Developmental Studies on Defatted Custard Apple Seed as a High-Moisture Meat Analogue Employing Extrusion Cooking

Abstract

The effect of animal meat consumption on the environment and also on the health due to the increasing awareness is a topic of discussion in the literate world. The changing definitions of the vegetarian foods have drifted the vegetarian population to vegan products that are totally devoid of any animal produce. Soy protein has emerged as an alternative option; still there are challenges of production and non-availability of variety. Looking into the need of high protein rich plant-based meat analogue, the present study investigates the defatted custard apple seed protein as a meat analogue product. After the extraction of the proteins from the seeds of defatted custard apple, twin screw co-rotating extruder was employed for the development of high moisture meat analogues. The developed protein meat analogue was analyzed for the rheological attributes, texture, thermal properties and colour. The findings provided an evidence of incorporation of defatted custard apple seed protein in the extrudate as a stable product with protein content ranging from 55.79% to 64.39%. The consistency and other attributes of the meat analogue were quite in the acceptable range. The viscosity of the final product was found to be 60 Pa.s, following a non-Newtonian nature of flow. The parameters like chewiness ranged from 7.77 N to 15.27 N, and the cohesiveness varied from 0.42 to 0.63. The developed meat analogue possessed the desired characteristics for a meat substitute advocated by the various characterization and evaluation parameters.