High Moisture Extrusion Based Texturization and Functional Modulation of Pea Protein Isolate through Integration with Cultivated Beef

The increasing global demand for meat can be sustainably leveraged by alternative protein, but the inferior quality of current plant-based meat analogues has somewhat disillusioned consumers. Small inclusion level of cultivated beef (CB) to bulk pea protein isolate in the high moisture extrusion (HME) showed a process unlock how to modulate the texture and instrumental sensory properties of the hybrid pea protein extrudates. Such novel co-extrusion delivered improved physicochemical and flavour properties as well as imparted distinct change in texture and microstructure. A comparison between hybrid pea protein extrudates with 10% CB (E-PCB10) and 2% CB (E-PCB2) showed a clear enhancement of the water holding (∼16.7-fold) and oil holding (∼67-fold) capacities in E-CPB10 and the instrumental sensory analyses also showed up to 30% reduction of key off-flavour markers of pea protein in E-PCB10 along with reduction in bitterness and astringency. E-PCB10 and E-PCB2 exhibit different microstructure compared to E-PPI, and E-PCB10 showed increased hardness, resilience, cohesiveness and chewiness as well as the mechanical strength. The scanning electron microscopy of extrudates revealed that higher concentrations of cultivated beef disrupted the pea protein matrix and the laminar structure in E-PPI becomes less easy to discern in E-PCB2 and E-PCB10. The increasing percentage of CB leads to a more enhanced protein-protein cross-linking in E-PCB10. These findings demonstrated for the first time that an addition of as little as 2% and 10% of cultivated beef can modulate the texture and microstructure of pea protein extrudate. This could lead to a promising texturization process for plant protein via microstructure modulation, reducing off-taste, and enhancing functional features to develop high-quality, hybrid alternative protein-based meat analogue.