Vegetarian meat with plant proteins is relatively inexpensive to produce and has a natural composition, with health advantages such as a rich content of unsaturated fatty acids, and is close to real meat in terms of flavor, texture, and other aspects, and is a food product that has the textural, sensory, and chemical characteristics of traditional meat products.

In the survey on consumers’ willingness to accept artificial meat, it is found that vegetable protein vegetarian meat products have a good market base and are considered to be the most suitable and easily accepted products. And some scholars believe that vegetarian meat will have strong competition to the traditional meat market.

Based on the product advantages and market potential of vegetarian meat, scholars have conducted a lot of research to improve its production process and to understand consumer demand for the product in order to obtain consistency with traditional meat in terms of sensory properties and nutrition. Therefore, this paper summarizes the processing technology of vegetarian meat with plant proteins, consumer acceptance of vegetarian meat with plant proteins, and clarifies the problems and development prospects of vegetarian meat with plant proteins.

Introduction of raw materials of plant protein vegetarian meat

In the production of plant protein vegetarian meat, texture, appearance, flavor and taste are the most important sensory qualities of the product. Therefore, in order to make the plant protein vegetarian meat closer to the real meat in terms of sensory properties and nutrient content, it is necessary to select the base ingredient formulation of plant protein vegetarian meat more strictly.

Protein is is the most important component of plant protein vegetarian meat. Some studies have shown that replacing traditional meat with high-quality plant proteins in the diet is beneficial to human health, so different sources of proteins are now available for the production and development of plant-protein vegetarian meat.

Soybeans usually contain 35% to 40% protein with high nutritional value and rich functional properties, and their use in processed meat products, such as sausage and ham, has been widely used to improve the nutritional and eating quality of meat products. On the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS) scale, processed soy protein has a score comparable to that of animal proteins, making soy protein the best alternative to traditional animal proteins.

The organized proteins used in vegetable protein meat are obtained by degreasing, partially or completely removing carbohydrates to obtain soybean isolate protein or soybean protein concentrate (this non-organized protein component plays the role of adhesive material, fat fixation and water binding gel properties in vegetable protein meat products), and then hydrated, extruded at high temperatures, and mechanically sheared so that the protein is denatured and the molecular and spatial structures are rearranged and distributed, thus resulting in a more efficient and more efficient protein protein protein. After hydration, high temperature extrusion and mechanical shearing, the protein is denatured and the internal molecular structure is rearranged and distributed, thus obtaining a layered, fibrous structure.

Compared with traditional animal proteins, this high-quality plant protein is cholesterol-free, low-fat and low-calorie, making it a healthy food. Therefore, the use of soy protein as vegetable protein vegetarian meat has a large market potential, and some scholars have conducted process optimization studies to improve the texture characteristics of soy tissue protein. However, due to the presence of allergenic substances in soybeans as well as the soy odor, proteins from other sources have been gradually used in the production and development of artificial meat products.

Introduction of practical process for vegetarian meat products

This method extracts and separates proteins from plant protein raw materials such as low denaturation defatted soybeans, dissolves it in alkali, and then extrudes it into the acid coagulation solution through a porous plate with a nozzle to solidify it and get the protein fibers, adjusts it to a weakly acidic and neutral degree, and then disperses it into the water, treats it in the water with microwave heating or adjusts the pH, and then dehydrates it directly after washing to get the protein fibers, then mixes it uniformly with combining agent and seasoning, and finally performs microwave heating treatment. And then evenly mixed with the binding agent, seasoning, etc., and finally microwave heating treatment, can overcome the shortcomings of the general vegetarian meat food.

Microwave heating treatment can also be used for high-frequency heating treatment or high-frequency medium heating treatment. If the above mentioned fibrous plant protein or artificial meat products are treated with medium heating, the product quality can be improved very well, and both methods can be used in the heating process. With microwave heating treatment conditions are, 300 ~ 3000 MHz microwave, 0.5 ~ 100 kW, 1 ~ 20 minutes of heating treatment is more appropriate. Select the appropriate frequency, wattage, and time mainly according to the purpose, object, and treatment method.

Production method from the low denaturation of skimmed soybeans in the separation, extraction of protein, soy protein curd, to the inside and into the alkali, so that the pH value of 10 to 13, the concentration of about 11 to 13%, after the alkali degumming, made of the appropriate viscosity of the protein solution, and then use a porous plate or nozzle to squeeze this protein solution to pH about 4.5 below the acidic solution, and then spinning, to get the acid coagulation of protein fibers. Finally, it is adjusted to a weakly acidic or neutral pH of about 5 to 7, and fully washed and dehydrated. The edible protein fiber thus produced has a water content of about 70% or so, and can also be dried to an appropriate water content according to different uses, as the main raw material for artificial meat.

After neutralization and washing, the protein fibers can also be dispersed uniformly into water, treated with microwave heating in water, dehydrated, and modulated into fibrous edible protein. Depending on the use, add the appropriate binding agent or seasoning evenly mixed, and then extended to the appropriate thickness, shaped, microwave heating treatment, cooling, and cut off the appropriate shape.

