High-protein plant-based cheese analogue

到2050年，世界人口预计将达到90亿，这意味着需要养活更多的人。目前，动物蛋白质和动物副产品，如牛奶和奶酪，每单位质量的蛋白质产生的温室气体排放量最大。此外，气候危机正在恶化，导致严重干旱，对农业和粮食安全造成不利影响。很明显，我们不能继续依靠动物性产品来满足我们不断扩大的食品需求。由于这些原因，再加上一些道德困境，人们开始转向以植物性食品的形式提供更可持续的替代品。最近，在牛奶和肉类类似物的推动下，对植物性食品的需求已超过对动物性产品的需求数倍。然而，从营养和功能的角度来看，奶酪类似物明显落后，因为它们几乎不含蛋白质，也不像乳制品那样拉伸和融化。在这里，我们建议开发一种高蛋白奶酪类似产品，具有类似于乳制品奶酪的熔化、拉伸和油结合特性。采用的方法是基于我们的发现，某些淀粉可以用作功能基质，其中不同的蛋白质可以作为高质量分数的“填料”添加，创建具有所需感官，物理和营养功能的特定颗粒填充聚合物网络。我们将描述许多植物蛋白（豌豆、扁豆、蚕豆、卢平、鹰嘴豆、豆类等）的物理特性，并将这些特性与拉伸流变参数和热软化（“融化”）联系起来。我们还将确定蛋白质的加工如何改变它们的物理状态和功能。最终的目标是，任何蛋白质都可以被操纵，作为奶酪模拟基质中的填料。这将对工业非常有用，因为减少了对一种或两种特定成分的依赖，从而可以优化营养、感官体验、功能和成本。Daiya是北美素食奶酪领域的第一品牌。这里开发的技术将确保持续的成功，并帮助他们成为该类别的全球领先品牌。

The world's population is expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050, meaning more mouths to feed. Currently, animal proteins and animal by-products such as milk and cheese generate the greatest amounts of greenhouse gas emissions per unit mass of protein. Moreover, the climate crisis is worsening, resulting in severe droughts with adverse consequences for agriculture and food security. It is evident that we cannot continue to rely on animal-based products for our expanding food needs. For these reasons, along with several ethical quandaries, there has been a shift to more sustainable alternatives in the form of plant-based foods. Recently, the demand for plant-based foods has outpaced the demand for animal-based products several fold, driven by milk and meat analogues. Cheese analogues, however, lag significantly behind, both from nutritional and functional perspectives, since they contain little to no protein and do not stretch and melt as their dairy counterparts. Here we propose to develop a high-protein cheese analogue product with melting, stretching and oil binding properties that resemble those of dairy cheese. The approach taken is based on our discovery that certain starches can be used as a functional matrix where different proteins can be added as "fillers" at high mass fractions, creating specific particle-filled polymer networks with the desired sensory, physical, and nutritional functionality. We will characterize the physical properties of many plant proteins (pea, lentil, fava, lupin, chickpea, bean, among others) and correlate these with extensional rheological parameters and thermal softening ("melting"). We will also determine how processing the proteins changes their physical state and thus functionality. The ultimate aim is that any protein can be manipulated to work well as a filler in a cheese analogue matrix. This will be very useful for industry since there is less reliance on one or two specific ingredients, allowing for optimization of nutrition, sensory experience, functionality, and cost. Daiya is the #1 North American brand in the vegan cheese category. The technology developed here will ensure continued success and help them become the leading worldwide brand in the category.