Plant-Based Meats Made at U of G Offer Green, Healthy Cost Benefits

A simpler, more sustainable way to make plant-based meats with the all-important “meaty” texture of steak or chicken has been developed by food scientists at the University of Guelph.  

Employing a “mechanical mouth” lab setup and waste corn protein, the team has found a potentially cheaper and easier alternative to expensive, high-pressure equipment and processes currently used to make textural fibres in plant-based meats.  

Using this new method, producers can make meat-like analogues that mimic the chewy texture and “mouth feel” of beef or chicken without the costs and complications of current techniques, said Dr. Alejandro Marangoni, professor in the Department of Food Science within the Ontario Agricultural College.  

Those sensory properties are vital for consumers of plant-based products, including plant-based meats, whose sales grew by nearly 50 per cent between 2019 and 2020 but have since stalled. Besides lack of textural qualities, high prices for plant-based alternatives have turned off consumers, said Marangoni. 

“Meat analogues are still extremely expensive compared to meat,” he said. Processing costs, including equipment and energy use, mean that some alternatives cost twice as much as farm-raised meats.  

The team describes the research in a paper published this summer in the journal Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies. 

Marangoni said plant-based meats need to more closely mimic the texture and taste of meats such as beef or chicken.