Plant-based meat substitutes by high-moisture extrusion: Visualizing the whole process in data systematically from raw material to the products

Abstract

High-moisture extrusion technology should be considered one of the best choices for producing plant-based meat substitutes with the rich fibrous structure offered by real animal meat products. Unfortunately, the extrusion process has been seen as a “black box” with limited information about what occurs inside, causing serious obstacles in developing meat substitutes. This study designed a high-moisture extrusion process and developed 10 new plant-based meat substitutes comparable to the fibrous structure of real animal meat. The study used the Feature-Augmented Principal Component Analysis (FA-PCA) method to visualize and understand the whole extrusion process in three ways systematically and accurately. It established six sets of mathematical models of the high-moisture extrusion process based on 8 000 pieces of data, including five types of parameters. The FA-PCA method improved the R2 values significantly compared with the PCA method. The Way 3 was the best to predict product quality (Z), demonstrating that the gradually molecular conformational changes (Yn´) were critical in controlling the final quality of the plant-based meat substitutes. Moreover, the first visualization platform software for the high-moisture extrusion process has been established to clearly show the “black box” by combining the virtual simulation technology. Through the software, some practice work such as equipment installation, parameter adjustment, equipment disassembly, and data prediction can be easily achieved.