Patent Number: CN121986920A
Publication Date: April 8, 2026
Priority Date: After January 1, 2026
Applicant/Assignee: Not explicitly identified in the document (assigned to the inventor(s) named in the original filing)
Inventors: The inventors are not specifically named in this excerpt; the patent would typically list individual inventors. Based on the content, the inventors are associated with food processing and flavor delivery technology research.

Technical Field

The present invention belongs to the technical field of food processing and flavor delivery, and specifically relates to a microwave-triggered flavor enhancement method for plant-based meat (also referred to as plant meat or vegetable meat).

Background of the Invention

With the increasing popularity of plant-based foods, plant meat has become an important development direction in the food industry as an environmentally friendly alternative product with lower resource consumption. Plant meat analogues are prepared from vegetable proteins as main raw materials, utilizing technologies such as organization, gelation, or extrusion molding to simulate the fiber structure and chewing texture of animal meat. These products offer significant advantages including low carbon footprint and environmental friendliness, and are widely applied in prepared foods and ready-to-heat meals.

However, although the texture characteristics of plant meat analogues have gradually improved, flavor remains a key bottleneck in their popularization. The primary issues include insufficient fragrance intensity, indistinct meat flavor characteristics, and residual off-notes, all of which seriously affect consumer acceptance. Common raw materials used in plant meat analogues, such as soy protein and pea protein, often carry byproducts related to lipid oxidation during processing, which can introduce undesirable odors including beany flavor, green grass notes, and off-flavors. Additionally, thermal effects and shear stress during protein processing can promote the formation or accumulation of certain volatile substances, resulting in fragrances characterized by strong basic off-odors and monotonous flavor profiles. Unlike animal meat, the aroma system of plant meat lacks typical key components of meat aroma, leading to weak aroma, simple taste, and short aftertaste upon reheating.

In practical applications, microwave heating is a typical reheating method for preparing instant foods due to its convenience. However, microwave heating has characteristics including rapid temperature rise and heating uniformity affected by the substrate, which makes the migration and volatilization of flavor substances more complicated. Research and industry practice have shown that although aroma can be improved by directly adding flavors, spices, or flavor base materials to plant meat analogues, several problems persist during microwave treatment:

• Insufficient actual release amounts due to rapid volatilization or migration of aroma components in the initial heating stage
• Insufficient or uneven release caused by adsorption of some aroma components by the protein matrix or limitations of water phase/oil phase distribution
• Enhanced irritation and unbalanced overall flavor when increasing essence and spice addition amounts

Therefore, achieving rapid, effective, and controllable release of aroma during microwave reheating, while avoiding volatilization loss of flavor substances, represents an important technical challenge for improving the flavor of plant meat analogues.

Existing Flavoring Techniques and Their Limitations

1. Direct Addition of Flavors and Flavor Base Materials:

• Difficult to avoid volatilization loss of flavor substances during heating
• Flavoring effect easily affected by process fluctuations

2. Maillard Reaction Products (MRP):

• Can provide characteristic meat flavor substances
• Volatility and thermosensitive properties make stable flavor peaks difficult to form during reheating

3. Microcapsule and Embedding Technologies:

• Can improve flavor protection
• In multiphase systems of complex plant meat, the embedding material can interfere with texture and flavor
• Release often lacks definite triggering conditions, leading to excessive protection or incomplete release
• Particularly under microwave heating conditions, there is a lack of triggering mechanisms matched with the microwave process

Thus, improving the controllability and stability of microwave flavoring while reducing flavor loss remains a technical problem to be solved.

Summary of the Invention

Primary Objective

The present invention mainly aims to provide a microwave-triggered flavor enhancement method for plant meat, overcoming the defects present in the prior art.

Technical Solution

The embodiment of the invention provides a microwave-triggered flavor enhancement method for plant meat, comprising the following steps:

1. Mixing and incubating sodium alginate and β-cyclodextrin to prepare a composite wall material
2. Hydrolyzing potato protein using alkaline protease and flavourzyme, mixing with xylose, and performing a Maillard reaction to obtain a proteolysis–Maillard reaction product
3. Mixing the proteolysis–Maillard reaction product with the composite wall material, adding Ca²⁺ ions for crosslinking and curing to obtain encapsulated microspheres
4. Mixing the encapsulated microspheres with a plant meat base material, performing shaping treatment, and subjecting the obtained plant meat analogue to microwave treatment, thereby achieving microwave-triggered flavor enhancement

