PlaFaTiss

Fat is a key structural and quality determining component in numerous food categories, including meat, fish, delicatessen, convenience foods, bakery and confectionery, where it strongly influences juiciness, texture, mouthfeel and aroma profile. When this component, which is of animal origin in many applications, is replaced by plant based alternatives, the insufficient structuring of plant lipids often leads to quality losses. In current plant-based meat and fish analogs, fat is typically present as finely emulsified droplets randomly distributed within the protein matrix, rather than being embedded in the hierarchically organized, anisotropic tissue structures as found in animal tissue. At the same time, dairy, delicatessen, bakery and confectionery products face growing health driven demand for nutritionally superior, structured plant fats to replace saturated and trans fatty acids.

To meet this growing demand, technological approaches are required that enable the targeted structuring of plant based lipids. The project addresses this challenge by employing the wet spinning process, an industrially scalable method for producing fibrous structures. On this basis, anisotropic protein–lipid systems are developed for use in plant-based meat and fish analogs, and vegetable oils are incorporated into polymer matrices for applications in dairy, delicatessen, bakery, and confectionery products. To this end, two strategies for integrating the lipid phase into the polymer matrix are systematically investigated, and the resulting lipid fiber structures are comprehensively characterized with respect to product relevant properties. Building on these findings, the most promising process variants are subsequently scaled up on a pilot scale wet spinning system.