Scientist aims to improve texture on plant-based sausages

af Food Nation

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Texture and consistency are probably the second most important thing after taste when talking about food. Many companies are working hard towards creating plant-based products that share some characteristics of their meat-based counterpart. In burgers, it was the ‘bleeding’ patty, but for Danish company Rootly, it is about creating a vegan sausage that holds together during the cooking process and provides a ‘snappy feeling’ when bitten into.

Searching for the snap
Conventional sausages are held together by a sausage casing which is made from either animal intestines, skin, or artificial casings made from collagen or cellulose. This sausage casing is what provides the ‘snappy’ feeling when biting into it. However, most vegan sausages do not have skin, which makes it very challenging to recreate that infamous ‘snap’.

To tackle this issue, Rootly teamed up with National Food Institute at DTU in order to create a vegan sausage by adjusting the chemical structure to achieve the desired properties. The goal is an improved structure that keeps the shape during the cooking process and delivers the snap when biting into the sausage. The scientist has already produced a prototype that fulfills the goal of a plant-based, skin-free sausage that keeps the texture when cooked. The team is continuing their work in the laboratory, working out how to upscale production while retaining that ‘snap feeling’.

Rootly develops plant-based products with lots of fresh, unprocessed vegetables. The vegetables come from pure pulp, upcycled from organic, cold-pressed juice. Sausages, patties, falafels, and plant mince are among their products.