| Summary: | Plant-based meat analogues (PBMAs) are products made from processed plant protein, which generally aim to replicate the flavour and eating experience of meat products.
Two studies were designed to explore flavour-generation pathways in plant-based burgers. The first study was designed to explore how the generation of ‘meaty’ flavour compounds in plant-based burgers is affected the varying the concentration of sulfur amino acids and/or reducing sugars (‘Maillard precursors’) added to the recipe. Cysteine/cystine and dextrose/ribose were chosen for their importance in generating ‘meaty’ flavour. The findings demonstrated that the chosen amino acids and reducing sugars do have an impact on the generation of ‘meaty’ volatiles through modulation of the Maillard and lipid oxidation pathways. Importantly, cysteine was shown to significantly increase the formation of some key ‘meaty’ compounds. Cystine, on the other hand, may supress the formation of some compounds which contribute to meat flavour.
The second study examined the effect of known and novel catalysts on the formation of volatiles in the same plant-based burger formulation. Results showed that the inclusion of iron and copper ions impacts the formation of some key volatiles. The influence of the iron salt is affected by its oxidation state; iron (II) compounds are generally shown to be stronger catalysts than iron (III) compounds. Additionally, the results suggest that combining transition metal ions with metal-chelating molecules could enhance their catalytic effect, however, further research is necessary to validate this observation and elucidate the underlying mechanisms.
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