Ingredients, Processing, and Fermentation: Addressing the Organoleptic Boundaries of Plant-Based Dairy Analogues

Abstract

Consumer interest and research in plant-based dairy analogues has been growing in recent years because of increasingly negative implications of animal-derived products on human health, animal wellbeing, and the environment. However, plant-based dairy analogues face many challenges in mimicking the organoleptic properties of dairy products due to their undesirable off-flavours and textures. This article thus reviews fermentation as a viable pathway to developing clean-label plant-based dairy analogues with satisfactory consumer acceptability. Discussions on complementary strategies such as raw material selection and extraction technologies are also included. An overview of plant raw materials with the potential to be applied in dairy analogues is first discussed, followed by a review of the processing steps and innovative techniques required to transform these plant raw materials into functional ingredients such as plant-based aqueous extracts or flours for subsequent fermentation. Finally, the various fermentation (bacterial, yeast, and fungal) methodologies applied for the improvement of texture and other sensory qualities of plant-based dairy analogues are covered. Concerted research efforts would be required in the future to tailor and optimise the presented wide diversity of options to produce plant-based fermented dairy analogues that are both delicious and nutritionally adequate.

The application of blends of bambaranut and millet vegetable milk in the development of plant-based yoghurt analogues: Proximate composition, physiochemical properties, microbial safety and consumer’s acceptability

“…Particularly dairy products have long played a significant and durable role in the diet of the general public, where they are ingested for a variety of reasons, including enjoyment, dietary demands, and special health advantages, including probiotic ingestion. These dairy products range from kefir to yoghurt and other fermented meals to cheese (Tamang et al, 2016;Pua et al, 2022). Consumers are starting to actively look for alternatives to conventional bovine dairy products despite their current popularity because of their possible long-term detrimental effects on human health and the environment as well as other ethical concerns (Mendly-Zambo et al, 2021) which violates sustainable diet principles.…”

“…Set, stirred, drinkable, flavoured-the seemingly endless variations of yoghurt products with different fat levels (normal, low-fat, and fat-free) on the market belie the humble makeup of its microbiota (Kayanush et al, 2017). Lactose is converted during the fermentation process into lactic acid, which gives yoghurt its distinct tangy flavour and causes the acid gelation of casein, a significant milk protein (Pua et al, 2022). This creates the cohesive gel that gives dairy yoghurts their distinctive hard, thick texture (Boeck et al, 2021;Aryana and Olson, 2017).…”

Heterofermentative lactic acid bacteria such as Limosilactobacillus as a strong inhibitor of aldehyde compounds in plant-based milk alternatives

“…Here, we used rice, which is the most important crop in Asia. In recent report about plant-based materials for milk alternatives (Pua et al, 2022), nutritional compositions of carbohydrate, fiber, total protein, and total fat contents in the rice were showed as 80 %, 1.3 %, 7.1 % and 0.7 %, respectively, and the rice had a higher ratio of carbohydrate than the other plant-based materials. In additions, the rice is known as low allergenic food material than the other plant-based material (Pantoa et al, 2020), and is gluten-free food material (Rai et al, 2018), which is beneficial for people with celiac disease.…”

Development of mung bean (Vigna radiate L.)‐based next‐generation vegan milk: Processing, nutritional composition and quality attributes

“…Generally, plant‐based milks are prepared by soaking the ingredients (e.g. legumes, oil seeds, cereals, other plant‐based ingredients), filtration, homogenisation, pasteurisation and addition of flavours and stabilisers (Sethi et al., 2016; Rincon et al., 2020; Pua et al., 2022). Over the years, advances in milk‐based ingredient and processing technologies have led to the development of novel plant‐based milk alternatives or alt‐milks using new ingredients, such as pea, barley, rice, sesame, pistachio, coconut, lupine, quinoa, hemp and almonds (Aydar et al., 2020).…”

“…Legumes, belonging to the Leguminosae, are an economical source of proteins and other valuable nutritional contents. Several legume‐based milk beverages are attracted more scientific interest due to their desired functional properties and are considered basic ingredients in the production of dairy‐free beverages (Qamar et al., 2020; Pua et al., 2022). Among the different legumes, mung bean ( Vigna radiata L.) is one of the widely used legume crops in food formulations.…”