In her bestselling cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, Samin Nosrat writes that the aromatic molecules that give each kind of meat its distinctive flavor tend to be fat rather than water soluble. Hence, an animal’s fat actually tastes more like the animal than its meat does. As meat cooks, the solid fat within it slowly renders, keeping the meat juicy. The flavorful liquid fat that remains coats the tongue, allowing the flavors to linger. Mimicking the experience by generating the mouthfeel that consumers want and expect is hard–so hard, in fact, that some alternative meat companies are just adding animal fat back into their plant-based meats. All the while, food scientists are working toward other solutions.
The goal is to get plant-based, liquid oil to act like a solid animal fat. This is difficult for the same reason that it is desirable: animal fats contain cholesterol and around 40 percent saturated fatty acids. Plant-based oils are usually around 10-20 percent saturated fatty acids.
Coconut oil, for example, is frequently used to substitute animal fat in alternative meat products since it is 90 percent saturated fat and solid at room temperature. However, it melts quickly at only 24 °C, since it is rich in medium-chain saturated fatty acids, and leaks out of the meat product during cooking, leaving it dry. It is also unsustainably sourced from the rainforest and often mixed with methylcellulose to lend hardness.
"Who wants to eat that," said Alejandro G. Marangoni, food science professor at the University of Guelph, Canada.
According to researchers, there are three primary options for plantbased fat replacements for meat alternatives. Oleogels are liquid oils that have been solidified using physical methods, such as adding a structuring or solidifying agent—typically a small molecule that crystallizes. Emulsion gels add an additional phase (usually water) to the system. In emulsion gels, only one phase is in a gel state, for example oleogel droplets within a water phase. Finally, there are bigels, wherein both the water phase and the oil phase are gels. Polysaccharides and proteins—molecules that impact the product’s flavor and nutrition profile—can be used as structuring agents in the water phase.
Here we describe the latest research in plant-based fat replacements for a variety of food applications.
PLANT FAT + ANIMAL PROTEIN
A team of scientists led by Supratim Ghosh, professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada have been addressing the challenge of replacing the animal fat in real meat with a plantbased fat. The motivation, of course, being the decades of research showing that eating a lot of meat increases our risk of developing obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, due to high saturated fat consumption. The team focused on emulsion gels as a potential fat carrier, because of their favorable rheology and texture.
The researchers developed soon-to-be patented emulsion gel made of faba bean protein isolate, canola oil, and water. They used it to completely replace the pork backfat in bologna sausages made with lean ground pork. This hybrid bologna thus kept the nutritional benefits of being high in animal protein but was lower in fat than the original sausage.
A panel of sixty volunteers tasted the hybrid bologna and reported liking it slightly less in terms of color, texture, flavor and juiciness with similar saltiness compared to the animal fat containing bologna. They ranked it overall as "slightly acceptable," while the meat controls with animal fat were "moderately acceptable." Ghosh and his colleagues attribute this to the fact that the hybrid sausage is much paler in color, since the emulsion gel itself reflects light.
Phyllis Shand, professor emeritus at the University of Saskatchewan and a member of the research team said, "the paler color could potentially be a positive in a chicken-based product. It all depends on the final application."
Composition data comparing conventional low-fat bologna with hybrid bologna where the pork fat has been removed and replaced with an emulsion gel made from vegetable oil and protein.
A separate research group used a bigel, instead of an emulsion, to study replacing animal fat in food products. The team at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa used 92.5 percent high-oleic soybean oil and 7.5 percent rice bran wax. Although their plant-based fat has a different composition, they reported similar results. When the bigel was used to replace fat in pork sausages the finished products were paler than controls containing animal fat. However, in this case there were also reports of less flavor and aroma.
Given that their hybrid bologna’s properties were mostly favorable, Ghosh anticipates that the emulsion has commercial potential with meat processing companies. Shand says that spices can be added to enhance the color of the emulsion gel to look more appealing to consumers depending on the application. Next, the team, including doctorial student Oluwafemi Coker, plans to test the emulsion in beef burgers and breakfast sausage patties. They have no immediate intentions to mix it with a plant-based alternative meat, but Ghosh says it could find use there.
PLANT FAT + PLANT PROTEIN
From Marangoni’s perspective fat mimetics should be approached in an entirely different way. It is not just animal fat that meat analogs need to mimic, he says. It is the entire structure of adipose tissue.
To make plant products mimic animal adipose tissue Marangoni’s lab uses decellularized plant tissue. Adipose tissue is composed of adipocytes surrounded by an extracellular matrix made of collagen protein and polysaccharides that create a scaffold for the fat-containing adipose cells. This is why upon heating adipose tissue in meat retains its form while oleogels lose theirs; plant oils do not have a similar protein structure to contain them. But plants do have cellulosic tubular scaffolds.
Marangoni’s idea was to use such scaffolds in the form of freeze-dried carrot or broccoli tissue and then fill them with shea and palm olein. Enzymatic glycerolysis of these plant oils converts their native triacylglycerols into more structured partial glycerides. In a nutritional bonus, filling the scaffold with oleogel rather than oil allows the structure to hold while containing less fat. His lab is now in a partnership with STARS and Protein Industries Canada to make plant-based burgers.
