New research finds that fermenting alliums such as onions with fungi can naturally mimic the flavor of meat, offering a promising solution for improving the quality of plant-based meat alternatives without the use of synthetic additives. Plant-based alternatives like tempeh and soy burgers offer protein-rich options for people looking to reduce their meat intake. However, imitating the taste and smell of meat is difficult, and many companies use artificial additives to do so.

A recent study in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reveals a promising solution: Onions, leeks, and leeks can produce natural compounds that resemble the saltiness of meat when fermented with typical fungi.

When food manufacturers want plant-based meat alternatives to taste more meaty, they often add precursor ingredients from meat that are converted into flavorings during the cooking process. Alternatively, flavors are prepared by heating flavor precursors or other chemical treatments and then added to the product.

Because these flavors are made through a synthetic process, many countries do not allow food manufacturers to label them as "natural." To obtain "natural" plant-based meat seasonings, the flavoring chemicals must be extracted from the plants or biochemically processed with enzymes, bacteria, or fungi. So Yanyan Zhang and colleagues wondered whether fungi known to produce meaty flavors and odors from synthetic sources could be used to produce the same chemicals from vegetables or spices.

The team fermented various fungi with a range of foods and found that only allium foods, such as onions and leeks, produced meaty aromas. The most aromatic sample came from an 18-hour fermentation of onions using polypore bacteria, which produced a fatty and meaty aroma similar to liverwurst.

The researchers analyzed onion ferments using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify taste and odor chemicals and found a number of chemicals known to cause different flavors in meat. One of the chemicals they found was bis(2-methyl-3-furyl) disulfide, a potent odorant in meats and salty foods.

The team says the high sulfur content of allium plants helps them produce meaty compounds, which often also contain sulfur. Researchers say these onion ferments may one day be used as natural flavoring agents for a variety of plant-based meat alternatives.

References Manon Jünger, Verena Karolin Mittermeier-Kleßinger, Anastasia Farrenkopf, Andreas Dunkel, Timo Stark, Sonja Fröhlich, Veronika Somoza, Corinna Dawid and Thomas Hofmann published a paper in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry on May 20, 2022: "Sensory proteomics discovery of taste-modulating peptides and soy sauce taste reconstruction".

DOI:10.1021/acs.jafc.2c01688

Compiled source: ScitechDaily