Fermented Plant Meat Analogue Texture and Purity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current meat analogues face challenges in achieving a meat-like texture without added preservatives or antibiotics, while also minimizing environmental impact and ensuring health-promoting properties and efficient production.
Innovation Solution
A process involving fermentation of plant or seaweed materials with lactic acid-producing bacteria to create a meat analogue with controlled moisture and protein content, eliminating the need for preservatives and antibiotics, and reducing environmental impact.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If meat analogues are produced from plant materials without preservatives or antibiotics, then health-promoting properties and nutritional effects are improved, but texture quality and shelf stability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies fermentation parameter changes to transform plant materials into meat analogues with improved texture. By controlling fermentation conditions (microbial strains, temperature, time), the process modifies the physical and chemical parameters of plant proteins to achieve meat-like texture without requiring preservatives or antibiotics, thus resolving the contradiction between health properties and texture quality
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates composite material structures by combining fermented plant proteins with specific functional components (fats, carbohydrates, additives) to achieve both desirable texture and health-promoting properties. The composite approach allows optimization of each component's function while maintaining overall product stability without preservatives
2Quantity of substance
If traditional livestock farming is used to meet increasing meat demand, then protein supply is improved, but environmental impact and resource consumption worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential function of meat production (protein supply) from the harmful livestock farming system by using plant-based fermentation. This separates the useful outcome (meat-like protein products) from the harmful processes (greenhouse emissions, land use, water consumption), thereby improving protein supply while reducing environmental impact
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates copies of meat's functional and sensory properties using plant materials through fermentation. By replicating the texture, flavor, and nutritional profile of animal meat without using animal products, the process meets protein demand while eliminating the environmental harms associated with livestock farming
3Manufacturing precision
If lab-grown meat is produced through tissue culture, then meat-like texture and controlled composition are improved, but production time and complexity worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses simple, rapidly growing plant materials as disposable feedstock for fermentation, replacing the complex and time-consuming animal cell culture process. Plant materials can be quickly grown and fermented, significantly reducing production time while maintaining controlled composition through fermentation parameters
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the complex mechanical and biological system of animal tissue culture with a simpler biochemical fermentation process. By substituting animal cell culture with microbial fermentation of plant materials, the process achieves similar controlled composition outcomes with reduced time and operational complexity
4Object-generated harmful factors
If plant-based meat analogues are produced, then environmental impact is reduced, but texture and off-flavors deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses fermentation parameter changes to eliminate off-flavors in plant-based meat analogues. By optimizing fermentation conditions (microbial selection, temperature, pH, time), the process transforms plant materials to develop desirable flavor profiles while maintaining the environmental benefits of plant-based production
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the potential harm of off-flavors into benefit by using fermentation to develop complex, desirable flavors from plant materials. The fermentation process transforms compounds that might otherwise be undesirable into flavor-enhancing substances, eliminating the off-flavor problem while preserving environmental advantages
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The process results in a meat analogue with improved texture, nutritional, and health-promoting properties, minimizing environmental impact and eliminating the need for preservatives, while being efficiently produced.
Implementation Method 1
a meat analogue comprising a fermented material and at least one lactic acid producing bacteria
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to the use of a fermented plant material; a fermented seaweed material or a combined fermented plant material and fermented seaweed material for the preparation of a meat analogue.