The binding agents used are egg white, wheat flour, starch, raw fish protein to be heated to have the appropriate coagulability; seasoning salt, sugar, natural extracts, plant proteins and water decomposition products, spicy seasoning, coloring materials, oils and fats, etc., which can be used appropriately according to different purposes. Other food additives and natural extracts can also be used according to the purpose. The weight ratio of these additives to the main raw material, fibrous edible protein, is 1:0.5 or 1:3.

The present method allows simple, inexpensive, and large quantities of vegetarian meat to be produced continuously with good organization, especially with good shape retention because of the addition of fats and oils. The aroma or color obtained during manufacture will not be malignant, and the taste is especially like natural meat, which can obviously remove or reduce the smell of beans and improve the quality of food.

I. Example 1

Low denaturation defatted soybean 10 kg plus 100 kg of water. Stirring at 40 ℃ for 1 hour, the extraction of soybean protein, centrifugal separation to remove insoluble components, add hydrochloric acid, adjust the pH to 4.5, so that the protein precipitation, and then centrifugal separation to get the water content of about 70% of the soy protein gel, add water to the gel, so that it is dispersed, and then add caustic soda solution, adjust the pH to 11.5 to get the alkaline gel solution. The alkaline hydrolysis gel solution was extruded into the acid coagulation solution with a 0.1 mm porous plate, coagulated and spun, then added alkali solution, adjusted the pH to 5, then added 200 kg of water, washed sufficiently, and then dehydrated, and obtained 11 kg of edible protein fibers containing about 70% of water.

In addition, 15 parts by weight of dried protein, 4 parts by weight of salt, 10 parts by weight of skimmed milk powder, 10 parts by weight of salad oil, and 60 parts by weight of water were mixed uniformly and adjusted to obtain an emulsion, and this emulsion and the above protein fiber were mixed uniformly at a 1 to 1 weight ratio. The obtained mixture was stretched to a thickness of 3 cm and heated for 90 s with a microwave of 2450 MHz at 650 W. The mixture was then formed.

In addition, as a control product, the above mixture of edible protein fiber and emulsion was filled and sealed in a packing tube of vinyl chloride (folding diameter 45 mm) and heated in boiling water at 100°C for 50 minutes. Another control was heated and shaped using a spiral heater with a casing.

The artificial meat obtained by this method was the best, with less soy flavor, less astringent feeling, easy to chew and good quality.

Example 2

Obtained from Example 1 contains 70% of the moisture of edible soy protein fiber plus 10 times the amount (by weight) of water, evenly mixed, and then 2450 MHz microwave, 650 watts, heated for 5 minutes. Alternatively as a control, the same mixture was boiled at 100°C for 5 minutes. The other control was not subjected to heat treatment at all. The artificial meat obtained by this method was the best, with less soy flavor, less astringent feeling, easy to chew and good quality.

III. EXAMPLE 3

Manufactured according to the standards of Example 1 contains about 70% of the moisture of edible soy protein fiber 1 kg, cut into 3 cm long, in addition to 150 grams of dried protein, 80 grams of salt, 150 grams of sugar, 30 grams of plant protein plus water decomposition products and seasoning, spicy seasoning mixture of 60 grams, 3 grams of food coloring, 150 grams of vegetable oil, the proportion of water 377 grams of uniform mixing, the modulation of 1 kg of the emulsion The mixture was evenly mixed with the above mentioned edible protein fibers, and the resulting mixture was stretched to a thickness of 3 cm and heated with microwaves at 2450 MHz, 650 watts for 2 minutes. After cooling, it was cut into thin slices about 2 cm thick and 10 cm squares. A ham-like food product was obtained with excellent flavor and texture.

IV. EXAMPLE 4

From Example 1, 1 kg of edible soy protein fiber containing about 70% water was obtained, cut into 3 cm lengths, placed in 10 kg of water and evenly dispersed, heated with 2450 MHz microwave, 650 watts, for 5 minutes, and then dehydrated to about 70% water or dehydrated to 1 kg to obtain the heat-treated edible protein fiber.

Also 150 grams of egg white, 40 grams of salt, 100 grams of granulated sugar, 100 grams of gravy, 60 grams of seasoning and spice seasoning mixture, 10 grams of toffee, 150 grams of lard, and 390 grams of water were uniformly mixed to obtain 1 kilogram of emulsion, and the above edible protein fibers were uniformly mixed, and then 500 grams of the fat from the back of the hog was cut into 1 centimeter squares, added to be uniformly mixed, and then extended to a thickness of 5 centimeters, and heated to a thickness of 5 centimeters with a 2450 MHz microwave at 650 watts for 3 minutes. After cooling, cut into thin slices of about 3 mm thickness. The roasted pork flavored food obtained was properly mixed with lard and had a very good flavor and taste.

V. EXAMPLE 5

1 kg of edible soy protein fibers containing about 70% moisture manufactured according to Example 1 was made so that the fibers were oriented. Also 100 g of egg white, 20 g of salt, 50 g of granulated sugar, 20 g of plant protein plus water decomposition products and 40 g of a mixture of seasoning and spicy seasoning, 100 g of chicken fat, 270 g of water, evenly mixed, made into 600 g of emulsion, and the above edible protein fiber evenly mixed, so that the fiber is in one direction, extended into 3 cm thick, microwaved with 91.5 MHz at 1000 watts, heated for 2 minutes, cooled and cut into appropriate sizes. The simulated chicken food fibers obtained were oriented in a certain direction and had good flavor and taste.