Construction of plant-based adipose tissue using high internal phase emulsions and emulsion gels

There is growing consumer demand for plant-based meat and seafood analogs due to ethical, environmental, and health concerns associated with the production of real meat and seafood. Meat and seafood analogs should mimic the desirable appearance, texture, and flavor of the real versions. In this study, we investigated the possibility of using advanced emulsion technologies to create plant-based adipose tissue. High internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) were formulated that consisted of concentrated dispersions of soybean protein-coated soybean oil droplets. The HIPEs contained 75% soybean oil and 0.25 to 3% soybean protein. At higher protein contents, the HIPEs mimicked the appearance of beef adipose tissue but were too soft at ambient temperature and did not melt upon heating. These problems could be partly overcome by using emulsion gels that consisted of soybean protein-coated soybean oil droplets dispersed in an agar hydrogel. The final composition of these emulsion gels was 60% soybean oil, 2% soybean protein, and 0.25 to 2% agar. The incorporation of the agar increased the hardness of the emulsion gels at ambient temperature and led to melting behavior. Nevertheless, the emulsion gels were still somewhat softer that real beef adipose tissue at ambient temperature and they melted at a higher temperature. These results show that concentrated emulsion gels containing cold-setting polysaccharides may be useful for mimicking the desirable physicochemical attributes of animal adipose tissue but further research is required to more accurately simulate their properties.