Insights into characterizing and producing anisotropic food structures

Abstract

Besides the flavor profile of food, texture plays a major role in terms of the acceptance and likeability of food products. In contrast to gel-like homogenous isotropic structures, where the characterization is established and structure-texture mechanisms are well understood, there is still a lack of knowledge in the field of anisotropic complex food matrices. Food systems that show anisotropic properties in terms of macroscopic mechanical anisotropy as in grown meat, or mixed complex systems where anisotropic shaped particles or fibers are embedded into an isotropic matrix are challenging to characterize, hence the structure-texture correlation is not trivial to understand. In this paper, we bring together the state of the art of different anisotropic structures as a source of food, their formation in terms of structured plant proteins, and consequently the structure-texture correlation of those. Characteristic terms and properties to differentiate between anisotropic systems are introduced with the purpose to facilitate characterization of those. Based on the here provided terms and characteristics, further studies toward understanding such systems and their perception can be conducted. Beyond that, a first opinion on crucial influencing factors on the perception of anisotropic systems and their mechanistic background is provided.

Keywords:

• directional structure-formation
• shear structured
• structure-texture correlation
• superstructure studies
• texturized vegetable protein

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Carlos Woern and Chiara Ruedt for fruitful discussions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.