Current approaches and future prospects in structuring plant-derived proteins for food applications

The recent growth in plant protein consumption has increased the need to address deficiencies in plant proteins compared with animal-derived foods. Plant proteins are less digestible, have a partial essential amino acid composition, and lack the inherent structure found in meat, which must be modified according to demand. Plant protein sources derived from cereals, legumes, or oilseeds exhibit distinct functional characteristics that help determine their suitability for various food products, such as egg substitutes, milk substitutes, and meat alternatives. Structuring techniques, such as physical, enzymatic, chemical, and emerging technologies, help accurately imitate the texture and functionality of animal-derived foods. Despite advancements, the future challenges to restructured protein products will lie in creating anisotropies, removing undesired flavours, retaining essential amino acids, or commercialising the use of expensive technologies such as high-energy-intensive. The future must focus on biotransformation, new protein sources, formulation modelling via artificial intelligence, and processing for the circular economy.