g-Frying of 3D Printed Composite Protein-based Foods

尽管在过去十年中取得了重大进展，但生产含油量最低且具有所需质构、营养和感官特征的油炸食品仍然是一个具有挑战性的目标。对油炸过程中吸油现象和质构发展的机理和影响因素的认识还存在一定的差距。最近，麦吉尔大学开发了g-油炸技术。对这项新技术的初步研究表明，脂肪吸收显著减少。然而，g-油炸过程中脂肪吸收和质构发展的本质还没有被阐明，特别是在非常流行的复合涂层休闲食品中。3D打印已经成为一项变革性的技术，能够制造出具有特定形状和微观结构的产品。目前关于蛋白质基复合材料产品3D打印的研究非常少。此外，这些产品需要使用高热传递烹饪技术进行后处理，如油炸。因此，3D打印和油炸的结合引起了人们的极大兴趣。拟议的研究计划寻求部署具有已知和受控微观结构和质地属性的3D打印复合材料产品，以推进关于质地属性对脂肪吸收影响的基础研究。如果没有3D打印技术，这样的创新研究是不可能的。因此，拟议研究计划的目标包括：研究可用于形成复合蛋白质产品的不同涂层(面糊)和核心(蛋白质基质)材料的流变性和热特性；评估设计由外层(面糊)和内层(蛋白质基质)组成的3D打印复合产品结构的可行性，该结构具有可控的形状和微观结构，以模拟健康的休闲食品(如鸡块)；以及表征打印模型复合(涂层和核心)蛋白质产品在g-油炸过程中和之后的传质(水分和脂肪)、质地和质量发展。该研究计划将为制造新的质构修饰、高质量和营养的油炸蛋白质基复合产品提供关键知识。它将为10个不同级别的总部工作人员提供培训和指导。这些HQP将拥有必要的技能，为确保生产高质量和健康的油炸食品做出贡献。将通过在技术会议和工业会议上的发言以及通过发表科学论文来传播新知识。

Although there has been significant progress in the past decade, production of fried food products with minimum oil content and desired textural, nutrient and sensory profiles remains a challenging objective. There are still gaps in our understanding of the mechanisms and factors involved in oil uptake phenomenon and texture development during frying. Recently, the g-frying technique was developed at McGill University. Preliminary study on the new technique has shown significant reduction in fat absorption. However, the nature of fat absorption and texture development during the g-frying process has not yet been elucidated particularly for highly popular composite coated snack foods. 3D printing has emerged as a transformative technology that enables manufacturing of products with specific shapes and microstructures. There are very scarce studies on 3D printing of protein based composite products. Further, the products require post-processing using high heat transfer cooking techniques such as frying. Therefore, combination of 3D printing and frying is of great interest. The proposed research program seeks to deploy 3D printed composite products with known and controlled microstructures and textural attributes to advance fundamental studies on the impact of textural properties on fat absorption. Such innovative study could not have been possible without 3D printing technology. Therefore, the goals of the proposed research program include: to study rheological and thermal properties of different coating (batters) and core (protein substrates) materials that could be used to form a composite protein based product; to assess the feasibility of designing 3D printed composite product structures comprising of an outer (batter coat) layer and an inner layer (protein based substrate) with controlled shapes and microstructures that would simulate a healthy snack food product (such as chicken nugget); and characterizing mass transfer (moisture and fat), textural and quality developments in the printed model composite (coating and core) protein based products during and after g-frying. The research program will provide crucial knowledge with respect to manufacturing new texture modified high quality and nutritious fried protein-based composite products. It will provide training and mentoring to 10 HQPs at various levels. These HQPs will have the necessary skills to contribute in ensuring production of high quality and healthy fried food products. Dissemination of new knowledge will be through presentations at technical conferences and industrial meetings as well as through publication of scientific papers.