or pork, or meat substitutes.”

“And this local distribution of stiffness determines the resistance you feel when you chew these products, and therefore what you experience as mouthfeel.”

Their report, published in the Journal of Food Engineering, outlines that meat substitutes have rapidly branched out of the classic tempeh and tofu. There are now meat substitutes made from eggs, nuts, lentils, beans, seaweed, mushrooms and grain.

“These products consist largely of proteins,” he says. “When you heat them, they form fibers, which in turn form bundles.”

“An important factor that determines the mechanical structure is the thickness of those bundles. This is related to the protein composition, but also to process parameters such as temperature, salinity and mixing speed. ”

The mechanism behind measurement
Data collected from the multi-point indentation is converted into “mechanical maps” that can quantitatively be analyzed with a correlation method. This method is one that is also used in criminology and geography.

“With this method, the industry can correlate that distribution in local stiffness to various process variables, such as temperature, salt and protein content,” says Boots.

“based on this correlation, they can optimize their production process in order to develop meat substitutes that resemble real meat as much as possible in texture.”

Historically, the organoleptic shortcomings of plant-based meats have related largely to texture, which is often described as “too brittle, gummy or artificial in nature,” when compared to the softer and juicier reference of processed meat products.