Method for Preparing Encapsulated Microspheres

The embodiment also provides a preparation method for encapsulated microspheres used in microwave-triggered flavoring of plant meat, comprising:

(1) Preparation of Composite Wall Material Solution:

• Dissolve sodium alginate in water to form a sodium alginate solution
• Dissolve β-cyclodextrin in water to form a β-cyclodextrin solution
• Uniformly mix the two solutions and heat-incubate at 60–120°C for 10–50 minutes to obtain the composite wall material solution

(2) Preparation of Proteolysis–Maillard Reaction Product:

• Hydrolyze potato protein using alkaline protease and flavourzyme
• Mix and dissolve the hydrolysate with xylose
• Perform Maillard reaction at 100–130°C for 1.5–3 hours

(3) Formation of Dispersion:

• Add the proteolysis–Maillard reaction product to the composite wall material solution
• Stir uniformly to obtain the dispersion liquid to be formed into spheres

(4) Crosslinking and Curing:

• Add the dispersion liquid dropwise to a Ca²⁺ crosslinking solution
• Stir and allow crosslinking and curing to obtain encapsulated microspheres

Encapsulated Microspheres

The embodiment provides encapsulated microspheres for microwave-triggered flavoring of plant meat, prepared by the above method, having a core-shell structure comprising:

• A core containing the proteolysis–Maillard reaction product
• A shell structure formed by crosslinking sodium alginate, β-cyclodextrin, and the proteolysis–Maillard reaction product

Applications

The embodiment also provides applications of the encapsulated microspheres in microwave-triggered flavoring of plant meat.

Advantages of the Present Invention

1. Enhanced Storage Stability:

• The unique core-shell structure ensures microsphere stability under non-microwave conditions
• The shell portion (sodium alginate and β-cyclodextrin) improves compressive strength during storage and transport
• Microspheres are not prone to disintegration or dissolution at normal temperature
• Effectively prevents loss of flavor substances due to unstable microsphere structures

2. Rapid Microwave-Triggered Release:

• Microspheres rapidly disintegrate under microwave conditions
• Avoids the problem of microsphere residues affecting the taste of plant meat
• Ensures rapid release of flavor substances
• Traditional embedding technologies typically rely on prolonged heating or complex external conditions, causing incomplete or delayed release
• Quick and controllable flavor release is achieved through microwave heating, effectively improving the reheating flavor of plant meat

3. Improved Flavor Uniformity and Consistency:

• Through the core-shell structure and microwave-triggered release mechanism, flavor substances can be rapidly released and uniformly distributed during microwave reheating
• Avoids the problem of unstable flavor
• Improves aroma intensity and meat aroma characteristics after reheating

Key Technical Parameters

Preferred Ranges

Optimal Conditions Identified

Based on experimental results, the following conditions provide the best overall performance:

• Potato protein hydrolysate:xylose mass ratio: 6:1
• Maillard reaction conditions: 120°C for 2 hours
• Sodium alginate concentration: 1.5 wt%
• β-Cyclodextrin concentration: 1.5 wt%
• SA:β-CD ratio: 1:1
• Incubation conditions: 80°C for 30 minutes
• Ca²⁺ crosslinking solution concentration: 3 wt%
• MRP:wall material solution ratio: 20:100
• Microwave treatment conditions: 900W for 60 seconds

Detailed Description of Experimental Results

Materials

• Alkaline protease: ≥2.5 AU-A/g, CAS# 9014-01-1, Shanghai Aladdin Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (Product #A281435)
• Flavourzyme: 100,000 U/g, CAS# 9001-92-7, Shanghai Milin Biochemical Technologies Co., Ltd. (Product #F768979)

Comparative Examples

Key Performance Metrics

From Examples 1–11:

• Compressive strength: 1230.80 – 1890.60 kPa
• Encapsulation efficiency: 73.81 – 87.42%
• Loading rate: 6.41 – 14.13%
• Solubility percentage: 69.27 – 81.85%
• Disintegration rate: 44.44 – 54.32%/h
• Shell disintegration time (microwave): 44.06 – 59.28 seconds
• Flavor release efficiency: 74.93 – 89.47%

Example 2 Optimal Performance

Example 12: Plant Meat Analogue Application

Test Groups:

• Group A: MRP-encapsulated microspheres (Example 2) added at 5 wt%
• Group B: Blank microspheres (Comparative 1) added at 5 wt%
• Group C: Equivalent amount of free MRP
• Group D: Blank (no MRP microspheres or flavor substances)
• Group E: Xylose-encapsulated microspheres (Comparative 2)
• Group F: Potato protein hydrolysate-encapsulated microspheres (Comparative 3)

Results for Group A:

• Before microwave treatment: 952.03 μg/kg total volatiles
• After microwave treatment (900W, 60s): 3,329.33 μg/kg total volatiles

Characteristic Volatiles Detected in Group A (Post-Microwave):

Note: All compounds except 2-ethylfuran were absent before microwave treatment.

