The processing challenges of mixing plant based meat substitutes

Powder preparation requirements for the production of vegetarian and vegan meat alternatives

In recent years, many meatless products, from sausages to cold cuts to burger patties, have increasingly come to rival traditionally produced meat products in taste tests. We still have a ways to go, however, before we can create a plant-based alternative that resembles a schnitzel or steak in terms of texture, taste, and mouthfeel. But in light of veggie alternatives becoming permanent fixtures on the menus of some of the world’s largest fast food chains, it is impossible to deny that meatless meat is now part of the mainstream. If the goal is to convince more people to eat less meat, plant-based substitutes must not leave anything to be desired in terms of taste, texture, and even aroma. Furthermore, these products should be easy to cook in ways that are familiar to consumers, such as through grilling or pan-frying.

This starts with the right preparation of raw materials: Fruit pits, legume and vegetable peels are more valuable than ever. They provide the fiber structures for vegetarian or vegan meat. The formulations often consist of more than 30 individual components. These can be dry, semi-solid or liquid and differ in density, particle size, rheology and stability.

Depending on the type of preparation, it may make sense to move from batch mixing to continuous mixing and vice versa. Decisive factors can be poorly flowing and adhering raw material components. Sometimes raw materials should be protected from contact with atmospheric oxygen.

The problem: The more frequently the recipe is changed and the more individual components are used, the more difficult it becomes to implement continuous mixing processes. The silver bullet often seems to be a batch-wise processing of the majority of the solid components into an intermediate component. Powdery or pasty goods, in contrast to liquid goods, are much more difficult to automate and meter.

Excellent results from start to finish

The continuous mixer from amixon® is exemplary in its ability to produce nothing but top quality mixtures with zero product loss from start to end of a production campaign. At the beginning of a production campaign, all gravimetric feeding mechanisms start simultaneously, beginning with a low mass flow rate and automatically adjusting themselves in relation to one another. The filling level rises gradually, and the mixing action begins once half-capacity has been reached. This is also the point at which transient oscillation in the feeding mechanism is completed. Once the mixer has reached a filling level of 80%, the discharge slowly opens. From this point onwards, a filling level of 80% is kept constant. This is possible due to the gradual acceleration of the feeding

mechanism until the maximal mass flow rate has been reached. Finally, all feeding elements successively decelerate the mass flow, and eventually switch off and close at the same time. The SinConvex® mixing tool is able to discharge free-flowing mixing goods to a high degree. In this way, even the last remnants of homogeneous mixing goods are discharged at the end of the production campaign. From the beginning to the end of the mixing campaign, only defect-free, homogeneous product is produced.