Preparation and properties of high-soluble wheat gluten protein-based meat analogues

BACKGROUND Wheat gluten protein (WGP) is poorly soluble and does not easily form fibrous structures. The meat analogues prepared from it have an unsatisfactory texture and poor water-holding capacity (WHC). Our previous work indicated that pH-shifting combined with heat treatment can significantly improve the solubility and emulsifiability of WGP. In this work, WGP was therefore treated by pH-cycling (m-WGP) to improve the solubility and then applied in the preparation of meat analogues by high moisture extrusion. RESULTS The results indicated that the addition of m-WGP improved the texture characteristics and WHC of the extrudates significantly (282.4) and made the extrudates show a tighter organizational structure, according to scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis showed that the addition of m-WGP resulted in a more uniform moisture distribution in the extrudate. The free sulfhydryl group result showed that the addition of m-WGP significantly increased the free sulfhydryl group content, which was beneficial to the formation of disulfide bonds to enhance the tissue structure. CONCLUSION When the addition content of m-WGP was 10%, the gluten extrudate exhibited a good WHC and uniform moisture distribution but the excessive hardness and chewiness were not suitable for simulating meat. When the additional m-WGP content reached 50%, the gluten extrudate had textural characteristics that were closest to commercial plant-based meat and real meat, with the potential to be used as a raw material to simulate meat. Accordingly, this work improves the processing properties of WGP and explores plant-based ingredients for meat analogues. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.