3D Lamination of Fiber‐like Textures in Thin Filmed Food Materials
Authors: JEONG SOYEONG , Lee Nam Keun , Rhee Jin-Kyu 
Published: April 2020

Meat substitutes are usually produced with plant‐based materials (such as soybeans, lupines, chickpeas, etc.) which have the protein contents, meat‐like appearance, taste and textures. To produce meat substitutes, extrusion‐cooking has been adapted as a High Temperature Short Time (HTST) rendering method for starchy and proteinaceous foodstuffs into intermediate products texturized and shaped usually by gradient expansion. This technology mainly contributes to generation of fibrated (meat muscles‐like) micro‐structure in food materials by combinedly adjusting operation conditions (temperature, moisture content and so on) as well as formulation of input materials. But this twin‐screw extrusion process inevitably implies “thermal cooking” process which might be helpful to give good sensory, but critical to the integrity of protein coming from even short, but still “very high” temperature. The extruded fiber‐like food products may undergo several physicochemical and nutritional changes (lipid oxidation, protein denaturation and cross‐linking, starch gelatinization and dextrinization, degradation of vitamins and denaturation of enzymes, browning and flavor formation, etc.) depending on the process and material. Recently gelatin fibers have been produced by “immersion rotary jet spinning,” a fiber‐production system inspired by cotton candy machine to work as a scaffold of cultured meat. This scaffold formed by gelatin‐fibers bonds the tissues together and contributes to its texture in mimicry of muscle tissue’s extracellular adhesive. Still, main force of this method to generate fiber‐like materials is the centrifugal gravity which is hardly economically‐efficient in terms of energy consumption and space needed.

In this study, novel fabrication method for fiber‐like texture in thin‐filmed food materials is suggested on the basis of spatial deposition of density‐controlled fluid by repetitive mechanical movements including combination of channels to enable mass‐production. This 3D fabrication of fiber is devised on the basis of a cost‐effective mechanism not affecting physico‐chemical or nutritional changes on food raw material. Curcumin usually with poor solubility and low absorption was selected as a subject for a proof‐of‐concept model to amend it water‐soluble by forming fiber morphology which could gain easiness of digestion and absorption in‐taken in human body. As a load‐materials within cartridges of this fiber‐making device, pre‐washed tumeric was cryo‐powdered under temperature ranging from −50 to −100 degrees Celsius then converted as “food‐ink”. The physicochemical properties of the fibers generated using this food‐ink with various parameters were analyzed in terms of its morphology, dispersion and stability.

Support or Funding Information

This research was supported in part by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2018R1D1A1B07045349), the High Value‐added Food Technology Development Program, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA), Republic of Korea (118059‐2) and the Ewha Womans University Research Grant of 2019.