Drawings

The patent includes the following figures:

• FIG. 1: Compressive strength of microspheres prepared in Examples 1–11 and Comparative Examples 1–3
• FIG. 2: Encapsulation efficiency and loading rate of microspheres from Examples 1–11 and Comparative Examples 1–3
• FIG. 3: Solubility in water and disintegration rate of microspheres from Examples 1–11 and Comparative Examples 1–3
• FIG. 4: Disintegration time of the shell after microwave treatment for microspheres from Examples 1–11 and Comparative Examples 1–3
• FIG. 5: Flavor release rate of Maillard products after microwave treatment for microspheres from Examples 1–11
• FIG. 6: Thermal plot of the difference in volatile flavor profile for the plant meat analogue prepared in Example 12 (difference = post-microwave flavor content - pre-microwave flavor content)
• FIG. 7: Total volatile flavor profile (μg/kg) changes before and after microwave treatment (900W, 60s) for the plant meat analogue prepared in Example 12

Detailed Description of the Invention

Theoretical Basis

The present invention is based on the design of an MRP-encapsulated microsphere specifically for microwave reheating scenarios. A Maillard Reaction Product (MRP) is encapsulated in microspheres formed from a sodium alginate and β-cyclodextrin composite wall material, with release triggered by microwave heating to ultimately achieve the flavoring effect of plant meat analogues.

The microspheres are prepared with a core-shell structure by precisely controlling:

• Mass ratio of proteolytic enzyme hydrolysate to xylose
• Concentration of Ca²⁺ ions
• Composition of wall materials
• Reaction conditions

Core-Shell Structure Details:

• MRP is primarily distributed in the core of the microsphere
• MRP in the shell cooperates with sodium alginate and β-cyclodextrin to improve microsphere stability under non-microwave conditions
• The shell effectively enhances compressive strength under non-microwave conditions
• Prevents the microsphere from being easily dissolved or disintegrated during storage and transport

Microwave Trigger Mechanism:

• When microwave heating is performed, the microsphere shell rapidly disintegrates
• Releases MRP from both core and shell
• Ensures rapid and complete release of flavor substances
• Avoids influence of shell residues on taste
• Improves flavor substance release efficiency

Comprehensive Experimental Validation

The invention establishes multiple control systems in application verification:

1. Blank group – no flavor substances
2. Free flavor group – unencapsulated MRP
3. Encapsulated microsphere group – MRP encapsulated in microspheres
4. Blank microsphere group – microspheres without MRP
5. Single-component microsphere groups – containing only xylose or only potato protein hydrolysate

This design allows differentiation of:

• MRP effects
• Encapsulated structure effects
• Microsphere material effects

Summary of Technical Contribution

1. Novel encapsulation system specifically designed for microwave-triggered release in plant meat analogues
2. Precise control parameters enabling optimization of the balance between storage stability and microwave-responsive release
3. Demonstrated superiority over existing methods through comprehensive comparative testing
4. Practical applicability validated in plant meat analogue systems with significant improvement in flavor profiles

Conclusion

The invention provides a microwave-triggered flavor enhancement method for plant-based meat that addresses key limitations in existing flavoring technologies. Through the development of a core-shell encapsulated microsphere system containing Maillard Reaction Products, the method achieves:

• Excellent storage stability under ambient conditions
• Rapid and complete flavor release upon microwave heating
• Enhanced aroma intensity and characteristic meat flavor
• Uniform flavor distribution
• Avoidance of off-notes and imbalances

The optimal conditions identified (potato protein hydrolysate:xylose = 6:1, 120°C/2h Maillard reaction, 1.5% SA/1.5% β-CD at 1:1 ratio, 3% Ca²⁺ crosslinking, 20:100 MRP:wall material ratio, 900W/60s microwave treatment) provide a practical, reproducible technical solution for improving the consumer acceptance of plant meat products.

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