Effect of Water-Added Content on the Quality and Structural Characteristics of High-moisture Extruded SoybeanMeal-Based Meat Analogues

Soybean meal is a high quality plant protein resource. Exploring the possibility of using soybean meal instead of soybean protein isolate as raw material for high water extrusion plant protein meat processing is of great significance for production enterprises to control production cost and improve the economic value of soybean meal. In this study, the soybean meal was used as raw material to systemlly explore the effect of the water-added content (10.5, 11, 11.5, 12 kg/h) on the quality and structural characteristics of high-mositure extruded vegetable protein meat through determining the hardness, elasticity, chewiness, color and luster, water-holding capacity, oil-holding capacity, and chemical-crosslinking force and using Fourier infrared spectrum and scanning electron microscope. The results showed that the hardness, elasticity, and chewability of the vegetable protein meat were significantly decreased with the increasing water-added content during extrusion (P<0.05), while the brightness value, water-holding capacity, and oil-holding capacity showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing. When the water-added content was 11.5 kg/h, the vegetable protein meat had better quality characteristics and appearance color, and the denser fibrous filaments were formed inside, and their layered structure became clear and neat, showing the fine directional structure. The results of Fourier infrared spectroscopy and chemical-crosslinking confirmed that the water-added content had a significant effect on the structure of vegetable protein meat, and the structure was maintained by the interaction of covalent bond and non-covalent bond.