Lou Xuanming, Wang Jiahao, Kwang Leng Gek, Zhou Hanzhang, Ong Francesca Yi Teng, Ng Shengyong, Yu Hanry
Department of Physiology, The Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117593, Singapore.
Mechanobiology Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117411, Singapore.
NPJ Sci Food. 2024 Dec 20;8(1):106. doi: 10.1038/s41538-024-00344-0.
Meat cuts, when cooked and masticated, separate into fibrous structures because of the long-range mechanical anisotropy (LMA) exhibited by muscle fascicles, which is not fully recapitulated in alternative proteins produced using molecular alignment technology like high moisture extrusion. We have developed a scalable perforated micro-imprinting technology to greatly enhance LMA in high moisture meat analogue (HMMA). By imprinting 1 mm thick HMMA sheets with perforated patterns (optimized by AI), we observed up to 5 × more anisotropic separation of fibrous structures in a one-dimensional pulling LMA analysis, to match the fibrousness of the cooked chicken breast, duck breast, pork loin and beef loin. We stacked and bound imprinted sheets with transglutaminase (TG) to produce imprinted whole-cuts. Controlling fiber separation in the imprinted cuts achieved hardness ranging from 6578 g to 18467 g (2 cm × 2 cm × 1 cm, 50% strain), which matched meats from different species. Imprinted cuts improved meat-like fiber separation over HMMA when masticated, measured by Euclidean distances (0.057 and 0.106 respectively) to animal meat cuts on image features. In sensory evaluation, imprinted cuts improved consumer acceptance by 33.3% and meat-like fibrousness by 20%, by significantly enhancing the HMMA appearance, texture, and mouthfeel.
肉块在烹饪和咀嚼时，由于肌束表现出的长程机械各向异性（LMA）而分离成纤维结构，而在使用分子排列技术（如高水分挤压）生产的替代蛋白中，这种各向异性并未完全重现。我们开发了一种可扩展的穿孔微压印技术，以极大地增强高水分肉类模拟物（HMMA）中的LMA。通过用穿孔图案（由人工智能优化）对1毫米厚的HMMA片材进行压印，我们在一维拉伸LMA分析中观察到纤维结构的各向异性分离增加了5倍之多，以匹配熟鸡胸肉、鸭胸肉、猪里脊肉和牛里脊肉的纤维程度。我们用转谷氨酰胺酶（TG）将压印片材堆叠并结合在一起，制成压印整块肉。控制压印肉块中的纤维分离可实现6578克至18467克的硬度（2厘米×2厘米×1厘米，50%应变），这与不同物种的肉类相匹配。通过欧几里得距离（分别为0.057和0.106）测量图像特征上与动物肉块的距离，压印肉块在咀嚼时比HMMA具有更好的类似肉类的纤维分离效果。在感官评价中，压印肉块通过显著改善HMMA的外观、质地和口感，使消费者接受度提高了33.3%，类似肉类的纤维感提高了20%。
