Mycorena, a Swedish company that leads the mycelium-based protein industry, has announced the creation of its ground-breaking M.E.A.T (Mycoprotein Extrusion and Alignment Technology) technology.
“Existing technology was not developed for this next generation of meat analogues.”
One of the most rapidly expanding businesses in the alternative protein market, Mycorena, recently announced ambitions to expand its geographic reach by setting up operations around Europe and Asia. The first mycoprotein-based butter prototype ever made and the largest mycoprotein demo production facility in Europe are both under the direction of the expert in fungus fermentation.
The M.E.A.T technology
A novel method of food production called M.E.A.T is touted as being particularly effective for mycoprotein. The company asserts that its innovative M.E.A.T technology, which it claims to have developed after years of research and process development, surpasses the conventional extrusion technique now available for producing plant- and fungi-based meat substitutes.
Mycorena claims that the most popular texturization method, high moisture extrusion (HME), has some drawbacks and restrictions. There are restrictions on the geometry and size of the created product in addition to the need for high pressure and temperature to simulate the animal muscle structure, making it mostly useful for flatter, chunkier parts.
Additionally, many of the meat substitutes on the market today are made from soy, wheat, or pea-based texturized vegetable proteins. While they all have various nutritional profiles, textures, and tastes, mycoprotein is said to have a naturally fibrous texture, a taste that is neither sweet nor sour, and it contains a lot of necessary amino acids.
Alt-meat’s potential
Mycorena claims that with the development of its M.E.A.T technology, which it claims will align the fibers into the kind of big, juicy whole-cut chunks that consumers are clamoring for, the business has now solved the riddle of mycoprotein-based meat substitutes.
The M.E.A.T technique creates full sliced meat analogs that perfectly mimic the structure of muscle fibers using both a bottom-up and top-down methodology. M.E.A.T. also uses less energy than other procedures and is completely unrestricted in terms of shapes and sizes.
“Up to now, we have identified several factors, both related to the material properties and the processing conditions, crucial to achieve a successful prototype. The next steps in the development will focus on upscaling the process further to be able to work with different mycoproteins and to expand the range of applications,” said Dr Sicong Zhu, Food Scientist at Mycorena.
A minimal ingredients list is one of the company’s main priorities in addition to great taste and texture.
“As one of the leading ingredient suppliers of mycoprotein, we see it as our responsibility to equip the customer not only with the best ingredients for their products, but also the technological solutions needed to work these proteins in the right way, unlocking their full potential. It is important to realize that existing technology was not developed for this next generation of meat analogues, therefore we often have to create our own novel methods,” stated Dr Kristina Karlsson, R&D Manager at Mycorena
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