Mimicking animal adipose tissue using a hybrid network-based solid-emulsion gel with soy protein isolate, agar, and alginate

The growth of the plant-based meat analogue market has prompted the need for new approaches to replace animal adipose tissue. In this study, we developed a novel solid emulsion gel system using a hybrid gel network to simulate the thermal behavior and texture of adipose tissue. At various concentrations, emulsion gels were prepared using soybean oil, soybean protein isolate, agar, and alginate. After mixing all solutions at appropriate concentrations, cold-set gelation of agar was followed by ion-induced alginate gelation by immersion in calcium chloride solution. The resulting emulsion gel contained a dense network that trapped oil droplets and exhibited elastic behavior at all temperatures, similar to porcine adipose tissue. Furthermore, the optimized hybrid emulsion gel showed increased hardness compared with the single-agar emulsion gel. Overall, our findings suggested that the developed emulsion gel system could enhance the quality of plant-based meat analogues by mimicking the physical and thermal properties of animal adipose tissue.