MANE and ONIRIS Unveil Cutting-Edge Research on Methylcellulose Alternatives for Meat Analogues

A recent study by MANE and ONIRIS VetAgroBio has made significant strides in finding alternatives to methylcellulose for plant-based meats, focusing on soy-based burgers. The research focused on three key factors influencing the texture of soy-based burgers without methylcellulose:
  • The protein substrate
     Faba Bean Isolate combined with Soy-based Textured Vegetable Proteins to enhance enzyme activity;
  • The enzyme:
     Laccase, which facilitates protein cross-linking in the presence of a phenolic mediator;
  • The Phenolic Mediator:
    Sugar Beet Pectin, enabling laccase to create protein bonds.
The formulation demonstrated strong results, achieving a high desirability score of 0.94 for key textural attributes like firmness, juiciness, and stickiness, closely matching the performance of methylcellulose. Despite promising outcomes, the researchers note that a fully functional methylcellulose replacement still requires refinement. However, the work marks a major advancement in ingredient innovation, providing valuable insights for future development of scalable, clean-label plant-based meat solutions.
SYMEGA’S POSSIBILITY : This ingredient can play a role in designing optimized meat-analogues, opening new possibilities for sustainable and nutritionally rich alternatives
Crafting optimized, palm-oil free tailor-made fats for a sustainable future –TAGs offer the ideal alternative to palm fats for food formulations in Bakery and Confectionery
Nutriswiss AG is one of Switzerland’s leading specialists when it comes to sourcing and processing vegetable oils and fats. With the development and production of structured and organic-quality triglycerides (TAGs), the company provides the food industry with natural fats with functional properties that can be adapted to specific applications, including bakery & confectionery. It can now develop palm oil-free fats with application optimized technological properties and melting points of up to 50°C. Among other things, it uses gentle distillation steps to optimize fat alternatives. Depending on the organic label, biocompliant non-GMO enzymes from natural sources can also be used to replace certain fatty acids in the TAG molecules with others. Also, all production facilities and purification processes meet the strictest organic quality standards.
SYMEGA’S POSSIBILITY : This ingredient can be used in designing palm-oil free
solutions for bakery and confectionery products, offering tailored fats with
optimized technological properties and sustainable benefits