San Fransico, California based start-up company, Lypid, has also developed a vegan fat based on the adipose tissue concept. PhytoFat™ is a microencapsulated ingredient currently being used in alternative meat products.
"This creates a lot of small droplets containing plant-based liquid oil—canola or soybean—but since they are encapsulated in a different food, they can handle high heat, like a solid animal fat," said Michelle Lee, co-founder and chief technology officer. "The encapsulation recreates the adipose cells that are dispersed throughout meat tissue, and during chewing the oil leaks out to create that juicy mouthfeel."
The outer shells of the capsules, which she would only divulge "are made with food ingredients that have emulsifying capabilities," do not break down until 200-250 oC, but their formulation allows Lypid’s research team to adjust their melting point and create different textures just through physical modifications. About 50 percent of the capsule is oil, so it is lower in calories than animal fat. And since the oil is protected from heat, flavorants and nutrients can be added and retain their potency.
Lypid makes plant-based pork belly slices. According to Lee, they are the only multitexture plant-based meat on the market. But, for now, they only sell to food service, not directly to consumers. Their products are served in restaurants in Taiwan and California.
PLANT FAT + CULTURED PROTEIN
Marcelle Machluf is a professor of biotechnology engineering at The Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. As head of The Lab for Cancer Drug Delivery & Cell Based Technologies her lab made a targeted drug and gene delivery system by draining the contents of mesenchymal stem cells, leaving only the membranes, and then shrinking the membrane shells down to nano size. But when she became Dean of the faculty and got more contact with her food engineering colleagues, she realized that her technology could be applied to the scalable production of healthier meat alternatives.
"Mammalian cells are mammalian cells," Machluf said. "We know how to engineer them."
Her lab made cultured meat tissue by expanding bovine mesenchymal stem cells on edible chitosan collagen microcarriers. But she knew her product would not mimic meat without fat, so she teamed up with Maya Davidovich-Pinhas, associate professor of biotechnology and food engineering (and 2024 winner of the AOCS Edible Applications Technology Division Outstanding Achievement Award).
Davidovich-Pinhas developed an oleogel-based fat substitute to help achieve the taste, texture, and mouthfeel of meat. Her lab used a combination of direct and indirect methods to make their fat substitute. Oil droplets were structured with glycerol monostearate (GMS) in a protein-aqueous solution using an emulsification procedure, followed by lyophilization. The ultimate formulation of their emulsion was a 20 weight percent canola oil and 4.5 weight percent chickpea protein dispersion. After homogenization, their fat substitute looked, felt, and behaved like beef fat—even upon cooking—and it reduced more than 65 percent of the saturated fatty acid content compared to beef while increasing the amount of healthful omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.
They combined Machluf’s cultured tissue with Davidovich-Pinhas’ fat substitute to make a ground beef analog. Machluf said that "it tastes great, is more nutritious than meat, and can hold its shape and texture during frying and cooking." Davidovich-Pinhas noted that their oleogel-based fat substitute can be loaded with different macro and micronutrients to improve its nutritional profile. And since protein based oleogels are relatively thermostable, their melting behavior can be tailored to different cultured meat products by altering the type and amount of oil structuring agent. Machluf applied for a patent and founded a company, Meatafora. She has plans to make ground chicken and fish products as well, and to sell the chitosan collagen microcarriers system to others who want to cultivate their own cells as a protein source.
PLANT FAT + ANY PROTEIN
KaYama Foods, based in Tel Aviv, Israel, was co-founded by Gad Harris, a chemical processing and environmental engineer, and lifelong vegan who worked in oil recycling and in an alternative protein company before starting this alternative fat company.
"Fat has a biochemical role to play during cooking," he said. "It should be present and free to participate in reactions with proteins and other ingredients to generate flavor and aroma compounds. If it is bound up in an emulsion, it is not free to take part in those reactions." Moreover, he notes, the excess water in emulsions hinders these vital reactions.
KaYama’s product is thus not an emulsion. It is a structured plant oil—sunflower, canola, soy, olive, whatever healthy local oil you like, plus phytonutrients. It does not involve water, protecting the fat from undesirable oxidation and leaving it free to react during cooking. KaYama’s patented formula process does not change the chemical structure of the oil, but gives it a physical structure that retains its healthful qualities while allowing it to act like animal fat.
As Harris put it, KaYama’s technology "decouples the degree of fat saturation from its solid structure and functionality." And since their goal is maximal health and sustainability impacts, they hope to sell their alternative fat product to any food processor to mix with whatever type of protein best suits their need: plant-based, fermented, or cultivated.
To address the global challenges of human health, food insecurity, and climate change, food science researchers are developing innovative ways to replace saturated fat and promote protein alternatives based on plant, cell culture, and fermentation. According to experts, within two decades 60 percent of meat sold globally will be from an alternative protein source (https://tinyurl.com/4u3w3anc). As you have read, AOCS members are a key component to achieving that future.
