Plant-based Adipose Tissue Developed Using Advanced Emulsion Technology: Comparison of Soy-based High Internal Phase emulsions with Beef Adipose Tissue

Abstract

Many consumers are introducing plant-based foods into their diets due to environmental, health, or animal welfare concerns that have been linked to animal-derived foods. High-quality plant-based foods like meat and fish analogs should have physicochemical attributes, such as their look, feel, and taste, that mimic those of the animal-based products they are designed to replace. In this study, we focused on the development of plant-based adipose tissue using advanced emulsion technologies. In particular, oil-in-water high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) assembled from soybean oil (60 to 85%) and protein (2 wt%) were used to simulate the optical and rheological properties of beef adipose tissue. The overall microstructure and appearance of some of the HIPEs (75 and 80% oil) were fairly similar to those of beef adipose tissue. However, the diameter of the adipocytes was around 100 mm in the adipose tissue, whereas the diameter of the fat droplets in the HIPEs was only around 10 mm. The shear rheology of the HIPEs and adipose tissue were similar at high temperatures ( > 60 oC) but beef adipose was much harder at lower temperatures, which was attributed to fat crystallization. The hardness of the HIPEs increased with increasing fat content from 60 to 80% but then decreased when it was raised to 85% because the emulsion broke down. The plant-based adipose tissue developed in this study may be useful for application in meat or fish analogs.