The Good Food Institute has awarded a grant of $200,000 over two years to a team of researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in order for them to create plant-based protein-rich food that is similar to chicken, pork, or beef in texture and still tastes great. The Good Food Institute is a non-profit organization that promotes plant-based alternatives to traditional animal proteins like meat, dairy, and eggs. They also use animal cells to cultivate “clean meat.”
Distinguished Professor of Food Science David Julian McClements, who is renowned for his work in food design, is the leader of the team tasked with taste physiology and sensory science, gut health, food processing and plant-based meat product development.
The Good Food Institute’s 2020 grants total $4 million and are funding 21 research projects in nine countries. The goal of these projects is to improve the cost, texture (sensory quality), and profitability of plant-based proteins.
"Our 2020 grantees are leading biochemists, tissue engineers, computational modeling experts, plant geneticists and food scientists," says Austin Clowes, the institute's scientific research funding coordinator.
Today’s consumers want to reduce the amount of animal-based foods they eat for a variety of reasons. Some are concerned about the environment and some do it because of health concerns. Says McClements, "This grant will allow us to explore the use of applied nanotechnology and structural design to create molecular architectures from plant proteins that resemble those in meat," he explains. "In particular, we aim to simulate the properties of whole chicken, pork or beef - rather than burgers, sausages or nuggets that exist already."
McClements and his team of scientists hope to be able to create fiber-like structures that could improve the texture of plant-based meat. "This would advance our technological ability to create meat-like fibers without the process of extrusion," says McClements.