FOOD SCIENCE

MEAT ALTERNATIVE OR ANALOG PRODUCTION

1.0      INTRODUCTION

What is the meaning of meat alternatives? It is good for us to consume? What is the classification of the meat alternatives? Is there any food that relate to the same nutrient like meat product? How about the process that are involved in making the meat alternative production? All of the question will be discussed in this assignment briefly. Meat alternative or other word which called meat substitute, faux meat, meat analogue, mock meat or imitation meat is the same meaning or definition.

Generally, the meat alternative will be understood to mean that the food made from non-meats and sometimes it produces without dairy products. It is approximates aesthetic quality such as texture, flavor, appearance and chemical characteristics of specific types of meat. These types of food also refer to the meat-based, healthier and less expensive alternative to a particular meat product such as surimi. There are six classifications of meat alternatives which are vegetarian meat alternative, soy-based meat alternative, recent meat alternative, dairy alternative, egg alternative and similar meat-based meat alternative or called surimi.

The vegetarian meat alternative is food that based-on centuries-old recipes and then the flavoring is added to make the finished product taste like lamb, chicken, seafood, ham, beef and others. The example of food product from this class are the wheat gluten or called seitan, rice, legumes, tempeh, mushrooms and pressed-tofu. The second class is the soy-based meat alternative. This is the food that made by layering the thin skin which forms on top of boiled soy milk. The recent meat alternative if a food comes from a dry bulk commodity derived from soy, mycoprotein-based Quorn, soy concentrate and modified defatted peanut flour.

The dairy alternative is the food that comes from other dairy sources based. It composed of processed rice, soy like soy milk and soy protein isolate, cashew, almond, gluten such as the first non-dairy creamers, nutritional yeast and other combination of the food that will get the same flavoring like butter, milk, cheeses, yogurt, mayonnaise, ice-cream and others milk product. The other classification is egg alternative. The food from egg alternative is the foods that have the same like egg function such as the leavening and binding effects of eggs in baked food such as cake. The example of food is the tapioca starch, tofu or other similar product function like egg. The last classification is the similar meat-based meat alternative that a food that processed from the hash or flesh of fish and added with the flavorings.

2.0                BODY

Nowadays, there are many foods that contain the same nutrient like meat product. The processing of the meat alternative is also different from each classification. The example of food meat alternative and it process will be discuss are seitan, yuba, texturized vegetable protein (TVP), tofu, tapioca starch, surimi and tempeh. The seitan or wheat gluten food is made by washing the wheat flour dough with water until the starch it dissolves. The leaving insoluble gluten then cooked before being eaten. This type of food is popular in Chinese people for accompaniment to boiled rice porridge or called congee. There are five forms of seitan which are oily fried gluten, steamed gluten, baked spongy gluten, raw gluten and dry baked gluten.

Yuba also called tofu skin or dried bean curd. The processing of yuba is start from boiling of soy milk in an open shallow pan. During the boiling process, a film or skin composed primarily of soy protein-lipid complex forms on the liquid surface. The films are collected and dried into yellowish sheets known as tofu skin or soy milk skin. There are three form of yuba which are fu zhu stick, meat analoque and log. The other type of meat alternative is texturized vegetable protein or TVP. TVP is a food made through a process known as extrusion cooking. It made from defatted soy flour and water in a mixing cylinder. Then the dough cooked during the passage through the barrel of a screw type extruder. This food will replace meat in the Spaghetti Bolognese, tacos, burgers and others.

Tofu is a processed food by coagulating soy milk and the resulting curds will be pressing. It produce begins making their own soy milk which are follow the steps like soaking the beans in the water, grinding the soaked beans, boiling and straining it dried. The process of coagulating used the coagulants agent like salt, acids and enzymes. There are many forms processed tofu exist which are fermented tofu like pickled and stinky tofu, flavored tofu like sweet and savory tofu, fried tofu like aburaage and frozen tofu like Thousand layer and koyadofu tofu. The productions from tofu based are tofu skin, okara, non-tofu and Burmese tofu.

Egg substitutes may be composed of tofu, tapioca starch, or similar products that recreate the leavening and binding effects of the eggs in baked goods. Many people use fruit products such as banana paste or applesauce as egg analogues in baking. There varieties way of processed tapioca starch consist by stirred the product, drained through a sieve and the last one step is fried the products itself. Examples of tapioca starch are tapioca cracker, powder, and rectangular sticks.

Surimi is a processed of hash of fish plus flavoring, is used to make products such as imitation crab meat. Its also can be steps by separate or mince the lean fish, rinse, beaten, and pulverized to form a gelatinous paste, mixed with additives such as starch, egg white, salt, vegetables oil, humectants, sorbitol, sugar and others. The curing process of surimi is caused by the polymerization of myosin when heated.The species of fish is the most vital factor that affects this curing process. Many pelagic fish with higher fat contents lack the needed type kind of heat-curing myosin and are not used for surimi production.

Tempeh or tempe is made by natural culturing and controlled fermentation of soy bean process that binds into a cake form. Tempeh’s fermentation process and its retention of the whole bean give it a higher content of protien, dietary fiber, and vitamin. Because of its nutritional value, tempeh used worldwide in vegetarian cuisine, some consider it to be a meat analogue. The production process of Tempeh begins with soya bean are split and hulled, then boiling the beans in plenty of water for about 45 minutes. Drained and cooled it. Add and mix with vinegar and rhizopus oligoporus. Then, packed the bean in container and covered 6mm above the beans. Next, left it into incubate at temperature of between 29 °C and 35 °C for 26 to 30 hours. The tempeh is ready when, a white, fluffy layer completely conceals the beans and the beans underneath the layer are held together as a solid cake. The last step is, tempeh will keep for two to three days in a refrigerator or it may be sliced, blanched and then frozen for longer storage.

3.0          CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, the meat alternative is good to us for consume. There are many advantages or benefit that we will get from this type of food. The people who are consumed foods that are meat alternative based will get longevity of life. The interesting facts that we will share are the longevity of life people that live in Okinawan Islands in Southern Japan. They eat lots of grains, vegetables, soy and fish and eat less meat, poultry and dairy product. The people who are follow vegetarian diet like Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists and Trappist monks also longer in life.

The meat alternative food helps the vegetarians people gets their same amount of complete protein. The sources of meat alternatives is the incomplete protein sources of food, but if the certain plant foods are eaten together, they may supply all the essential amino acids. It also will be essential for human nutrition and good as animal protein. The example of food that we will consumed together to get same as complete protein are grains and legumes. The production of meat alternative nowadays helps people like vegetarian’s people to find the food that nutritious and variety for them to consume.

The other benefits that people will get are the fiber constituents, anticancer components and the food of soy based has estrogenic activities. The food from meat alternative also much lower in fat content but the protein and quality content is quite similar. Besides that, tofu is the excellent food from a nutritional and health perspective which is will result in lowering blood cholesterol levels. As a result, meat alternative help us more in terms of health and nutrition.

4.0               REFERENCES

Murray, M.T (1993). The Healing Power of Foods: Nutrition Secrets for Vibrant Health and Long Life, Melanie Field, Bookman Production, United States (US).

Kirschman, J.D (2007). Nutrition Almanac (6^th Edition), McGraw-Hill, Two Penn Plaza, New York.

Schwarcz, J. and Berkoff, F (2004). Foods that Harm, Food that Heal/ Reader’s Digest (1^st Edition), The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., Canada.